Interview with Alvin J. Tait [7/5/2006]

Joseph Gebhart:

[Interview begins midsentence]...trip from Mohawk High School. We are interviewing Alvin Tait. He was in the U.S. Coast Guard in World War 2. His highest rank was Second Class Water Tender. We are giving Alvin Tait an interview on 7/2/24 -- Birth date 7/2/24. We are at the Butler Veterans Hospital. He was in the U.S. Coast Guard. Now we have to ask you some questions.

Joseph Gebhart:

Were you drafted or enlisted?

Alvin J. Tait:

I was drafted. I was the first draftee in the Coast Guard. That wasn't good.

Joseph Gebhart:

Where were you living at the time?

Alvin J. Tait:

I was living in Butler.

Joseph Gebhart:

Do you recall your first days in service?

Alvin J. Tait:

Oh, yes.

Joseph Gebhart:

What did it feel like?

Alvin J. Tait:

Well, I was the only one who was drafted. I volunteered for the Marine Corps, and a big marine officer stamped my papers "Coast Guard," and I was the first, so they gave me money now. I couldn't come back home from Pittsburgh, plus I had to come separate. They gave me money, because the Army was baying for the bus, and wouldn't bring me home, so that was my introduction. I gave him an argument. I didn't want to go in the Coast Guard, and I soon found out who was in charge.

Joseph Gebhart:

Could you tell us about your boot camp, or training experiences?

Alvin J. Tait:

Well, I went to boot camp in Manhattan Beach, New York, just north of Coney Island. And the first day I was there, I went on a Friday, and so on a Saturday, they had a parade with all the men and everything there. They stood me up on the viewing stand, and said, "This is a draftee." I never got liberty. I got yard duty three months. We had marine sergeants, boot camp commanders, and I got a very good boot camp experience.

Joseph Gebhart:

Do you remember your instructors?

Alvin J. Tait:

No. I'd still like to clobber them. I could never forgive them.

Joseph Gebhart:

How did you get through it?

Alvin J. Tait:

Very good. Very good. It was good. I ended up -- We would wrestle and stuff, and I ended up the first and last one to stand, and that was a mistake, because they paired me up with the New York/New Jersey state high school wrestling champion. He broke my collar bone, he put me in the hospital. He beat me good. And them instructors stood there and enjoyed every minute of it.

Joseph Gebhart:

In which war did you serve?

Alvin J. Tait:

World War 2.

Joseph Gebhart:

Where exactly did you go?

Alvin J. Tait:

Ah, let me think a moment here. Casscoe Bay, Argentia, Newfoundland, St. Johns, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Aruba, South America, Azores, Bermuda, West Indies, Panama Canal, Honolulu, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Marshall Island, Julithees (ph), Almagro, Bali Lu (ph), Russell Rhodes (ph), Dablthrop (ph), Leitay (ph), Okinawa, Tsushima, Buckners Bay (ph), Japan, Wakayama, Nghia. I can't pronounce -- Yodahoshi (ph), and Hanchung Island. North Atlantic, South Atlantic, Caribbean Sea, Pacific Ocean, Philippines, Sea of China, and Indian Sea.

Joseph Gebhart:

Do you remember arriving, and what it was like?

Alvin J. Tait:

Scary.

Joseph Gebhart:

What was your job or assignment?

Alvin J. Tait:

I went to motor machinist mate school. I was volunteered for that. I was going to go up there to Grover City, in Cooper Best where they had a school, and I just got there, and they closed it, so they sent me to New London, Connecticut to a submarine base, and they had a big engine, motor engine school there, where they had a Navy -- the Coast Guard was under the Navy in World War 2, so I went to school in New London, Connecticut -- Graton, Connecticut, actually, is what they called it. I went there for about four months.

Joseph Gebhart:

Did you see combat?

Alvin J. Tait:

Yes.

Joseph Gebhart:

Were there many casualties in your unit?

Alvin J. Tait:

There was -- I was in an odd unit. Um, I was on a Q-ship, Sea Breeze. I had civilian clothes. I -- There was five of us in that flotilla. Two of them got sunk the first month, all hands. We had 37 percent casualties in our outfit. I personally, and our ship, we never got a scratch, or I wouldn't have been able to make it. You don't make it on ships you get hit, so I was very fortunate. I never -- I did real well.

Joseph Gebhart:

Can you tell us about a couple of your most memorable experiences?

Alvin J. Tait:

Most memorable, I suppose, was one of the things -- The Sea Raider was a gulf tanker, and had taken it over and converted it. In the world of tanks, they had 55 gallon drums, and this is so when you got a torpedo, the water would come in, and the drums would hold you up. So after the war, it was before the invasion of France, they needed the weather, so they sent us on weather patrol into the iceberg fields because they figured if we hit an iceberg, we wouldn't sink, a Titanic deal, and we spent a month over the Titanic with our underwater sound gear, trying to find the Titanic. We had numerous submarine contacts and stuff, and with convoys. I don't know. Iceland, maybe, when Bob Morrow was with me from Chicore (ph) here, and he was a medic and we went way back up in a hidden base in Iceland, and I was fortunate enough to get a visit four years ago, and it is still there. It is still being kept as a hidden base. And Dr. Larin (ph) and Bob had to deliver a baby, and him and I went over, and we had to deliver a baby. There was nobody there to do it. That was an interesting experience in the North Atlantic. And it is the weather, the iceberg. I got pictures of icebergs there, and the sea, the weather. I spent quite a bit of time, maybe a year, would be out 30 days, and in five, and then back out. And we were the picked up weather men in Argentia, Newfoundland, civilians, and took them up over by the canal, and we were the ship that sent the weather in for the invasion, and they got metals. We would get civilians we had. So we come back to the states after that, and they converted the Sea Raider, took the barrels all out, made us a tanker, and sent us into the Pacific. That was around '45, I guess.

Joseph Gebhart:

Were you a prisoner of war?

Alvin J. Tait:

No, thanks. I seen the prisoners of war in Japan. We had some of them. We had a doctor on the ship, and they brought some Dutch Marines on. We were going back to the Philippines, and there was a Dutch ship in there that was going to take them home, and I seen how they were treated.

Joseph Gebhart:

Were you awarded any metals or citations?

Alvin J. Tait:

No. No hero. A livin' coward.

Joseph Gebhart:

How did you stay in touch with your family?

Alvin J. Tait:

Once a month or so, we'd get mail. I didn't write a lot of letters because there was just no use. One time we was to rendezvous with a ship in the North Atlantic, and get mail and stuff, and I seen something floating in the water, and I took a grappling hook and caught it, and it was a mail bag, of course, and I was one of the lucky ones that got a card. It was a birthday card from my physician that had taught, when we graduated, he sent us all a memory, and I got a card, so I got a birthday card. I kind of remember that. I saved that.

Joseph Gebhart:

What was the food like?

Alvin J. Tait:

What?

Joseph Gebhart:

What was the food like?

Alvin J. Tait:

Very good, very good. In the Navy, you get food so much a day for each man, and the submarines get the top, and we got next, and we had good cooks. Like I say, most of them were riggers, and most of them had been in the service, and we had a -- We were the first integrated ship. We were integrated in World War 2, and our head cook had been through one of the big hotels, a colored fella. We had very good cooks. He could bake. We gained weight. We were fortunate. We got more money for food. So it -- The food was -- We were eating better than the people elsewhere. That is the nice part of being on a ship or anything, it is always dry, clean.

Joseph Gebhart:

Did you have plenty of supplies?

Alvin J. Tait:

Yes.

Joseph Gebhart:

Did you feel pressure or stress?

Alvin J. Tait:

Well, you were always looking over your shoulder when you are out there in the waters. Icebergs floating, you know if you get hit, you are going down. You don't survive in the water. You don't even have a life vest. There is no use. You are lucky if you can die quick.

Joseph Gebhart:

Is there something special you did for good luck?

Alvin J. Tait:

My Aunt Owich (ph) was Catholic. You mean Catholic metals? I always wore them and I they said, "What are you wearing them for?" And I said, "Anything that brings me luck." So I still got my metals.

Joseph Gebhart:

How did the folks entertain themselves?

Alvin J. Tait:

You learn to read when you are out, and then we did have a movie, a grill. We were playing "Gone with the Wind," and I had the book. I was reading it. So on the little mess deck, they run one reel, and they'd rewind in the time, so I'm reading the good pages. I'm reading the unedited version, okay. And I'm reading it to the fellows around me, and I read till I got tired. The next reel or so come up, and I would read, a voice in the back, it was dark, and I didn't see that the captain was sitting back there. I heard it, but I recognized his voice when he said, "Tait, read." So every night, it took about two nights to play that I had to read between the reels. I would read the good scenes. But reading -- It's -- Boredom is -- If you learn to read, you could transplant yourself into another era.

Joseph Gebhart:

Um, were there any -- Were there entertainers, per se?

Alvin J. Tait:

No. Ah, Victor Mature, who was a movie actor, was on there for a little bit. He made one trip with us, when he went there, and he played "Gladiator." He was a gladiator. And I could say in the shower, why he was no pansy, that one. He was all man. When he played the Gladiator in the picture, he was the Gladiator. Boy, he was strong.

Joseph Gebhart:

What did you do when you went on leave?

Alvin J. Tait:

I had very few leaves. I only had, in three years, I only had one seven-day, and one three-day pass. We were always overseas, and we come back when they converted, and then they worked us. I come home to Butler, and we had a snowstorm at that time. Must have been about two feet deep, and it was very hard to go anyplace.

Joseph Gebhart:

Where did you travel while in the service?

Alvin J. Tait:

New York, Boston. And on the ship, like I'd say, I been to Iceland, Greenland, Aruba, Panama. I been all over the world.

Joseph Gebhart:

Do you recall any particularly humorous or unusual event?

Alvin J. Tait:

Yeah. We got ordered to sail from Rio de Janeiro and the captain was over at Rio. We couldn't sail without the captain, so the rest of us were late getting back.

Joseph Gebhart:

What were some of the pranks that you or others would pull?

Alvin J. Tait:

Ah...

[End of Interview]