I discovered personal computers about four years...

I discovered personal computers about four years ago when I went to visit my older daughter, who is a psychologist in North Carolina. I’d go there for a month at a time to spend time with her and play golf.

In between golf, I’d come back and play with her computer, knowing nothing about it. Then, two years ago, I happened to read a flyer at home that the Foothills Adult School was having computer classes. So I registered for an introductory class, and that’s what got me started.

I had previous experience with computers because I worked as an electronics engineer for Ryan Aeronautical after I retired from the Navy. But the computers I worked with were mainframes which took up a whole room, and I didn’t do programming.

My prime interest was to become well acquainted with computers so I could set up financial data for myself and my two daughters so we could make investments and could track them on computers. But, after I finished one class, I decided to take a more advanced series of classes to learn more about computers. I hope to be able to invent my own software. As I go along, I get more and more interested. I guess I enjoy going to school.

I’m a restless sort of individual, and I can’t stand to be idle. That’s why I got involved helping seniors with their income tax, and that’s why I got involved with computers. When I retired in 1972, I started doing volunteer income-tax preparation under the auspices of the IRS. This is my 18th year of preparing tax returns for low- to moderate-income seniors and minorities.

I just finished writing my Navy autobiography on the computer, mainly for the enjoyment of my daughters who were too young to remember at the time. I had a marvelous Navy career. I joined the Navy in 1926 on Halloween. I enlisted as an apprentice seaman, and I retired as a Navy captain 30 years later.

I was a radioman, and I was selected along with five others to be a part of a special class for a new system known as radar. We were sent to RCA in New Jersey, where six prototypes were built. Then the six of us, along with the chief radio electrician, went out to install these on six Navy ships.

One was installed on the carrier Yorktown, and I was assigned to be the maintenance radar operator for that particular ship. I operated it and maintained it, and it proved to be an extremely valuable tool to us both in the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway in 1942.

In the Battle of the Coral Sea, we were bombed, but we were able to escape with our lives. Because of the need to have the Yorktown back on duty, all we were able to do was put a large steel plate over the hangar deck and over the flight deck where the bomb went in. That’s all the repairmen had time for. Then we went out to the Battle of Midway, and we were sunk.

The ship was listing at about 30 degrees, and all 3,800 crewmen aboard abandoned ship except for those who had been killed. We took two aerial torpedoes below the water line, which ruptured fuel tanks. When we left the ship, the fuel oil was about 6 to 8 inches thick close to the ship.

I was a strong swimmer so I gave my life preserver to another crewman who didn’t have one and who couldn’t swim. I thought it would be no problem because there was a destroyer out there about 500 yards, and I’d just swim to it. I swam out about 250 yards, and I heard a bell go off on the destroyer, and it gets underway. It was a submarine torpedo alert and they would be sitting ducks if they stayed still.

I was about 300 yards from the Yorktown in the fuel oil with no place to go. I was lucky because I came upon a water keg that had come loose from a life raft. I held onto it and used it as flotation gear. About 2 1/2 hours later, it was almost dusk, and I was about the color of purple because of the fuel oil. I was alone, but there were dozens of people scattered around in that area. One of the lifeboats was running around trying to find people and almost ran over me. I yelled out, and they stopped and hauled me aboard.

There were other memorable events in my career, and I will probably do some more writing about them on the computer. I’d like to put my remembrances down for my own fun and for my daughter’s before my memory fails me.