Graduated Stockton High School June 1944 and left the next day from San Francisco on troop train bound for the U.S. Naval Training Center, Farragut, Idaho. After twelve weeks "boot camp" was sent to Treasure Island, CA for assignment to Destroyer Squadron School.

When the war ended with Japan, August 1945, I ended up back in San Francisco at Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard where the Hadley was decommissioned. I was reassigned to a troopship , the USS Samuel Chase, and we headed out again to the Pacific on the Magic Carpet operation.

I was honorably discharged from the Navy in June 1946 at Camp Shoemaker, CA, only forty-five miles from home.

After two years of college in Stockton I joined the San Joaquin Co. Sheriff's Dept. and became a Deputy for approximately six and one half years, in charge of the patrol boat on the San Joaquin River (great job).

I married a beautiful Irish girl from Tracy, CA in 1949. My father, who was a minister, performed the ceremony in a large church wedding.

After leaving the Sheriff's Office I became an Insurance Claims Adjuster & Investigator for the Hartford Ins. Group

Betty and I have two lovely daughters and were transferred many times with the company until 1970 when we settled down in Manteca, CA and I became manager of the Hartford Claims office in Stockton.

Our two girls later married blessed us with five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

In 1994 Betty became very ill with a "liver disease" and died while waiting for a transplant in San Francisco. This was approximately six months before the 50^th Anniversary Reunion.