My name is Richard Meisheimer. Today is July
17th, 2019.
I'm interviewing Mr. Clyde, C-L-Y-D-E, Covey,
C-O-V-E-Y, by telephone.
His phone number is 936-524-4340.
His address is 707 Duncan, D-U-N-C-A-N,
Cleveland, Texas, 77327.
This interview is for the National Pacific War,
the Nimitz Education Research Center
for the Preservation of Historical Information
related to World War II.
Clyde, I want to thank you for taking the time
to do this interview today,
and I want to thank you for your service
to our country during World War II.
Now, the first thing I need to do
is read to you this agreement with the museum
to make sure this is okay with you.
The heading says,
National Museum of the Pacific War,
Oral History Project.
The purpose of the National Museum of the
Pacific Wars
or Oral History Project
is to collect, preserve, and interpret
and share the stories of World War II veterans.
Digital recordings of such interviews
belong to the National Museum of the Pacific War
and belong to the National Educational Research Center
and to the National Pacific War Texas
Historical Commission.
In view of the scholarly value of this research material,
I herein voluntarily and permanently donate and convey,
at no cost, our oral history interview
to the National Pacific War.
I have read or heard and understand this agreement,
which expresses a complete understanding of the parties.
Is that okay with you? Yes.
Now, what is your medal initial?
B is for Baker.
B, okay. Alright.
Now, the next thing I need to do is get an
alternative contact.
We find out that sometimes, several years down
the road,
try to get back into contact with a veteran.
He's moved or something.
Do you have a son or a daughter or someone we
could contact
if we needed to, to find you?
Well, I have a daughter. I have two boys and a daughter.
Okay. What's your daughter's name?
Robin Leal. L-E-A-L.
I'm sorry. What was that first name? Robin.
Okay. And the last name?
Okay, do you have a phone number for her?
Oh boy, yeah, but it's on my cell phone. I'm on
my cell phone right now.
I'll get it from you later. How about, what
town does she live in?
She lives in Cleveland. She lives right next
door to me.
Okay. And her address is what, 709 or 705?
It's 1802 South Line. South Line is one word.
Her house faces South Line, my house faces Duncan.
Okay. Now your address is 707 Duncan, is that correct?
Okay, we'll get that phone number later and
hopefully I never need that.
Now what is your birth date?
December the 18th, 1927.
And where were you born?
Corpus Christi.
Did you have brothers and sisters?
I had a brother and four sisters.
Was your brother in World War II?
No, he was deferred because of his employment.
I'm sorry, he what?
He was deferred because of his employment.
Okay, alright.
Employment was more important than fighting a war.
Okay, alright. Now what were your mother's and
father's first names?
My mother's first name was Lola, L-O-L-A.
My dad's name was George.
Okay, thank you.
Now, you grew up during the Depression.
How did the Depression affect you and your family?
Pretty difficult.
My dad was in business with his father-in-law.
His father-in-law died in 30.
Oh, Mm-Hmm.
and he was the one that had the business
and that took it over and run his own business
and it was rough during the Depression.
What kind of business was it?
It was a lock and gunsmith, Outboard motor mechanic.
Oh, okay.
Okay. That's great.
December 7 41 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Do
you recall hearing about that? I?
Sure do how did you hear and what?
It was Sunday about 2:00 in the afternoon
I was reading the funny papers and my dad was
reading the paper and the news came over the radio
Okay, the Pearl Harbor
Japanese okay, and when you heard that how did
you think that would affect you?
But it was kind of a surprise because we didn't
know where Pearl Harbor was, and Dad got the
globe down, and they mentioned Honolulu, and he
found that Honolulu Island is on the globe.
He had a good idea of where it was, you know. Right.
Did you think you would have to go into the service?
At that point, no.
Okay, now where did you go to high school?
Sir, where did you go to high school?
Corpus Christi. Okay, and when did you graduate?
In May of 1945. May of 45, okay.
Okay, when did you enter the service?
I entered the service on June 10, 1945.
okay the war was already over my dad did Sir go
ahead what were you saying I had a hard time
convincing my dad to sign the papers so I could
join the navy when I was still a minor okay this
was before the war was over though right I mean
after the war was over over?
After the combat was over, but before the peace sign.
A. Okay. And you went in the Navy?
S. Yes.
A. How did you choose the Navy?
S. Corpus Christi had the Naval Air Base down there.
A. Okay.
S. And I met a bunch of the sailors at our
church. I was impressed with them and I wanted
choose what kind of uniform I wore when I was
in service. I knew I was going to be drafted
because that's what kept me out of it.
A. So you went in on October 10th of 1945?
S. Yes.
A. And where did you go for your boot camp?
S. At San Diego.
A. How did you travel out there?
S. By train.
A. How was that train trip?
Oh, boy. Oh, it was about a two and a half day
trip, I think. It took us to get out there.
Had you been that far from home before? No.
Back in those days, people didn't do much traveling?
Tell me about boot camp. What all happened there?
A boot camp?
Yes, Sir.
I got in all kinds of trouble. Number one, I
was out there about two weeks still in medical
I was in the hospital for about a month and
then they sent me back to duty and about ten
days later I had a relapse. At that time I was
real sick, so sick that they finally got
me cured up. They gave me a thirty-day
convalescent leave to go home. And then when I
went back
I couldn't get back in boot camp because my
hair had grown out, I'd already been promoted
to seaman second.
They couldn't put me back in boot camp so they
put me in fireman's school and I graduated
from fireman's school and then I was taken to
Pearl Harbor for an assignment.
I got to Pearl Harbor, I was assigned to my
first ship, a patrol craft Escort 870.
Atencio So after the fireman school, you went
to Pearl
Harbor then, right?
Atencio Yes, uh-huh.
Atencio Okay. And how did you travel over there?
Atencio They put a bunch of us on an empty LST.
And how did you travel over there?
A. They put a bunch of us on an empty LST, went
from San Diego to Pearl Harbor. Nine
days of bobbing on top of the ocean, no weight,
no cargo in the plane except about fifty guys.
A. Yeah, okay. All right. And when you got to
Hawaii, what happened there?
When I got there I was assigned to my first ship.
A patrol craft Escort, a PCE, number 870.
I had a crew of forty-eight enlisted men and
four officers.
The ship is about 180 feet long and 37 feet
wide, and during the conflict, the ship actually
had two submarines and seven aircraft to its
credit for the ship-scene battle.
But when we went aboard the ship to start with,
is almost a complete turnover of crew because
the three new officers go aboard and all new
members. We had a couple of petty officer
chiefs that stayed aboard and an electrician
mate and a third class motor bike. Those two
guys would train us how to operate that ship.
All the other people were sent home to relieve
the guys that were in the reserves.
And what was your job on the ship?
A- Well, as a fireman I was in the engine room,
full-duty operating the engines, and
also I had the responsibility of maintaining
two six-cylinder Cummins diesels that were
driving generators.
A- Okay.
These were diesel engines?
A- Yes.
diesel engines? Yes.
Okay. And they ran what? Generators?
The six-cylinder Cummins diesels.
Uh-huh. And they drive the ship?
I'm sorry, go ahead. What about them?
In the forward engine room there was a
Fairbanks Morris engine driver and a generator
in the
forward engine room.
Now these six-cylinder diesels, what do they drive?
They drive generators.
Generators, okay.
The Cummins diesel drove 175 kilowatt generators,
and the Fairbanks-Morris drove a 375 kilowatt generator.
Oh, okay.
And then what actually propels the ship?
the ship, electric generators or what?
Atencio No, two diesels, 900 horsepower diesels
going through the ducting gear.
Atencio All right. How many propellers did it have?
Atencio Two.
Atencio Two props, okay.
Atencio It had a main engine and a forward engine
room and a main engine and a aft engine room.
Atencio Okay. All right. And what did it have
in the
A main engine and a forward engine room and a
main engine and an aft engine room.
Atencio Okay. All right. And what did it have
on it in the way of guns?
Gilbert On the forecastle it had a three-inch
gun. It had four banks of dual 20-mm aircraft
I had two depth charge racks on the back and I
had two wire guns on one or each side for
depth charges.
And I think there were four turrets that had .5
0 caliber machine guns with them.
HURST Okay.
It was well armored then?
SANTOS Yes, it was.
HURST Okay.
Atencio Now when you got on ship what happened?
Atencio Well, we went, we were, we pulled patrols
out of Pearl Harbor. Weíd sail out for thirty
days and then come back to Pearl for eighteen.
Then back out to sea again. We had patrol
points from west of Hawaii to west of Wake
Island and we operated from the equator to the Aleutians.
There's about nine different posts out there
that we'd go out and patrol those posts and
send up weather balloons and with transmitters
get the information and radio that information
back to Pearl Harbor, the weather information.
Now when you were on this, were you with other
ships or by yourself? Sir?
When you were doing that, were you with other
ships or by yourself?
Oh no, we were out there individually.
Just one ship?
Yeah, there was other ships on the fleet that
patrolled the other.
There's normally ships on each post.
And we rotated.
The skipper that we had was a lieutenant
commander where normally the captains are lieutenants
on a ship that size.
So we were the flagship of the fleet since he
had the highest rank.
Atencio And what were you looking for out there?
I'm watching for other vessels. I'm looking for
floating sea mines. I've seen a lot of
those that were left over and fished for them.
What else did you do?
What else?
Yes, Sir.
We fished for sharks.
Once in a while we'd go swimming in the Pacific Ocean.
Did you find many mines, or anything like that?
Yes, we spotted quite a few of them,
and when we did, the skipper shut everything down
and break out the small arms.
Whoever blew that mine up got a three-day pass
when we got back to Pearl.
Oh, okay.
So you would shoot them with small arms?
Yes, Sir.
About how many did you get, do you have any idea?
Oh boy, I don't remember.
Now, how many different times did you go out on that?
Well, we'd go out for 30 days and back in for
18 and back out for 30.
I was on that ship, I guess, about 16, almost
17 months.
17 months, okay.
And during that whole time, that's what you
were doing, is that correct?
Yes, uh-huh.
So you made quite a few different trips out
there then?
Yeah. We'd be on different posts.
Okay. All right.
Crossed the international date line four times.
Okay. Did you ever cross the equator? No.
Went down close to it. We didn't cross it.
Yeah. When you crossed the date line, did you
have any kind of a ceremony, a program or anything?
No, we just noted it on the logs and everything.
Oh, boy.
Just before I came back to the States, we had a
lieutenant come aboard from the Submarine
service to learn how to operate the ship to
replace the
captain because the captain didn't really come
back for
land duty and then his retirement. And we used
to take a
mattress pad, which is a piece of heavy canvas,
like 24, 26
inches wide and about six and a half feet long
with grommets
that we'd lace inside of a type frame for a
support for a mattress in a bunk. We'd
take one of those things and tie it to a
heaving line and throw it over the side in the back.
The captain would break out the small arms and
we'd have target practice on that mat.
This lieutenant one day, when the captain was
out there in his .45-caliber pistol, he
said, Captain, instead of shooting the mat, why
don't you shoot the even line in front
of it. This thing is bouncing around in the
prop wash back there pretty good. The captain
looked at it, put the gun on safety, and handed
it to him. He kind of got used to the gun,
and took it off safety and raised up and shot
one heeled and the mattress pad stayed back
there in the water. We brought a freight
heaving line back in. As we turned to put the thing
back on safety and hand the gun back to him, he
went straight to the stateroom and locked
the doors. But he also would come out and sit
on the fantail when it was in the evening
and we were sitting out there shooting debris,
you know, lying to each other. And he said
I was talking about how great a marksman he was.
And he said there was nobody on this
ship any more surprised than what I was when
that happened. He said keep having a talk
about it and I went back to my stateroom and
locked the door. But we had a lot of fun with
them on that score. But he was going to be on
there about three months to learn how to
operate that ship. And that's when I was sent
back to the States.
A1 Okay. Then what happened?
A. Well, I came back to the States in kind of a
troop ship thing, and we landed at Treasure
Island. I had orders to go to San Diego to
go to Molde Max School. I went down there, and
after we finished school I graduated as
as honor man of the class. Then I had a third
day leave to go home. I had seven days to
travel from Dago to North Fork, Virginia, where
they said my ship was when I finished school.
Now, what is Motor Mach School, what does that do?
It was a classroom and lab work on diesels, the
diesel theory and everything, and then
we actually tore-we paired off in groups and
tore diesel down and measured everything,
everything, miked everything, and replaced worn
parts and this sort of thing, and cleaned
everything up and put it back together and
operated it.
HURST Okay. So that was-learned how to work on
them and that sort of thing.
SC Yeah. You learn how to work on them plus the
theory behind how they operated.
HURST All right. Okay. How long was that school?
SC I think it was ten weeks.
HURST Ten weeks. Okay. And then what did you say
happened after that?
I went home on Thursday eve, and I had seven
days to go from San Diego to North Fork, Virginia.
Because I was told the ship had come back
through the canal and was at North Fork, Virginia
when I finished school.
Atencio And what happened?
Gilbert Well, I showed up at North Fork, Virginia
and found out the ship had been decommissioned
and turned over to the Greek Navy. Navy.
So then I was reassigned to my second ship.
Atencio Okay. And what ship was that?
Eglinton It was a PCE-852 that had been-armaments
been stripped off of it and a big room built on
the main deck. That room was filled with
electronic and business machines and all. We
operated out of the underwater sound laboratories
in New London, Connecticut, operating with
submarines to develop underwater communication.
Oh, okay. So you developed underwater
communication, Huh?
Sir? Yes, uh-huh.
How did that work?
It wasn't fully developed when my enlistment
was up.
But about a year after my discharge, it was developed.
Oh, okay.
That allowed nuclear submarines to stay
submerged for 30 days and receive messages.
And about how long were you on the 852?
About 17 months, just short of 18.
Now that's on the second ship or the first ship?
The second ship.
17 months there also, right?
Yes, uh-huh.
You were about 17 months on the first one, did
you say?
Yes, it was.
About 17 on both of them.
And when you joined, how long did you sign up for?
I signed up for what's called a kid's cruise.
You go in when you're seventeen, you're
discharged the day before you're twenty-one.
Well, I was in there like three years and two
months, something like that. Alright.
Now, what was the highest rank you got to?
Fireman, engineer, first class.
I couldn't get waited because there were so
many of the war veterans that signed over
because of the recession that was in play, they
couldn't get jobs, they were staying
in the military.
Okay, then what happened?
Well, the week before my discharge, I was sent
over to the submarine base to be discharged.
So what date were you discharged?
On December the 17th, 1948.
So you had been in-well, you went in on
December the 18th for-I mean, sorry, that's
your birth date. Yes.
Yes, uh-huh.
You went in on 10-10-45, right? Right.
Yeah, like I say, you got out a day before your birthday.
Did you stay in the reserves? No.
Then what did you do?
Well, when I went home, I goofed off for a
couple of weeks and got a construction job.
Did you use your GI Bill for anything? Yes.
In June of 1949, I started school to get my
bachelor's in science and mechanical engineering.
I used my G.I. Bill to buy my first house. Yes.
I graduated in June of 1953.
your major?
A. A Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering.
A. Okay. What college did you go to?
B. A Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering.
A. Oh, I see. B.S. in Mechanical Engineering.
Okay. And where did you go to college?
B. At the University of Houston.
Anything particular happen while you were in college?
But just before I went to college I met this
good-looking little redhead and my first year
in college we got married.
Oh, congratulations.
That was a big event.
Yes, right.
Are you still married to her? No.
So she passed away in 2012.
Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.
Now, when you were on that ship overseas, how
was the morale on that ship?
It was pretty good.
I had a lot of fun.
Was there any time you ever felt frightened? Sir?
Yes. On my first ship, we were up close to the
Aleutians on patrol, and the tidal wave
that wiped out Hilo, Hawaii, we rowed that
thing out of sea. And I seen water, seen the
about to dive into a wave, and the wave
completely washed the main deck of the ship. It
had an
instameter in the aft engine room. It was
redlined at twenty-nine degrees. I'd say thirty-one
degrees rolled to the right and a thirty-two
degrees rolled to the left. Wow.
Every one of us was praying.
Oh, yeah, I can imagine. Right.
Were there any other times you also
felt frightened or threatened?
No, I think I was about the only one.
It was pretty calm and everything.
Did you get home from your time in the service
with any souvenirs?
Did you get home with any souvenirs?
Nothing but the memories.
Okay. You didn't get a gun or anything like that?
No, uh-uh.
Did you ever see any USO shows?
See any U.S. what?
USO shows? Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, anybody like
that or anything? anything?
No, uh-uh.
Did you have any experience with a Red Cross?
That would have left a bad taste in my mouth.
What happened?
When we were in Pearl Harbor at the dock, the
Red Cross had a doughnut stand and a coffee
stand on the dock. We called them key dog sites.
About two blocks away, the Salvation
Army had one. The Red Cross charged you a
nickel for coffee and a dime for a doughnut
and the Salvation Army was giving them to you.
I've heard that quite a few times before.
Red Cross didn't make too many fans during
World War II.
No, they didn't. Right.
Were you ever in any typhoons or any bad storms?
You mentioned the one.
Any other ones besides that one?
No, just just that tidal wave. Okay
That comes in Pacific, okay water is as calm as
a lake would be, you know, yeah
Now this is before you went in the Navy, but on these
April 12th to 45 president Roosevelt died. What
did people think when they heard that?
I don't remember, but I remember on December 8,
1941, when he made his speech to the Joint
I think we all heard that.
Now on May the 8th of 1945, Germany surrendered.
This is before you went in, but did you all
have any kind of a celebration then?
There was there, yes, V.E. Day.
V.E. Day, right.
There on August the 6th when they dropped the
First atomic bomb, did you hear about that?
Oh, yeah.
And what reaction did people have when they
heard that?
My reaction was, ìThatís awesome, you know,
that is awesome.î
Iím sorry the Japanese decided not to surrender
when we dropped that first bomb, they had
to drop the second one to convince them that we
had something.
I'm glad that Truman made that decision,
because it saved a lot of lives. Yes.
Oh, yes. Yes.
dropped the first atomic bomb did you hear
about that? Oh yes. And when Japan
surrendered on August the 14th any kind of
celebration then? I don't remember a
celebration no. Boy I tell you. It's a surprise
that we even had the thing. I'm talking about
August the
14th when Japan surrendered. There were big
celebrations everywhere then did you
have one yes yes we did right you remember the
picture of the sailor
kissing the girl in time Times Square oh yeah
I've interviewed him I've
interviewed him oh boy yeah he had quite
experience yeah and kill Roy was
everywhere yeah that was still going on when you
were in. Have you had any reunions since you've
been out? Did you keep up with anybody you
were in the service with?
A- I did for a couple of them, but I kind of
got wrapped up in what I was trying to
Have you been on the honor flight to
Washington, D.C.? Yes.
How was that?
That was great, that was great.
They do a good job.
They sure do.
I thought, man, two days you can't do much, but
it was so organized that we done it all.
that we've done it all and we had plenty of time
at each of the monuments, you know.
They didn't rush it, but it was organized.
It was good.
I've told other people about it.
Let them know that it's available.
That's a good organization. Yes.
I've got an audience here right now.
Oh, do you? Who is that?
My daughter came in, and she's been listening
to some of this.
My son-in-law just came in, but...
You want my daughter's telephone number, you say?
Yes, uh-huh, I do.
Okay. You want to tell her what it is, son? 281-432-8372.
Okay, good, thank you.
Her last name?
L-E-A-L, Leal.
Okay, L-E-A-L, Leal.
Okay, thank you.
Of course, when you were in,
Tokyo Rose wasn't around anymore, was she?
Do what now?
Tokyo Rose, do you ever hear of her?
The lady was talking about Tokyo Rose?
Yeah, Tokyo Rose, yeah.
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Yeah, she was gone by the time you got in. Yeah.
Now what ribbons and medals...
Go ahead.
Listened to her a lot.
Now what ribbons and medals did you get?
I had the World War II Victory Medal and the
Good Conduct Medal, and back then I had ribbons
for one for Pacific Fleet and one for Atlantic
Fleet and have a medal of just the ribbons.
But when I asked for copies or a medal to
replace some of them, they sent me one that
was an Asia-Pacific campaign medal. They sent
me three medals.
Atencio Okay. All right. Well, Clyde, is there anything
else you remember from your time in the service?
Schwerin Well, one time we had-it was Navy Day-we
went from New London, Connecticut, up to
Mystic, Massachusetts, for Navy Day. Skipper
was supposed
supposed to speak at the Chamber of Commerce
dinner that night, and they invited everybody
that was not on duty to the dinner. And we had
a ship in ship-top shape, you know, with
everything painted and everything else, but
they painted the main deck just before we
left New London. On the way up there overnight
we had to run into a real rain storm and it
washed a lot of the paint off going up. And so
when we got up there the first thing they
done was dry the deck and paint it again. And
it was interesting when we had the open
ship and people come aboard to look things over
and all. We had that big dinner that
night. That was an experience that I will remember.
This is my son-in-law. I came in late to the
interview, but I wondered if my father-in-law
had said anything about penicillin. He was, uh,
he came down with pneumonia, uh,
there in, uh, was it bootcamp? Uh huh. And, um,
he was very, very sick. As a
matter of fact, they sent a telegram to his
mother telling him that, uh, yeah,
he probably will die. But they were going to
try this new experimental
drug called penicillin. And, uh, while he was
there, they gave it to him.
Anything else you recall that we didn't get in
to interview?
Well, the only only thing is they they tried to
cure me with sulfur drugs and I'm allergic to
sulfur drugs. Oh, okay
They like to lost me with that, you know
So then it changed over to penicillin. Yeah, okay
And it cured me with that. Yeah
Before I went home on convalescent leave I had
to sit
On the stage of an amphitheater that was filled
with doctors, they asked me all kinds of questions
about the climate I lived in when I was growing
up, the number of colds I had during the year,
and my goodness there were so many questions I
didn't have all the answers.
Let's speak a little closer into the phone.
You're not coming through too good.
That's all right. OK.
It's a request.
OK, go ahead.
Are you going to put this out in printed form?
Yes, I am. Right.
Would you send me a copy?
Well, Clyde, thanks again for your time today.
And thank you for your service to our country.
I thank you for your devotion to what you're doing.
Thank you.
All right, we'll keep in contact and when I get
it transcribed, I'll talk back with
you then.
All right, Sir.
Have a good day.
Thank you.
You have a good day.
Thank you. Bye-bye.