Title
Alvin Lindquist interview with two unidentified interviewers
Subject
World War, 1939-1945-Iowa-Oral histories
Description
Lindquist enlisted in the Navy in 1938 and was put through maneuvers off the west coast of Africa. Later, he went to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and other Caribbean islands. Following that, he spent time in the in the Hawaiian islands and was there when Pearl Harbor was attacked.
Publisher
Buena Vista University
Date
4/14/2011
Rights
These oral histories are available for personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that a credit line reads: "Courtesy of Buena Vista University Archives, Storm Lake, IA." Prior permission from the BVU Archives is required for any commercial use.
Format
video/mp4
Language
English
Type
Moving Image
Identifier
Interviewer
Unidentified
Interviewee
Alvin Lindquist
Transcription
ALVIN LINDQUIST
Speaker 1 [00:00:01] Today is April 14th, 2011, and we are interviewing Mr. Lindquist at the communications center at Buena Vista University.
Alvin Lindquist [00:00:10] What was the question, please?
Speaker 1 [00:00:12] When were you enlisted?
Alvin Lindquist [00:00:15] OK, in 1938.
Speaker 2 [00:00:21] What were you doing before you got drafted?
Alvin Lindquist [00:00:23] I enlisted in 1938, and I'll be 92 before Christmas. So I kind of feel ancient when I get-- when I get in this young crowd. But so I really don't have a lot of engagements, only one major one. But so it'll be kind of a-- my scenario is more of how the Navy was then rather than how it is now or or was after the war started. But so I may throw in a few, you know, how that was. Okay. Or do you want me to continue or-- you got a question? [Laughter]
William Feis [00:00:58] They'll have plenty of questions.
Speaker 2 [00:01:00] Where were you when you heard about Pearl Harbor? Were you there?
Alvin Lindquist [00:01:03] Well, I think I'd like to go into a little of the pre-history before those scenarios so you know my position. Okay. I enlisted in 1938. And at that time, you know, the Navy always took what they call their maneu-- maneuvers. So in 1930, in 1938-- enlisted in the 19-- in the spring of 1939. And of course, I went through the canal. And the maneuvers in 1939 was-- was off the Cape Verde Islands, off the west coast of Africa. So that was interesting. And when we left Africa, we came back to New York, and that was the World's Fair that year in New York in 1939, and that was the World's Fair. And we were there about-- about a month. And when I was in New York, it wasn't any bigger than Storm Lake then, you know. [Laughter] You don't believe that, of course. But anyway, after we left New York, we went to Cuba and Puerto Rico and var-- and various islands and then back through the canal and back up to Bremerton, Washington. And in that-- from [19]39 to [19]41, we did a lot of maneuvers, generally in the Pacific and spent a lot of time in the [Hawaiian] islands for-- primarily in Honolulu and that-- so that kind of takes care of that from from '38 to '41. If you've got a question, we can continue from there and we can go ahead.
Speaker 1 [00:02:27] Can you tell us about your training? Your training.
Alvin Lindquist [00:02:31] Oh, training. Okay. Yeah. Well, in 1938, the training station was in Gulfport, Mississippi, and San Diego, California. I went through the training station in Great Lakes, Illinois. 21-- we got $21 a month for the first six months. And then, boy, after a year, you got up to 36 if you behaved yourself and doing good. So there was-- there was no-- no big pay in the-- in the Navy then.
Speaker 1 [00:02:59] Do you have any specific memories from the like, the work or the drills that you may have done?
Alvin Lindquist [00:03:08] Well. Oh, I can't think of anything that really, you know, is outstanding. It was-- it was just a job, you know, at that time, you know, in '38, that was just kind of after the hard times [i.e. the Great Depression]. You know, you're lucky to have a job, you know, $20-21 a month with room and board that-- and that was a bonanza at that time. And I didn't have an opportunity to go to college or anything. I finished high school like everybody does, it seems like.
Speaker 1 [00:03:36] What made you decide to enlist in the Navy?
Alvin Lindquist [00:03:39] Beg pardon?
Speaker 1 [00:03:39] What made you decide to enlist in the Navy?
Alvin Lindquist [00:03:43] I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 [00:03:45] What made you decide to enlist?
Alvin Lindquist [00:03:47] Oh, golly. I always wanted to travel, and it was a job! [Laughter] For-- for, I guess you'd say, primarily a job, because, you know, in '38, that was just after the really hard, hard depression years and there just wasn't-- unless you had means to go to college. But, of course, I didn't have any means to go to college. So I-- my opinion of it was, say, that's a-- that's a job to take. Room and board and $21 a month. Well, that's a good deal.
Speaker 1 [00:04:15] So what happened after training? [Linquist leans in to hear the question again] What happened after training?
Alvin Lindquist [00:04:20] After training? Well, I stayed on-- I was on-- I was on the Battleship Tennessee for over five years. But, of course, now we're about ready to get to Pearl Harbor, I guess, see you know. [Turns to the other student.] You have a question?
Speaker 2 [00:04:33] Yeah. So you said in 1941 you were in Honolulu?
Alvin Lindquist [00:04:37] Oh, yes.
Speaker 2 [00:04:38] So can you elaborate a little bit more about that? What did you do? Why you there and when the bomb--
Alvin Lindquist [00:04:43] Well, of course, we just-- like I said, the Navy went into maneuvers every summer. They always had maneuvers. Oh, two or three times a year and go to different islands and stuff. And we'd just come into-- to Pearl Harbor about two or three days before, and we were tied up-- really, they called it Pearl Harbor, but it was Ford Island, actually, as a technical area, it's Ford Island. And we were tied up with eight or nine battleships. I can't remember them all now, but there was the Tennessee and the California and the New Mexico and the-- and the Idaho. And the Maryland and boy, hmm. Right now, I can't I can't really remember them all, but-- and we were tied on the port side of the-- of the West Virginia. And that's what saved us, because the West Virginia was on our port side or on our left, and they took the torpedoes and we just took fire power on topside. We got a couple of light bombs and machine fire. So we-- we lost a lost-- a few guys. But the West Virginia was one really took the brunt of it as far as we were concerned. And then, of course, up ahead, you know, the Oklahoma and the Arizona and all those that really-- and the Pennsylvania, that was another ship that was there. They-- they all took a lot of damage. We didn't have near the damage that we[sic] did and the casualties were light. So we called it a bad hair day.
Speaker 1 [00:06:02] Did you know anyone who got injured or--
Alvin Lindquist [00:06:05] Oh, sure. I knew a lot of guys. See, at that time, you know, the ships, you know, they didn't have a whole lot of manpower. We only had 1200 men. But shortly after the war, why they-- they got another 800 men on our ship so we could have more relief, you know, from-- from our duties and whatnot. And I was a-- machinist's mate in the engine room. And-- the-- you want to know just when it happens, is that what we're talking about now, then?
Speaker 2 [00:06:34] Yeah, that's fine.
Alvin Lindquist [00:06:35] Yeah, well, okay. I'd had the Ford-- I had the four-to-eight-- what they call the four-to-eight watch in other words. Four to eight-- four in the afternoon to eight in the evening and then likewise four a.m. to 8 a.m., and I happened to have the four-- four-to-eight period watch in the engine room and my friend relieved me a little earlier, so I just got up to topside a few minutes, and I hadn't had even breakfast yet. And I heard these planes and bombs, and I thought it was what they call a dummy run, you know. And I look out for porthole and gosh, the Japanese planes were so low that you could see the pilots in them. You can see the the bombs dropping on Ford Island, you know, where they had all the aircraft and the planes were blown up and and the ships were blowing. And then, of course, just shortly after I was looking out the porthole-- well, now. I had one shipmate said he saw the pilots wave. And I read that in the paper, too. He saw the pilots in the Japanese aircraft waving at us. And I suppose maybe they were-- they were that little. I suppose that-- they-- the aircraft, they were all I'd say, oh, gosh, well, under a thousand foot. So you could you could see 'em very visibly.
Speaker 1 [00:07:46] What was your reaction to the attack?
Alvin Lindquist [00:07:49] Beg pardon?
Speaker 1 [00:07:49] What was your reaction to the attack?
Alvin Lindquist [00:07:52] My what?
Speaker 1 [00:07:52] Your reaction?
Alvin Lindquist [00:07:54] Oh [laughter] surprise. I couldn't hardly believe it. Like I say, I thought it was just a dummy run and boy, I looked out the porthole, and down at Ford Island, the aircraft was already blown-- already blown up. And-- and you could hear the bombs continue. And, of course, at that time, what they call-- oh, I'm trying to think, "Man, your battle stations," I guess that's the term for it. And I immediately returned to the engine room and to keep the power, you know, to the turbines and everything up. And we stayed, all of us that was in the engine room. We stayed there till late afternoon before we come up. And then when you're seeing all the devastation and destruction. Well, I was in disbelief. You just couldn't believe it. Yeah. And of course, continuing there, the the harbor was pretty much ablaze. And of course, you had to keep, you know, keep your propellers, you know, to, keep the water and oil, you know, in movement, so to keep the ships from catching more on fire. And then that went on for, oh, two, three days then that oil business, and so we just fought fires and this and that. And we didn't-- we didn't get out of the-- out of Pearl Harbor until about the, oh, about the 10th of January or so. And at that time [unintelligible] you know, as far as I know, there was-- there was no passenger air flights from the states to Honolulu. And there was two-- there was two steamships-- the SS Laurelline and the Mariposa. I remember them then. I remember the names of them yet because they carried-- The fleet post office for the Pacific fleet was in San Francisco. And those two ships would always bring in our mail to-- to the fleet when we were in-- in Honolulu. And one of them, I don't remember if the Mariposa or the Laurelline was at the harbor-- in the harbor at the time-- at the attack-- but when we went back to the States for a quick trip there in the fore part of January, why we-- we acted as the escort for-- for this passenger ship. And we escorted into San Francisco, and then we went back up to Bremerton, Washington. It was quite obvious that we needed more aircraft, so we put on some bigger machine guns. There was a caliber they called a Bofors 1.1. I don't know, it's a pretty good sized caliber machine gun. And we were-- so in about-- oh, I must've been, I probably about in February of '42, why the Tennessee and I don't know what-- and from destroyers, I don't know what else-- we were deployed up to the Aleutian Islands. And the reason the ships were deployed up to the Aleutian Islands, I understood at that time, and I guess that's still-- you can still read it in history books. But the thinking was in the military that that Japan would attack the United States, the Aleutian Islands. And theoret-- what really happened was, how come the Alaska-- you heard of the Alaska highway? That was-- they started building that primarily because they thought Japan was going to attack the United States from the Aleutian Islands. And that's why they needed a road to get up to the Aleutian Islands to fight the tact (sp?) of the Japanese or whoever might be with them, you know, to come to the United States. So we were up there. The weather was just terrible in the Aleutian Islands. In fact, we lost one of our planes and never, never got it back. The weather was just terrible. So I think we were, oh, patrolling up there maybe for about a month, more or less. And then we went back out to the South Pacific, and we did escort work primarily. Our ship and others did escort work in-- in the South Pacific until I was on that until-- it would have been late of 1942. And then the ship went back to Bremerton, Washington, for major repairs. We needed-- we needed remodernization. In fact, it changed the sil-- silhouette, I guess, you'd call it a ship entirely. I'm sorry I didn't bring pictures along of the restoration and whatnot. I have a lot of that material and I suppose I can add, you know, you're probably-- you know, there's oodles of books and pictures, you know, on-- on Pearl Harbor. I never took any of them. I had enough vivid memories of Pearl Harbor. So I didn't-- I've never went [sic] to that Tora, Tora, I believe they call that one of the movies, you know, that portrayed Pearl Harbor so, so vividly. [Editor's note: The movie is called Tora! Tora! Tora! and was released in 1970.] But I have-- I had material on that. And so, then in the fall of '42, when the ship was at Pearl Harbor for remodernization, I was transferred to the East Coast, and I put in commission a new minesweeper, the YMS 401, and that was a minesweeper for submarine patrol. And a lot of people didn't know it at the time, but they found out afterwards, you know, there were submarines pret' near all over the world. And we-- we did a submarine patrol all through the West Indies and down to-- and down to South America. And after about two years on this minesweeper, I was transferred to-- and that would have been in the fall of '40-- '40-- yeah, the fall of 45, I was transferred to-- back to the East Coast, and I was sent to a diesel-- diesel marine training school in-- in Norfolk, Virginia, to-- to teach a diesel marine engine-- engineering to students at the school. And of course, then the war ended when I was there at Norfolk at the training school. And-- and after about eight years, the joke was they called it a canoe club. So after about eight years in the canoe club, why, I-- I had gotten married. Well, I'd met my-- my wife when I was-- when I was in high school, in fact, we were to-- we were together for seven-- when my wife passed away-- we had been together-- she'd only-- we'd only lacked about a month. We'd been together for 70 years. We weren't married-- we were married for over 65 years, but we were together for 70 years. They were from 19-- our first acquaintance in 1937 to 2007, just lacked a little bit of 70 years. So boy, I'm still lost.
Speaker 1 [00:14:26] How did you feel about America entering World War II after Pearl Harbor?
Alvin Lindquist [00:14:30] Oh, I was a real big flag waver then, you know [Laughter], but I'm sort of a dove now, see, you know, I guess it's been said a lot of times, you know, if all the leaders of the world actually had to go into battle themselves-- and that includes every leader that I've ever read about, I don't think we'd be having the wars that we're having.
Speaker 1 [00:14:54] You mentioned that your wife now, she was your high school sweetheart. How did she react to you joining the service?
Alvin Lindquist [00:15:04] Oh, we were-- we were just, you know, good acquaintances then. She thought-- I don't think she could have changed my mind [Laughter] at that time anyway. So. So it was just one of those deals. We were just super close friends, and she-- she went to a business school in Des Moines. And then later on, she went to newspaper work in-- oh, I can't think of the town in-- in California. Mm hmm. But anyway, later on, then she worked in an insurance firm in-- in Seattle, Washington. And we spent time together in-- when she was working for this insurance firm, and the insurance firm that she was working in, working for, they were the big carriers that was insuring the people that was building this Alaskan highway. It's just a bit of interesting air about it. Yeah. And of course, when I got transferred to the East Coast, her parents in Albert City, they were long-time farmers and kind of almost pioneers of Albert City. They wanted her-- they were-- you know, a lot of people thought the Japanese was going to attack the United States. That was a common thought at that time. Yeah. And, you know, they even imprisoned all the Japanese people, you know. You've read about that, and they wanted her back in Albert City, so she left her insurance job and came back-- came back to Albert City. And then when I got out of the Navy, why then I went into-- I worked in the power plant in Algona-- diesel, diesel engine power plant in Algona. And-- and in the spring of '46, my father-in-law helped me get started farming and-- and here I am.
Speaker 1 [00:16:49] Did you-- did you stay in touch with her while you were away or--
Alvin Lindquist [00:16:53] Oh, yeah. The communication, you know, was slow. Yeah. You know, because when I got transferred, well, even when the-- after war started, you know, their-- your mail was censored. If you wrote a letter, it was censored before they-- before it'd even leave the ship, yup. And so I didn't write anything too wild, but I-- I know there was a time, whatever I wrote or said, why then they'd clip it out. So the-- so that whoever got hold of the letter, they had no idea where the ship was or what it was doing. So it was censored mail, definitely.
Speaker 1 [00:17:34] What else do you remember about life after Pearl Harbor?
Alvin Lindquist [00:17:39] Well, you mean the remaining time in the Navy, you mean?
Speaker 1 [00:17:43] Um hmm.
Alvin Lindquist [00:17:44] What do I remember? Oh, damn, that was hard duty, boy. [Laughter] And the minesweepers, boy. You talk about rough. Oh, gosh. You know, a battleship, that's pretty easy. But you get on those minesweepers are about 80 foot long, and-- and half the time, you can't even-- you know, the dishes are going everywhere, you know, and the tables they got-- you got you got railings around, you know, to keep the dishes-- keep the dishes on the table. But so, yeah, that was-- that was-- that was hard duty.. And I told you, you didn't do much drinking ashore if you ever got ashore because, boy, you'd be-- you'd really be sick riding a minesweeper if you'd been drinking, I'll tell you that. Probably shouldn't, you know, probably shouldn't be telling my-- my black side. [Laughter]
Speaker 1 [00:18:31] How did you adjust from going from destroyer to-- the ship to the minesweeper.
Alvin Lindquist [00:18:40] From ship to where?
Speaker 1 [00:18:41] To the minesweeper. How did you adjust?
Alvin Lindquist [00:18:43] Oh, boy. The duty was so darn rough. Oh, boy. And it was just so you know, minesweepers aren't very big. The duty is tough and the-- and the quarters are small and-- yeah, that's another thing I had to tell you. You know, in the Navy then, the recruits and whatnot or the-- until you got to maybe be a first [unintelligible[, you slept on hammocks. You tie them to-- you tie them to the ceilings in the compartments. You sleep on a hammock.
Speaker 2 [00:19:10] You're talking-- you were talking about adjusting from a battleship to a minesweeper. And can you tell us about the quarters that you lived in and stayed in on the minesweeper?
Alvin Lindquist [00:19:20] Oh, boy. They were very, very small. You had bunks on the bulkhead, you know, but, boy, there wasn't much room on there. And the duty is so rough and what a minesweeper-- what they do is-- for submarines and what the-- what they're used to detect submarines [of] course you got, you had all that radar equipment and the minesweepers were with what they call-- hmmm, gosh, I'm trying to think what we called 'em, but they were depth charges, about the size of-- oh, about the size of that trash barrel, a depth charge. And what that would do-- if it's close enough to a submarine it'll-- it'll-- it'll damage the submarine enough so that it'll come to the surface. Now I don't know if we ever got one or not one. One- we had kind of [Laughter] a captain that was kind of-- I don't know about that guy, either. But anyway, he-- he thought we did get one submarine. But like I said, we'd go clear down to South America and all over, you know, the submarines were all over the world. It's hard to believe, but they were. So I don't know if we ever got one or not, but I know we dep-- with those depth charges, it's-- it's kind of interesting, you know, when they blow up in the water, boy, it just like a volcano. And it'll destroy any underwater craft if it happens to be, you know, in the area or where that depth charge goes off.
Speaker 1 [00:20:40] Do you have any other memorable experiences on the minesweeper?
Alvin Lindquist [00:20:47] On the minesweeper? Well, other than it was rough duty primarily, [Laughter] and we stopped in a lot of places. Oh, I might say, yeah, and we've been to the different islands. And in [19]39 when we went back to Cuba and Puerto Rico and whatnot, and I'll always remember, you know, when they had all this hurt and what was it, you know, in Puerto Rico, in Port-au-Prince, you know, and I thought then of all the places I've been in, Puerto Rico, I thought, was the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere that I was ever in. It was just-- it was it was pathetic thenm and I'm sure it's worse now after all the trouble they've had there in Port-au-Prince, because that's where our ship come in. In fact, in the-- in the harbor, the-- the little-- the kid. Well, I said the little kids, they'd swim out to the-- swim out to the ships and we'd throw, you know, fruit and different stuff to 'em, you know. Everybody was hungry then and they still are now, you know, Puerto Rico is a poor country. [Editor's note: Port-au-Prince is located in Haiti.]
Speaker 1 [00:21:47] What other duties did you have on the minesweeper?
Alvin Lindquist [00:21:50] Oh, just-- I was in charge of the generators, three cylinder generators that furnished the power, and we had two main-- two main large diesel engines. There were what they called a two-- they were 262 and they had eight-inch cylinders. And we started them with-- them with air pressure, with the compressed air to turn them over. You didn't have electric starters. You turned them over with compressed air. Yeah.
Speaker 1 [00:22:17] And what did you do after your time on the minesweeper?
Alvin Lindquist [00:22:22] After the minesweeper? Well, that's where I went to this diesel school in Norfolk. And I was an instructor in marine diesel engines. And then, of course, that was in the end-- in the end-- have to even stop to think when the war ended, 40- 40- 40- and then '45. And that's when I-- I decided that we should-- should leave the Navy and kind of be-- to together. And that's when I went to work in a power plant in Algona, Iowa. And after a few months in Algona, that's where my father-in-law helped me get started farming in Albert City. And we farmed for 40 years, and I retired. I retired at 62, and then we did-- we did some travel, which included the casinos. I like the casinos. I probably shouldn't say that. You might [not] be casino fans, but you know, I like the casinos. I don't go anymore now, but I was never a big loser at the casino. Between the two of us, why, it was a good deal. [Laughter] And so that's when I say I retired at-- I retired at 62, and we did some traveling and primarily on-- on bus trips, to-- and then, of course, I had two sons that were both medical doctors from Yale and Harvard, and the one that-- the Harvard-- the surgeon that was at Harvard and our son that was a surgeon from Harvard, he got killed in a plane crash as a teaching student of surgery, and he had his own plane. But we still have the son out in-- in San Francisco, and he-- he thinks like the new people do. Now, they've been together for over 30 years, not married, and no children. So we-- we went out there for-- for-- for-- for 12-- for 12 seasons. And-- and then of course, shortly we couldn't go there anymore. My wife wasn't able to travel anymore. And like I say, she just passed away three years-- three years ago. But she lacked two months of being together for 70 years, I keep saying that, but boy, it just never left me.
Speaker 1 [00:24:32] Did you ever see battle again after Pearl Harbor?
Alvin Lindquist [00:24:34] Beg pardon?
Speaker 1 [00:24:35] Did you ever see battle again after--
Alvin Lindquist [00:24:37] No. No, we did con-- we did primarily convoy work. We-- we were in the Pacific when the-- when the Lexington and the Saratoga both got sunk. You know, they were two huge carriers. They-- the U.S. had three big carriers. I was trying to think of the third big carrier we had at the start of the war, but I can't think of it right now. But they both got sunk, and we were in the area, but we did primarily escort duty. We weren't-- we weren't actually in the battle. We were in the area, but we weren't any part of the attacked.
Speaker 1 [00:25:11] Was there any specific reaction among the others in your-- in your outfit or anything? Was there any reactions with the Japanese?
Alvin Lindquist [00:25:23] Well, I can tell you a true little bit as far as myself. I'm not a praying man, but I prayed that night after Pearl Harbor. [Laughter] I don't know-- but you want to know the reaction. Well, it was gung ho. We were all big flag wavers. We were all the, like the you know-- like the-- in the-- it was Benito Finito, you know, when-- let's see Benito Rossellini[sic]-- let's see, he was of Italy. What was the prime minister or whatever you call it, of Italy in 1930 and '41? Wasn't that Benito or something like that?
William Feis [00:25:59] Yeah. Mussolini.
Alvin Lindquist [00:26:00] Yeah. Mussolini. Year. So we'd-- we'd say Benito Finito or whatever. Mussolini. Benito Mussolini. So we were out to get everybody. But it took a while to do it. But it's not dragging on like the wars we got now. So, I'm kind of a dove now because I-- I've been through that. I-- I don't understand this, having military personnel all over the world and billions and billions of dollars, and you guys are going to have to pay for that. I'm getting Social Security. I'm not paying for it, but you guys are.
Speaker 2 [00:26:35] You have an interesting nickname. People call you Stub.
Alvin Lindquist [00:26:39] Yeah. Okay. The name. Nickname. Okay. My folks emigrated from Sweden. They were sweethearts in Sweden. And they come over in this country, I believe in about 1914. And when I started school, why, of course, my folks-- all they could talk was Swedish, and they had settled in Nebraska because Dad's brother had come over earlier. Don't ask me why or how, but he'd come over earlier, and my folks were sweethearts in Sweden and Skania (sp) was the province. And so when I started school, all I could talk was Swedish. Okay, so the kids thought I was too stubborn to talk English, so they just started calling me Stub for stubborn. But,hell, I didn't know. I didn't know any English. All I could talk was Swedish. So that's how I got the name, Stub, and it just stuck with me. I'm not stubborn, just contrary.
Speaker 1 [00:27:30] What did you go on to do after you were discharged?
Alvin Lindquist [00:27:36] Beg pardon?
Speaker 1 [00:27:36] What did you go on to do after you were discharged?
Alvin Lindquist [00:27:40] Oh, then I started farming. Didn't I cover that? Yeah, I went to work in the power plant.
Speaker 1 [00:27:45] I wasn't sure if you went to college or anything afterwards.
Alvin Lindquist [00:27:48] Oh, no, no, no. I went right to-- right to the power plant. After I got out of the service, oh, I guess it was a couple, a couple of months, and then I was looking for a power plant job or-- and that's when I went up to Algona, and they hired me on the spot because I was-- I was familiar with diesel engines and they were looking for help then. So I worked in that power plant from oh, about six months or so. And then my father-in-law wanted me to get started farming. And his theory was, you know, you don't want to carry a lunch basket to work, you want to own the property yourself. And that was kind of his theory, and it worked out all right. In fact, we bought that farm for $200 an acre and that was considered pretty-- in fact, my own folks and I had some relatives [say], "Oh, you'll never make it at $200 an acre." And boy, look where it went. And we've got farms selling within a mile or two of us that are bringing 5-$6,000 an acre now. It's crazy. But I'm keeping mine. [Laughter]
Speaker 1 [00:28:49] What were you most proud of?
Alvin Lindquist [00:28:53] What am I most proud of? My two boys going to Yale and Harvard. Yeah. Yeah. And to think they're still, like I say, the-- the-- the older son that was-- was a surgeon at Harvard. He was the chief resident surgeon for two years at Harvard. And then he went into private practice with-- with another surgeon in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and his partner died. And they wanted to-- the-- his partner's family wanted-- Clyde to-- to buy the practice, but he wanted to get back to-- to Iowa home. He still was a country-- country boy. And when he got-- he got back here and he was a-- then-- then he went to-- and got into the hospital at Fort Dodge, and he was the director of emergency-- emergency medicine at the Trinity Regional in Fort Dodge until he got killed in a plane crash. He had his own plane and he did teaching assignments in trauma surgery, and he'd fly to Sioux Falls and and Mason-- and Mason City. And he even did teaching in Iowa City on trauma surgery. And he got caught in a wind shear one night, and we lost him. And when-- when-- they were married for 17 years before-- or 15-- let's see. It was either 15 or 17 years before they-- before they had their first baby. And the little girl was only two years old when he got killed. And it's been a hard deal, but we were in a position and his wife, she never remarried and she's been a teacher at the college in Fort Dodge for-- for several years after the-- after where she could get a-- you know, she took care of the little girl till she was-- could get a babysitter for her. And she went because she-- she taught school in Riverside, Iowa, while-- while Clyde was in-- at the University of Iowa at the medical school. And she-- she taught then and after she could get a little babysitter, why she got into the college that the-- you know, there in Fort Dodge or what do you call a community college or whatever. In fact, they've got a unit here in Buena Vista, too, haven't they? Yeah. And-- and she's still teaching there, and she's-- she had a little tough luck. She'll be 65 next year. And then lo and behold, last year here she come down with a breast tumor, ready to retire, but she's taken all her radiation, chemotherapy, and just finished that here in January. And hopefully they-- she went through the-- a lot of work at Rochester and whatnot, and they tell her she's getting along fine. However, she's still on medication and whatnot, and we're still hoping for the best on that. But she is doing okay. She's back to teaching and whatnot. Yeah. So that's the tough part of my story. You know, I used to think, okay, here, now here, some of my philosphy. And I don't know if you call it that or not, but, you know, all the time when I was farming, you know, things were tough. We didn't, like I said, we didn't even have electricity. And I thought, boy, this is the terrible part of life or whatever you want to call it. And oh boy, it'll be good when you get old and retired. But, you know, it's just the other way around. That was the good years, when I had the family and everything. Now-- now it's the tough years when you're old and you're alone and that-- there's no joke on that. That's the hard part. If you can imagine being with somebody for 70 years and then they're gone. Yeah, but they tell me I'm getting along okay. I do the best I can. Like this, I-- so anyway-- I don't know if you got any questions, go ahead. Just stay out of the military [Laughter], because I'm not the flag waver I used to be. Boy, I seen that stuff. It shouldn't be.
Speaker 1 [00:32:53] Is there any other stories you care to share with us?
Alvin Lindquist [00:32:57] Any stories?
Speaker 1 [00:32:58] About the war.
Alvin Lindquist [00:33:00] Well, no, no, no. Like I say, my-- my history-- my service, you know, was mostly during peacetime. The only other real engagement I was in, see, was Pearl Harbor. And then, of course, up at the Aleutian Islands after that, we primarily-- what we did was escort work in the-- in the South Pacific. And then, of course, the tough part was this-- was that minesweeper duty. That was-- that was a hard, duty, but-- so I don't have any other-- really other experiences. It was, oh, a few-- a few liberties on shore and whatnot, but that's history too.
Speaker 1 [00:00:01] Today is April 14th, 2011, and we are interviewing Mr. Lindquist at the communications center at Buena Vista University.
Alvin Lindquist [00:00:10] What was the question, please?
Speaker 1 [00:00:12] When were you enlisted?
Alvin Lindquist [00:00:15] OK, in 1938.
Speaker 2 [00:00:21] What were you doing before you got drafted?
Alvin Lindquist [00:00:23] I enlisted in 1938, and I'll be 92 before Christmas. So I kind of feel ancient when I get-- when I get in this young crowd. But so I really don't have a lot of engagements, only one major one. But so it'll be kind of a-- my scenario is more of how the Navy was then rather than how it is now or or was after the war started. But so I may throw in a few, you know, how that was. Okay. Or do you want me to continue or-- you got a question? [Laughter]
William Feis [00:00:58] They'll have plenty of questions.
Speaker 2 [00:01:00] Where were you when you heard about Pearl Harbor? Were you there?
Alvin Lindquist [00:01:03] Well, I think I'd like to go into a little of the pre-history before those scenarios so you know my position. Okay. I enlisted in 1938. And at that time, you know, the Navy always took what they call their maneu-- maneuvers. So in 1930, in 1938-- enlisted in the 19-- in the spring of 1939. And of course, I went through the canal. And the maneuvers in 1939 was-- was off the Cape Verde Islands, off the west coast of Africa. So that was interesting. And when we left Africa, we came back to New York, and that was the World's Fair that year in New York in 1939, and that was the World's Fair. And we were there about-- about a month. And when I was in New York, it wasn't any bigger than Storm Lake then, you know. [Laughter] You don't believe that, of course. But anyway, after we left New York, we went to Cuba and Puerto Rico and var-- and various islands and then back through the canal and back up to Bremerton, Washington. And in that-- from [19]39 to [19]41, we did a lot of maneuvers, generally in the Pacific and spent a lot of time in the [Hawaiian] islands for-- primarily in Honolulu and that-- so that kind of takes care of that from from '38 to '41. If you've got a question, we can continue from there and we can go ahead.
Speaker 1 [00:02:27] Can you tell us about your training? Your training.
Alvin Lindquist [00:02:31] Oh, training. Okay. Yeah. Well, in 1938, the training station was in Gulfport, Mississippi, and San Diego, California. I went through the training station in Great Lakes, Illinois. 21-- we got $21 a month for the first six months. And then, boy, after a year, you got up to 36 if you behaved yourself and doing good. So there was-- there was no-- no big pay in the-- in the Navy then.
Speaker 1 [00:02:59] Do you have any specific memories from the like, the work or the drills that you may have done?
Alvin Lindquist [00:03:08] Well. Oh, I can't think of anything that really, you know, is outstanding. It was-- it was just a job, you know, at that time, you know, in '38, that was just kind of after the hard times [i.e. the Great Depression]. You know, you're lucky to have a job, you know, $20-21 a month with room and board that-- and that was a bonanza at that time. And I didn't have an opportunity to go to college or anything. I finished high school like everybody does, it seems like.
Speaker 1 [00:03:36] What made you decide to enlist in the Navy?
Alvin Lindquist [00:03:39] Beg pardon?
Speaker 1 [00:03:39] What made you decide to enlist in the Navy?
Alvin Lindquist [00:03:43] I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 [00:03:45] What made you decide to enlist?
Alvin Lindquist [00:03:47] Oh, golly. I always wanted to travel, and it was a job! [Laughter] For-- for, I guess you'd say, primarily a job, because, you know, in '38, that was just after the really hard, hard depression years and there just wasn't-- unless you had means to go to college. But, of course, I didn't have any means to go to college. So I-- my opinion of it was, say, that's a-- that's a job to take. Room and board and $21 a month. Well, that's a good deal.
Speaker 1 [00:04:15] So what happened after training? [Linquist leans in to hear the question again] What happened after training?
Alvin Lindquist [00:04:20] After training? Well, I stayed on-- I was on-- I was on the Battleship Tennessee for over five years. But, of course, now we're about ready to get to Pearl Harbor, I guess, see you know. [Turns to the other student.] You have a question?
Speaker 2 [00:04:33] Yeah. So you said in 1941 you were in Honolulu?
Alvin Lindquist [00:04:37] Oh, yes.
Speaker 2 [00:04:38] So can you elaborate a little bit more about that? What did you do? Why you there and when the bomb--
Alvin Lindquist [00:04:43] Well, of course, we just-- like I said, the Navy went into maneuvers every summer. They always had maneuvers. Oh, two or three times a year and go to different islands and stuff. And we'd just come into-- to Pearl Harbor about two or three days before, and we were tied up-- really, they called it Pearl Harbor, but it was Ford Island, actually, as a technical area, it's Ford Island. And we were tied up with eight or nine battleships. I can't remember them all now, but there was the Tennessee and the California and the New Mexico and the-- and the Idaho. And the Maryland and boy, hmm. Right now, I can't I can't really remember them all, but-- and we were tied on the port side of the-- of the West Virginia. And that's what saved us, because the West Virginia was on our port side or on our left, and they took the torpedoes and we just took fire power on topside. We got a couple of light bombs and machine fire. So we-- we lost a lost-- a few guys. But the West Virginia was one really took the brunt of it as far as we were concerned. And then, of course, up ahead, you know, the Oklahoma and the Arizona and all those that really-- and the Pennsylvania, that was another ship that was there. They-- they all took a lot of damage. We didn't have near the damage that we[sic] did and the casualties were light. So we called it a bad hair day.
Speaker 1 [00:06:02] Did you know anyone who got injured or--
Alvin Lindquist [00:06:05] Oh, sure. I knew a lot of guys. See, at that time, you know, the ships, you know, they didn't have a whole lot of manpower. We only had 1200 men. But shortly after the war, why they-- they got another 800 men on our ship so we could have more relief, you know, from-- from our duties and whatnot. And I was a-- machinist's mate in the engine room. And-- the-- you want to know just when it happens, is that what we're talking about now, then?
Speaker 2 [00:06:34] Yeah, that's fine.
Alvin Lindquist [00:06:35] Yeah, well, okay. I'd had the Ford-- I had the four-to-eight-- what they call the four-to-eight watch in other words. Four to eight-- four in the afternoon to eight in the evening and then likewise four a.m. to 8 a.m., and I happened to have the four-- four-to-eight period watch in the engine room and my friend relieved me a little earlier, so I just got up to topside a few minutes, and I hadn't had even breakfast yet. And I heard these planes and bombs, and I thought it was what they call a dummy run, you know. And I look out for porthole and gosh, the Japanese planes were so low that you could see the pilots in them. You can see the the bombs dropping on Ford Island, you know, where they had all the aircraft and the planes were blown up and and the ships were blowing. And then, of course, just shortly after I was looking out the porthole-- well, now. I had one shipmate said he saw the pilots wave. And I read that in the paper, too. He saw the pilots in the Japanese aircraft waving at us. And I suppose maybe they were-- they were that little. I suppose that-- they-- the aircraft, they were all I'd say, oh, gosh, well, under a thousand foot. So you could you could see 'em very visibly.
Speaker 1 [00:07:46] What was your reaction to the attack?
Alvin Lindquist [00:07:49] Beg pardon?
Speaker 1 [00:07:49] What was your reaction to the attack?
Alvin Lindquist [00:07:52] My what?
Speaker 1 [00:07:52] Your reaction?
Alvin Lindquist [00:07:54] Oh [laughter] surprise. I couldn't hardly believe it. Like I say, I thought it was just a dummy run and boy, I looked out the porthole, and down at Ford Island, the aircraft was already blown-- already blown up. And-- and you could hear the bombs continue. And, of course, at that time, what they call-- oh, I'm trying to think, "Man, your battle stations," I guess that's the term for it. And I immediately returned to the engine room and to keep the power, you know, to the turbines and everything up. And we stayed, all of us that was in the engine room. We stayed there till late afternoon before we come up. And then when you're seeing all the devastation and destruction. Well, I was in disbelief. You just couldn't believe it. Yeah. And of course, continuing there, the the harbor was pretty much ablaze. And of course, you had to keep, you know, keep your propellers, you know, to, keep the water and oil, you know, in movement, so to keep the ships from catching more on fire. And then that went on for, oh, two, three days then that oil business, and so we just fought fires and this and that. And we didn't-- we didn't get out of the-- out of Pearl Harbor until about the, oh, about the 10th of January or so. And at that time [unintelligible] you know, as far as I know, there was-- there was no passenger air flights from the states to Honolulu. And there was two-- there was two steamships-- the SS Laurelline and the Mariposa. I remember them then. I remember the names of them yet because they carried-- The fleet post office for the Pacific fleet was in San Francisco. And those two ships would always bring in our mail to-- to the fleet when we were in-- in Honolulu. And one of them, I don't remember if the Mariposa or the Laurelline was at the harbor-- in the harbor at the time-- at the attack-- but when we went back to the States for a quick trip there in the fore part of January, why we-- we acted as the escort for-- for this passenger ship. And we escorted into San Francisco, and then we went back up to Bremerton, Washington. It was quite obvious that we needed more aircraft, so we put on some bigger machine guns. There was a caliber they called a Bofors 1.1. I don't know, it's a pretty good sized caliber machine gun. And we were-- so in about-- oh, I must've been, I probably about in February of '42, why the Tennessee and I don't know what-- and from destroyers, I don't know what else-- we were deployed up to the Aleutian Islands. And the reason the ships were deployed up to the Aleutian Islands, I understood at that time, and I guess that's still-- you can still read it in history books. But the thinking was in the military that that Japan would attack the United States, the Aleutian Islands. And theoret-- what really happened was, how come the Alaska-- you heard of the Alaska highway? That was-- they started building that primarily because they thought Japan was going to attack the United States from the Aleutian Islands. And that's why they needed a road to get up to the Aleutian Islands to fight the tact (sp?) of the Japanese or whoever might be with them, you know, to come to the United States. So we were up there. The weather was just terrible in the Aleutian Islands. In fact, we lost one of our planes and never, never got it back. The weather was just terrible. So I think we were, oh, patrolling up there maybe for about a month, more or less. And then we went back out to the South Pacific, and we did escort work primarily. Our ship and others did escort work in-- in the South Pacific until I was on that until-- it would have been late of 1942. And then the ship went back to Bremerton, Washington, for major repairs. We needed-- we needed remodernization. In fact, it changed the sil-- silhouette, I guess, you'd call it a ship entirely. I'm sorry I didn't bring pictures along of the restoration and whatnot. I have a lot of that material and I suppose I can add, you know, you're probably-- you know, there's oodles of books and pictures, you know, on-- on Pearl Harbor. I never took any of them. I had enough vivid memories of Pearl Harbor. So I didn't-- I've never went [sic] to that Tora, Tora, I believe they call that one of the movies, you know, that portrayed Pearl Harbor so, so vividly. [Editor's note: The movie is called Tora! Tora! Tora! and was released in 1970.] But I have-- I had material on that. And so, then in the fall of '42, when the ship was at Pearl Harbor for remodernization, I was transferred to the East Coast, and I put in commission a new minesweeper, the YMS 401, and that was a minesweeper for submarine patrol. And a lot of people didn't know it at the time, but they found out afterwards, you know, there were submarines pret' near all over the world. And we-- we did a submarine patrol all through the West Indies and down to-- and down to South America. And after about two years on this minesweeper, I was transferred to-- and that would have been in the fall of '40-- '40-- yeah, the fall of 45, I was transferred to-- back to the East Coast, and I was sent to a diesel-- diesel marine training school in-- in Norfolk, Virginia, to-- to teach a diesel marine engine-- engineering to students at the school. And of course, then the war ended when I was there at Norfolk at the training school. And-- and after about eight years, the joke was they called it a canoe club. So after about eight years in the canoe club, why, I-- I had gotten married. Well, I'd met my-- my wife when I was-- when I was in high school, in fact, we were to-- we were together for seven-- when my wife passed away-- we had been together-- she'd only-- we'd only lacked about a month. We'd been together for 70 years. We weren't married-- we were married for over 65 years, but we were together for 70 years. They were from 19-- our first acquaintance in 1937 to 2007, just lacked a little bit of 70 years. So boy, I'm still lost.
Speaker 1 [00:14:26] How did you feel about America entering World War II after Pearl Harbor?
Alvin Lindquist [00:14:30] Oh, I was a real big flag waver then, you know [Laughter], but I'm sort of a dove now, see, you know, I guess it's been said a lot of times, you know, if all the leaders of the world actually had to go into battle themselves-- and that includes every leader that I've ever read about, I don't think we'd be having the wars that we're having.
Speaker 1 [00:14:54] You mentioned that your wife now, she was your high school sweetheart. How did she react to you joining the service?
Alvin Lindquist [00:15:04] Oh, we were-- we were just, you know, good acquaintances then. She thought-- I don't think she could have changed my mind [Laughter] at that time anyway. So. So it was just one of those deals. We were just super close friends, and she-- she went to a business school in Des Moines. And then later on, she went to newspaper work in-- oh, I can't think of the town in-- in California. Mm hmm. But anyway, later on, then she worked in an insurance firm in-- in Seattle, Washington. And we spent time together in-- when she was working for this insurance firm, and the insurance firm that she was working in, working for, they were the big carriers that was insuring the people that was building this Alaskan highway. It's just a bit of interesting air about it. Yeah. And of course, when I got transferred to the East Coast, her parents in Albert City, they were long-time farmers and kind of almost pioneers of Albert City. They wanted her-- they were-- you know, a lot of people thought the Japanese was going to attack the United States. That was a common thought at that time. Yeah. And, you know, they even imprisoned all the Japanese people, you know. You've read about that, and they wanted her back in Albert City, so she left her insurance job and came back-- came back to Albert City. And then when I got out of the Navy, why then I went into-- I worked in the power plant in Algona-- diesel, diesel engine power plant in Algona. And-- and in the spring of '46, my father-in-law helped me get started farming and-- and here I am.
Speaker 1 [00:16:49] Did you-- did you stay in touch with her while you were away or--
Alvin Lindquist [00:16:53] Oh, yeah. The communication, you know, was slow. Yeah. You know, because when I got transferred, well, even when the-- after war started, you know, their-- your mail was censored. If you wrote a letter, it was censored before they-- before it'd even leave the ship, yup. And so I didn't write anything too wild, but I-- I know there was a time, whatever I wrote or said, why then they'd clip it out. So the-- so that whoever got hold of the letter, they had no idea where the ship was or what it was doing. So it was censored mail, definitely.
Speaker 1 [00:17:34] What else do you remember about life after Pearl Harbor?
Alvin Lindquist [00:17:39] Well, you mean the remaining time in the Navy, you mean?
Speaker 1 [00:17:43] Um hmm.
Alvin Lindquist [00:17:44] What do I remember? Oh, damn, that was hard duty, boy. [Laughter] And the minesweepers, boy. You talk about rough. Oh, gosh. You know, a battleship, that's pretty easy. But you get on those minesweepers are about 80 foot long, and-- and half the time, you can't even-- you know, the dishes are going everywhere, you know, and the tables they got-- you got you got railings around, you know, to keep the dishes-- keep the dishes on the table. But so, yeah, that was-- that was-- that was hard duty.. And I told you, you didn't do much drinking ashore if you ever got ashore because, boy, you'd be-- you'd really be sick riding a minesweeper if you'd been drinking, I'll tell you that. Probably shouldn't, you know, probably shouldn't be telling my-- my black side. [Laughter]
Speaker 1 [00:18:31] How did you adjust from going from destroyer to-- the ship to the minesweeper.
Alvin Lindquist [00:18:40] From ship to where?
Speaker 1 [00:18:41] To the minesweeper. How did you adjust?
Alvin Lindquist [00:18:43] Oh, boy. The duty was so darn rough. Oh, boy. And it was just so you know, minesweepers aren't very big. The duty is tough and the-- and the quarters are small and-- yeah, that's another thing I had to tell you. You know, in the Navy then, the recruits and whatnot or the-- until you got to maybe be a first [unintelligible[, you slept on hammocks. You tie them to-- you tie them to the ceilings in the compartments. You sleep on a hammock.
Speaker 2 [00:19:10] You're talking-- you were talking about adjusting from a battleship to a minesweeper. And can you tell us about the quarters that you lived in and stayed in on the minesweeper?
Alvin Lindquist [00:19:20] Oh, boy. They were very, very small. You had bunks on the bulkhead, you know, but, boy, there wasn't much room on there. And the duty is so rough and what a minesweeper-- what they do is-- for submarines and what the-- what they're used to detect submarines [of] course you got, you had all that radar equipment and the minesweepers were with what they call-- hmmm, gosh, I'm trying to think what we called 'em, but they were depth charges, about the size of-- oh, about the size of that trash barrel, a depth charge. And what that would do-- if it's close enough to a submarine it'll-- it'll-- it'll damage the submarine enough so that it'll come to the surface. Now I don't know if we ever got one or not one. One- we had kind of [Laughter] a captain that was kind of-- I don't know about that guy, either. But anyway, he-- he thought we did get one submarine. But like I said, we'd go clear down to South America and all over, you know, the submarines were all over the world. It's hard to believe, but they were. So I don't know if we ever got one or not, but I know we dep-- with those depth charges, it's-- it's kind of interesting, you know, when they blow up in the water, boy, it just like a volcano. And it'll destroy any underwater craft if it happens to be, you know, in the area or where that depth charge goes off.
Speaker 1 [00:20:40] Do you have any other memorable experiences on the minesweeper?
Alvin Lindquist [00:20:47] On the minesweeper? Well, other than it was rough duty primarily, [Laughter] and we stopped in a lot of places. Oh, I might say, yeah, and we've been to the different islands. And in [19]39 when we went back to Cuba and Puerto Rico and whatnot, and I'll always remember, you know, when they had all this hurt and what was it, you know, in Puerto Rico, in Port-au-Prince, you know, and I thought then of all the places I've been in, Puerto Rico, I thought, was the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere that I was ever in. It was just-- it was it was pathetic thenm and I'm sure it's worse now after all the trouble they've had there in Port-au-Prince, because that's where our ship come in. In fact, in the-- in the harbor, the-- the little-- the kid. Well, I said the little kids, they'd swim out to the-- swim out to the ships and we'd throw, you know, fruit and different stuff to 'em, you know. Everybody was hungry then and they still are now, you know, Puerto Rico is a poor country. [Editor's note: Port-au-Prince is located in Haiti.]
Speaker 1 [00:21:47] What other duties did you have on the minesweeper?
Alvin Lindquist [00:21:50] Oh, just-- I was in charge of the generators, three cylinder generators that furnished the power, and we had two main-- two main large diesel engines. There were what they called a two-- they were 262 and they had eight-inch cylinders. And we started them with-- them with air pressure, with the compressed air to turn them over. You didn't have electric starters. You turned them over with compressed air. Yeah.
Speaker 1 [00:22:17] And what did you do after your time on the minesweeper?
Alvin Lindquist [00:22:22] After the minesweeper? Well, that's where I went to this diesel school in Norfolk. And I was an instructor in marine diesel engines. And then, of course, that was in the end-- in the end-- have to even stop to think when the war ended, 40- 40- 40- and then '45. And that's when I-- I decided that we should-- should leave the Navy and kind of be-- to together. And that's when I went to work in a power plant in Algona, Iowa. And after a few months in Algona, that's where my father-in-law helped me get started farming in Albert City. And we farmed for 40 years, and I retired. I retired at 62, and then we did-- we did some travel, which included the casinos. I like the casinos. I probably shouldn't say that. You might [not] be casino fans, but you know, I like the casinos. I don't go anymore now, but I was never a big loser at the casino. Between the two of us, why, it was a good deal. [Laughter] And so that's when I say I retired at-- I retired at 62, and we did some traveling and primarily on-- on bus trips, to-- and then, of course, I had two sons that were both medical doctors from Yale and Harvard, and the one that-- the Harvard-- the surgeon that was at Harvard and our son that was a surgeon from Harvard, he got killed in a plane crash as a teaching student of surgery, and he had his own plane. But we still have the son out in-- in San Francisco, and he-- he thinks like the new people do. Now, they've been together for over 30 years, not married, and no children. So we-- we went out there for-- for-- for-- for 12-- for 12 seasons. And-- and then of course, shortly we couldn't go there anymore. My wife wasn't able to travel anymore. And like I say, she just passed away three years-- three years ago. But she lacked two months of being together for 70 years, I keep saying that, but boy, it just never left me.
Speaker 1 [00:24:32] Did you ever see battle again after Pearl Harbor?
Alvin Lindquist [00:24:34] Beg pardon?
Speaker 1 [00:24:35] Did you ever see battle again after--
Alvin Lindquist [00:24:37] No. No, we did con-- we did primarily convoy work. We-- we were in the Pacific when the-- when the Lexington and the Saratoga both got sunk. You know, they were two huge carriers. They-- the U.S. had three big carriers. I was trying to think of the third big carrier we had at the start of the war, but I can't think of it right now. But they both got sunk, and we were in the area, but we did primarily escort duty. We weren't-- we weren't actually in the battle. We were in the area, but we weren't any part of the attacked.
Speaker 1 [00:25:11] Was there any specific reaction among the others in your-- in your outfit or anything? Was there any reactions with the Japanese?
Alvin Lindquist [00:25:23] Well, I can tell you a true little bit as far as myself. I'm not a praying man, but I prayed that night after Pearl Harbor. [Laughter] I don't know-- but you want to know the reaction. Well, it was gung ho. We were all big flag wavers. We were all the, like the you know-- like the-- in the-- it was Benito Finito, you know, when-- let's see Benito Rossellini[sic]-- let's see, he was of Italy. What was the prime minister or whatever you call it, of Italy in 1930 and '41? Wasn't that Benito or something like that?
William Feis [00:25:59] Yeah. Mussolini.
Alvin Lindquist [00:26:00] Yeah. Mussolini. Year. So we'd-- we'd say Benito Finito or whatever. Mussolini. Benito Mussolini. So we were out to get everybody. But it took a while to do it. But it's not dragging on like the wars we got now. So, I'm kind of a dove now because I-- I've been through that. I-- I don't understand this, having military personnel all over the world and billions and billions of dollars, and you guys are going to have to pay for that. I'm getting Social Security. I'm not paying for it, but you guys are.
Speaker 2 [00:26:35] You have an interesting nickname. People call you Stub.
Alvin Lindquist [00:26:39] Yeah. Okay. The name. Nickname. Okay. My folks emigrated from Sweden. They were sweethearts in Sweden. And they come over in this country, I believe in about 1914. And when I started school, why, of course, my folks-- all they could talk was Swedish, and they had settled in Nebraska because Dad's brother had come over earlier. Don't ask me why or how, but he'd come over earlier, and my folks were sweethearts in Sweden and Skania (sp) was the province. And so when I started school, all I could talk was Swedish. Okay, so the kids thought I was too stubborn to talk English, so they just started calling me Stub for stubborn. But,hell, I didn't know. I didn't know any English. All I could talk was Swedish. So that's how I got the name, Stub, and it just stuck with me. I'm not stubborn, just contrary.
Speaker 1 [00:27:30] What did you go on to do after you were discharged?
Alvin Lindquist [00:27:36] Beg pardon?
Speaker 1 [00:27:36] What did you go on to do after you were discharged?
Alvin Lindquist [00:27:40] Oh, then I started farming. Didn't I cover that? Yeah, I went to work in the power plant.
Speaker 1 [00:27:45] I wasn't sure if you went to college or anything afterwards.
Alvin Lindquist [00:27:48] Oh, no, no, no. I went right to-- right to the power plant. After I got out of the service, oh, I guess it was a couple, a couple of months, and then I was looking for a power plant job or-- and that's when I went up to Algona, and they hired me on the spot because I was-- I was familiar with diesel engines and they were looking for help then. So I worked in that power plant from oh, about six months or so. And then my father-in-law wanted me to get started farming. And his theory was, you know, you don't want to carry a lunch basket to work, you want to own the property yourself. And that was kind of his theory, and it worked out all right. In fact, we bought that farm for $200 an acre and that was considered pretty-- in fact, my own folks and I had some relatives [say], "Oh, you'll never make it at $200 an acre." And boy, look where it went. And we've got farms selling within a mile or two of us that are bringing 5-$6,000 an acre now. It's crazy. But I'm keeping mine. [Laughter]
Speaker 1 [00:28:49] What were you most proud of?
Alvin Lindquist [00:28:53] What am I most proud of? My two boys going to Yale and Harvard. Yeah. Yeah. And to think they're still, like I say, the-- the-- the older son that was-- was a surgeon at Harvard. He was the chief resident surgeon for two years at Harvard. And then he went into private practice with-- with another surgeon in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and his partner died. And they wanted to-- the-- his partner's family wanted-- Clyde to-- to buy the practice, but he wanted to get back to-- to Iowa home. He still was a country-- country boy. And when he got-- he got back here and he was a-- then-- then he went to-- and got into the hospital at Fort Dodge, and he was the director of emergency-- emergency medicine at the Trinity Regional in Fort Dodge until he got killed in a plane crash. He had his own plane and he did teaching assignments in trauma surgery, and he'd fly to Sioux Falls and and Mason-- and Mason City. And he even did teaching in Iowa City on trauma surgery. And he got caught in a wind shear one night, and we lost him. And when-- when-- they were married for 17 years before-- or 15-- let's see. It was either 15 or 17 years before they-- before they had their first baby. And the little girl was only two years old when he got killed. And it's been a hard deal, but we were in a position and his wife, she never remarried and she's been a teacher at the college in Fort Dodge for-- for several years after the-- after where she could get a-- you know, she took care of the little girl till she was-- could get a babysitter for her. And she went because she-- she taught school in Riverside, Iowa, while-- while Clyde was in-- at the University of Iowa at the medical school. And she-- she taught then and after she could get a little babysitter, why she got into the college that the-- you know, there in Fort Dodge or what do you call a community college or whatever. In fact, they've got a unit here in Buena Vista, too, haven't they? Yeah. And-- and she's still teaching there, and she's-- she had a little tough luck. She'll be 65 next year. And then lo and behold, last year here she come down with a breast tumor, ready to retire, but she's taken all her radiation, chemotherapy, and just finished that here in January. And hopefully they-- she went through the-- a lot of work at Rochester and whatnot, and they tell her she's getting along fine. However, she's still on medication and whatnot, and we're still hoping for the best on that. But she is doing okay. She's back to teaching and whatnot. Yeah. So that's the tough part of my story. You know, I used to think, okay, here, now here, some of my philosphy. And I don't know if you call it that or not, but, you know, all the time when I was farming, you know, things were tough. We didn't, like I said, we didn't even have electricity. And I thought, boy, this is the terrible part of life or whatever you want to call it. And oh boy, it'll be good when you get old and retired. But, you know, it's just the other way around. That was the good years, when I had the family and everything. Now-- now it's the tough years when you're old and you're alone and that-- there's no joke on that. That's the hard part. If you can imagine being with somebody for 70 years and then they're gone. Yeah, but they tell me I'm getting along okay. I do the best I can. Like this, I-- so anyway-- I don't know if you got any questions, go ahead. Just stay out of the military [Laughter], because I'm not the flag waver I used to be. Boy, I seen that stuff. It shouldn't be.
Speaker 1 [00:32:53] Is there any other stories you care to share with us?
Alvin Lindquist [00:32:57] Any stories?
Speaker 1 [00:32:58] About the war.
Alvin Lindquist [00:33:00] Well, no, no, no. Like I say, my-- my history-- my service, you know, was mostly during peacetime. The only other real engagement I was in, see, was Pearl Harbor. And then, of course, up at the Aleutian Islands after that, we primarily-- what we did was escort work in the-- in the South Pacific. And then, of course, the tough part was this-- was that minesweeper duty. That was-- that was a hard, duty, but-- so I don't have any other-- really other experiences. It was, oh, a few-- a few liberties on shore and whatnot, but that's history too.
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DVCAM
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0:33:37
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80 kbps