WEBVTT - We Were Treated Like Kings 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:07.280 You're tuning into service, Johnny, the strict private, first class 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:11.440 veteran stories of hunger and war. They joined a service. 0:00:11.560 --> 0:00:15.200 Remember perel Harder, Remember Pearl Harbor, a production from My 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:18.160 Heart Radio. We used to just give these people the 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:21.000 food from our miss kits. You ain't what you could 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:23.759 get and be thankful. Well what you will get in 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:33.840 I'm your host, Jacqueline Raposo, And here is they think 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:38.000 the whole day long, all the markets not so good today. 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:40.280 From the World War two veterans we've been sitting with 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:43.240 so far this season, it might be easy to assume 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:47.400 that everyone struggles during the Great Depression. Have a good question. 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:51.560 Everybody was the subwar was five cents local breadles cents 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:58.400 five cents. We had a farmer's during depression, and appreciate 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:01.960 we never were like from school. We ate a variety 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:06.040 of fools that people nowadays never heard of, like chicken feet. 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:12.480 But would that assumption be true. Economists are comparing our 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:15.759 current income disparity with that of the Great Depression era, 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:20.199 and so that's what we're exploring today. How much poverty 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:24.280 or plenty affected how people lived, served and eight during 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:31.600 World War two and beyond. Today you swift time that 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:40.360 dropped down Tigre Frank from its song A Tale of 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:43.319 the Ticker commented on the fragility of the stock market 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:46.120 and its debut only one month before the crash in October, 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:53.680 three of the American workforce was unemployed, and those at 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:56.600 the bottom who kept their jobs. Most of the families 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:59.320 we've heard from the season saw their income dropped by 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:04.520 an average of To offset the humility of breadlines, penny 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:08.480 restaurants helped the hungriest with offerings like soup, bread, coffee, 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:13.480 and pork and beans for a penny. Apiece at the 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:16.959 Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, I meant Julip or 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:21.200 Tom Collins alone cost sixty five cents. Because this was 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:24.720 also the era of the Vanderbilts and the Rockefeller's business 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.240 magnets and demansion owners whose income dropped maybe four percent 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:32.160 during this time, the Gilded Hotel reopened at its Central 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:36.400 Park location in n throwing charity balls for thousands of 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:40.280 socialites and hosting eight course dinners for insurance tycoons, with 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:45.400 courses including sauteed artichokes, a scoffier style filet mignon, and 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:49.720 frozen chocolate bombs. On top of that, guests of means 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:53.440 could basically customize any dinner party they wanted. I found 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:56.880 one patron's letter to Chef Gabrielle to go politely, reflecting 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:00.840 upon the difficulties of the uncivilized market in his request 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:04.040 for caviare a piece to resistance of roast duck with 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:08.280 figs and almonds, dry old sherry and the best of cigars. 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:13.160 Today we spend time with a Navy lieutenant whose family 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:18.480 falls intriguingly in the middle of this income disparity, Robert Hansen. Now, 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:21.800 Robert shared that food is not something he thinks much about, 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:24.679 and so we're going to track his service story in 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:27.320 line with the food narratives of his fellow service members. 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:31.799 And what was happening on the greater stage. Robert's father 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:34.800 progressed from a blue collar job to becoming a professor, 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:38.640 and professors at prestigious universities kind of looked out during 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:42.560 this time. They barely saw a reduction in salary. Tenure 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:45.960 had just started to have pole and colleges navigating student 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:49.280 enrollment drops held on to top teachers to impress new recruits. 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:52.160 Driven home by a huge drop in the cost of living, 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:55.960 children like Robert grew up in relative comfort. This placed 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:59.360 him in a fortunate position in late ninety one. But 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:03.200 as we're learning about this period in history, nothing promises 0:04:03.240 --> 0:04:07.080 smooth sailing when a country goes to war. And so 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:11.120 now from his home in Wolfboro, New Hampshire, but slow 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:25.440 and fit, and spend some time with Robert Hansen. My 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:29.400 name is Robert Hansen, and I was born on a 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:35.800 very famous day now eight fifteen, nineteen three, the day 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:40.960 the Japanese surrender. My dad came from a family that 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:45.200 come to the United States through Nova Scotia. He's a 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:49.200 very brilliant guy. He went to have a business school 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:54.440 that he started out in Cambridge, Bath. My mother was 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:58.920 born in Chicago. There were three boys and three years 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:05.080 of those family. I saw both stirring the depression. Here 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:09.360 was my dad a professor at the Harvard Business School 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:14.480 and m I t at that time Harvard financially and 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:18.760 everything said about it as wealthy as anybody comes. Mother 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:22.240 was able to kind of sit back with two days. 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:26.800 This was almost a fairy tale life. Dad was joy 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:30.920 so well. And our neighbors, many of them work are 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:35.880 the edge of Banqueptcy had gone down. Crupp people come 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:39.120 to the host and tried to figure out if there 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:42.600 was some way Dad could help. So he devoted a 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:46.320 lot of his spare time on this because he felt 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:50.840 so strongly. Most people don't understand how horrible it was. 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:54.840 As a result, he met a lot of people of 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:58.960 all kinds coming out of Europe, and some of them 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:06.680 came off to I was asleep when the explosion came. 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:11.320 The terrific force pitched me down on the floor. Immediately 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:14.360 there was a complete black I couldn't see to collect anything, 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:17.680 not even my life jacket. I just think they remember 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:26.040 hearing two detonations almost simultaneously. On September three, nine, the 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:30.440 British passenger ship Athenia left Liverpool heading to Montreal with 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:35.360 dred passengers, including five hundred Jewish refugees, four hundred plus 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:40.520 Canadian citizens, and three hundred from the US. That same evening, 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:45.600 German submarine Youth thirty fire two torpedoes at Athenia, and 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:51.080 one exploded into her port side at m The following morning, 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:57.920 Athenia sank Stern. First one hundred and twelve of those 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:03.239 aboard perished. Britain had declared war on Germany only hours 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:06.760 before Athenia was hit a response to Hitler's invasion of 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:11.000 Poland two days before get At the Nurnberg Trials years later, 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:14.280 the commander of that submarine would say hitting Athenia was 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:17.880 an honest mistake. Her port windows were dark and she 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:21.280 was sailing in a suspicious zig zag pattern, and so 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:25.080 he had thought her an armed auxiliary ship. But Athenia's 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:29.880 cloaked sailing style was intentional, because aggression doesn't come out 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:34.480 of nowhere. Right Jews were fleeing Europe ships had been 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:37.840 warned not to sail, and stateside, those in the know 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:41.080 had long been nervous about aggressive vessels treading near our 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:47.120 eastern shores. Those of means could do something about it. 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:51.520 The hands and family moved to up and coming Wolfboro, 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:55.160 New Hampshire during Robert's teen years, to avoid potential calamity 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:58.680 in Boston. That's where he would meet those Europeans resettling 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:01.480 in New England. He just mentioned. I loved athletes like 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:05.600 Austrian skier Hun Schneider and Yucca mccola, a Finnish Olympic 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:08.520 truck star who would then coach at Harvard with an 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:12.559 Ivy League father. And such connections Robert's future would seem 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:22.200 to be open wide before him, we had a ski 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:25.960 club in both pro I became quite a good scare 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:32.160 wants a racist locally, and when I graduated, I applied 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:35.920 to Darkness the boy. I was zipped right into Darkness. 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:40.400 I went to dark with as a freshman in nineteen 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:45.439 forty one. Everything was tense, but they dreamt of it. 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.719 If he happening. People that did with my father. It's 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:54.439 all these older people. December seventh, nineteen forty one, it 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:58.000 was a Sunday and a group of us decided that 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:01.600 we'd like to go to the Wound. We were active 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:04.320 the rich on the afternoon. I can't tell you now 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:07.520 the name of it, but when I came out of 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:15.000 the movie to town had erupted, especially with all the 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:17.880 fellows in school, A lot of them right there in 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:23.200 there practically packed up and left and listen. So here 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:26.319 I was not knowing what was going on, but I 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:28.959 knew I was going to be going. I knew I 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:32.240 wanted to go, but I knew I wanted to ski. 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:40.360 Three weeks after, I was at a Cannon Mountain with 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:43.719 the kids ski team and we had the bumpin all 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:47.400 to ourselves. I feel you hey, that have the whole 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:52.080 mountain to myself. I'm going to enjoy you. I enjoyed 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:57.040 it quarter of the way down. My thought is nebs. 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:00.800 Then I flew through the year fifty a t feet 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:07.000 and he hit a pine tree. When they exported me, 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:13.640 I had broken my patella in fibula. Here I was 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:19.120 with a broken leg, feeling sorry for myself. What's gonna happen? 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:24.439 As far as the Service was concerned, along game an 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:28.120 Army recruiter. He said, hey, we can help you out. 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:31.240 We can get you in the Mountain Troops. Whether he 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:34.520 is ski or not. We're gonna pick you own the 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:37.840 University of Answered where they've got an our ow TC. 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:44.400 So I started training for the Mountain Troops. We skied 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:49.600 against our president. The team was undefeated and lo would behold. 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:55.640 We beat present. We eat at the national championship. A 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:59.000 Navy recruiter shows up in New Hampshire. How would you 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:01.880 like to go to schools some more and ski for 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:04.880 the Navy. We send in your orders and you're going 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:11.920 to Middlebury College. They had just established apeach Well Navy program. 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.040 A lot of these college programs who were to save 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.839 the colleges because they were losing all their men and 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:23.040 some women going in the service. We were just like 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:27.800 college student. We ate in the vessels and every except 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:30.960 we were an active duty in the morning. Re believe 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:34.400 we have to get up to gown per informations, doing 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:38.480 stuff like that between classes. I went through the season 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:45.400 there and I was transferred to Columbia University Naval Midshipments School. 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:50.400 Mid shipment that means you've qualified to train to be 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:53.280 an office. I said, I want to go with the 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:57.680 t keyboards and I got picked for pe keyboard training 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:02.400 at Newport Rhode Island. All offices there. This was the 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:07.400 first third of untour. So now I get to San 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:13.120 Francisco Courts with brand new transport strip to Southwest Pacific. 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:17.760 We went across the equator and we landed in the 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:22.840 island off Australia. I was put on the small freighter 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:27.360 chugging up and down New Guineas coast through the islands. 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:30.559 I got on a better ship to the tip of 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:35.120 New Guinea and there was at boards quarter right away. 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:40.760 I was assigned as an executive officer on board PT two, 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:44.439 so we bet the skipper right away he had to 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:48.120 be running the boat. It was just like a dance. 0:12:56.400 --> 0:13:00.240 Those college programs Robert was recruited for often involved public 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:03.880 relations like duties where the uniformed athletes would show their 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:08.079 stuff at eventsment to inspire patriotism and progress. He was 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:11.479 housed in brand new barracks on campus, stocked with amenities, 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:15.240 and overseen by two Chief Petty Officers. So what does 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:18.080 the shift to p TEA boats really mean for bob 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:22.920 our Coastguard gunners mate Frank Tavita left his attack transport ship, 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:26.360 the Samuel Chase, to help mana Higgins boat on d Day, 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:28.800 and Higgins boats were one of the two most common 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:31.800 styles of pets the Navy and Coastguard would employ through 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:35.959 the war and that major European offensive. The massive fleet 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:39.000 of flat bottomed boats like Frank's were thirty six ft long, 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:42.000 made of plywood with a steel ramp, and could pack 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:45.840 in around thirty six fully armed troops. Because they were small, 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:50.240 the value of PTE boats were initially underestimated. Outside of 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:54.200 these short, fast maneuvers, What could a tiny motorized torpedo 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:59.319 boat accomplish against massive destroyers and battleships? Right, It's exactly 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:02.920 because they were small, vast, and cheap to make or 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:06.360 I lose that PETS would become a mosquito like force 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:10.120 in the Pacific. After the break, we follow Robert through 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:36.720 some high speed combat. There you're listening to service veteran 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:39.960 stories of hunger and war from my heart radio. I'm 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:43.760 Jacqueline Proposo and we're here with Navy Lieutenant Robert Hansen 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:48.960 on PTO operating off of more Thai Island. More Thai 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:51.680 is one of the Maluku Islands, also known as the 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:54.960 Spice Islands, which we'll get into later, an archipelago of 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:57.920 the Indonesian Islands, with Papua New Guinea to the south 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:01.520 and the Philippines to the north. By our entry in 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:05.040 late nineteen forty one, Japan had occupied the majority of 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:09.040 these Central and Southeast Pacific islands, which threatened our ally 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:13.280 British colonized Australia and our ability to transport troops and 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:17.560 materials for invasions in Japan. Around the time Bob was 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:20.960 joining the fight, the Japanese had lost many battleships and 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:24.600 the capture and recapture of dozens of these islands, and 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:28.080 so they turned to transporting troops and supplies on barges 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:32.880 low dark vessels that were slow but could easily camouflage 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:36.560 when docked tight in shallow waters beside an island. They 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:39.840 weren't that big, but they could carry a lot. One 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:43.640 nineteen forty four intelligence report estimates one barge could carry 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:47.120 a day's rations for six thousand, two hundred Japanese soldiers, 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:50.680 and they were armored, which gave the p TEA boats 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:54.560 a run for their money the cousin contrast, Let's remember 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:58.440 that the p TEA boats were made out of wood mahogany. Usually, 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:01.720 their ability to act as radar was limited, and so 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:05.840 crew basically patrolled open waters looking for targets with binoculars. 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:09.520 And while the eighty foot el Co PTE two was 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:12.960 equipped with two torpedo launching racks of forty millimeter deck 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:16.680 gun and two anti aircraft guns. When they found a barge, 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:18.960 they would have to get really close to the enemy 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:22.920 to spray and then speed away, and they'd splinter if 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:26.240 they took on enemy fire. The crew under Navy Lieutenant 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:30.320 John F. Kennedy would notoriously swim eleven hours to safety 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:33.320 after their PT one O nine was shredded around the 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:37.640 Solomon Islands. So here we are with our lieutenant Hansen, 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:41.640 one of fourteen men on PTE two in Squadron eleven, 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:45.960 part of the Mosquito fleet, right across from Japanese occupied 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:58.560 Halmahara Island as four slips into nineteen forty five. At 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:01.960 that point they were six see thousands Japs further across 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:05.720 from us, and they were constantly trying to get over 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:12.000 in sabotage. Atnything of our stuff? Was it d at night? 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:15.640 You were busy running into these damn barges, and heaven 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:26.600 shoot them. You'd make a run because we could go 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:31.600 fat and they could not go fat. We were out 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:35.200 of this night patrol. We're making a run in the 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:38.960 dark like the Japanese that cloth to make us silhouetted. 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:46.399 So the tip and we've found a bard who were 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:51.879 making one's trying to stop the kill of whatever severer 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:55.080 was that the weird I was standing right next year 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:59.640 all of us are there, is said, have hit down, 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:04.000 and I grabbed form. He was bleak, and I was 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:07.840 as ship. I had to step in and I pushed 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:13.800 the problems right to see what had happened. We stopped 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:17.000 with the far off away. A couple of other guys 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:20.000 have been here. We didn't have doctors. We didn't have 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:22.560 anything on these small boats. And he said, the hell 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:25.040 of it. I'm going to give him back, but maybe 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:28.159 he'll live. I told the great iron man, give me 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:34.080 a course straight back to the base. How the boy, 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:38.639 the sun came up every We're going like hell, and 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:42.440 in the excitement you forgot to reach that was out there. 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:45.800 And I happened to look over the side nice and 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:50.160 holy shot, we haven't going forty five miles an hour. 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:54.560 Oh my god, we've been are here and the only 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:58.000 thing that saved us is the boat had gone from 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:01.760 fever flat. A little water to raise up. We need 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:05.560 to hit a m fing. We pulled into the base, 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:14.000 the dambulus everything and they flew about. Boats came over 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:17.560 and he says, we just had one fade jelly, it's 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:22.280 free of flour wounded. Congratulations, you are now the skipper 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:31.720 pt What did you do? As skipper? Bob would make 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:34.800 nightly strafing like runs on the barges for the remaining 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:37.840 months of the war. During the day, he'd play a 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:41.120 little on top of nailing wooden boards together to teach 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:43.639 men how to water ski. He'd get to know the 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:47.879 locals food wise, the tropical Molucas Islands are known for 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:52.760 their abundance of local fish, obviously, and they're growing of cocoa, coconuts, 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:56.680 canary nuts, and sego, the starchy pulp of a particular 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:59.639 palm trunk that dries into a flower or tapioca like 0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:03.080 per rolls. This region of Indonesia was also dubbed the 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:06.320 Spice Islands for their wealth of nutmeg, so prized in 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:10.760 earlier centuries for its medicinal properties that wars were repeatedly 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:16.720 waged against the native islanders by Portuguese, English, and Dutch colonizers. Notoriously, 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:19.880 the British gave up neighboring Banda Island to the Dutch 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:23.240 in trade for Manhattan. That's how much nutmeg was worth 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:27.040 in sixteen seventy seven. But this doesn't exactly mean the 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:30.280 almost one point four million Navy personnel in the Pacific 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:34.119 at this time we're feasting on local delicacies, as we 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:36.919 heard in our episode with Chief Petty Officer William Walker, 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:40.040 who was overseeing supply holds onboard ship in the Pacific. 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:44.320 At the same time, bugs often infested flour during transport 0:20:44.880 --> 0:20:48.120 the powdered eggs. All of our veterans remember hating extended 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:51.919 to the powdered potatoes sailors eight on Island cleverly renamed 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:56.560 as snow flaked potatoes on holiday menus milk was dehydrated 0:20:56.640 --> 0:21:00.320 to the canned foods, which we've heard kept in rooving 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:03.560 over the course of the war would often arrive glazed 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:07.720 with an odor that didn't exactly inspire an appetite. Sea. 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:10.920 Russian innovation was not so progressed that it could guarantee 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:14.840 flavor and freshness against the Pacific's heat and humidity, and 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:18.800 so spam became a sailor's major meat staple, and eating 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:21.359 it sometimes three times a day meant a total one 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:24.520 million cans of the stuff circulated there through the war, 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:28.280 passed with those powdered eggs for breakfast, fried into sandwiches 0:21:28.720 --> 0:21:33.480 stewed with tomato sauce. This is why, as everywhere anything 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:38.200 fresh or flash frozen was prized. While Navy ships had freezers, 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:41.840 pte boats barely had a galley kitchen, only enough space 0:21:41.920 --> 0:21:44.920 to make the crew sandwiches and coffee. Really, and base 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:47.680 camps relied on what ships like Williams could barrel through 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:50.840 the dangerous waters to them. As we heard from our 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:54.359 Coastguard Gunner's mate Frank Tavita. If anyone was getting the 0:21:54.400 --> 0:21:58.160 fresh stuff, it was the officers, and William remembers fresh 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:01.200 eggs and beer as special actions for when those with 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:04.840 particular brass came aboard. What does this all mean for 0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:13.920 Lieutenant Hansen? The food I was getting, we were offsites. 0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:17.840 We were eating like kids. None of us were starting 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:21.239 the opposite, and none of the enlisted windows. All right, 0:22:22.040 --> 0:22:25.480 anything not frozen. We were getting a good, better and 0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:30.520 different unfrozen can dates by the barrel road. We were 0:22:30.640 --> 0:22:34.000 so used to it. Everybody else was eating it. The 0:22:34.080 --> 0:22:39.040 food didn't bother me. But through this I'd love to 0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:42.240 ride that page every time we got a chance to 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:44.960 get out and think the crew because they enjoyed it 0:22:45.320 --> 0:22:47.680 and they loved the wall and try and beg from 0:22:47.720 --> 0:22:50.720 the ship looking for the fresh stop. We were trying 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:53.720 to help the datives that were helping us, and they 0:22:53.800 --> 0:22:57.000 were helping us all the time. Extra foods that we 0:22:57.119 --> 0:23:00.920 would scrown, we'd give it away. In truth, most of 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:04.000 the time the guys who not give them frozen food, 0:23:04.280 --> 0:23:08.160 they'd give them damned food. And the datas were typl 0:23:08.680 --> 0:23:13.119 to get anything. Every time we were giving it to 0:23:13.240 --> 0:23:16.560 the datas. I would get a chance to talk with them, 0:23:17.160 --> 0:23:19.879 most of to speak a word of English. But what 0:23:20.240 --> 0:23:25.959 fascinated me was all the mahogany card stuff. They always 0:23:26.040 --> 0:23:33.040 had statues, alligators, the most beautiful carving. You couldn't believe it. 0:23:33.200 --> 0:23:38.600 I couldn't believe it. These guys also were diving, and 0:23:38.760 --> 0:23:42.200 they dove to depths. We couldn't think of diving too. 0:23:42.720 --> 0:23:46.640 The dive for pearls. Who dive for food, They spearfish. 0:23:47.119 --> 0:23:50.560 They did everything. I'd ate a couple of times just 0:23:50.720 --> 0:23:54.240 to please them, and they knew it. They just plut cocoa. 0:23:54.320 --> 0:23:57.280 That's what we drink, cocad and milk. We would treat 0:23:57.320 --> 0:24:00.080 it at like kings. I tried to teach them the 0:24:00.200 --> 0:24:06.760 same way, because they had no reason not to. Then, 0:24:06.960 --> 0:24:14.639 one night of this nineteen forty fun we were in patrol. 0:24:15.800 --> 0:24:19.160 O kid that goes out of the radio, Mr Hanson, 0:24:19.400 --> 0:24:24.440 there's a broadcast. Are now right now? Effort issued in 0:24:24.520 --> 0:24:29.920 a conditional surrender, so the war is over. I said, 0:24:30.040 --> 0:24:33.480 you gotta be kidding. Get every god day, have a 0:24:33.520 --> 0:24:40.160 piece of ammunition out. You've gotta fire everything we got's 0:24:40.240 --> 0:24:44.800 never seen the fourth in your life the war is over. 0:24:51.680 --> 0:24:54.280 Robert lingered after v J Day while they figured out 0:24:54.359 --> 0:24:56.960 what to do with all of those pt boats. Then 0:24:57.359 --> 0:25:00.160 a mischievous e wall escapade landed him on a out 0:25:00.240 --> 0:25:02.800 home to the Pearl Harbor base. You can hear the 0:25:02.840 --> 0:25:05.399 full clip of that caper on his page at Service 0:25:05.440 --> 0:25:09.399 podcast dot org. From that point forward, his life was 0:25:09.480 --> 0:25:13.840 filled with more serendipitous opportunities. While at the naval base 0:25:13.880 --> 0:25:16.800 in Pearl Harbor, he got an interview with Vice Admiral 0:25:16.920 --> 0:25:20.720 Charles Wellborn, who was looking for a new aid. Despite 0:25:20.760 --> 0:25:24.480 wanting to get back to civilian freedom, Bob recognized the opportunity, 0:25:25.080 --> 0:25:28.639 took the position, and spent the following year's shuttling government 0:25:28.680 --> 0:25:32.280 personnel to Asia, participating in the Korean War and then 0:25:32.280 --> 0:25:35.640 the Cuban Missile Crisis, which qualified him for service in Vietnam. 0:25:36.400 --> 0:25:39.400 With a family of three children, he officially retired from 0:25:39.400 --> 0:25:44.920 the Navy in n Throughout all of this, Who remembers 0:25:45.000 --> 0:25:48.320 the keeping people down he witnessed in various social and 0:25:48.400 --> 0:25:51.879 economic spheres. He says it would tick him off that 0:25:52.040 --> 0:25:54.720 black men like William could only get positions of manual 0:25:54.800 --> 0:25:57.720 labor in the Navy, and he spoken loudly about that 0:25:57.840 --> 0:26:00.920 disparity whenever his service story has been and requested. Since 0:26:01.440 --> 0:26:03.360 you can hear a little about that in part two 0:26:03.440 --> 0:26:06.880 of our episode, Dad, I can't talk about it. While 0:26:06.920 --> 0:26:10.159 at General Motors outside of Detroit, who remembers pointing out 0:26:10.240 --> 0:26:12.560 to skeptical white people that the black men who made 0:26:12.640 --> 0:26:16.080 up two thirds of the workforce there largely drove Cadillacs 0:26:16.160 --> 0:26:19.000 because they made good money but couldn't buy homes or 0:26:19.160 --> 0:26:22.400 land in that part of Michigan. Volunteering with the Red 0:26:22.440 --> 0:26:25.360 Cross both in the Pacific and in Michigan, he fought 0:26:25.440 --> 0:26:27.280 to get a black doctor on the all white board 0:26:27.320 --> 0:26:30.800 of directors back in Wolfborow. Years later, he took a 0:26:30.880 --> 0:26:33.359 local argument all the way to Washington to get their 0:26:33.400 --> 0:26:35.920 town hall updated to code. With the Americans with the 0:26:35.960 --> 0:26:40.040 Disabilities Act. Now ninety six years old, he's fighting for 0:26:40.200 --> 0:26:44.080 elder care rights. Our two interviews were peppered with examples 0:26:44.119 --> 0:26:47.200 of his challenging authority to uphold equal rights and his 0:26:47.320 --> 0:26:49.879 speaking up angrily when such things were tossed in the 0:26:49.960 --> 0:26:54.359 rubbish bin. This is also why Bob, like William, doesn't 0:26:54.440 --> 0:26:57.560 care to talk that much about food. He's seen the 0:26:57.640 --> 0:27:02.320 highbrow and the rancid and eats to live. A common 0:27:02.400 --> 0:27:05.159 refrain from our greatest generation veterans is that they were 0:27:05.200 --> 0:27:07.800 grateful to have food at all, and it's funny to 0:27:07.920 --> 0:27:10.720 hear how their memories of military cuisine might be a 0:27:10.840 --> 0:27:15.320 bit rose colored by time and such appreciation because Hormel 0:27:15.440 --> 0:27:18.000 took a lot of backlash from g I's after their 0:27:18.040 --> 0:27:22.560 overeating of spam. Evidently, the recipe packed into six pound 0:27:22.680 --> 0:27:25.360 cans for the military was slightly different than the pork 0:27:25.440 --> 0:27:28.520 shoulder and ham combo vacuum sealed into the twelve pounds 0:27:28.520 --> 0:27:32.120 commercial version, and it didn't taste as good. Troops used 0:27:32.160 --> 0:27:34.439 the grease from it to oil down weapons and shine 0:27:34.480 --> 0:27:38.760 their hair. Consumption dropped significantly on the home front. Post war, 0:27:39.480 --> 0:27:42.760 spam ceilings had long been hit and as well here 0:27:42.800 --> 0:27:45.920 in upcoming seasons. The military would soon start working with 0:27:46.000 --> 0:27:48.800 one hundred and sixty six private companies within a year 0:27:48.920 --> 0:27:51.960 after the war ended to both better combat cuisine and 0:27:52.280 --> 0:27:56.720 innovate convenience foods for the American kitchen. In our next episode, 0:27:57.080 --> 0:28:00.360 Ray Boutwell, a Navy cook stationed in New Jersey, we'll 0:28:00.359 --> 0:28:03.119 guide us through some of the progress already being tested 0:28:03.160 --> 0:28:05.680 at Base Camp Stateside towards the end of the war. 0:28:06.640 --> 0:28:09.480 Until then, you can find more about all the nerdy 0:28:09.520 --> 0:28:12.400