Interview with Jack H. Good [3/25/2002]

Tom Swope:

This is the oral history of World War II veteran Jack H. Good. Mr. Good served in the U.S. Navy. He served in the Pacific theater, and he was on board the repair ship USS Vestal on December 7, 1941. The Vestal was tied to the Arizona when the Japanese attacked. Jack's highest rank was yeoman second class. I'm Tom Swope, and this recording was made at Mr. Good's home in Ravenna, Ohio on March 25, 2002. Jack was 82 at the time of this recording. Where were you living before you went in the service?

Jack H. Good:

I lived in Braverton, Ohio, where I was raised.

Tom Swope:

Did you sign up?

Jack H. Good:

I did. I volunteered in 1937.

Tom Swope:

You volunteered for -- I guess I didn't get that. You were in the Navy?

Jack H. Good:

I was in the Navy.

Tom Swope:

How -- what was your training like?

Jack H. Good:

Training was tough. I went through training in Newport, Rhode Island, and, of course, I was never quite used to that kind of training, but even the dumb learn.

Tom Swope:

Anything else? Any other memories from the training time?

Jack H. Good:

Yeah. I always remember we got three dollars every two weeks, instead of the 21, so that we would have money to go home at the end of our training. And at that time you had the 13 buttons across the top of your fly, and I must have pushed my money out through that because I was dead broke. And the fellows all chipped in a buck or so or 50 cents or whatever it was. That's the only reason I got home. I talked to my company commander and he said, Well, you can always move over to C unit, which meant your leave home would have gone bye-bye. That one I don't forget.

Tom Swope:

Now, when you signed up, did you sign up for a four-year hitch or six-year hitch?

Jack H. Good:

No. Four years at that time was all you could sign for. Of course, at that time they gave you all kinds of propaganda, but they didn't promise you your next breath.

Tom Swope:

So then you re-enlisted in '41?

Jack H. Good:

Well, I didn't have a choice. We were in Hawaii.

Tom Swope:

Okay. When did you go to Hawaii?

Jack H. Good:

1939. I was -- I'll go back. In 1938, in Philadelphia, we commissioned the 10,000-ton cruiser, Savannah. I served on that until about six or seven months before my enlistment was up when I transferred to the USS Vestal, which was an old repair ship. We were in Hawaii and they would not discharge you in Hawaii. So they said you can either re-enlist for $400 or extend your enlistment for 200. Well, of course, we were breathing on war at the time with that because that was in November. So I extended. Then, of course, you either had the choice of taking that money or being frozen for duration. Well, even 200 bucks looked better than nothing.

Tom Swope:

So how much longer did you re-enlist for at that point?

Jack H. Good:

I just extended two years.

Tom Swope:

Two more years. And this is in --

Jack H. Good:

1941.

Tom Swope:

'41. About November of '41?

Jack H. Good:

Yeah. At Pearl Harbor we were -- at the time of Pearl Harbor, we were tied to the Arizona with a -- I never knew what they called that thing, but it was like a divider between the ships. We had a 20-foot gangway between us.

Tom Swope:

What was your job on the Vestal?

Jack H. Good:

My job was, as a yeoman second class, I worked in the repair office. Every job that is done for the ship, regardless of whether you hand them a stack six inches high or a foot high, has to have a job order. Well, a job order will go to the officers in charge of that division. They go back to the ship. They go to the shop. They keep copies. They go back to the officers on the other ship. Sometimes you make as high as 12, 15 copies, which was a lot of fun when you were using a manual typewriter.

Tom Swope:

Now, what did the Vestal do exactly as far as a repair ship?

Jack H. Good:

We could do anything but galvanize. We even did underwater welding and things like that. But I was strictly a paper shuffler. I couldn't get -- I couldn't -- I joined the Navy originally to study or to learn diesel, but I never got even a whistle chance. So I had had high school typing and shorthand, so I went in the office and used that.

Tom Swope:

What was life like in Hawaii back then before Pearl Harbor, the attack?

Jack H. Good:

Oh, life itself was good. I mean, people were nice. Your biggest problem we had then was some officer thought he was God. I went to a dance one time and, of course, there weren't too many girls, and this officer kept cutting in and cutting in, which is fine. I mean, when you haven't got many, you have to. But after he cut in a third or fourth time, I got a direct order to return to the ship. I can't buck that. And he was off my ship. In fact, he was in my division, worked out of my office. So I made sure for months after that that any special request he got went to the bottom of the pile, went in the wastebasket. You fight him the way -- if he plays dirty, then you have to play too.

Tom Swope:

Was the Vestal doing repair work on the Arizona at that time?

Jack H. Good:

Yes. We were doing what we called maintenance repair. Like you need a boiler retubed, we had a shop that would do it. You need a gear that ______, the ______ shop will get the ______ and the ______ will cast a casting, and the machine shop will do the machining, and the machinist will do the installing.

Tom Swope:

Was there any tension in Hawaii or any idea that Hawaii might be a target?

Jack H. Good:

Well, we were curious because we would see ships coming in full of scrap iron. We got it all back at Pearl.

Tom Swope:

Exactly. They returned it, didn't they?

Jack H. Good:

They sure did.

Tom Swope:

But they went through Pearl Harbor, the scrap iron ships?

Jack H. Good:

We saw some of them, not many, but we did see some.

Tom Swope:

They were selling scrap iron to the Japanese --

Jack H. Good:

Yeah.

Tom Swope:

-- right up until 1941?

Jack H. Good:

Oh, yeah.

Tom Swope:

Right?

Jack H. Good:

Oh, yeah. When Roosevelt finally cut it off. And they were buying oil too. So they finally got halfway decently smart.

Tom Swope:

Do you remember what you were doing on December 6th, the day before?

Jack H. Good:

Doing what I do every day, regular routine. That was a Saturday. On Sunday morning -- the first place, my bunk hung from the overhead. Right? This was my desk and my bunk was right here. Of course you always slept in skivvies. I was, I think at that time, the only one up. The only reason I was up, I had to give the Catholic church party their liberty cards to go into the Navy yard to church. And after we did that, I walked maybe 40 feet to the quarterdeck to see what was going on, and actually there would have been nothing, but you could see a big column of smoke over in the Navy yard. Each ship has a group aboard ship, and I have forgotten what they call it, but they go ashore armed, and they are prepared for anything. I mean, if you want to have a firefight, they have that. If you want to fight a fire, they also have that. When they called that away, everybody else goes to quarters and they muster. We faced inboard from the rail but, of course, everybody turned around to see what the heck was going on. And you really, for a few minutes, couldn't tell. Then the airplanes started coming and, you know, what the heck is this? Then when they went over, you saw the, for the sake of good English, red balls on the wings, and you knew you were in trouble. And we had torpedos going underneath us and hitting the Arizona. And I don't mind admitting, I hope, I hope, I hope that sucker's deep enough, because we were -- the Vestal was an old coal carrier with big compartments. Well, if you broke the hull anywhere, we were in big trouble because you'd let an awful lot of water in. Well, we did one place. They hit us, but it bobbed and went clear through and out the bottom never exposed.

Tom Swope:

Do you remember when you first realized -- did you say you saw the smoke in the Navy yard and that's when you first realized something was going on?

Jack H. Good:

Something was going on, but we didn't know what.

Tom Swope:

And it took a couple minute for them to actually start attacking the ships in the harbor?

Jack H. Good:

Well, I couldn't tell whether they were starting or -- well, obviously with the smoke, they had already attacked, but actually what they were after was the battleships. But God help us if they'd have hit the oil storages and some of those kinds of things, because we would have really been a mess.

Tom Swope:

So what did you do when you realized you were under attack?

Jack H. Good:

Well, they called general quarters, but at that time when they called it, these planes that were going over us, after torpedoing, started to strafe. I think there were four or five of us still down in the next deck so we would have some protection. We stayed there. One time during the attack the order was given to abandon ship because our captain, we found out later on, and he was great, was blown overboard by a concussion from one of the hits on the Arizona. He came back aboard, and he ended up with a Congressional Medal of Honor. He was later killed as captain of a cruiser. But he was -- he was a real guy. I mean, that was all man.

Tom Swope:

What was his name?

Jack H. Good:

I could have told you a second ago. He was a little short fellow. Maybe I'll think of it later.

Tom Swope:

You didn't have guns on the Vestal; right?

Jack H. Good:

One.

Tom Swope:

One gun? Antiaircraft or --

Jack H. Good:

Well, it was multipurpose, but it was actually an antiaircraft gun, three-inch. They fired three shots and it jammed.

Tom Swope:

Just faulty equipment?

Jack H. Good:

Well, actually, I don't -- I don't remember them ever firing that gun. If they did, it wasn't more than once. Because ordinarily our ship -- well, like when we went down to the southwest Pacific, we were at an island called Espirito Santos when they were fighting in Guadalcanal, which was about 500 miles north of us. The reason for that, of course, is if we get damaged again, we don't repair anybody. But we were out -- Espirito Santos was an island. The only thing on it was an air base, and I never saw a pilot. I saw planes, but I never saw a pilot. No. I never saw a native. All you could do was walk up and down and you'd see this airplane, and they had big high banks of dirt between them, and, Well, this one's -- well, he's knocked out three planes and I see he's hit a torpedo and a ship on this one, and this guy's got six over here. That was your entertainment.

Tom Swope:

So where were you when the Arizona took the big hit?

Jack H. Good:

Down below deck, right.

Tom Swope:

What was that like? Can you describe that?

Jack H. Good:

The hit? No. I didn't see it.

Tom Swope:

Did you feel it?

Jack H. Good:

Yeah, you felt it. But your basic problem, if you talked to a thousand sailors, you'll get a thousand different views. Because this guy was on an aircraft gun, and here's a guy that was up maybe in steering aft so he could see a great deal of the harbor, and, see, the middle of Pearl Harbor at that time was a Navy air base, so he could see that too. Where I couldn't see a darn thing.

Tom Swope:

So you couldn't really see much of what else was going on?

Jack H. Good:

I could see four walls. But I wasn't too worried about that.

Tom Swope:

So the Vestal wasn't damaged when the Arizona went up badly or --

Jack H. Good:

Not that I know of. I know it took a forward hit from above, but it landed in a metal storage, and, of course, it ruined a lot of metal. But, I mean, other than that, no.

Tom Swope:

So when did you get up there to see what had happened to the Arizona?

Jack H. Good:

When the attack was over. Of course, the whole thing only lasted -- well, it started at five minutes of 8:00 and was over by quarter of 10:00.

Tom Swope:

What did you think when you saw what had happened there?

Jack H. Good:

Oh, my God. They called our -- see, we had all these different crafts on board ship. Well, they called our ______ crew away. The Oklahoma had turned completely over. So we went down and started to cut holes in the bottom to get guys out.

Tom Swope:

Did you get many guys out?

Jack H. Good:

I really don't know because I wasn't ______. I think they had to stop because of the creating fumes inside the compartment, which would cut those guys' air. So how they cut through it, I don't really know.

Tom Swope:

So then you got a chance to see the rest of the destruction too?

Jack H. Good:

Oh, yes. You couldn't miss it. I got biggest kick out of -- of course, as soon as the word went out, why everybody rushed to join Army, Marines, or Navy or whatever it was. And we would get guys come aboard ship, What's the matter with you? You can't handle this? We'll have this war over in six weeks. And we'd put them in the mortar ______ and run them down past battleship row in a 50-foot mortar ______ and ease up to one of the battleships that was sunk, which still had the big torpedo hole in it, sink about 15 feet of that 50-foot launch in there and just back. I don't say a word. You had, boy, there for a couple of weeks, you got very little conversation.

Tom Swope:

Did you work on many other salvage efforts?

Jack H. Good:

No. We were damaged -- we ran ourselves aground with the aid of a tug in order to keep from going down. I spent the next two weeks sitting in the carpentry shop cleaning various tools for various shops that were ______ and water messed up.

Tom Swope:

Did you detach from the Arizona during the attack and try to get away?

Jack H. Good:

Oh, yeah. One of our -- he was a third class ______ who was supposed to get a court martial, and I don't remember for what, but he grabbed a fire axe and cut lines, and they did quash his court martial for it, because that helped us get away a lot quicker. They always said it took an hour and a half to get underway from the time you get your boilers up to steam. Of course, we had the aid of a tug too, but we were underway in seven minutes.

Tom Swope:

Seven minutes after the attack started?

Jack H. Good:

No. Seven minutes after we got our tug and that.

Tom Swope:

Okay. How far did you get then?

Jack H. Good:

We ran ourselves over, I can't tell you exactly where because I don't really remember, but we ran aground. We were probably only maybe three-quarters of a mile, but we were out of -- seeing these battleships -- if this were Ford Island, battleships were double, and the outside ship took, of course, 90 percent of your damage. Then you had ships like around here and you had a few over here. I remember the hospital ship was over here. And I did see, and probably the only thing I actually did see, they dove on that, dive bombers. But everybody was putting up antiaircraft fire. It looked like somebody drawing a big black line across the sky. They would come down and peel back up because they knew if they went into that, they weren't going anywhere. We had the planes that went over us, before we went down, before they started to strafe, they were so low -- our top of our mast was 123 feet above the water. They had to go up to go over it. And there were times when you could actually see the pilot's expression on his face. Now, that's low. Later on when we fished a few -- we didn't shoot down too many, but we fished a few out of the water. Of course, they were dead. But you found University of California college rings, University of Oregon, University of Washington, and that amazed me. Still does. Because when you see a whole different style of life -- of course, their military training may have been so rigid that they didn't really comprehend. I don't know.

Tom Swope:

Any other vivid memories of that day?

Jack H. Good:

Yeah. We lost seven, seven killed. We had a few wounded. But having liberty cards for -- the repair crew was usually 280 men, give or take a few. And then some of us, we had -- a lot of them had been on that ship 20-some years, but I knew everybody because I ran watch lists and, of course, they were in the shop all the time passing their job orders and stuff. So I helped identify -- I think I helped identify all of them, and there were some real messes.

Tom Swope:

How big was the crew of the Vestal?

Jack H. Good:

I never actually knew, but I would have guessed somewhere between five and six hundred.

Tom Swope:

So how big was the ship compared to the battleship?

Jack H. Good:

Oh, we had a reunion here, what, five, six years ago in Norfolk for our ship. Now, I hadn't seen these guys since '43, so it was usually looking at the nameplate to see who he was, because now he don't have any hair or he's gained 40 pounds, that type of thing. 20 -- I think there was 22 or 23 of us showed up. But the fellow that set it up had a son-in-law who was an officer in the Navy yard at Norfolk, and they gave us a tour of the naval ______ and we were in places that ordinarily no civilian is going to get. We saw aircraft carriers there that were 1,100 feet long and 280 feet wide and 26 stories high. We saw atomic subs, all kinds of stuff that maybe you'd get a chance to read about, maybe. But we went through. They took us through like where the big officers lived and -- now, I had been to Norfolk before, but I never knew, I found out, that thing is 8,000 acres inside the fence, and there's more outside, so, you know, that thing is big.

Tom Swope:

Do you have memories of close buddies on board the Vestal?

Jack H. Good:

Just -- now, I'm going to call him. The only one I have found, and I just stumbled on him seven or eight weeks ago because he joined a Cincinnati group, he was a young kid -- of course, I was only -- I say he's a young kid. I was only 23, actually 22 -- who worked in the office with me. But other than that, Brasky (ph) and some of those guys. Brasky was from Iowa. This fellow that I found, his name was Insky (ph), he's from down around Cincinnati. Berry was the first class in the office. I have no idea where he would be. That's the only two I can remember real quick.

Tom Swope:

What was the feeling towards the Japanese people in Hawaii after the attack?

Jack H. Good:

Well, they took a pretty low profile. General Short, who was Army, was actually the boss bull out there. Kimmel was, of course, in charge of the Navy and, of course, you had the 14th Naval District there too. But the ______ supply air operations and ______ intelligence, nobody is telling anybody anything. Like they were supposed to have had surveillance placed 300 miles out from Pearl. Short said Navy should do it. Navy said Short should do it. Consequently, nobody's doing it. And the thing that always bugged me, you heard about the two privates that were on the radar, in two weeks they were lieutenants. And you know what that was for; keep your big mouth shut. Because if somebody had gotten fried good --

Tom Swope:

So how much longer did you stay at Pearl Harbor?

Jack H. Good:

I think we stayed until -- I'm trying to remember the battle, because I still -- I think it was Midway, because that's the only time in my life I've ever seen it. When the ships came in, they had brooms at the mast.

Tom Swope:

Brooms?

Jack H. Good:

That means clean sweep. And as I said, that's the only time I ever saw it. But I can imagine -- I don't like heights, and I can imagine crawling out on the end of that sucker passing the broom.

Tom Swope:

So what was your next stop then after Pearl Harbor?

Jack H. Good:

We went to New Caledonia, which was a French possession. Huge harbor, they could have put the whole fleet in there. But the ships would come into us, and they would say -- hand you a stack of job orders, 24 hours, 36 hours, 72 hours, whatever they figured they were going to be there or had an order to be there. In other words, don't tear anything down you can't put back in that length of time. So your ______ department officers went through, Well, we can't do that one, we can't do this one, we can't do that one, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. Then you start typing. The year after Pearl Harbor I averaged three and a half hours sleep because you never knew -- well, there were times later on when we got up to like Espirito that you maybe had a big job, like a destroyer come in with the whole bow blown off. So you split the crew into three shifts. Well, you are covering three shifts. Of course, you are only going to cover part of that third shift, but you can figure you are going to work your tail off for the first two, at least.

Tom Swope:

Do you have any idea how many repair ships there were in the Navy?

Jack H. Good:

Well, you had destroyer tenders, which are also repair and supply for destroyers, or submarine tenders, which were for submarines. Now, repair ships, there were actually two, the Medusa and the Vestal. That was it.

Tom Swope:

Both in the Pacific?

Jack H. Good:

Well, for a long time we were the only one down there. I don't ever remember seeing the Medusa.

Tom Swope:

So where else did you go?

Jack H. Good:

Well, we went, from New Caledonia we went to Espirito Santos, which was a leap frog of, I really don't know, but, for instance, I'll say 500 miles. Then we did the same thing. Anchored, everybody come to us. Christmas -- New Year's night, I coughed in the wastebasket and there was blood and I hemorrhaged. I had tuberculosis, I found out. They sent me to New Zealand. Of course, I caught a ship back to the States and went to the naval hospital in California, in Oakland, was there several months and came home.

Tom Swope:

When was that?

Jack H. Good:

I was discharged July 15, 1943.

Tom Swope:

Were you still sick when you got home?

Jack H. Good:

Oh, yeah. Well, it was in -- I wasn't allowed to do anything for six months, and that's tough. I mean, you are beating your time. It's a lot like now. I do the supper dishes or maybe I'll drive out and pick up something, but that's it. I mean, I've got several jobs I need to do here, but she won't let me even start.

Tom Swope:

That was the first time you'd probably seen your family in many years then?

Jack H. Good:

I was home in -- let's see, I joined in '43.

Tom Swope:

'37.

Jack H. Good:

'37, you are right. I was home in the middle months of November 1943 -- or '37. I'm sorry. I got a leave in 1940 for 30 days. That's all I had in six years.

Tom Swope:

Wow.

Jack H. Good:

At that time, it was funny, I don't care what your job was. At that time I had a good job. I was a yeoman. I took care of the ship's log, which is everything that happens every day, and you write it up. The back is all letter reports and so forth, and you file a copy and send the copies by the month to the bureau in Washington. But all of a sudden, you could be -- you must have been at least undersecretary of the Navy, I mean, because you are vitally important, I mean, when it comes to leave. Now they have to pay, so they usually make sure you get a leave.

Tom Swope:

Do you remember anything about mail call, getting letters from home or packages?

Jack H. Good:

Yeah. I got -- I'll never forget one time I got an angel food cake, and it was excellent, sewn into about four layers of wax paper, and it worked.

Tom Swope:

It held up?

Jack H. Good:

Yeah. Of course I had a lot of help on that, I mean, with four guys in the office. We used to -- I always got a kick out of it when we were out in like Espirito and that, every night we would play poker. Well, you are not allowed. I mean, that's verboten. It was like from here to the kitchen through the doorway to the wardroom, so there was always officers in there. We played two-bit limit with paper clips, and I've seen some wild poker at two-bit limit. I opened a pot one time with a pair of jacks. I was playing and there wasn't a card dealt. Four perfect hands. My jacks didn't go very far. But we had a warrant officer who used to come in the office. He would break the games up by pushing the paper clips together and screwing everything up. And I finally got mad, and we had a repair officer who was fantastic, and I'll never forget him, Norman W. Gambling (ph) was his name, and I told him one time, I said, We play poker in here. And I told him, We play two-bit limit with paper clips. Mr. White comes in and breaks it up. So a day or two later we were in the office and Gambling was there. White came in and Gambling says, I hear you come in the office in the evening. Yes, sir, yes, sir. You know. And he said, I hear you are breaking up some gambling games. Yes, sir, yes, sir. He said, Who the hell do you think is buying the cards?

Tom Swope:

What other kinds of things did you do for entertainment?

Jack H. Good:

That was about it.

Tom Swope:

That was about it? You didn't see any shows or anything?

Jack H. Good:

I never saw a USO show. I guess we weren't just big enough. The only other thing I ever remember before World War II, I was on the Savannah and we went to the Fijis. And a bunch of the natives came aboard and spent the evening doing native dances. And one gal was the chief or the king's daughter, whatever he was, and she did a dance with a machete, and she did everything but swallow that thing. When she tossed it in the air, it stuck in the teakwood deck, so you know that sucker was sharp. I never have forgotten that.

Tom Swope:

When you think of your wartime experience, does any one thing come to mind as your most vivid memory?

Jack H. Good:

Oh, I remember a few things like -- well, one happened before the war. We had an ensign who was trying to play God, and we were practicing general quarters. Well, I'm in a compartment here, and there's a wing out here with a machine gun crew. And ______ general quarters, but he called me off over to him. And he said, You don't like me, do you? Well, I got -- if you did anything, you know, you'd better have some witnesses. Well, I had a whole machine gun crew and nobody liked him anyway because he -- I'm an officer. He said, You don't like me, do you? I said, No, sir. He said, Why? I said, Because you are no damn good. He put me on report for insolence. The captain told him, he said, You asked for a man's opinion. He said, Just because you didn't get the one you want, that's not insolence. He turned to me and he said, You are living dangerously.

Tom Swope:

Wow.

Jack H. Good:

I got a couple things like that. I had a -- my division officer was a lieutenant and he called me in. I didn't know whether he was going to bawl me out or anything. But he put his hat on and he said, In case you don't know it, you are talking to a lieutenant in the United States Navy. Well, I knew the regulations. The law that created the Navy academy and the military academy says that men who attend here will be gentlemen. And I just told him, Yes, sir, you are gentlemen by act of Congress. I got 16 hours extra duty. And I got 16 hours extra duty one time I went in the wardroom aboard the Vestal to get a signature, and my division officer jumped up and said, You are looking for me? I said, No, sir, I'm looking for the gentleman at the end of the table -- or, I'm looking for the man at the end of the table. Bingo. He's an officer and a gentleman.

Tom Swope:

So you had to say "gentleman"?

Jack H. Good:

No, sir. I got extra duty. And the funny part of it was that would have been the last thing in the world that man that I wanted would have ever said a word. I mean, he was the kind of a guy you go the have a extra mile for. But, of course, he couldn't do anything. So you play their game too, I mean, when you get the chance.

Tom Swope:

What was your rank?

Jack H. Good:

Yeoman second class. I was a second class petty officer.

Tom Swope:

That was the highest rank you --

Jack H. Good:

I had my first class chief requirements in, and I probably would have made it, but, of course, going home sick stopped everything.

Tom Swope:

Anything else you can think of?

Jack H. Good:

No. I remember some of my time at the hospital is all.

Tom Swope:

Yeah. You were stateside or --

Jack H. Good:

Well, I remember Australia, that I had a Marine, a great big guy that was a Marine raider next to me who died. And I don't know what he had, but I know one thing, he was so skinny he hardly made a bump in the bed. Of course, I didn't get to know him too well because he wasn't there that long. And another experience I remember down there was one of the guys swiped a guy's, I don't know whether it was a quart or a pint of whiskey, and drank it, filled it up with water. The next day this guy was drinking and he was drunker than a skunk and all he's drinking is water. Never will forget that. Then when I came back to the States, you know, you are always, Yeah, I'm a kid. I joined the Navy at 18. I'm going to get out there and meet some girls, get on with life. Doc, when am I getting out of here, when am I getting out of here? And I'll never forget it, he said, Forget the first year and then start counting. And you think holy smokes. But he was right. I was 14 months that time.

Tom Swope:

Anything else?

Jack H. Good:

Not that I know of.

Tom Swope:

How many pilots do you think you fished out of the harbor?

Jack H. Good:

Probably three or four, because they were shot down everywhere. I mean, I don't think -- out of the 150 or so planes that made the attack, I don't suppose we shot down totally more than maybe 20 or 25.

Tom Swope:

Did you find rings on pretty much all the guys that you encountered?

Jack H. Good:

Yeah.

Tom Swope:

So they were all American-educated?

Jack H. Good:

Well, of course, when you send up 150, four or five doesn't mean too much because you can't say about any of them you didn't discover.

Tom Swope:

Exactly. But, you know, that seems to be -- you hear that a lot.

Jack H. Good:

Yeah.

Unidentified Speaker:

You asked him about any aftereffects. He's had a lot. SWOPE: Do you have any --

Jack H. Good:

I never really --

Unidentified Speaker:

He says he's never noticed it, but we do. Fireworks. SWOPE: Yeah. That kind of thing?

Jack H. Good:

Now, I was that way in the Navy. When I first went aboard ship, they put me on a five-inch antiaircraft gun catching the casings because they sent those back and had them redone, because those were brass. When you are standing there behind a gun, whether it's aimed up like this or straight out like that, catching that thing coming out of there, well, I used to hold my ears. The captain used to say, Fastest man I've ever seen in my life. I missed one. I missed the first one that came out because it comes out under compressed air. That's the only one I missed in three years.

Tom Swope:

Were you trying to do this?

Jack H. Good:

Yeah, I was. It was probably a comedy, but I mean -- END OF CD ONE.