Interview with Edward Wadington [November 24, 2003]

Judith Kent:

For the record, would you state your name and the branch of the military in which you served?

Edward Wadington:

My name is Edward Wadington. And I'm -- the branch I served in was the Navy, U.S. Navy.

Judith Kent:

Okay. And where were you born and raised?

Edward Wadington:

In Chicago, Illinois. But I, actually, was raised in a suburb of Chicago, Downers, Grove, Illinois.

Judith Kent:

Uh-huh. Tell us a little about your family.

Edward Wadington:

My father worked for the Herald Examiner in Chicago; there was such a newspaper at that time. And he built our home out in Downers Grove, Illinois. I have two brothers and a sister. And we went to Downers Grove North High School. At that time it was only Downers Grove Community High School. There was only one school in town at that time. And I went through my junior year in high school and was drafted right after my junior year into the Navy. Well, let me say, they drafted me and then I chose the Navy from then.

Judith Kent:

Why the Navy?

Edward Wadington:

I don't know. I really -- it's just something that I early rather than -- I liked water, you know.

Judith Kent:

Okay. That's a good reason.

Edward Wadington:

I assume that's a pretty good reason.

Judith Kent:

Okay. So you were drafted and then what?

Edward Wadington:

I went to Great Lakes and came out of Great Lakes in 1943, early part of '43, I believe it was. And we had a liberty for about a week once we came out. And then I was assigned to the Fargo Building in Boston. I stayed there for a week or so. And then they assigned me to the Bath Naval Receiving Station in Bath, Maine. And that is where they -- the Bath Iron works was located in Bath, Maine, and that's where they put out many of the destroyers that were in the Second War. And I was our radar guard in the iron works during the early part of the war and we would -- and that was when they first started putting radar on the destroyers and we would travel right along with the radar till it was put aboard ship and then we would be locked up in the room and then guard the radar. And that was my duty while in Bath, Maine. And also, there at that time there were many -- shall we say, spies supposedly coming over on the coast of Maine. We had at the iron works, in Bath, we had many, shall we say, dry runs. Not dry runs, but runs as to the possibility of spies being dropped off on the coastline. After I was there for about a year -- I think it was a year or so. Then I was assigned down to the Navy yard in Brooklyn where I went aboard the Missouri. And the Missouri had not been commissioned as of yet, and did not have all of its bunks and equipment and guns and everything aboard at that time. And we had no -- there was no facility for living aboard. So the Navy had a small hotel over on Flushing Avenue in Brooklyn that we used to walk back and forth every morning and evening.

Judith Kent:

And what was your particular job?

Edward Wadington:

At that time, I was a striker in supply, in the Supply Department aboard the Missouri.

Judith Kent:

What does a striker do?

Edward Wadington:

It's just like the store keeper is. Well, he's the boss of the supplies and everything. And a striker is trying to become him, a storekeeper. And he just works for him. In other words, in the storerooms, putting up supplies, ordering supplies, everything that they could think of or you need to think of.

Judith Kent:

Getting a ship fitted out?

Edward Wadington:

Getting a ship fitted out, in fact. And that was it. That's what I did when I first came aboard. And I was there for the commissioning ceremony.

Judith Kent:

You have some pictures of that.

Edward Wadington:

Yes, I do.

Judith Kent:

We should mention that you have a scrapbook where you've very carefully catalogued all your naval experience.

Edward Wadington:

Yes, actually, I give the credit to my wife for that. And then, let's see. Oh, and I was involved in many of the, shall we say -- oh, what do they call it, when the ship goes down the waves.

Judith Kent:

A launching?

Edward Wadington:

A launching of it, rather. Quite a number of ships in the USS Rainey, the USS Wadleigh, the USS. Norman Scott, to name a few, that were out of Bath, Maine. And I know there are many, many ships down there that went down the ways without me remembering -- that I can't remember, even. There were so many. One time I will remember, though, the last time I was there to be involved with a ship that was coming out of Bath iron works, it was about 10 or 15 below zero and the ammunition trucks, and this is a first up there, the ammunition trucks were over the road up to Bath and we were loading 5-inch shells onto the destroyer, on a wet plank walking over from the ship to the ground, to the land, rather. And it was that cold out and it was wet out, too. And we would walk across this plank and it would spring up and down and up and down. And here we have a 5-inch shell on our shoulder walking across -- which is greased, I might add. And we decided that that wasn't for us. So myself and another fellow decided that discretion was the better part of valor. So we hid for a while to get out of that cold weather and possibly taking a little dip in the water at freezing temperatures. But anyway, that covered that. And then we were down, as I went down to the Missouri for the cresting down there, that was a very good ceremony they had. And I have pictures of that. And I have the commissioning program also in my book here. And even the menu from the commissioning day dinner.

Judith Kent:

All right.

Edward Wadington:

And then I have a picture of the captain, Captain Callaghan, inspecting the sailors during the commissioning. Shortly thereafter the commissioning, after we got all settled down and everything, we went down to Cuba and we were off Guantanamo Bay. We did not go in there at that time. I don't believe we went in there at that time, let's put it that way. Oh, and each time we were put out to sea, we had tugboats, naturally, that had to push us and so on and so forth, lead us out if we couldn't do it on our own, if were too heavy a ship, too big a ship anyway. I have pictures of us going under the Brooklyn Bridge and things such as that. And then, also, I have pictures of the various departments, like the post office and different -- on top of the turrets of the guns and so on and so forth, and a religious ceremony on our fantail. And then when we finally came back to the States, from shakedown cruise, and then we lit out for the west coast and went through the canal, and I have pictures of the canal too and the inside, us transiting the canal. And then over in the Pacific which we ran to Honolulu or Hawaii. And we stayed there, just, as I remember, a couple of days only. And we were out to sea right away. And we never came back in for -- well, we didn't come back in for a good year or so.

Judith Kent:

I hope you'd done a good job of supplying.

Edward Wadington:

Yes, we did -- well, we also, I might mention that we have supply ships that used to come out and resupply us occasionally with oil or fuel, rather, and also with food and so on and so forth. But I might mention we had a ship's mascot we called Boswell, and I have pictures of him in the thing, in my little booklet here. And we used him for the local paper.

Judith Kent:

He was like a cartoon?

Edward Wadington:

Cartoon character, right, yeah. And then, let's see, I have copies of each day's activity aboard ship of which, after we got out to the Pacific, we would get the air operations on whatever day it was and it would give which carrier the control group was operating from and their mission. And we would have that. And I have that in my book here, cataloged, also. And any, for instance, everything from when you ate to when you went to bed, supposedly. And then we also had a monthly newsletter, newspaper, rather. It's actually a newsletter telling the activities for the month and the coming activities, what they were going to be. And then when we had -- I don't know what it is.

Judith Kent:

Crossing the equator?

Edward Wadington:

Crossing the equator, I guess it was here. And they issued you cards once you were -- I don't even remember what happened. All I remember is getting a card. That's all I remember.

Judith Kent:

I think if you had your head shaved, you would remember that?

Edward Wadington:

Yeah. Well, anyway, and then I got pictures of myself aboard ship and so on. And then the monthly letters. And well, I got letters. And then I have a picture of us catapulting our scout plane off the fantail.

Judith Kent:

You have a particular memory about one of those?

Edward Wadington:

Yes. And we have two of them on the fantail two planes and two catapults. And one day, one took off for observation somewhere. I'm not sure whether it was practice or whether it was a regular run. I think it was a regular run. And I was back on the fantail. And the plane taxied up in our slick. So when we land an airplane, we turn, and that creates a slick on the water to be landed on and taxied up on for the scout planes or pontoon planes and he had hooked up and he was in the cockpit yet of the plane, and for some reason, either the strap broke, or the connection broke, and we were still turning, and he was inside that plane and he was sucked right under and we never saw him again. But to go along with that, since that, after the war, quite a number of years, in fact, the Missouri Association had a reunion in Seattle, Washington. And at that time the Missouri was in mothballs in Seattle or in Bremerton, rather. And during the reunion a couple came up to me, a brother and sister came up to me and asked -- they understood I was on the fantail that day, and they asked me, what happened and so on, in my words. And I said, well, it just happened that your father was sucked right under. He was not out of the cockpit. The cockpit wasn't opened or anything. And he was sucked right under. And that was it. We didn't see him again. So it was extremely fast that this happened, which, that's what they wanted to know, whether it was fast, slow, or just what. But anyway, they thanked me and that was it, in that regard. And then we were in the Pacific quite a long time. And I sort of get a kick out of people going out for a half year here and complaining nowadays that their son is out for a half a year, he hasn't been in. We didn't see land for a year or so and thought nothing of it. But anyway, during the period we were out there one time, and when the Kamikazes first started becoming popular -- for the Japanese that is. And we were involved in one of the Kamikaze attacks. And the Kamikaze that came at the Missouri, I was a second loader on a quad -- a 40-millimeter quad 17 on the starboard side of the Missouri. The Kamikaze came down the port side, forward, all the way down the side of the ship and banged at the fantail. We think that he was hit. He didn't really bang, he was -- evidently, he hit the controls and everything. And he came up the side of the Missouri. And he smashed right into the side of the ship and the -- one of the wings blew up forward and was burning, and they put it out real quickly. And they -- part of the plane came aboard, but the pilot was killed and he was laying against our gun shield. And I must add, what was left of him. But anyway, we had a ceremony for him the next day, and we buried him at sea.

Judith Kent:

Was there much loss of life or damage?

Edward Wadington:

No. We lost no one, no one was injured or anything like that. No one was. And then also we mentioned -- I mentioned that we were resupplied at sea. And I have a picture of being resupplied at sea also. And then I thought I'd add -- because Admiral Halsey was the admiral and he was aboard our ship for quite sometime. I have a picture of him and his aide on the deck of the Missouri.

Judith Kent:

Did you take that picture?

Edward Wadington:

Yeah, that one, I took.

Judith Kent:

And did you take almost all of them in here?

Edward Wadington:

No, no. The official ship's photographer was a good friend of mine and I got to go along with him during the surrender ceremony and carry all his equipment that he needed during his the surrender. So that's why I came away with what I came away with.

Judith Kent:

I see.

Edward Wadington:

And then I have the anniversary book, the first year anniversary in '45, so on and so forth. Then more pictures of myself on the deck of the Missouri.

Judith Kent:

You mentioned that you were now functioning as a gunner. Where had you gotten that training?

Edward Wadington:

Aboard ship. Well, I was in supply. But my battle station was not in supply, my battle station was up on the deck on the 40-millimeter.

Judith Kent:

I see.

Edward Wadington:

It just happens that way every now and then. And then we had -- when we heard the Japanese were surrendering, we had carrier strikes out in the bay, or in the water, rather, over the water. And so they thought, rather than dump their bombs, they thought they would dump their bombs in the water and they would practice attacking us, which they did. And I thought that was really neat because you would see a cloud floating over the Missouri; you wouldn't think too much of it. And all of a sudden, out of the cloud would come a plane right down the funnel of your ship, practically. So it was rather interesting to see, be on the receiving end, what it would have been like if we would have been on the of receiving end of it, of an attack. And then I sent a letter home for my parents, which I have a copy, and they put it in the local newspaper. And then I have the regular postage stamps from the surrender day, so on and so forth. But I understand they're worth something now too. I don't know. Anyway, then I have the pictures of the surrender ceremony. This is a compository (sic) of everything. Before I forget, when that Japanese Kamikaze came into our plane, his machine gun went right into the end of our 40-millimeter. And that's the picture we have here too. And this was -- I found out later, was in the newspapers in the US. So I didn't -- it wasn't something that I made up or anything. As you can see, it's there.

Judith Kent:

Yep.

Edward Wadington:

Also this next picture, is -- prior to coming into the -- well, yeah, prior to coming into the Tokyo Bay for the surrender ceremony, the Japanese and we requested, I assume, requested some pilots to come out and meet us to guide us in, some Japanese pilots from the Army or Navy, whatever it may be, and through the mind fields and through the sunken battle ships. And we went through there. And I have a picture of Admiral Carney in the wardroom of the Missouri with the three pilots plus his aides and everyone looking over Tokyo Bay on mats. And one of the gentleman, a Japanese gentleman that was the center figure of the Japanese, I learned -- it wasn't till just recently when the Missouri was made a memorial out in Honolulu, I went to it because the Missouri Association was having a meeting out there plus the American Battleship Association was also having a meeting there. I was sitting on the aft second 16-inch turret on the fantail of the ship and I heard an announcement and people had -- they had people sitting on the dock, and they had people sitting on the side, the starboard side of the ship in this ceremony that was going on. And I heard them mention that they had the daughter -- rather, the sister of one of the pilots that brought the Missouri into Tokyo Bay. And at that time, it dawned on me that I had an 8 by 10 picture of him in the Admiral's cabin. So I got up off the turret, went down on the deck, and down on the dock and everything. And I introduced myself to his sister, but she could not understand me. She was Japanese, naturally. But her daughter, who had lived in Honolulu was Japanese, naturally, and she was our go-between, so to speak. And she said that I told her that I thought I had an 8 by 10 picture of her mother's brother on the Missouri and she was all excited over that. And I got her address and everything, and I sent her the picture, a copy of the picture, that I had. And sure enough, it was the brother. And I thought no more of it. And she thanked me, so on and so forth. I thought no more of it until about two months later. I was sitting at home and the mail arrived and here came a big box from Japan. And in that box was -- before I say that, the place that the sister lived was, I guess not too far from Hiroshima where the bomb was dropped, but it did not destroy that area at all. But she said that there was -- the gift that she was sending me were two little Ohuchi dolls. They're little round lacquered dolls; one's a man, one's a woman. And she wanted to send me this to thank me for having this picture all this time and sending it to her. So I still have those two Ohuchi dolls at home now. So it's just sort of an interesting sideline, so to speak. Anyway, I'm moving right along with the river pilots. Then the ceremony came at the start of the day of the surrender. And we had all kinds of photographers from different countries and all around. They were there. And then we had McArthur came aboard and Nimitz was aboard. All the admirals and so on and so forth from all the countries. I have them timed, even, as to when the picture was taken. And this is a picture of McArthur speaking, telling him to sign on the dotted line or whatever that was. And this is the Japanese delegation that came aboard. And this is General Umesu, the chief of staff of the Japanese Army, he signed at 9:06, to be exact; and then Admiral Nimitz at 9:12; and then a general, a Chinese general, signed right after; the English; and then the Russian; then the Australian; then the Netherlands. And they put out a card for all those that attended the surrender ceremony. And I have mine right here also. And then from that point on, most of these are -- in my -- see, this is, I might add, that this was -- it didn't turn out very clear, but that's the machine gun that went into our 40-millimeter right in the end of it. And that was the gun shield, the upper body came aboard, upper part of the body came aboard. And anyway, that's a copy of the signed surrender documents, so on and so forth.

Judith Kent:

You talked about another mission that was kind of interesting.

Edward Wadington:

Oh, I think I remember. I'll get to it right here. Just one minute. Oh, after we came back from the Pacific, we came through the Panama Canal and then we ran to, I believe, Norfolk, Virginia. And we had -- and this, by the way, is my quad, the gun quad. I was right here when the plane hit right there. But this is my gun quad here, squad 17 on the picture here. And we moved into Norfolk and we had a big Missouri day in Norfolk and all the people came aboard and be on the spot where they signed the surrender ceremony and so on. And then we went up to New York on Navy Day and President Truman came aboard in the Hudson River and had to sign in as a guest and so on for that particular day. And then I have the menu for that day, so on and so forth. And also, the ship purchased a stamp -- rather, matches, matchbooks and matchbook covers. And it says, "USS Missouri, New York, June 11, 1944, Tokyo, September 2nd, 1945." And I have one of them right here in the book. And as a sideline to that is, my wife was going to college at Iowa State University out there in Iowa, in Ames, Iowa at the time. And she wrote me a letter -- and we weren't married, by the way at that time. And she wrote me a letter and said she would like a couple of them Missouri matchbook covers. So I had all the matchbook covers. I had all the cases. I sent her a whole case. And she nearly flipped when I gave her all of them matchbook covers. Anyway, that was just a sideline. And then, we got back to New York there. And I got a weekend pass, of which I violated my stay in the City of Chicago. I had never flown in an airplane before, but I flew up there. And they had delays before we left New York. So we couldn't leave, and I had to finally talk the stewardess in to get the pilot to land in Chicago because they weren't going to land in Chicago because of the poor weather.

Judith Kent:

Oh, boy.

Edward Wadington:

And then I really would have been up -- so, anyway, I got him to land, and I had a bit of a reunion with my to-be wife. And then another interesting point is, during the Second War, the Turkish Ambassador to the United States passed away, and we were chosen or selected, or whatever, and this was also the period of the start of the Cold War with Russia. And we were appointed to take the cremated remains back of the Turkish Ambassador in a coffin, naturally, in a big ceremony. But it was also a show of power because we were going through the Dardanelles and into the Bosporus. And the rest of this book is in that regard. And this is a picture of the cremated remains as they sat on the deck of the Missouri on a platform and the crew shortly after it was delivered to the Missouri. And I can remember going through the Dardanelles. First we went to Gibraltar. I think it was Tangiers -- no, Gibraltar. And -- yeah, I think, Tangiers. And I'm not too certain in what order this actually came anymore. And then we went to get back. We ran in through the Dardanelles into Turkey and you could put your -- if you were standing on the deck of the Missouri, you could put your arms out, if you were standing on a side and touch the trees as they went passed, just to give you an idea of how they grew across. There was so many little islands there and everything. And we pulled into Istanbul, and that's one of the Seven Wonders of the World from the sea. And we pulled in there and we pulled right next to a Turkish, with the towers and everything, mosque or whatever it is, and I thought that was a beautiful sight. And we had liberty in Turkey. And I've got here a picture of a Turkish soldier, a man with a water pipe, a big, big water pipe. And Turkish people. And you can tell they weren't, shall we say, flushed with money, sort of the clothing they wore. Some were dressed nice, some weren't. We had two fellows come aboard they took myself and another guy on a tour to a Turkish university. And we went up also to the Turkish tower in Istanbul, overlooking the bay, Istanbul Bay there. And they severed me coffee. And I thought it was going to be regular coffee, and it wasn't regular coffee. It was Turkish coffee. And Turkish coffee is half grounds and half coffee. Rather strong, I would say. (Laughter.) Anyway, it was nice. The people were were very, very nice to us. And I guess the Turkish government gave the Missouri some Turkish rugs that they could auction off, about five or ten of them. And they were auctioned off to people. And also, I have at home Turkish cigarettes. And I still have the cigarettes, by the way, with the USS Missouri on them. They're Turkish cigarettes from that time period. Although, I don't smoke anymore, but I'd hate to smoke and try one of them now. But anyway, and then also, the Turkish, they put out a stamp about this trip, the free postage stamps of the Missouri on it over in Turkey in Istanbul and had to do with it. Let's see it says -- yeah, it doesn't say -- well, it does say in Turkish, but it doesn't say anything about it, the visit over there on it. And then we had the Turkish -- 1946 is when we were over there. And little Turkish fishing boats here and people by the harbor or bay, whatever it is. And this is what we saw from the sea. See, we're here. And this is what we saw right there.

Judith Kent:

A mosque?

Edward Wadington:

Yeah, it's a mosque. And this is from the Dardanelles over here and we came and anchored right there. And then through here, you go into the Black Sea. We didn't go there, naturally. But this is the commence the -- what do they call it -- flagship notice of us being in Turkey on April 5th through the 9th in 1946. This is an 8 by 10 picture of the Marine Corps honor guard. And at this time I might mention that the honor guard -- I had other pictures of the honor guard and I supplied those pictures to the Marine Corps Museum in Parris Island, South Carolina. They have copies of all these. And then as we went back out of Istanbul we stopped in Athens, Greece, the Parthenon. A picture of the Parthenon on a hill. And the Greek dancers that came aboard; that was a treat for a lot of people. We had seen women, by the way, quite a bit then by that time. But other than that, for a year and something we hadn't, in the Pacific. And then there's the commemorative notice of the visit to Athens, Greece. MS. KENT: Okay. I think we're going to have a take a pause here. (WHEREUPON, a short recess was had.) MR. WADINGTON: Then we stopped in to Naples, Italy and we were there awhile. And I have post cards during that period from Naples. And we took the train. We went over, we were going up to Rome, a group of us. And we were going to take the train up to Rome, and as we approached the railroad station, there was still shooting going on in Naples. I don't know why or what, but there was shooting going on. And we got on the train anyway and we went up to Rome and we were up in Rome for a day or so. I can't find it now, naturally. I think I left it out. But anyway, we visited Rome and we were up above the St. Peter's in Rome. We had an audience with the Pope, and I had an 8 by 10 of that, but somebody waltzed off with that. I don't know where it is now. The Captain and the Pope were together there and one other guy. And then from there, we came back down to Naples on the train and we got aboard and went to Algiers. And this picture is of the Marine Corps honor guard marching into Algiers at that time. We had liberty that night and we went in the Casbah, and I wouldn't like to stay there for any way. And these are other pictures of Rome and the Parthenon and so on and so forth.

Judith Kent:

So you got to travel a bit besides other than across the Pacific?

Edward Wadington:

That's right. And that's just one trip. And the one when we were in Rome, before I forget is Mussolini's training camp for little boys, and the barracks there. And they were beautiful, really. But other than that, I came back to the US then and got discharged. And we got on a train in Norfolk.

Judith Kent:

Did you think about making a career of it?

Edward Wadington:

No.

Judith Kent:

No?

Edward Wadington:

No. I'm a free thinker. No, I didn't, honestly. I decided that I was going to get married and that was going to be it.

Judith Kent:

Okay.

Edward Wadington:

I had enough sea duty, let's put it that way. I didn't need anymore sea duty.

Judith Kent:

Did you use your GI Bill?

Edward Wadington:

Yeah. I went to transportation law school in Chicago, and I graduated from that on my GI bill. I graduated on that. I was going to go to regular college, but I decided against it because I was married and had two, three children at that time, and I couldn't do it right then. But I did finally go to a law school, transportation law school, that is. And that's a lot different than regular law school.

Judith Kent:

What does a transportation law person do?

Edward Wadington:

Well, to give you an idea, I went to -- I went into the airline business. I went into freight forwarding business. And then I became a sales manager for a freight forwarding operation a part four carrier. A part four carrier is something that is strictly export/import. It used to be. Whether it is now, I don't have any idea. But I eventually became a salesman for a part four carrier. Then I became sales manager. Then I became vice president of sales. Then I became president, and then I bought the company, myself and two other guys. And then I wanted to retire so I bought a home on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. I was living in the Chicago area at that time, but I retired and we moved to Hilton Head, South Carolina. And we lived there for 10 years. And to us, it got a little crowded there. There is no longer a retirement village; it was a tourist village. So we moved back to Florida again. Because we had lived there in the 1950s when I worked for the airlines. But that's about it.

Judith Kent:

Did your military experience in supply help you in your civilian career? Was that kind of similar?

Edward Wadington:

Sort of -- yes, but no. I think in Bath, Maine when I became -- I first started, got into supply for the Navy, it did a little bit then because we'd have to go down for supplies to Portland all the time to keep the station running in Bath. And that was sort of like it, except the shipping I did or the company I owned, I did the traveling. And I would go to Japan about four times a year, Japan, Hong Kong and Sidney. And then Hawaii on the way back. But then I would also go twice a year to Amsterdam. And I would travel from Amsterdam to Rotterdam, Antwerp, and back to Amsterdam, over to England, back to Guttenberg. Sweden to Frankfurt, Germany. From Frankfort to Florence. Back to Frankfort to Basel, Switzerland, to Milano and Florence and to Paris and back to the States. And I was sure there's a couple of other countries I missed in there, but I'm starting to falter on the memory. But I used to do that twice a year, too, so I did a little bit of traveling.

Judith Kent:

How would you say your military career affected your life?

Edward Wadington:

Oh, it affected me heavily because I was drafted right out of high school, and I mean, that's the only thing you know when you first get out. That's all you know. You know nothing else. So I think it helped me, in a way, with the later work. When I owned a company, my own company. It helped me then because it helped me to understand, and I picked up different languages. I picked up different things, how they operate, how in Japan if you go to a meeting and somebody gets up and leaves a meeting, you don't -- these are small things, but they're all a part of your education -- you don't get upset over that because they're going out to think. Now, I'd never dream that in the U.S., but here you are, four people get up and leave a meeting, and they all sit at their desk, and all of a sudden they come back in. Well, that's not an insult there, that's -- they've come to a meeting. They're out thinking.

Judith Kent:

It's a whole different culture.

Edward Wadington:

That's right. That's why I think I did learn quite a bit. I speak a little Japanese, but it's fading very, very rapidly. I speak couple of words in Turkish. Oh, and after the war, we had -- the American Battleship Association, which I'm a member of, had a trip to Russia and we flew into Amsterdam with the members and we flew from Amsterdam over to Leningrad. And the Russian, former Russian Navy, we were their guests, and we had a big banquet in Leningrad. We went through all the museums in Leningrad, you know, that are of any importance. And then we went up to the Arctic Circle into Murmansk. And we had another big meeting up there, a big convention up there with the Russian Navy again because that is the place where the big Russian Navy port was. And we were invited for the first time. No American had ever been in the Russian ship yard up there in Murmansk until the time we went up there and we got a tour of the ship yard. And I have pictures of that, but that's in a different book. And then after we came back down, we went from Murmansk we went to Moscow. And the same thing happened in Moscow. We had a big banquet and everything. We got pictures of that too, but again, in a different book. And then he flew back to the states here again so you can say I've been around a little bit.

Judith Kent:

You joined the Navy and saw the world, didn't you?

Edward Wadington:

Yeah, I did.

Judith Kent:

You even got a medal from the Russians?

Edward Wadington:

Yes, I do.

Judith Kent:

Tell us about that.

Edward Wadington:

We were surprised at that when we were over there visiting. At each port, we'd go through the three cities we went to there, they would have us -- they would entertain us. They had children entertain us, in Murmansk they had school children and each sailor or each member of the Missouri Association and their wives were invited to go to school with the children, if they cared to, and we did. And we found it very interesting. And same thing down in Moscow. And they have a hall for all former servicemen in Russia at the various towns and you were greeted there very -- they put on a show for you. We had opera singers in Moscow and everything. And then they invited us to the Russian circus, the Russian opera, which I didn't go to. My wife did. But things like that. That's why I say my background, and so on and so forth, is kind of extensive in understanding people, as far as these foreign countries are concerned. And what they have to go through, what you have to go through, so on and so forth. That's about it.

Judith Kent:

All right. You mentioned that your activities, since your retirement with military organizations. Has that been a way to maintain friendships?

Edward Wadington:

Yes. Yes, it is. But after a while, I sort of drifted away from it now.

Judith Kent:

Have you?

Edward Wadington:

Yeah. Well, a lot of fellows are passing away now. For instance, the fellow that handled the American Battleship Association is not in good health and, therefore, the whole thing has sort of slowed down to a nothing attitude. And the other people in the Missouri Association, they meet about every year, but I'm not sure that they meet every year anymore. I've been out of contact with them a little bit. In fact, I heard last night one of the fellows' wives passed away. So it's getting fewer and fewer, as they say in the paper. How many thousand a day die in Florida alone? Whoosh!

Judith Kent:

You mentioned the entertainment in Russia. Was there entertainment on the Missouri, entertainers coming? Bop Hope?

Edward Wadington:

No. There was -- when we came back from a shakedown cruise, I think it was a shakedown cruise, we parked right off Broadway there, the pier right off aways, the street. They had the cast from "Oklahoma" come aboard. I'm not sure who the singer was. It wasn't Gordon McCray. I'm not sure who it was anymore. I used to know, but it slipped me.

Judith Kent:

Sure.

Edward Wadington:

And in Trinidad, during a shakedown cruise, we had Trinidad dancers come aboard, and in Greece, as you saw in the book there, they had Grecian dancers come aboard, but that was just, you know, briefly put on a show on the back fantail.

Judith Kent:

Did you entertain yourselves on those long ocean passages?

Edward Wadington:

Define entertainment. (Laughter.) What could you do? Work and nothing. Sleep.

Judith Kent:

Cards or...

Edward Wadington:

No, we didn't play much -- many, cards that I could think of. I had an office aboard ship. See, after I got promoted then I got my own office aboard ship in a void. In other words, if you're familiar with voids, it's the side of the ship between the actual and the inner part. Well, I had an office in one of them. I do remember while in Turkey, the Turkish government sent us these -- I'm trying to think -- rugs? Rugs, I think. I can't remember what it was, but it was in my void, the forward part of my void where they welded it shut when they put stuff in there so they could unweld it when we got to the United States in the event that anybody got sticky fingers, shall we say. And I forgot what they -- I forgot really, what they put in that void. But I got one of them -- whatever it was. And I can't remember what it was anymore. That's what age does to it.

Judith Kent:

What was your rank when you --

Edward Wadington:

I was storekeeper third class. You didn't -- it wasn't even thought of when we were out there because you're too busy to fool with that. You just had a job to do and you did it. That's why I would say I would never stay in the Navy. It gets more rank conscious now than ever. I don't believe in that. It was just work, that's all.

Judith Kent:

Would you advise anybody these days to serve the armed forces?

Edward Wadington:

This is going to be taken wrong, I know.

Judith Kent:

Well, don't say it then. Did your kids serve in the military?

Edward Wadington:

Yes, my son. My oldest son served in the Navy.

Judith Kent:

During what period?

Edward Wadington:

Viet Nam.

Judith Kent:

Viet Nam?

Edward Wadington:

Yeah.

Judith Kent:

Was that tough?

Edward Wadington:

Yes, he went to Nikon Delta he was up there quite a bit.

Judith Kent:

So your view is affected by his experience too, probably.

Edward Wadington:

That's right. I don't -- I can't say. I won't say, let's put it that way.

Judith Kent:

Okay. No problem. How about this day-to-day living. You worked hard, I know. Was the food decent?

Edward Wadington:

Oh, yes. Well, let's put it this way: As decent as it could be.

Judith Kent:

Under the circumstances.

Edward Wadington:

Under the circumstances.

Judith Kent:

Okay.

Edward Wadington:

I mean, if you have chicken, frozen chicken, and then they thaw it out and you get it for dinner, and then you get it for dinner again, and then you get it for dinner again, it does seem to wear on you a little bit.

Judith Kent:

Sure.

Edward Wadington:

But, that's all part of the --

Judith Kent:

Did you get letters back and forth from your girlfriends, family?

Edward Wadington:

Yeah, we did. It really wasn't any problem doing that, that I can remember. It just took long, but that's routine, after all.

Judith Kent:

And you really weren't in that much combat, were you?

Edward Wadington:

Oh, we were quite a bit.

Judith Kent:

Were you?

Edward Wadington:

Oh, yeah. I got three battle stars. And I understand a fourth one's supposed to be. I don't even care. But I have three battles stars already.

Judith Kent:

So that was ship-to-ship combat or sending out your aircrafts?

Edward Wadington:

No, no. That was bombarding. Chichijima (phonetic), a couple of other Japanese islands, Okinawa, Iwo Jima, we were in all that.

Judith Kent:

What was the most stressful or dangerous mission?

Edward Wadington:

When the Kamikazes started coming, that's when it started getting real tense. They changed the -- see we had a battle call, a bugle battle call would come over the loud speakers, and it got so intense for a while there that just anything that come over the loud speakers, you'd jump after a while. And that's just how tense it was. And they changed it. They changed the battle call. They did. They didn't -- so they changed it so that it wouldn't make it so tense. And I'm sure they would have changed that in a while too, you know, if it got real bad.

Judith Kent:

How did you manage that stress?

Edward Wadington:

Manage it?

Judith Kent:

Did you grit your teeth?

Edward Wadington:

That's it. That's it.

Judith Kent:

Some people had superstitions or things they did, lucky charms or whatever?

Edward Wadington:

No. Nothing like that. Just plain pray that you don't get hit, that's all. And when that Kamikaze hit the gun, I was -- I'll be very honest with you, I was scared. I was scared. I mean, you see that thing coming right at you, and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. You have a couple of thoughts go through your mind, and that's about it.

Judith Kent:

Did that bother you later, you know, after you got out?

Edward Wadington:

No.

Judith Kent:

Put it off to history or --

Edward Wadington:

No. The only thing I can remember, it did bother me a little at the beginning. But it wore off after a little while but I got married. And it's kind of funny, humorous, because my wife tells it all the time. We got married and we came back from our honeymoon and we were staying at her parents' house because they were working on another house for us. And we got into bed one night, and it was a double bed. And my wife woke up in the morning and I was gone. And she looked around, and she looked around, and she couldn't find me. And she finally got up. And she looked in the bathroom. I wasn't in the bathroom. She came into the bedroom again and she walked around the bed and there I was lying on the deck, on the floor. I was so used to sleeping on the deck, I couldn't stand the soft bed. That's the truth, too. That's crazy, but it's the truth. That's weird. That's real weird.

Judith Kent:

Well, you must be very proud of the medals that you earned.

Edward Wadington:

Well, I'm proud of them, but I also am a little disturbed -- not disturbed. Because the Missouri was chosen to be the surrender vessel, and I understand President Truman was the president then, naturally, and he was from Missouri. And just the fact that we weren't there the whole war, out in the Pacific and, of course, that would have been a long while, sort of had me wondering, why us? Why were we chosen? It's always been a -- and I understand why, but I can't quite fathom it. That's all.

Judith Kent:

You think there might be some others that felt slighted?

Edward Wadington:

Yes, that's what I meant. That's really what I meant. Like for instance, the Arizona. The Missouri right now is right upstream from the Arizona in Honolulu. Now if any ship should have gotten anything, at least one of them out in the time that they were out there, should have had that privilege, rather than us. And that's the way I feel. That's just the way I feel. That's all.

Judith Kent:

Yeah. Well, we thank you very much for sharing your story. It's very special.

Edward Wadington:

Okay.

Judith Kent:

Okay. (End of transcript.)