Interview with Mr. Robert Ladendorf
[b. 11/06/27]
Recorded on 09/27/08
[00:00:00]
[Today is Saturday, September 27th, 2008. I am Hannah Ladendorf and I am interviewing Mr. Robert Bernard Ladendorf at 12723 Portage Way Fishers, Indiana. Mr. Ladendorf is my grandfather. Mr. Ladendorf is 80 years old and was born on November 6th, 1927. Mr. Ladendorf served in World War II. Mr. Ladendorf was in the United States Navy and held the following rank of construction mechanic.]
[0:00:36.3]
HL: Were you drafted or did you enlist?
Robert Ladendorf: I enlisted.
HL: Where were you living at the time?
RL: Burlington, Vermont
HL: Why did you join?
RL: Because the World was at war and I wanted to do my part
HL: Why did you pick the service branch you joined?
RL: Because I wanted to join the Navy ever since I was about eight years old.
HL: Do you recall your first days in service?
RL: Oh yes, yes.
HL: What did it feel like?
RL: Well, everything was what I expected it to be because I had older friends who had joined the Navy and they told me what to expect.
HL: Tell me about your boot camp or training experience.
RL: Well—actually, — it was I only had I think two weeks or two and a half weeks of boot training and it was more or less of just to acclimate me with the Navy’s way of doing things.
HL: How did you get through it?
RL: Everything was what I expected to be, so I got along fine.
HL: You served in World War Two, where exactly did you go?
RL: Well, my first duty assignment was on a brand new light cruiser that was just— just, made. It was the U.S.S. Little Rock and so we went on our shake down cruise, (which all new ships had to go on a shake down cruise) where they put the ship through its stresses to see if it— if nothing’s wrong with it.
HL: Did you remember arriving to the ship? What was it like?
RL: Oh, yeah. It was different than boot camp for sure, but it was actually a lot better too because— well, we knew that we were going to be on the ship until the end of the war, so we settled in very well.
HL: What was your job assignment?
RL: Mostly cleaning and painting the ship.
HL: Did you see any attacks while on the ship?
RL: No.
HL: Were you awarded any medals or citations?
RL: Yeah, I was awarded the World War II Victory Medal, the American Theater Medal, the China Service Medal, Asiatic Pacific Medal.
HL: Do you remember how you received them?
RL: Well, I received them all like everyone else did when they give your medals when they discharge you.
HL: How did you stay in touch with your family?
RL: Just by mail, it was very slow.
[0:05:43.47]
HL: What was the food like?
RL: The food was good, very good.
HL: Do you remember how many kinds of food you received and on some days did you not receive the regular amount of food?
RL: No, we had a regular amount of food everyday.
HL: Did you have plenty of supplies?
RL: Yes.
HL: Did you feel pressure or stress?
RL: No, neither one.
HL: Was there something special you did for “good luck”?
RL: No [laughs].
HL: How did people entertain themselves?
RL: Well, mostly movies and we had movies on the ship whenever the weather was good because we had them on the deck of the ship. So, if you had rainy weather we couldn’t have movies.
HL: Were there entertainers?
RL: No.
[0:06:57.034]
HL: What did you do when on leave?
RL: Well, sometimes we go to the USO and sometimes we just go fishing or go swimming.
HL: Where did you travel while in the service?
RL: Oh my, I have been to the seventeen major ports of South America— on a good will tour. During World War II that was about where I traveled really.
HL: Do you recall any particularly humorous or unusual events?
RL: Not really.
HL: Do you recall any of the pranks that you or others would pull?
RL: It was against Navy regulations to pull pranks, any.
HL: What did you think of officers or fellow soldiers?
RL: I got along with them fine, all of them.
HL: Did you keep a personal diary?
RL: No.
HL: Do you recall the day your service ended?
RL: Yes.
HL: Where were you?
RL: Boston, Massachusetts.
HL: What did you do in the days and the weeks afterward?
RL: After I got discharged? I got a job at Bell Aircraft in Burlington, Vermont as a machinist.
HL: Did you make any close friendships in the service?
RL: Yes, I had several good friends. One who, one fellow, who lived in Minnesota, used to come down and go fishing with me every spring. He passed away but he must have been down and fished with me about thirty times. And that was my best friend in the Navy.
[0:09:28.21]
HL: Did you join the Veteran’s Organization?
RL: Yeah, I joined the American Legion.
HL: What did you go on to do as a career after the war?
RL: I was a heavy equipment mechanic.
HL: Did your military experience influence your thinking about war or about the military in general?
RL: No, not really.
HL: What kinds of activities does your post or association have in your Veteran’s Organization?
RL: Well, they help veterans and they have baseball teams all over the country that they have and they help all different kinds of places.
HL: How did your service and experience affect your life?
RL: Well, I didn’t have a job or a— anyway, the Navy taught me. They sent me to schools to be a mechanic. In fact, I went to three or four different schools that helped me in civilian life because I was able to get a job as a journeyman mechanic right away when I got discharged.
HL: Is there anything you would like to add that we did not cover in this interview?
RL: No, I don’t know of anything else.
HL: Were you drafted or did you enlist in the Korean War?
RL: I enlisted, I re-enlisted is what I did.
HL: Where were you living at the time?
RL: Whiting, Indiana.
HL: Why did you join?
RL: Well, I knew we were going to war, again, so I joined because I wanted to get the construction job and because I knew it would help me when the war was over.
HL: Why did you pick the service branch you joined?
RL: I picked the service because well that’s about the same answer that I just gave you, I knew that it would the construction work and it would help me for when the war was over.
[0:14:29.3]
HL: Do you recall your first days in the service?
RL: Gosh, I remember them.
HL: What did it feel like entering a new war?
RL: It’s just — [pause]
HL: Tell me about your book camp or training experience if you had to go through any.
RL: I didn’t, I had to go through construction mechanic schools, and so I didn’t have any boot training.
[0:15:14.67]
HL: You served in the Korean War and where exactly did you go?
RL: I spent about a year and five months, I think it was, in China and I spent thirteen months on Midway Island and in both of those places I was doing construction work. And let’s see, where else. I went on a repair ship and assisted mechanics aboard the ship to overhaul submarine engines at sea.
HL: What was your job assignment?
RL: My job assignment was to repair engines and bulldozers— all different kinds of heavy equipment.
HL: On the ships, did you see any attacks?
RL: No.
HL: What were some of your most memorable experiences?
RL: Well, I guess the time I spent in China because it was completely different world from what I was use to living in.
HL: Were you awarded any medals or citations?
RL: Well, yes. Some of the medals I told you about before like the China Service Medal that came with this endorsement and also the Asiatic Pacific Medal come from that.
HL: How did you receive them?
RL: Just by being there.
HL: How did you stay in touch with your family?
RL: Mail.
HL: Was the food any different from the previous war?
RL: No, it was very good. The food was always good.
HL: Did you have plenty of supplies?
RL: Yes, plenty.
HL: Did you feel pressure or stress?
RL: No.
HL: How did people entertain themselves?
RL: Well, we had a football team that we, some of us played football and others watched.
[0:18:52.36]
HL: What did you do when on leave?
RL: On leave, well I when I was able to I would go home, but it didn’t happen very often.
HL: Where did you travel while in the service?
RL: I traveled, let’s see, I was in the sea bees it was seventeen major ports of South America that I went to, that I told you about before. I went down as far as Antarctica and all over the South Pacific.
HL: What were you doing traveling as far as Antarctica?
RL: Well, we went down there because we went on Good Will Tour of South America. And we were down there and there hadn’t been a Navy ship that went around Cape Horn since the 1930’s and that’s a big thing in a sailor’s life going around Cape Horn. So we went around Cape Horn came back through the Straits of Magellan, and back around Cape Horn again. And then we went back up the Pacific side of South America and came through the [Panama] Canal.
HL: Do you recall any particularly humorous or unusual events?
RL: No, not really.
HL: What did you think of officers or fellow soldiers?
RL: I got along with all of them.
HL: Do you recall the day your service ended?
RL: Yes.
HL: Where were you?
RL: San Francisco Navy Shipyard.
HL: What did you do in the days and weeks afterwards?
RL: I went back home and got a job right away as a construction mechanic.
HL: Did you make any close friendships while in the service?
RL: Yes, I had several, not lasting ones really. We were always in small groups. We didn’t stay with the same people all the time.
HL: Did you join a veteran’s organization?
RL: Yes, the same thing, the American Legion.
[0:22:27.7]
HL: What did you go on to do as a career after this war (Korean)?
RL: I was a mechanic for a truck line for twenty-eight years and actually I ran four different shops in different places.
HL: How did your service and experience affect your life?
RL: Well, it affected my life positively because it gave me the experience to get a good job when I got out.
HL: Is there anything you would like to add that we did not cover in this interview?
RL: No, I don’t think so.
HL: What was your humorous story during this war?
RL: Well, I caught a fish while we were fishing one day and it rained I think it was sixteen grams and we had a fishing tournament on at the time and I won the plaque for the smallest fish caught.
HL: Do you still have this plaque?
RL: Yeah, it was from the Marshall Islands, just pretty close to the end of the war.
HL: Were you fishing during your leave time?
RL: No, I was fishing in the evening right off the ship.
HL: When you were on board of The U.S.S. Little Rock, the U.S.S. Indianapolis sank during the time, what was the experience like?
RL: The experience was— we were at sea, nowhere near the [U.S.S.] Indianapolis, and our captain came aboard the loud speaker and told us that the [U.S.S.] Indianapolis was sunk in the morning. It was hard for all of us to believe because we were told before that the Japanese had no submarines left. Well they did have one, that the Navy didn’t know about, and that’s the one that sunk the Indianapolis and so we just all said a prayer for everyone and like I said, we were way too far to help them at all. They were in another part of the Pacific.
HL: When was your first initial decision to join the war?
RL: Well, I wanted to join the war ever since Pearl Harbor, but I was much too young so I had to wait until I was seventeen before I could join.
HL: Do you remember your reaction to Pearl Harbor?
RL: Yeah, the reaction was terrible. I was remember we were just sitting down to Sunday dinner when we got the news on the radio and we couldn’t believe what was happening over there and especially after the next few days when we got the pictures of what had happened. It was not very nice.
[0:27:16.86]
HL: Can you describe the U.S.S. Little Rock?
RL: It was a ship that had the main artillery guns that were six inch 47’s, which is a very powerful gun. My job on that ship was to send projectiles from the bottom of the ship, up through an elevator, up to the place where they would put the powder on the ramp and put in the shell there and jam them in the guns, and that’s they would fire the guns. So it was one of the better ships of the Navy.
HL: What type of ship was it?
RL: Light cruiser.
HL: What is a light cruiser?
RL: Light cruiser is a ship of the line— could be used for or made to guard the aircraft carriers and around 2,000 men were ship’s company.
HL: Did you ever feel frightened by the kamikazes?
RL: No, I never did.
HL: Did you have any top-secret jobs while in the Navy?
RL: Yes, I had a job the Yucca Flats in Nevada with the Atomic Energy Commission where we tested A-Bombs.
[0:30:18.1]
HL: What was the experience like?
RL: It was terrible really. The heat from the blast was awful.
HL: Where were you during the testing?
RL: Approximately a half a mile from the actual drop site of the bomb.
HL: It (the bomb testing) was in a pretty vacant area, correct?
RL: Yes, it was in a desert, Nevada desert.
HL: Were you behind any trenches?
RL: Yes, we had deep trenches and we had all kinds of clothing on to protect us.
HL: What was your main job while viewing the atomic bomb?
RL: I was a lead mechanic for all our heavy equipment that we had there. We had all kinds of bulldozers and turnapoles, all kinds of heavy equipment and what our job was to take the heavy equipment and keep skimming the ground after the blast and see how far we had to dig down before you didn’t have any exposure in the soil. Our clothing was tested every night for our degree of roentgens of exposure you had to the atom bomb. We eventually got to the point here we couldn’t get don far enough to say if it as safe so the Navy suspended the operation and reassigned all personnel to various places, that was my last tour of duty. I was discharged after seven years of service.
[0:33:18.6]
HL: Is there any scary experience you would like to talk about?
RL: Well, yeah, I would. When I was in China I was walking back to the barracks one night and a bunch of Chinese soldiers came and put a bayonet right in my stomach and held me up against the stone fence and I was trying to tell that I was American. They took me down to their headquarters and released me in the morning. But that was kind of scary when it happened.
HL: Would you be considered a prisoner of war?
RL: No because we weren’t at war with China.
HL: Were you by yourself?
RL: I was by myself.
HL: That must have been a lot scarier than if you were with others?
RL: Oh yeah, definitely.
HL: After the China experience, where did you go?
RL: I went to Honolulu, Hawaii where we started up the arm service police and became a member of that. Well, we had one soldier and one Hawaiian policeman who were a team to patrol a certain area every night. My partner, we called him Tiny, of course, because he weighed about 350 pounds. But, we never had a problem. We’d find soldiers or sailors getting drunk and they didn’t give us a bad time when they looked at my partner.
[0:36:26.70]
HL: What did you do to prepare to get into the Navy?
RL: Well I was, underweight to join so a petty officer, who was a friend of mine, filled me up with milkshakes for about over a month. And everyday we’d go for a milkshake. I finally got to the point where I forgot how much you had to weigh. But, I was under whatever that was. Soon as I hit the, I think it was the 130 mark or something like that, I got to go to boot camp.
HL: What was your previous job before entering the Navy?
RL: I was a machinist for a company in East Chicago, Indiana.
HL: Did you work on an ore boat in on the Great Lakes?
RL: Yeah, I worked on an ore boat on the Great Lakes. For a long time, from when I was sixteen until I was seventeen and when I was seventeen I joined the Navy.
[0:38:37.45]
HL: What was your feeling about invading Japan?
RL: Well we were all concerned about invading Japan because of millions of people would have had died on both sides. The A-bomb that ended the war really saved a lot of lives by ending the war with the A-bomb, even though it killed an awful lot of people.
HL: What was the popular music during the time?
RL: Big bands.
HL: Returning from the war, what were the country’s impressions on the soldiers?
RL: It was very good; we were all treated as heroes.
HL: Where did you eat on the boat?
RL: We ate the mess hall.
HL: What was your march to the boat like during the Korean War?
RL: I’m sure your talking about when I was in China. Well, it wasn’t very nice. The people who were friendly to use for well over a year turned out to not be so friendly because they knew that the communist were going to take over the city. They wanted to be on our right side regardless of which one it is.
HL: Who were these people that you are referring to?
RL: The Nationalist Soldiers.
HL: Where were you stationed in China?
RL: Tsingtao, northern China.
HL: For your belongings, what did they consist of?
RL: Whatever was issued to you was your belongings, shoes, uniforms, everything that you need really.
HL: Were you given any certificates for passing the equator or rounding Cape Horn?
RL: Yes, you get a certificate for the equator, going around the equator and rounding Cape Horn. Both of them are very important in a sailor’s life.
HL: What was the United State’s Coast Guard Certificate about?
RL: Well this is a certificate you have to have to work on the ore boats on the Great Lakes. I worked on them for the year between my sixteenth birthday and my seventeenth. That’s what its for, but you can’t get a job on the ships if you don’t have that certificate.
HL: What is this Motor Vehicle Operator’s Permit?
RL: It’s actually a driver’s permit for Midway Island where I was— I had the right to run heavy equipment, tracks and cranes, D7 bulldozers, tract tractors, it’s a driver’s license is all it is really.
[0:43:41.78]
HL: What is this photograph of?
RL: That’s of boot camp form Sampson, New York in 1944. That was our graduating class from boot camp.
HL: Were you in boot camp in one place?
RL: No, there were boot camps all over the U.S.
HL: But where you only in one place?
RL: Yeah, Sampson, New York.
HL: Can you name any of the people in the picture?
RL: No.
HL: Can you explain these four certificates?
RL: Yes. One is just a certificate that I was on inactive duty in Navy Reserves and this is my discharge from the Navy Reserves because I re-enlisted in the regular Navy. This one is from World War Two and it has the ships that I was on during the war. It also has the other places I was stationed like dry docks in Boston. This one if from the Korean War. Just a discharge, really, from the Navy from the Korean War.
HL: What is this book The Making of a Sailor about?
RL: Well this is the book they give you when you go to boot camp and it tells you exactly what to expect from boot camp. It has very good information if you’re figuring on joining the Navy because it tells you exactly how it is.
HL: What’s this letter to your mother about?
RL: It’s a just a letter from the Chapel on the U.S.S. Little Rock sent to all the parents of the sailors to let them know if they’re coming home and pray for them.
[0:47:21.00]
