ORAL HISTORY
INTERVIEW
Johnny
Flowers
YEAR
2006
GRAY COUNTY
ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW
NAME: Johnny Flowers
DATE: March 6, 2006
PLACE: Dodge City, Kansas
INTERVIEWER: Joyce Suellentrop
PROJECT
SERIES:
Veterans Oral History Project for Gray County
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION:
Johnny Flowers was
drafted at 18 years old while he was still a student at Cimarron High
School. He received a physical and was allowed to finish high school and
then report to the Navy. He was trained in Farragut, Idaho, and sent to San
Francisco. There he was assigned to a new ship called the USS Coleman, a
transport, which moved troops and supplies in the Pacific Theater.
The most dramatic happening in his Navy career was when he was called on
to steer the ship as a coxswain during a typhoon off Okinawa. After his
release from service he returned to the Cimarron area and worked at several
jobs until his retirement. He lives in Dodge City, Kansas, and is still in
touch with some of the men he met while in the Navy.
SUBJECTS
DISCUSSED: Entering the service and training and life as a part of a Navy
crew aboard ship in the Pacific during war time. His service as a coxswain
during a typhoon, and his relationships with his crew mates during and
after the war.
COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW:
SOUND RECORDINGS: 60 minute tape
LENGTH OF
INTERVIEW: 3/4 hours
RESTRICTIONS ON USE: none
TRANSCRIPT: 18 pages
ORAL
HISTORY
Flowers, Johnny
Interview Date: March
6, 2006
Interviewer: Joyce Sullentrop (JS)
Interviewee: Johnny Flowers (JF)
Tape 1 of 1
Side A
JS - When the war started in 1939 or 1941
when we got in it, do you remember where you were and how you heard about
it?
JF - I was in high school so it was probably on the
radio.
JS - This would have been at Cimarron?
JF - Yes.
JS - Do you remember what the reaction of you,
your parents or the community was?
JF - Back in
those days, there wasn't that much reaction to it. Communications weren't
very good in those days. To everybody it was a big surprise.
JS - Was there anyone that was opposed to the war that you knew
of?
JF - Not that I knew of, no.
JS -
When Pearl Harbor happened, most people remember where they were when they
heard it. Do you remember?
JF - Not for sure, we had a radio so
I imagine we heard it over the radio, that and by word of mouth.
JS - Did you enlist or were you drafted?
JF - I
was drafted before I graduated.
JS - Before you
graduated?
JF - Yes, I took my physical about March. I got to
come back and go ahead and finish high school.
JS - You took
your physical, where?
JF - At Kansas City.
JS - Did you go alone or were there others from the community that
went?
JF - There were other people, but this one
from Ingalls was the only one I knew.
JS - Do you
remember who that was?
JF - Last name was Bergen. I can't
remember what his first name was.
JS - What did you
think of the physical and what did they do? Evidently you passed the
physical.
JF - You just lined up with a whole bunch of people
who took the physical at the same time.
JS - They
just asked you questions?
JF - They took your heartbeat and
several things like that.
JS - Did you know
immediately that you passed the physical?
JF - No, they never
did say anything.
JS - You rode the train back home
and you graduated from high school. Why the Navy rather than the Army?
JF - I had a brother in the Navy so I chose the Navy, too.
JS - Was he already serving?
JF - Yes.
JS - Was he in the war effort overseas?
JF - Yeah,
he was stationed in Okinawa.
JS - How long had he been in the
service?
JF - I really don't know.
JS -
You don't know why he chose the Navy. Evidently he enlisted?
JF - Yes. Well, he might have been drafted. He was married at
the time, but they didn't have any children so he might have been.
JS - When you were leaving home, what did your parents say,
or did they say anything?
JF - No, they didn't say
much. They were old timers as far as that went.
JS - What
happened those first few days? Did you go back to Kansas City to be
inducted?
JF - Yeah, we rode the train back to Kansas City. I
don't think we stayed in Kansas City, but we were put on another train and
went to Farragut, Idaho.
JS - Could you describe
what boot camp was like or what your first days were like?
JF - Different, to start with they gave us our uniforms and stuff
like that. We were taken down to a barracks and we all took physicals. You
can imagine about 100 to 200 all with no clothes on and taking shots.
JS - That was different. Did you know anyone there?
JF -
Not a soul.
JS - So nobody from your community or
even from Kansas was there?
JF - I don't know what state anyone
was from in particular.
JS - How long did this camp
last and what did you do in boot camp?
JF - Different types of
training, mostly physical training.
JS - Because you were in the
Navy, did you learn any skills you would use on the ship?
JF - No.
JS - Did you learn anything about guns and
things like that?
JF - We took a little
training on some heavy rifles, but that is all.
JS - About how long did that last, do you remember?
JF - I think about three months.
JS - What did you do for fun during that time?
JF - There was no such thing.
JS
- Were you just on the base or did you get to go off base?
JF - One time I got to go into Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. That was in
daytime. We had to be back in the evening.
JS - What was it like, that experience of being where you didn't know
anyone and you were meeting young men from all over the United States?
JF - You find out there is a lot of difference in the
way people were raised.
JS - What were
some of your impressions?
JF - The Easterners, we
never did associate much with the Easterners. They were a different type of
people. Most of us were from the Midwest and we kind of hung out
together.
JS - Did any of those men go with you as you, then,
traveled on or did you make friends with any of them?
JF - No, never seen them since.
JS -
Were you able to come home during boot camp?
JF - After I got out of boot camp, I got to come home
one time. Then I had to go back up there and then we took a train to San
Diego.
JS - Your parents
were able to write to you? Were you able to write them or call, maybe?
JF - We didn't call, but we did write back and forth.
JS - So, what was it like? Was this the
first time you had been away from home?
JF - Yeah,
very far anyway. You didn't travel anyplace by yourself in those days.
JS - You went back to Idaho, got on a train
and went to San Diego and what happened in San Diego?
JF - We took another train. They were breaking in
a new ship that had never been used before and that was the ship I was
assigned to. There were a whole bunch of us officers and all that were
rookies.
JS - What was the name of the ship, do you
remember?
JF - USS Coleman.
JS - When you went on this ship, because it was a new ship, what were you
assigned or did you volunteer for something?
JF -
No, you don't volunteer for anything.
JS
- You learned that right away?
JF - That's a
mistake.
JS - What were you assigned?
JF - I was just aboard ship. I just was in a bunch in
the back of the ship. We just took care of all the deck work and we also
transported stuff, food and different types of things like that.
JS - What do you mean by deck work?
JF - That means you set there with a
little hammer and chipped the paint off the deck. We are not doing
anything, but that keeps us out of trouble. We'd chip the paint off and put
new paint on there. When we would get out at sea if there was nothing else
to do we'd chip that off and put some more paint on.
JS - That was just to keep you occupied, do you
think?
JF - Oh yeah, there was nothing else to
do.
JS - What were some other people
doing?
JF - That's what most of us did on there.
JS - So you were assigned to the rear part
of the ship and you were chipping paint most of the time. Could you maybe
describe where you slept and where you ate?
JF - We had our own compartment for that area of the
ship. All of us slept there and there were probably thirty or forty of
us.
JS - Where did you eat,
did you have your own dining area?
JF - No, it was
all in the mess hall.
JS - What do you
remember about the food?
JF - Terrible, but it would
keep you alive.
JS - Was it about the
same as the food you got in boot camp?
JF - Pretty much so, I guess. You have cooks and they cook up
a whole bunch of stuff and you just go through a chow line.
JS - Were there activities on board
ship?
JF - No, just chipping paint.
JS - You're the first person I have talked to about
chipping paint. Maybe it was because it was a new ship or something.
JF - You have to have something
to do or you'd go crazy.
JS - Was this in harbor?
JF - No, we did that all the time we were
aboard ship.
JS - What did you think the first time
that you saw the ocean or got out on the ocean?
JF - I thought
it was awful big.
JS - Were you
seasick?
JF - Yeah, I have been seasick a few times
too.
JS - Was the food like meat and
vegetables and so forth?
JF - Yes, it was just
typical ordinary Navy type food, beans and so on. It wasn't bad food.
JS - You were with other young men. Did you make friends with
some?
JF - Yes, we still communicate.
There was one from Chicago, Illinois, two from Houston, Texas, and one from
Fresno, California. We have been meeting every year, there are just three
of us left now. We talk to each other often.
JS - You are one of the few that has kept up with those
friends that I have talked to. Were you on the same ship the entire
time?
JF - We were all on the same ship
together. We all came from different places and we didn't know each other
then. We were on the same ship, in fact, we sat straight up and down from
each other. You just live together all the time.
JS - Were you on that same ship the entire time you
were in the Navy?
JF -
Yes.
JS - And did you chip paint all that time?
JF - Most of it. We loaded up stuff, but
when we'd go back out to sea we'd go back to chipping. There's nothing else
you can do.
JS - You said it was a transport
ship?
JF - An ATA, it hauls supplies and
also hauls troops.
JS - Where did you haul them
to?
JF - We hauled them into the
Philippines, etc.
JS - When you went to these
places, did you just unload? Could you get off?
JF - We got off on some islands. I spent a lot of time off in Hong
Kong. We went off in Manila. That's the only times I remember going off.
JS - When you were taking the
troops or the supplies did you have any contact with the troops that you
were taking?
JF - A little bit, they were mostly
Army personnel. I think we took some Marines once.
JS - When you
were able to get off the ship what did you do?
JF - Partying, after all I was nineteen years old.
JS - What did you do when you partied?
JF - Just went to all the beer places and checked out
all the girls.
JS - Were
there any instructions that the Navy gave you left the ship?
JF - Stay out of the brig. If you got in serious trouble, they
would pick you up.
JS - You knew how
much you could do or where you could go?
JF - We
could go about anyplace. There were a few places in Manila where we
couldn't.
JS - What were some of your impressions of these
places?
JF - Manila is a dirty town.
Hong Kong was a pretty nice place.
JS - When you
were there, did you eat the food?
JF -
No, we didn't eat any of their food.
JS - Just drank their beer?
JF - We tried
that. Some of it was pretty bad.
JS -
Were you able to see any of the sights?
JF - We did
in Hong Kong. In Manila we didn't have time. I think we just went once.
JS - Were you in the rear division the
whole time?
JF - Yes.
JS - Were you able to know other people in other parts
of the ship?
JF - One or two, but not
many. We were on totally different work in different areas.
JS - How many people were on that ship, not the troops that you
were transporting, but the others?
JF - I have no idea.
JS - Do you remember a particular superior
officer or anything like that?
JF - No, they don't
stay with us people.
JS - Did they order
you around, though?
JF - On different things, but we
didn't see them very often.
JS - You stayed out of trouble
evidently.
JF - There wasn't much you
could do aboard ship except chip paint.
JS - You
weren't chipping paint when it was dark so could you listen to the
radio?
JF - We didn't have radios.
JS - What about books to
read?
JF - You could have books if you wanted, but
we sat around and played poker most of the time.
JS - Played cards, and poker was the one you played?
JF - Black Jack or whatever.
JS
- Would you have conversations and talk about a lot of things?
JF - All of us did. We lived together
all the time.
JS - Did you know how the war was
going?
JF - We didn't know anything
about it, just where we were.
JS - So, you didn't
get updates about it?
JF - No.
JS - When you wrote home or when your parents wrote you, did
they mention anything about how the war was going?
JF - You
couldn't mention it. If you did they would scratch that out.
JS - Your mail was censored, going out?
JF - Yes.
JS - Were
you able to receive mail on a regular basis?
JF - No, I think I, maybe, got two letters from the
folks in all the time I was in the Navy. They never could catch up with
us.
JS - When you were able to leave the ship, did
you buy any souvenirs to send home or take home?
JF - No.
JS - You just wanted to put in your
time?
JF - There was no place to keep it there. We just had a
little locker.
JS - Were you responsible
for taking care of your own clothes or did the ship do that?
JF - We had to.
JS - That meant
laundering them?
JF - Yes.
JS - Ironing them?
JF - We
didn't iron anything.
JS - What were the
clothes that you wore?
JF- Pair of jeans.
JS - Pair of jeans and a shirt?
JF - We wore jeans most of the time, but
didn't wear a shirt in the South Pacific.
JS - Did
you ever run into rough weather?
JF - Oh yes, we were off
Okinawa when a typhoon hit Okinawa.
JS -
What was that like?
JF - It was weird to see water
going over the top of the ship.
JS -
Were you scared?
JF - I was shook up, I had to go
steer the ship. I was a coxswain then. I had to steer the ship most of the
time. I had just gone off duty. I had been doing it for months. They got
the other guy to steer so I could get a break, but they came down and got
me up again. There were two of us and they had been on a long time and
thought I should come up there.
JS - How did you learn how to do
that? You went through training?
JF -
No, it's just like steering a car.
JS - A big car.
You used instruments to steer?
JF -
Yeah, there was an officer that was always on duty. They would tell you
where to keep it on the compass.
JS - I don't know anything about ships, but you were up?
JF - Clear up at the top.
JS - Did you have a wheel?
JF - Yeah, just like
they do in the movies.
JS - That is what
I was wondering, but you were protected from the elements?
JF - Yes, we were inside.
JS - When that hit the waves would go over?
JF - Clear over the top. That's how big the waves were. We'd
go up like this and all you could see was white.
JS
- Oh my, were you seasick then?
JF - Yeah, a little bit. I was too busy to worry about it.
JS - How long did that last?
JF - six or eight hours, I was up there about four hours and they brought
the other one up and we had to switch off and on for awhile.
JS - Did they ask if you wanted to learn that or were you just
told?
JF - They don't ask anything. You are told what to do.
JS - So, they chose you?
JF - Yes, I don't know why.
JS -
Most of the time when you were out the weather would have been calmer than
that.
JF - Oh yeah, that was the worst one they had
heard of.
JS - Was there any
warning or fear of enemy ships?
JF - No, not
particularly. You can't see them so there's no use being afraid of
something you can't see anyway.
JS - Did
you have a routine or drill in case of enemy attack?
JF - No, just to man our guns. We were assigned
to different gun locations. We were already assigned and knew where to go
when we got down there.
JS - You were on that from
'44 through '46. That's what this says. Where were you when you heard of
victory in Europe in May of `45, do you remember?
JF - We were
right outside of Japan someplace, just setting there. I don't know if we
were going in. Everybody assumed that was what we were there for, but who
knows?
JS - Then in August came the
dropping of the bomb. Do you remember what some of your thoughts were?
JF - We didn't really know
anything about it until quite some later. They let us go on to one of the
islands.
JS - How many times do you think you
crossed the ocean?
JF - At least five, I
suppose. After the war was over we were sent to San Francisco. You had to
have so many points to get out. We were all one point short.
JS - How did you earn points?
JF - Time, all of us in that same area were one point short.
We were all about the same age. We had to go back. They loaded all new
officers and we went to Hong Kong and China and hauled Chinese troops up to
Russia. We'd dump them out up there and come back and get another load. We
did that for about three months. Then we had our time in and they brought
us back.
JS - You were eager to get back?
JF - Yeah, especially out of there.
JS
- As you left the Navy, did you have any thoughts about the war effort that
you had participated in and how you felt about that?
JF - No, it was different with all the things we got to
see.
JS - But you were ready
to get out?
JF - You are always ready to get out. It
gets old after while.
JS - You came back
then, to San Francisco and you were discharged or let out then?
JF - No, I had to go on a troop train to Oklahoma City. I was
discharged at Oklahoma City. There, they gave me $300 and said goodbye.
JS - You said goodbye too?
JF -
I had to hitchhike home. I didn't know how to get from Oklahoma City to
Dodge City or Cimarron. I didn't even know where I was.
JS - You had received wages while you were
in the Navy? Were you able to save any? What would you have spent it on?
JF - Playing poker or what have you; it was just $70 a
month. It didn't take long to party that up.
JS - Did you think $300 was a goodly sum?
JF - Oh yeah, in '46, 300 bucks lasted quite a
little while, really.
JS - Looking back now, is
there someone you worked with or an officer that you remember in particular
and why?
JF - We five were probably
together all the time, same ones that we got together with afterward.
JS - And had good talks. When
you get together now what do you talk about?
JF - Depends on where in our lives we are.
JS - Looking back on that experience, you were eighteen when
you went in, what do you think that experience did for you? Was it a good
experience? What did you learn?
JF - I think you learned
discipline to yourself. You don't have mama and daddy there to help you.
You are strictly on your own. You learn how to get along with people, all
different types of people. Easterners, we had never seen before. They were
totally different.
JS - How would they have been different?
JF - I suppose the way they were brought up
or something, same as we are. We are kind of laid back out here in this
part of United States. They are totally different, in fact, some of them
you can hardly understand what they are talking about.
JS - What about the people from the South?
JF - They don't bother me, in fact, that is two of the
people I ran around with all the time. One was from Houston and another
from Texas, too.
JS - Was it hard to take orders?
JF - I had been in sports and you had to take orders
there. You took orders in school.
JS - Because your
brother was in before you, did he give you any advice?
JF -
No.
JS - Did you ever meet up with
him?
JF - No, he was stationed in Okinawa, but we
couldn't get off and those big waves started coming in and we had to leave
anyway.
JS - So, the only news you would
have of your brother during that time was what you would get from your
parents occasionally?
JF - I
doubt if I got over two letters.
JS -
You really didn't know what was happening with him and he didn't know what
was happening with you.
JF - No.
JS - Anything else about your experience that you think
would be important?
JF - You
make good friends and don't forget them.
JS - Do you
think that is because you sort of grew up together?
JF - We went through a lot together. We spent over eighteen
months together, but it is totally different eighteen months than you ever
had in your lifetime.
Interviewer:
Joyce Sullentrop (JS)
Interviewee: Johnny Flowers (JF)
Tape 1 of 1
Side B
JS - So you
hitchhiked home, did you know what you were going to do when you got
home?
JF - I had no idea.
JS - What were
your options? Were your family farmers?
JF - Yes.
JS - Did you think you would go into
farming?
JF - No, I wasn't much of a
farmer. I've done different things in my life.
JS -
And you came back to Cimarron? What was it like coming home, were there
other servicemen returning at the same time?
JF - Not too many,
actually, there were two of them the same age I was, but both of them got
killed. I don't know of any of them that were my age that came back to
Cimarron.
JS - When you came home, what
was it like? Did people want to know about your war experience?
JF - No, I think there were enough of
them there. You might talk to somebody who had been in the service. There
was a couple that were a year older than I was and I met both of them out
in San Francisco. They came back here. I went to university for a year
right after I got discharged.
JS - You did, on the GI Bill?
JF - I came back. I
was too wound up to go to college. I came back and got a job on a farm out
there and met my wife. Then I finally got a job with the state highway and
worked for them for ten or fifteen years. Then I did other stuff.
JS - Did anything that you learned in the Navy help you after you got
out?
JF - I think the discipline when
you get older. It takes about a year to settle down more or less.
JS - Did you ever think of going
elsewhere, other than Cimarron or home?
JF - No, not
really, I had been other places.
JS -
All the places you wanted to go. Do you think the experience changed
you?
JF - I think so, yes, that was the first time I
was ever out on my own. I think you learn how to take care of yourself real
quick that way and how to make friends and keep track of your day. I
learned that we are more alike with people from Texas and California. I
made real good friends with two or three from California. I think you find
that different types of people are just not alike. It seemed like we were
all brought up kind of the same way. You find there are lots of things
different just here in the United States.
JS - When you came
home, did you have a desire to travel back to any places?
JF - No.
JS - I know
it has been a lot of years, but do you think that serving in the armed
forces should be a part of young people's lives?
JF - I think it would help a lot of young people, but I would hate
to see the draft for that purpose.
JS - So you think it should be volunteer?
JF
- Volunteer, yes.
JS - When you say that
you have kept up with the four or five friends, evidently you wrote for a
certain period of time and then you got together on a regular basis?
JF - We didn't write to each
other. I didn't really know where they were. One of them came to see us one
time at Ulysses and another was going to contact the others.
JS - It just sort of evolved?
JF - Merle lived in
Chicago and he got the idea to see how many we could find and try to have a
reunion. That was it, we just got started. We never did find everyone else.
We wrote all over the place trying to get a list of people aboard the ship,
but we couldn't.
JS - It's just like when you get together you
just pick up right where you left off when you were nineteen years old?
JF - Yes, we have lots of fun.
JS - Except they don't talk about some things. These tapes
will be archived and you will receive a copy of the tape. Is there anything
you can think of, a specific feeling, a specific event or person that you
think is interesting historically that people will want to know about?
People that are historians probably will use this. Is there anything that
you can think of that you would like to have preserved?
JF - Not
right off hand, no.
JS - When I say Navy
World War Two, does anything pop into your mind that you see a picture
of?
JF - Just the ship and water.
JS - Did you learn a lot about that ship while you were
on it or did you just stay in that area?
JF - You are more or less assigned to one area.
JS - Is there anything that you need to explain like about
steering the ship, anything you had to really know to be careful about when
you were steering that ship?
JF - No, it is really pretty simple
when you find out what it is. You've got the compass up there and you just
keep the needle on a certain place.
JS -
When the typhoon hit, did you know it was coming?
JF
- Well yes, there were six of us ships together and they had us all go in
different directions. I think it was somewhere around midnight when they
came down and wanted me to come up. There was a captain and experienced
people, on the helm. That's when we hit the main part of it.
JS
- When you traveled, did you travel in a convoy with other ships?
JF - Like I say, there were six of us that went
together and I think there were two destroyers with us. I am not sure how
many.
JS - The destroyers were there to protect
you?
JF - That is what they were there
for, yes.
JS - When the typhoon was coming and they
had the six ships split up, why was that?
JF - So we wouldn't run into each other. You can't steer very well. All
you could do is try to hit the waves head on. I just forgot about the
compass and the captain said to just try to hit every one head on if you
possibly can at all or else you will tip it over.
JS - When you hit it head on it and the water
would come over it.
JF - The water would fall out
from under it and down you would go.
JS - How far would that be?
JF - Probably
ten or fifteen feet and it would make a heck of a racket when you hit. You
hoped the ship was glued together good.
JS - Then there would be another one coming?
JF -
Oh yeah, right after, one after another.
JS - You said it went
for six or eight hours?
JF - Yeah, I
think the worst part was about four or five hours because I was there, I
think about five hours. Somewhere in there, I don't remember exactly.
JS - No people were above board, right?
JF -
They were inside. Everybody was trying to hang onto their bunks.
JS - When it was over you had to reconfigure
yourself with the other ships?
JF - Yes, go back. I
don't know how far. They can talk to each other and get back on course.
JS - I'd say that was your most dramatic
incident wouldn't you?
JF - That was definitely
dramatic, all right.
JS - No wonder you
didn't want to go back.
JF - There was a bunch of
sick people.
JS - When you
went to Wichita State did you plan to study something in particular or did
you just think you needed to do something?
JF - I thought I wanted to be a math major.
JS - Then you got there and what?
JF - It was the wrong time of life for that, too much partying. I didn't
learn very much.
JS - What did you think of Wichita
at that time?
JF - I liked Wichita.
JS - Was your brother coming home at the same time as you were?
JF - I think he came home before I did.
JS - Did he fight?
JF - I don't
really know what he did. He was stationed in Okinawa and they had a Navy
port there.
JS - So you and
he didn't talk about the war much?
JF - Not much,
no.
Interviewer: Joyce Sullentrop
(JS)
Interviewee: Johnny Flowers (JF)
Tape 1 of 1
END
http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/211340/text