Document text
Swenson
701127
Living Folklore
May 31, 1939
Subject: Folklore of Communications
Karine Radio Operators
Informant: George F. Gaynor
Exerpted from Diary of Informant (continued)
Santo Domingo Domingo City
On August 21, I was transferred to the United States
Naval Radio Station at the Capitol. This time making the trip
by truck over a road that had recently been constructed by the
marines. Arriving at the capitol I joined headquarters company,
Second Brigade, assigned to detached duty as first operator.
There were two operators to a watch the second performed the
striker duties, such as taking care of the log, polishing the
copper spark gaps etc. The station equinment consisted of a
5 -kw spark transmitter that had been salvaged from the wreck of
the cruiser Yemphis, which had piled up on the rocks from a tidal
wave in the year 1916.
There certainly was a great
gang of men at this station
the operators were both marines and gobs. When off duty we either
gathered together at "John's Place", a cafe awned by an ex -marine,
located next door to the station, or at the "Little Red Shanty"
also near the station and within a stone's throw of the wreck
of the old Lemphis. Two of the gob operators lived in this shanty
and in both of these places in our leisure time we drank tiger beer,
2
sang songs and enjoyed many historic parties.
A Naval Lieutenant was officer in charge of the sta-
tion none of the operators were very popular with him and as
we were usually up to some hind of mischief, whenever he approached
the station, somebody always passed the information along by say-
ing, 'Yes, we have no bananas'.
This meant that everybody was to
quiet dawn and look busy. We played many jokes on him but he
could never definitely pin the trouble on any individual, con-
sequently he finally shanghaied us one by one. We put rocks in
the drawers of his desk, hung tin cans on his coat rack, swept
up all kinds of paper and dirt and left it in the telephone booth
sometiLes we even carried his office furniture out on the lawn at
night, but that joke wasn't so good because we had to carry it
back again the next day.
rany of the operators were quartered in a house in the
city, which was known as the 'House of Horrors', and it was well
named for the type of parties held there. A troupe of Porto Riven
girls staging a show in the city were invited to this house one
evening after the performance. All hands secured a partner and
the party began, with dancing and drinking. It was a large house
with plenty of rooms Lot all kinds of entertainment. Of course
there was a game started to explore the roans.
A large mess table stretched across the front roam
near the windows covered with bottles of liquor, brandy and wine,
and everybody nroceded to drink himself into the rink of condition.
In the wee hours of the morning, the party came to a climax as one
3
man started throwing shole bottles of good liquor through the
window panes. Several couples were dancing around, two other men
were in another room shooting bottles from the wall with 45's,
and other men were off in a corner singing. All this noize had
roused the ire of the citizens, one of them having reported the
disturbance bo the marine guard. Soon a troop of mounted MP's
were galloping dawn the street toward the house. In the meantime,
however, all those who were able took their leave via the court
yard and fences in the rear, and so the great party of the house
of horrors came to an abrupt end.
The principal amusement in Santo Domingo was the cock
fights. Usually on Sundays they were held and heavy bets were
laid down on these little feathered creatures wherever the natives
congregated.
A pleasure I enjoyed the most in the city was to go to
the open air cafes around the park during the evening, to sip a
glass of wine, while the band played and I kept my eyes open for
a passing fancy. Just for the fun of it, I bought an outfit of
Dominican civilian clothes, white shoes and a large sombrero, for
the sum of eleven dollars. Putting the clothes on, I started into
town with elotilda for company. We talked only in Spanish and
walked by American VP's who didn't know but what we were just
another couple of spicks. It was lots of fun, but if I had been
caught it would have meant a general court martial due to the
fact that in a foreign country on active service, it is against
regulations to wear civilian &thee.
4
On November 1, I was again appointed to the rank of
Corporal, and on November 21, transferred to Santiago, known as
the 'City of Gentlemen'. Arriving at Santiago, Jerry, Frenchy
and myself joined headquarters company, Fourth Regiment and were
assigned to detached duty at the radio station, 'my', up on Radio
Hill. Now that I was at a new station I decided to leave the
liquor alone, and turn over a new leaf. Ply first move in this
direction was to start every morning on long hikes into the
interior. From Radio Hill there were trails that led in all
directions on into the jungle, and these hikes alone often brought
me face to face with grours of natives, who were no doubt foment-
ing trouble. They would at first eye me suspiciously, but when
I hailed them in a friendly may and they saw I carried no side-
arms, they passed the time of day and I continued on my way. Some-
times I passed little straw huts, often stopping to chat with the
occupants as I became better acquainted from seeing them every day.
Occasionally I brought candy along for the little black urchins,
who at first ran and hid on seeing the strange white man their
little minds couldn't understand.
During our stay at Santiago, we often experienced
slight earth tremors that would make our bunks quiver and shake,
and in December a strong wind struck the hill and swept everything
before it. Happening at night, I just had time to grab my matress,
roll off the tor of the hill and, holding the matress as a shield,
protected myself from rocks and flying debris. The following
morning the detachment had to be supplied with new outfits and
5
equiPment as practically everything had been destroyed during the
storm.
Following the storm, we began to have trouble trying to
catch a native who each night would steal a pair of our shoes while
we slept. Altogether there were 32 pairs of shoes missing before
we caught up with him. Each night a man would stay awake to watch
for him, but evidently fell asleep just before dawn, and this was
just the time the native silently crept in one of the tents and
took the precious footwear. This state of affairs continued for
some time, until one night, one of the men crept to a position just
below the top of the hill. At dawn the following morning, we were
aroused suddenly from sleep to hear the sound of a rifle bullet,
'ping', singing through the air. With that sound, sixteen men
jumped out of their bunks, grabbed rifles and let the native have
it. In the early morning those sixteen riries made a terrific
racket. Within a few minutes the hospital detachment called on
the field telephone, as well as battalion and regimental head-
quarters, wanting to know what the trouble was, and how many were
injured. The native was injured, but made his get -a -way. That
same afternoon, a Lieutenant from headquarters came up on the hill
to investigate and on finding out what had happened, he said, I
don't care haw many you kill, but do it quietly. There are dip-
lomatic negotiations underway between the United Stated Government
and the Dominican Republic to turn the government over to the
Dominicans, and all the noise we had made could very easily stir
up trouble.
6
It was customary during the heat of the afternoon to lay
on our bunks stripped to our underwear, to enjoy a quiet siesta.
One afternoon while asleer, I was suddenly awakened by being struck
with the flat side of a bayonet. Jumping to the floor I was faced
by one of the marines of our own detachment who had gone crazy from
too much sun and whiskey. He had in his hand a bayonet and said
I'm going to cut your guts out. Fully awake now, I could feel my
stomach turning around inside. He covered the entrance to the
tent. My awn bayonet was hooked on my pack above the ridgepole
and too far away to reach quickly. The rear part of the tent was
down:, cutting off all means of escape. All these things rapidly
whirled through my mind. I realized there was only one thing
left, try and talk him out of it. After stalling him for a few
minutes, I was very much relieved when several FP's came up over
the hill surrounded the tent and placed this marine under arrest.
It seems he had been down in the city cutting up the natives, who
had reported the incident to the marine police.
January 4, 1924 I celebrated my 23rd birthday at Santiago,
and on June 6, there was another reorganization of the marine forces.
Thus we became attached to the 69th Company of the Fourth Regiment,
and from this time on a slaw process of evacuation of the marines
was begun.
I was assigned to duty stringing up additional field
telephone sets. All such field telephones are connected in a
series, and if the line on one of them is open, the others on
the same system will not work. When I attempted to install the
last one, at the hotel where the commanding officer was billeted,
I couldn't find the end of the wire. Thinking it might be strung
up with the Dominican telenhone lines, I cut in on each of them,
only to hear a voice at the other end say, 'Clnien hablo', meaning
who sneaks. This was the Dominican central. I was getting exas-
perated. It was difficult with my lets curled around the pole to
hold myself up. The sun beat down unmercifully, and I had a bad
hangover from the night before. I began to swear louder and louder,
until I happened to look across the street and saw a marine
lieutenant's wife standing on the balcony laughing at my discom-
fiture. She shouted across the street, 'Don't mind me. Get it
out of your system.' However, I slid dawn the pole in a hurry
and just then a native from the Dominican Central arrived on the
scene and I found they had tucked the end of wire that was miss-
ing in a corner on the far side of the street.
There wasn't much to do at Puerto Plata. The occupation
was practically at an end and we were just marking time until the
date of evacuation. A few weeks before leaving Puerto Plata,
hurricane struck the city. We tried to lash things down, but be-
fore we could make any headway, the storm was upon us. We dashed
for the protection of the one stone building and through the win-
dow saw the radio truck and tent go sailing out over the Atlantic.
On January 3, I was honorably discharged from the marine
corps, and on January 4, 1925, my 14th birthday, I journeyed to New
York, stopping off to see mother at Nyack. Restless and undecided
what I wanted to do next, I began to think of joining the Coast Guard.