John Hakala oral history transcript

              John Hakala 1

John Hakala

Life story

Fish and Wildlife — April/May 1997

#Tape One#

John: “Well, I was born in Ironwood, Michigan, back in September 12,

1919, and at the time we were still — [living with my grandparents on my

mother’s side ] — my mother was taking care of my grandmother, who had

cancer — was seriously ill with cancer. So these are my early recollections.

Maybe I was a year and a half or going on two years old, you know. I was

fortunate to be born in the Newport Mining Company hospital, whereas my

older sister and some of my other siblings, they say they were born in a

sauna — my Grandfather’s sauna. [But I believe they were born at home —

wherever that was at the time.] Upon my Grandmother’s passing away, well,

ah — well, see, at that time my Dad was working in the mine, and so

therefore I had the opportunity of being born in a hospital — this mining

company hospital. And I guess while he was there, too, he was a — no, he

was taking a side course. He was [teaching himself] to be an electrician. And

this was in Newport location of Ironwood, and so during this period of time

he was also installing light poles and distributing power and wiring houses —

electrically wiring houses. (I’m gettin’ too involved in it!)”

Carol: “Oh, no! This is interesting!”

John: **{insert} “There were — five — five brothers and three sisters in

the family. One sister was the eldest, and I followed next. I remember when

— I must have been just at the crawling stage when my Grandfather used to

come in the house for his mid-morning break — in other words, he’d have a

second breakfast, which was around nine — mid-morning. And ah, I’d be

there crawling around. I recall crawling around, and one time he picked me

up, and he set me in the opposite chair to him at the table, and he said, “

From now on, you’re going to eat breakfast with ME!” So I remember what he

had — thinking back, I mean — what he had on that table. He had salt

salmon cut in squares; he had Finnish — what we called Rieska, it’s a flat

bread cut in long slices, and a pitcher of buttermilk, and a bowl of what the

Finns — Finnish people call felia — viilia, actually — is what today is known

as yogurt. One thing I remember about those mid-morning breaks with my

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Grandfather was that he taught me, also, to DRINK FRESH EGGS! That was

the main dish — set on the middle of the table — was a bowl of fresh

[chicken] EGGS! He’d break an end off the egg shell, he’d hold it in my

mouth, at first, when I was learning, and he told me to SUCK! [chuckle]

And there we’d sit and eat until [chuckle] until I couldn’t hold any more. And

then he’d set me back on the floor, and I’d go off on my way. And this

occurred day after day, and pretty soon I was — I must have been gaining

strength, because I was able to even crawl ONTO that chair. I didn’t have to

have him lift me.

Since that time, I’ve been very — what’s the word now? — PARTIAL

towards eggs. I recall when I had arrived at Elmendorf on December 7, 1942,

there was an indoctrination of the new crews. And we were invited over to

the — I forget whether it was just a mess-hall, or an officers’ club, or the

NCO club. But there, again, as part of the initiation ceremony, the ones who

were conducting this phase of it, had lined up glasses, and had a couple of

dozen eggs sitting on the table, and they broke these eggs into these

glasses, and then they poured in a jot of beer, and they told each of us, as

part of your initiation is to drink this. Which we did. And — I — LOVED it!!

[laugh] I asked for MORE. [laugh laugh chuckle] Ah, yeah, yeah.

What I really recollect is one day — it must have been 1920 or ‘21,

when my Uncle Dex — Edward Sarkella — had returned from the Hawaiian

Islands. He had served in the Panama District, and the Hawaiian Islands for

years and years, and he came home, and apparently he was very ill with

rheumatism — they called it rheumatism those days — they call it arthritis.

I recall hearing voices outside the [chuckle] place we were living. My

Grandfather had a huge sauna, which was double, you know — one side for

men, one side for women. In this mining district, well they all made their

“annual trek” to the steam-bath on Saturday night to get their pores open

from all this iron ore that they had in ‘em, you know? Well anyway, I heard

them — some activity going out there, and I snuck outa the house! I don’t

know if I was such a little kid I don’t know how I got out there, but I

wandered down, looking to see what was going on, and [laugh] there I saw

this huge barrel with my Uncle Dex’s head sticking out of it. He was sitting

on a stool in this barrel — this big wooden barrel, you know! [chuckle] And

then I heard — no! I heard the screech of a wheel barrow. And there comes

my Grandfather from around the back side of the barn. [gesturing] The cows

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were on this side, and the horses on the other side. So he comes from the

back side of the barn with a wheel-barrow load of horse manure! [laugh] And

he’s chuckling to himself, I guess, and I’m watching, and — see, this all

came back to me, now, in these recent months — just when I’ve been here by

myself.”

Carol: “Just thinkin’ about it, huh?”

John: “Well, I don’t know. From time long ago is more in my mind

than what’s present.

Well, anyway, he wheeled that barrow up to the barrel, and he lifted his

fork — I remember him lifting that fork, and sifting this ah — whatever he

had in that barrow, I assumed afterwards that it was — had to be manure,

you know. I mean, after I got to thinkin’ about it here. Then he — that’s

right, then he took two pails. He went into the sauna, and he came out with

this steaming water in these pails. He had unloaded that wheel-barrow first,

and then he came with those pails, and he poured that water in there, and I

remember, then, when he started laughing! His chuckle! His — it just rings

in my ears even today, you know? And then the next thing I knew, my Uncle

had turned around, and he saw me there! And he hollered to my Mother, you

know, he says, “Non-nie! Get that — whatever you want to call it — brat —

outa here!” [chuckle] Next thing I knew my Mother was FLYING outa the

door of the house, and grabbed me, and brought me in there, you know, and

PULLED down all the blinds, and everything! And here I’d go, sneaking

around and tryin’ to peek out again! [chuckle] She’d be there with a dish

cloth a-WHACKin’ me! [laugh] That’s my earliest recollection.” [laugh]

Carol: “That’s amazing! So what were they doing?”

John: “Well, they were gonna soak him in this ah — hot water to cure

his arth — to cure his rheumatism. And you know, as I recall afterwards, I

mean in later years, when I think back on it, he had no more rheumatism!

He was straight as a rod, and he’d — walk just like a soldier! He never never

had any problems with ah — so, I don’t know. Maybe that was a cure! [laugh]

Maybe that’s the cure I should take! [laugh] But where you gonna find the

horses?” [laugh]

Carol: “Oh! That’s GREAT! [laugh] And you were so curious!”

John: “Yeah! Yeah! Well, that was the bad part of it. I was too

curious all the time! So then my Grandmother passed away, and of course,

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my Grandfather immediately went to look for the second “Akka,” which is the

second wife. Three days he was back with one, you know!”

Carol: “THREE DAYS?”

John: “Well, he went to Washburn, Wisconsin, and he came back with

one. [laugh] So there can’t be two head — or what do you call them, in the

house — two main women, you know, controlling the house, of course all

three have to go. But by that time, I guess, my father had begun building a

place in Norrie — another location of Ironwood.”

Carol: “Were these his parents, or her parents?”

John: “Her parents. And we moved then to Norrie — as soon as the

new boss wife came, you know. What — oh, yes — that’s right — the reason

we actually DID move to Norrie was that my Dad had obtained a job as

teamster for the fire department. In those days they had — they pulled their

fire wagons and sleds with teams of horses. And I guess he had had

experience selling Watkins items, or whatever they call them, you know,

driving horses and that, so they figured that he’s eligible for the job. Or else

the politicians put him in, you know? As it usually works out.

But then the fire department in Norrie was located just opposite —

kitty-corner to the place where he was born and raised — the house he was

born and raised in! That was something that came to my mind, you know.

Although I have no recollection much — TOO much about the place itself.

But I remember the fire department, because that’s the first place I ambled

to, you know, being [chuckle] — from my HOME, when I got out the door,

well, I went over the hill to the fire department.”

Carol: “Wow! And you were still a little tiny guy!”

John: “Yeah. Well, I must have been going on two and a half years old

or something like that, you know. And [chuckle] (Oh, Golly!) ‘Course these

horses that they had, as I remember them NOW, they were really wild

horses! Holy smokers! They were — and here is a little brat wandering

around in there! I’d go up to where the firemen lived, you know, upstairs.

They had their pole that they’d come down when the bell rang, or whatever

the signal was. I remember going up there. My Dad told me, he said that ah,

“Any time that bell rings, you head for right there in that corner, and you

STAY there!” You know? So I’d watch what went on, and the bell would ring,

and he’d jump off, and he had his pants and his boots all ready so he’d —

when he came off the top bunk, his feet slipped right into his boots, you

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know, and he’d pull ‘em up, you know, and he’d throw his rubber jacket on,

and down the pole he’d go, and the next thing — by that time the horses

were all loose downstairs, and you’d hear ‘em rumbling and charging around,

and they were trained so they went under their harness. The harnessed drop

on ‘em, and they’d pull up a couple of straps, and the door would open, and

there he’d be with the whip, you know.

So after after — I forget how many months of this, I had gone there one

time when they were going to make a demonstration run — for TIME, see.

They were timing all the drivers. The three shifts that they had — or two

shifts, I forget what — what it was. But — and this was with the WHEELS —

the wagons with the WHEELS — this was in the summer time. And they had

this route down Pine Street, swing over on (what was it?) Ash, or something,

but then up Oak Street and back down to the fire house. But it was quite a

distance. And there was a cliff on two of these places that had just been

blasted through all this broken rock. There was no roadway where that went.

The road had turned off towards Ironwood, and this went straight down the

hill. But this demonstration — well, when I came in there, well my Dad was

there, and he — he stuck me under the front seat of the wagon — lifted me

up there, and he said, “Just stay there!” [laugh] And I recall, then, that

when that bell rang, and those HORSES came, and I was watchin’ this little-bit,

you know, and I saw that harness drop, and they strapped the horses in,

and the doors opened, and my Dad had the whip ready, and OFF he went! And

that wagon just s-S-SLID around that curve, you know, ninety degrees down

the road we went, those horses galloping as fast as they could, and then my

Dad turned around, and told me, he says, “Ring that BELL!” [laugh!] So I

was standing up there, ringing this bell! [laugh laugh]

We got to the — we went through this break in the cliff, you know,

where they had blasted all that [rock] out, and there was no roadway, just

bouncing over those sharp rocks, down to this other road, and when he

swung around THAT curve, that wagon just went, you know — I thought it

was gonna roll OVer — ‘course now when I think back on it, I — thought it

was gonna roll over. But it really SWUNG — so that the horses had to PULL

it to straighten in out. And down the road we went, and we had to make that

OTHER turn. Well, anyway, when we finally got up to the top of Oak Street,

well, the horses were ALL in FOAM! They were just galloping ALL OUT! Dad

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stopped just for a minute, he said to give ‘em a breather, and he handed me

on the ground. He says, “Go HOME.” [laugh]

He went around the corner, then back to the fire house. But he got the

best time! [laugh laugh] And he did this a couple of times in the winter, too,

you know, in the sleigh. Boy, when that SLEIGH slid around. . .”

Carol: “Oh! That’s what you mean about the WHEELS!”

John: “Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, golly!”

Carol: “Wow! Were they those big, big horses? Or were they regular

sized horses?”

John: “Oh, they were ah — well, I can’t recall, but they were — I don’t

know how they measure them in height, you know. I mean how many hands

high. But they were...”

Carol: “They weren’t the ones with the big feet.”

John: “Oh, no, no, no. Not the big feet. They were — they were more

or less streamlined horses — more like a racehorse instead of a draft horse.

Well anyway, my Dad always was greatly interested in the woods, and

he’d do a lot of trapping, and — on the side — hunting as a boy and as a

young man. And of course that got my interest, too. And ah — how was it

now? — we moved from — that’s right. My Dad finally bought a farm in

Ironwood township from my Mother’s Father. And it was just a — [chuckle]

the Finns always like to go where there’s ROCKS, you know. And this was

ALL ROCKS. That’s all I remember about the place is ROCKS! Rock bluffs,

rock everything, you know. And — well, we moved there in ‘27, I think it was.

And then — how old would that have made me?”

Carol: “You were probably eight.”

John: “Eight? Yeah. Eight, nine. Yeah, that’s right. Mm-hm. Then. .

.On the farm there, well, I started trapping muskrat. And I — that’s the way

I got most of my clothes. It was all during Depression years, you know.

There was no money. Dad had wired practically the whole township in

electricity, and nobody could pay him, so there was a big shortage of change,

you know? And the muskrat I trapped, I recall gettin’ just ten cents a skin

for ‘em. [laugh]”

Carol: “Oh MAN! [But] that was pretty good PAY in the Depression,

wasn’t it?”

John: “Well, I suppose it was then, but when you think back on it —

ten cents! — for forty skins, what was it? Four dollars? [laugh] I recall that

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forty skins one time I had! Well, anyway, that kept on directing me more or

less towards the woods, you know. And as I grew older, well, even in high

school, I started trapping coyote. But I’d have to travel forty miles to our

hunting place where I set out these traps, and the only way to get there was

by hitch-hiking, you know. But I got a few coyote, as I recall, in those high

school years, but then for the [Ironwood Junior] college, which was located

there at the Ironwood High School — a part of it at that time — although

they made a separate (see, I can’t think of the words again.) — they branched

it out into a new area, [and called it Gogebic Community College] — at the

present time. But I recall when I was going to the Junior College then, we

were earning maybe seven dollars and fifty cents a month. We had jobs —

during those Depression years, you know, it was all government service.

And, of course, they’d give — the treasurer of the college was always there

ready with his hand out to get that seven dollars and fifty cents! And I came

up twenty dollars short on my final counting for one year, you know? And so

I had this coyote line out there, but this was — ah — (what part of the

month was that?) It had to be in the Fall — mm-hm. Because I’d been

trappin’ that summer — running that coyote line. And I’d gone out there —

hitch-hiked out this forty miles, and hiked in to where my traps were, and I

came upon one trap that was sprung, and it had a dead coyote in it, but it

was so far gone already, that I didn’t figure I’d be able to get anything on it,

you know? So I put it all in a bag, and I carried it back to the road, and here

I was — in my pack-sack — and of course it smelled to high Heaven! So a car

happened to stop, and it was one of these older model cars, you know, with

the light bulb out here, where you could sling your strap over it, and I had it

just hanging on the fender. Well, I asked the fella first, if I could do this. I

said, “I’ve got a coyote here that I want to get the bounty on, if I can.” And

he happened to be a Forest Service man. And he drove me back, and let me

off at my drop-off point, and I talked with him all the way in, and that got an

interest in Forestry for me. I asked him a few questions, I guess, about what

his job was, and what he was doing, and he said cruising, and all this stuff,

you know. Setting up timber sales, and all that, and just — well, all the work

that he did. So that must have made an impression on me, because then

after I got this bounty collected — ‘course I had to wait MONTHS! And this

treasurer of the college, he was on me every week, you know. And I brought

him this slip of paper to show him that I had this commission with the state

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of Michigan for this twenty dollars, [laugh] but he couldn’t wait to get it, you

know! He was ready to kick me outa school! So finally it arrived, and I

dashed over there, and I says, “I hope you’re satisfied now! You don’t have

to worry about kickin’ me out this year, anyway.

Well then — that was in — I graduated in ‘40. ‘Course the war was

comin’ — or anyway expected. Anyway, the conditions were of that kind that

— well, I had had a buddy in college — at this community college — who, as

part of his course, at the community college, took flying as one of his

subjects. And, of course, he soloed and qualified as a pilot. We were pretty

close, so he said that he was putting in for the Flying Cadets. “John,” he

said, “well why don’t you try, too.” So I put in for the Flying Cadets. And this

was in the summer of 1940 — Yeah. Mm-hm. That’s right.

And then ah — come September he receives a notice that he’s to report

to — as a Flying Cadet to a certain base in St. Louis! I forget the name of

the little field that he went to. But here I’m left — waiting! I waited that

fall, I went — of course I was doing some trapping, too, trying to keep ahead

of the game. I had nothing else to fall back on. There was no work. I spent

that hunting season — well, that whole fall and that — up through

Christmas and into January mainly in the woods. I don’t know what I

derived out of it. I know I got my own deer, and all that. I lived on deer meat

for a while. But then when I came back to the farm, I could see that the

situation wasn’t changing, and that the war was looking more critical, so I

decided, I said, “I’m going...” That’s right. No word was coming from these

Flying Cadets — from THE Flying Cadets — or HAD arrived, I should say. So

I went to the — what do you call them — the enlisted men, or the one who

enlists? — see, I can’t think of these words!”

Carol: “Yeah, I can’t think of them either.”

John: “Well, that’s the way my mind is. My mind is that way, that

words don’t come to it now.

Well anyway, I went to see him. I hiked into town — ‘course I had no

vehicles [then], and went to see him, and explained my situation, that I was

waiting for orders to see if I’d qualified for the Flying Cadets, you know? At

least a denial. And he says, “WELL,” he says, “We can fix THAT up SIMPLY!

We can..” he says, “ all you do, is we’ll enlist you as a private in the Air

Corps. You go to your station, and you, ah, you tell them what has

transpired, and they’ll immediately see what’s the results of your physical,

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and all that, and if you had passed it, and whatever, you know. And if you’re

qualified or whatever.” Yeah. I took him. . .[laugh] [at his word]”

Carol: “You believed him, huh?”

John: “I believed him! So I signed up, went home, told the folks what

I’d done. Next day I had to go back, and get the final papers approved. So my

Dad drove me there, and, of course, then he realized that I’d be leaving, and .

. . It was THAT EVENING, too! That was about — THAT’s right! It was

February fourteenth. Isn’t that Valentine’s Day? YES! February fourteenth I

left them — on February 14, 1941. Whew! That’s right. 1941.

Well anyway, I got, then, finally, to Scott Field, and I found myself in —

a buck private in the rear rank in a [laugh] picking cigarette butts!”

Carol: “Not flyin’, huh?”

John: “Picking cigarette butts! [laugh] That’s all I did for weeks and

weeks and weeks, was pick cigarette butts! I’ll tell you! I got so tired of

cigarette butts, if I see anybody around, coming around smoking even here,

you know, I make sure that that cigarette butt is...”

Carol: “Goes home!”

John: “A-huh— goes home with THEM, yeah! [laugh]

Well, anyway, while I was there at Scott Field, well this friend of mine

from college — or community college days — he heard that I was there, and

he — he made a special trip from

St. Luis to Scott Field, Illinois! St. Louis is in Missouri, isn’t it?”

Carol: “Mm-hm. Yeah.”

John: “I guess. And boy, I’ll tell you, how they snapped to attention

when they saw a Flying Cadet comin’ on base — to visit this lowly buck

private — in the rear rank!”

Carol: [laugh]“Pickin’ up those cigarette butts!”

John: “Picking cigarette butts and washing out those commodes!

[laugh] That was all my work, you know? GOL-LY! [laugh] Well, anyway, we

passed a few hours there together, and then he departed. But then he — he

was — that’s right. He was transferring, then, to another flight school, and

that was I think in — NO, no! He went to ah — Randolph Field. That’s right.

He went — was transferred to Randolph Field. That’s in Texas, you know.”

Carol: “I was gonna ask where it is. Do you remember the town?”

John: “Around San Antonio. ‘Cause, ah, later — well, how was it? —

Yeah! — Well, that’s right! Then they had us take “intelligence tests.” I

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recall that. We had to scribble out these tests, you know. And apparently I

rated pretty high on some of ‘em, ‘cause they said, “We’re sending you to Fort

Logan, Colorado, to become a typist and sec’etary!” [laugh] So next thing I

knew I was heading on a train for Fort Logan, Colorado, which is close, right

next to Denver, you know? [laugh] And there, for — I don’t know how many

months, three months, or four months, I was ah — learning to pound that

typewriter! [laugh] Geez! It was SOMEthin’, I’ll tell you! And then, after I

finished the course, well, they didn’t know where to ship me to, so they gave

me a job, then, shoveling coal! I had to fill all the officers’ winter coal-storage

bins, you know! [laugh] So all I did there for weeks and weeks was

shovel coal — and just as BLACK as the Ace of Spades, you know? ‘Cause it

was all that soft, bituminous coal, and just as dusty, and — o00, MAN!

But finally orders came through, and it was — where the — it was in

Georgia somewhere — Macon, Georgia! By Golly, I remembered the name!

And I was sent to Macon, Georgia, and I didn’t know it, but this was a

training school where they were teaching British cadets to fly.”

Carol: “Weird!”

John: “Yeah. See? It all comes out in the wash! [laugh] They were

doing this all this time, even though nobody else knew about it! [laugh]

See? We had nothin’ to do with the war! And here we’re training British

flyers!” [laugh]

Carol: “That’re out there doin’ their thing!”

John: “[laugh] Yeah! But then they put me in the headquarters

section of personnel. They figured since I just came out of school, I have all

the brains to do all this stuff, you know. So then they set me down, and all

they had me doing was typing ah — what were they? — typing, typing, typing

PAY reports! SHEETS and SHEETS of pay, you know! NAMES, and every —

every digit had to be checked and rechecked everything.”

Carol: “Oh! Tedious!”

John: “Tedious! Most tedious job! And that’s the first time I ever

used a dial telephone! Was when I was in there! And I didn’t even know

how to operate it! [laugh] I was used to this crank type! [laugh] Yes! I’ll

tell you! I...I — It was a problem at first to get used to it! I didn’t know how

to operate it. But I was supposed to know all this stuff! Here I got all the

payrolls made up for that month, and everything checked out ok, and — but

as time went on, I — how was it?

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When I first arrived at Scott Field, well, I had all my applications and

everything that I had sent in to the Air Corps for Flying Cadets, so the first

thing I did was to go down to — whatever my main office at that time was, at

Scott Field, and turn them over to the First Sergeant. He took a look at ‘em,

and he brought ‘em into the Lieutenant or Captain, whoever was in charge of

this base squadron that I was pickin’ butts on, you know — cigarette butts,

and ah, the Captain came out, and he handed me the papers, and he told me

to go to headquarters. He says, “See the Sergeant Major at headquarters.

He’ll — he’ll get you straightened up.”

Carol: “All RIGHT!”

John: Well, I was just brand new. That was the first morning. I was

just in brown fatigues, and I had no indoctrination in the military. All these

officers were coming by, and they’d TURN, and they’d LOOK at me, and they’d

LOOK back at me. I was wondering, “What’s the matter?” I was supposed to

be salutin’ ‘em!!! [laugh! laugh!] Here I’m just WALKIN’ ALONG!! [laugh]

Minding my own business!! [laugh laugh] I hadn’t had the first basic — you

know — ANYthing thrown at me as to what — what I was supposed to DO!

[laugh, laugh, chuckle] I was just in these coveralls, you know? [laugh]

I got to this headquarters building, and I guess I didn’t even know what

door to go into, but I climbed up the main stairway, and got in through these

huge doors, and got in there. They all looked at me, you know. [chuckle] I

said, that, ah, Captain so-and-so had sent me up here to see the Sergeant

Major — that — for me to turn these papers over to him. That’s what I recall

saying, anyway. So they got the Sergeant Major, and he brought me into his

office, and ‘course he didn’t have me sit down. He thumbed through those

papers, and he says, “Well,” he says that ah, “You’re in the Army, now!” He

says, “Until we decide whether — I mean the Air Force — until we decide

whether you’re gonna be qualified for the Cadets, you’ll just have to remain

here as a, you know, buck private, and do your thing!” So that was the story

I had from him!

So I went back and reported into the squadron room, or whatever it

was, told ‘em the story, and that’s when they sent me out again — pickin’

butts, you know? Then they — well then they started giving me basic

training, too. Marching! Learning to MARCH! [laugh] I don’t know for how

long I did that. At the same time, they were giving us these intelligence

tests, and that’s when they shipped me to Fort Logan then, and pounding

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that typewriter; and shoveling that coal! And then I got on that train finally

to Macon, Georgia.

When I got to Macon — of course they didn’t know I was coming. I

arrived at Macon, I guess, in the middle of the night, and I — I didn’t know

where to go, or do anything, and I finally saw a telephone with a notice that

said arrivals for this Air Base just, ah, call, you know. So I called, and I

waited, and I called, and I waited again, and finally at about four o’clock in

the morning they — a truck rolls up, and I climb aboard in the back, and they

haul me down to this flying field, and they have no place to put me up in, so

they put me in a — ah — that’s right, there was the — it was the MP’s that

came to get me — that’s right — in that truck. So they had a recreation

room. And they had a pool table in there. And they threw a blanket on the

pool table, and they told me that — Ah, “You — you sleep here.” [laugh]

“Welcome to Macon, Georgia!” [laugh, laugh] Oh, boy, I’ll tell ya, it was really

a time!

And finally I guess I was assigned, then, to this — whatever —

squadron — headquarters squadron or something, and then to typing out

those pay [roles] or whatever — until the ninth of — NO! It wasn’t the

ninth. It was a Sunday! December 7 in the afternoon. I had gone into

Macon itself — had gotten a pass, and I attended a moving picture show. I

can’t remember what the show was. But anyway, not even half way into the

movie, all of a sudden everything goes black, you know, and they said that —

a fella climbs up on the platform, and says, “All — all service personnel are

directed to report back to their base as quickly as possible. There’s a — take

the quickest available transportation that you can get,” you know? So I

climbed out of the show and went — went to the bus station, got on the bus

and went back to my base, and there I found out that Japan had attacked

Pearl Harbor! And of course EVERYTHING went on alert then, you know!

OH! I’ll tell you! And, ah, ah, nobody knows nothing, you know — to — what

to DO, or anything. But they were all doing SOMEthing, and it was — it was

just, ah, — hilarious!

Carol: Just runnin’ around, huh?

John: That’s all it was! It was just hilarious. Well anyway, that was

Sunday. Monday — now how was it? Yeah! — Monday a special courier came

down from headquarters, you know, on Macon, Georgia, to my squadron, with

orders for John B. Hakala to REPORT to the Flying Cadets!

John Hakala 13

Carol: ALL RIGHT!! [laugh]

John: Kelly Field, Texas! [laugh]

Carol: Y-YES! [laugh]

John: [laugh]

Carol: They WERE listening! Wow!

John: But first, again, I had to pass another physical! See? But they

had the — they had sent the Air Corps medical officer to the station — that

was, ah (one, two) — I think it was the second day after war had been —

well, yeah! The following day war was declared!

Carol: Mm. On Monday.

John: On Monday. Then it was on Tuesday that he appeared, and, ah,

I went through this, ah, interrogation first, and then a quick medical, you

know, and then was handed my orders to report in so many days to Kelly

Field.

So I went to Kelly Field — eventually got there, through New Orleans, I

guess it was, and, ah, by bus mostly. And when I got to Kelly Field, well, I

was assigned to this one squadron, and see, I’d taken ROTC in high school,

and of course when they saw ROTC, {they thought, “officer material!”, you know.

Carol: THAT’s why you weren’t saluting those officers, huh? [laugh]

}[italics were cut from tape by lead]

John: That could be IT, you know? Sheez! [chuckle]

Carol: “Hey! I’m one of ya!” [laugh]

John: [laugh] Yeah, ok. Now I can’t think of what was the position

they assigned me to? Golly! It wasn’t squadron commander. It was the next

one under him — ah — I can’t remember the title, anyway. But it was the —

the second one down. His underling — his immediate underling, but I can’t

think of the word it was. But anyway, they gave me a sword along with it,

and a sand brown belt, you know? [laugh] So here — ah —I’m just out of

basic training, ba— barely able to march in line, and [chuckle] here they got

me [chuckle] in CHARGE of this — ah — squadron of men, you know. And

I’m supposed to instruct THEM in all these basics of MARCHing, and all

that!! [laugh! laugh!] Oh! It was HILARIOUS! But you know, I came out

with a pretty good group! I don’t know how I did it, but I — they were

cooperative, anyway. They didn’t, ah [chuckle] take too much advantage of

me. ‘Course at that time I didn’t [chuckle] much care, either. I just let ‘em

have it with both barrels! Marching them up and down Kelly Field, and got

John Hakala 14

‘em looking pretty good, and we had a final inspection, and I can recall that

— (by golly! I led the whole squadron! Now how come I was leadin’ the

whole squadron? [pause]) I guess my voice was louder — was loudest.

That’s why they put me in front [laugh]— so I could count their “one, two,

three, four!” [laugh] “HEP!” [laugh] That brass sword! NO! I had the saber!

I was waving the saber, too, in the air! That’s right! ‘Cause I had to salute

the [chuckle] whoever it was — the dignitaries, you know. [laugh]

But anyway, I got out o’ there, and they put me in charge of this ah,

truck transportation fleet — to — hauling all these basic — well, the Flying

Cadets — to their next base, you know, which was at Ballenger, Texas.

(That’s right.) I was in charge of that whole line of trucks, you know,

loaded with all these guys. And it took me (what was it?) a day and a half to

get there to the base. I didn’t know anything about these things, you know?

I just sat there in the lead truck with the driver beside me, and [laugh] made

on as if I knew it all! [laugh]

We got there in the middle of the night, I guess it was, and all of a

sudden we got to the gate, you know, of this flying field, and, the lights all

came on, you know! As though, “Here’s — they’re invading! Or engaging in an

ATTACK or something,” you know? And I crawled outa the cab of the truck,

and they grabbed onto me, and they said, — well, I had all these orders, you

know? And they scooted me in there, and brought me to their, ah, head man,

and presented all these orders to him, and eventually we got settled down, I

guess. They gave us a bed, and stuff like that, but that was my first day at

Ballenger, Texas, for — primarily flying. I was there for three months, and I

went — and then I was transferred to Randolph Field! Where my former

classmate had gone! And when he left Randolph, he had gone to the west

coast.

Carol: Oh! He was gone.

John: And when war was declared, he was immediately shipped to the

Phillipines! He didn’t even have a chance to check out in a fighter plane

when he left stateside, you know? And he was sent to the Phillipines, and

he never flew after that!

Carol: He never did fly during the war?

John: No. He was in the Baton March, he fought the Japanese there

on the ground, he was — as an infantryman. This is what I learned later.

And he survived the Baton March, but then, being an officer, the was

John Hakala 15

transferred —they wanted to ship him to Japan. And the only way they could

get him — at that time, I guess — was to ship him by submarine. And ah —

the submarine he was aboard was, ah, — clobbered by and American

submarine.

Carol: Oh, no!

John: MM-hm.

Carol: And he was killed?

John: [quietly] Yep. So that was the end of . . . of him. Well anyway, I

didn’t know about this until later in life, but if I’d learned . . .

But when I was at Kelly Field going — again I was assigned as an

officer of one of the squadrons, you know? I forget the — Oh, I was the lead

man on one of the squadrons. I forget the title. But I had to perform “Officer

of the Day” duty once a month, you know. And that meant that you were up

twenty-four hours — around the clock. ‘Course you’d sleep when you had a

chance, but, ah, but anything going on, well, you had to be on top of it. But

while I was in this capacity I was going through this book of former officers of

the day, you know, their schedules, and that, and I ran across his name!

And there he had it all laid out what he had been doing, you know? So — so

that was, ah . . . I thought, anyway, that his folks would like to know that,

that I had seen this, but [quietly] when I got back to Ironwood, well, they

didn’t appreciate it too much. I mean ..., ah,. . . because I came back alive,

and he was dead, you know.

Carol: Oh! Isn’t that too bad!

John: Yea. So I didn’t see very much of those people any more, even

though we had a pretty good . . . pretty good relationship prior.

Well then, ah,[pause]

After completing my flight training at Randolph, in a BTA, or something

— AT, or something on that order, then I was transferred to Kelly Field,

Texas, as a — supposedly a fighter pilot — for training as a fighter pilot. And

of course there we did a lot of — well, all types of flight training including

gunnery, and bombing, and using, ah, AT6 type of aircraft. And we’d actually

shoot at targets strung up behind a plane that would be flying — with a long

cable, and then this target flying behind, and we’d be diving at that, and

shooting it — or hopefully shooting it up with holes, you know. ‘Cause every

pilot had their own (what would you call it?) — color of ammunition, ‘cause

when they’d penetrate, you’d know who’s bullet had hit. So I think I came

John Hakala 16

out high man. And I was scheduled to go — to continue in fighter pilot

training, you know? Move up! Just then, when (what’s his name? Colonel,

Colonel, Colonel... He’s a Colonel now. He was a Major at that time, ah —

with the B-25’s, when they clobbered Japan off of that carrier? Back in —

what was it? Forty- — yeah, it was forty-two!) Dolittle! General who evolved

as — who ended up as General Dolittle? He was a Major when he began

that, and he got to be a full Colonel when he completed the flight. And then

he rose up in ranks. I guess he went through — a year, up and — he came

out a Major General, or a Lieutenant General, or something like that.

But anyway, the B-25 was the BIG — the HOT DOG! So the whole

class was put into B-25’s!! [laugh] So I had NO chance to get into my —

what I wanted to get into as a fighter pilot, you know? Well, I’d been in

SINGLE engine, SINGLE man — I didn’t want all the responsibility for the

crews, and all that. That’s what I was thinkin’ of. But here I ended up with

— in that capacity, and — and I was then sent from — (where was I at then?)

— [Skott] Field, [Texas] — yeah — I was sent to Greenville, South Carolina!

That’s the state next — north of Georgia! Mm-hm. Greenville, South

Carolina for training in the B-25.

When I got there, they had no airplanes there. Finally a lone B-25, one

of the earliest made models — it was, ah, — came in, you know. And of

course we were all anxious to get aboard, to see what it looked like, and all

this and that, and then we were also taught to fly it — or “checked out” on it

— that was the word — “checking out.” They didn’t teach you to fly them any

more. They figured you knew how to fly, so they just “checked you out.”

Yeah, they checked me out in — what was it? — three hours, — no, three

flights. They checked me out, and they sent me on my way with the airplane,

you know? That’s. . . That’s the way they did it those days.

And you know, when I first soloed at — what was that field that I said

first?

Carol: Not Kelly. . .

John: No. [Ballenger Field, Texas!] Well, in four hours I had my, ah —

they sent me up solo, so I must have had something coming — or going for

me at flying, anyway. They must have thought I was a pilot! [laugh] Well,

anyway, I survived the war, so I must have been! That’s good.

Well anyway, after I finished — as I was approaching the finish end of

our short course at Greenville, South Carolina, a notice was posted on board

John Hakala 17

— the bulletin board, is the word I was trying to say — that “Volunteers are

being” or “Looking for volunteers for special mission.” So I immediately went

up there and signed my name!

Carol: [laugh] You’re kind of a — out there kind of a guy, aren’t you!?”

John: [laugh] Immediately went to sign my name. And then a few of

the others — my so-called “friends” at that time joined me, and put their

names down. So then the next thing we knew we were being loaded aboard a

train to go to California! (I can’t remember this field at all! I mean the

NAME of it! And what the heck was the TOWN? What was the main town? I

can’t even remember that one now. California. California. It won’t come to

me.) But anyway, they had just built this little new airport, or flying base

there, and they had some B-25’s there, of course, then we were checked out

on these B-25’s, ALSO — that’s right — we were sent there for the purpose of

learning to drop — ah — now I can’t even think of THAT name! — these long

— torpedoes! Torpedoes! That’s right. That was the main purpose of our

being assigned there. And then, ah, we had to fly somewheres — a couple a

hundred miles south of th- — Hammer Field! Hammer Field! Hammer Field,

California! That’s the name of the place! Hammer Field, and then, ah, I

guess — the lake that we were practicing flying these missions on — (I can’t

remember that name either) but it was about two hundred miles south of

Hammer F- —Fresno, California! That’s right! Fresno!

So of course to pass the course, you had to — when you dropped your

torpedo, well, you — they had — you were aiming at a “ship”, you know, or —

supposedly a ship. It was a big powered barge or something with a — and to

make sure that you knew what everything was about, that torpedo had to go

right underneath that vessel, you know? The bubbles, of course, would show

it. But I finally passed that course, and the next thing I knew I had orders in

my hand to report to Alaska!

Carol: REALLY!

John: Elmendorf Air Force Base! [laugh]

Carol: Alaska! Did that surprise ya?

John: Oh! YES! We had NO idea! But see, that was after the

Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor and Unalaska. And they couldn’t

retaliate with what bombs they had on these — the Japanese fleet that had

been out there, so that’s why they went into this torpedo training. And that

was the last I ever SAW of a torpedo! [laugh!!] Was when I left Fresno,

John Hakala 18

California!! [laugh] I left the torpedoes behind! [laugh] And here they put

me through all that work for nothin’, you know? Well, maybe it helped me

out on my flying, anyway.

But anyway, when I got to Elmendorf, — yeah! — Yeah, they assigned

an airplane. It was a brand new airplane, too, by golly! That’s right! It had

been brought up through the ferry route, you know, from Montana, through

Canada, up through — I guess — Fairbanks, and then down. I guess that

was the route they flew them in those days. Well I had to take this new

airplane, and ah — and first, — swing the compass. And of course that was a

rather involved procedure with these big aircraft, you know. Like they have

now-a-days where you just — they set ‘em on a platform, and the platform

turns. Here we had to roll the airplane around to a new position all the

time, and get in there and start up the engines, and so you’d have all your

various magnetic forces working when you tried adjusting your compass, you

know. You had to go around and around a couple of times like that, and —

well, I finally got it to MY satisfaction, which I — which was what I figured

was right on the DOT, you know?

So then the next thing, well, let’s see! When was it? It was — I

arrived, by golly, in Anchorage — that’s right — December 7, 1941 —

Carol: Oh! Forty. . .

John: No! ‘42!

Carol: ‘43, probably.

John: No, ‘42! ‘42!

Carol: OH! Okay. ‘42! One year after. . .

John: One year after. That’s right. One year after Pearl Harbor! And I

took this aircraft, and I flew down to — well, I had a crew assigned to me,

too. And we flew down — I forget my first stop down there on the Alaskan

Peninsula. That air base isn’t there any more. [Port Heiden, Alaska.] No, it

must have been — it was, anyway, this side of the present —— Cold Bay!

Heck! All you have to do is think of the weather report! Cold Bay. And this

place that I first landed at was, again, about three, four miles — I mean

three, four hours, by air by — from Cold Bay. So the next day I flew into

Cold Bay, and then from Cold Bay I went down to this secret base which was

supposed to have been there — you know, — when the “Japs” came in? They

were there, of course, but that was on Umnak Island. And Umnak Island

John Hakala 19

now is all Native land. So we never hear anything more about Umnak — or

this air base that was there. Yeah.

Boy, I remember that WIND !! O-o-oh! When I landed there!! And all

that night we had to go out and struggle with those planes! They must have

been — I don’t know! What air speed — They could have been 70! 80! 90

miles an hour, you know? ‘Cause the airplanes themselves were [flying] —

we had ‘em tied down, we went off there, rolled gasoline drums and tied more

ropes to ‘em, tryin’ to keep ‘em down! And of course, just to GET there you

couldn’t see your way! You had to — the lead man took a line — a coil of

line, and unrolled it, you know, as he went, and the rest hung onto the line,

coming behind. And you couldn’t see a thing! That was my first REAL

experience with Alaskan weather! So . . . That Cold Bay, I’ll tell you! That

was a rough spot for wind!

Then I finally got to Umnak. There’s a special name for the base, but I

can’t remember that. [Fort Greely] But I arrived at Umnak on Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve of ah, — what year did I say that was? — forty- — forty-TWO.

Forty-two. Yeah. Mmm-hmm. And of course we were weathered in there for a

few days, and they were in the process of building Adak at that time. That’s

right. We were held up there to wait until Adak opened. I mean until they

got that air strip in. When the weather cleared, off I went, then, for Adak. I

was assigned to the seventy-third bomb squadron, which, again, was at

Umnak. That base that I was leaving from. Adak was under the seventy-

SEVENTH bomber squadron — ‘25’s — but they sent me ahead, being a new

man, well, they put me on — oh, some kind of status, you know [detached

duty]—so I was flying for both.

Whenever the seventy-seventh was flying, I was flying with them; when the

seventy-third came down, I was flying with them, and again with the seventy-seventh,

you know? They kept me out there all this while, see? [chuckle,

laugh]

Carol: You were doing double duty!

John: [laugh] And, the best part of it was all my gol-darn logs were

practically lost because of that. I don’t have credit for half the hours that I

flew, you know? I was going through some of these magazines — not

magazines — write-ups on the Aleutian war, and what — it pertained

primarily to what the heavy bombers did, you know. But in between you

could get the picture of what the medium bombers were doing, too, but

John Hakala 20

nothing specific. But there was many a case where the B-17’s and the B-24’s

went out, we were right there with ‘em. But nothing was mentioned ever in

these reports, you know.

Carol: That’s strange. Why? Why did they do that?

John: Well, that’s what they — it was somebody keeping records just

for the heavy bombardment squadrons, see? But I knew I was on those

flights, because. . .

(Ah, what the heck! Where did I go off track here?) To Umnak on

Christmas Eve, then Adak, it was a few days later, whatever it was. And

then, of course, we were assigned our first bombing mission to Kiska. And it

was a — what was it? ! I guess it was three hours, three and a half hours —

something like that — to four hours one-way flight. It was a total of about

eight hours round trip. And . . .

Carol: What were you bombing? What were the bombing runs... I don’t

under- — I don’t — I haven’t read much about that. What kind of things

were you going to bomb?

John: OH! Well when — Unalaska was bombed at the same time the

Japanese went into Attu. They occupied Attu and Kiska with their army, you

know? And, of course, they started immediately building a big air field

there on Kiska. And this is what our primary object was — was to destroy

any resemblance of an air field that they could develop so that they couldn’t

get their heavy bombers in, ‘cause — this — this whole story would have

been different had they gotten them in there, see?

So anyway, we bombed Kiska. We bombed it repeatedly. We bombed it

in any kind of weather. We lost more airplanes from weather than we did

from, ah, the results of our raids. Although we did lose aircraft. I don’t say

that we didn’t lose any aircraft, but, ah, I know — I remember a few of the

aircraft that went down, but I can’t remember the people’s names... But

anyway, as soon as they became aware that the Japanese had these float

aircraft on Kiska, well, they immed- — the U.S. [Army] Air Corps —

immediately began planning to have a strip on Amchitka — put in a fighter

strip there to catch these float planes as they come around, you know —

these Japanese floats. ‘Cause if they would have gotten on wheels, then it

would have been a different story — which we prevented by blasting their, ah,

— whatever construction they had in progress, you know, on their air field.

John Hakala 21

And you know, they [the Sea Bees] did the same thing at Amchitka as

they did at Adak. They built a dam across an inlet, you know — a deep inlet,

and they pumped all that water out into the ocean. Then they filled, [as the

water drained, with volcanic debris from the adjacent mountain at the head

of the inlet] — that was the quickest way of makin’ an airstrip, see? And

then they laid some steel matting down on top of that, and they sent the

fighters in there. And the fighters were fortunate. They got there in time;

‘cause the “Japs” started flying their big — BIG float bombers, you know?

Float ships, or — I don’t know what they called them! But anyway, they were

in for a big surprise when these P-40’s hit ‘em, you know?

The NEXT thing I knew, I had orders in my hand to take my airplane

down there and land on this little fighter strip! [laugh] On Amchitka! To

bomb the Japanese from close range! [laugh]

So — that was the next thing that we did. We went down there, and

we flew off of that little fighter strip — full load of bombs, and, ah, I guess we

cut our gas back, because we didn’t need to have all THAT weight. But then

at the same time they were constructing a LARGE strip up above. They had

started the process anyway — for the medium bombers, and the heavy

bombers to use, you know?

By the time they got that strip open —Yeah. — See, we were living in

tents — dug in the side of these hillsides. Then I — well, just before this

airstrip opened — before we moved our aircraft up to the upper strip, well, we

got word that we were assigned a special [quilted] quonset-type hut [called a

Jamesway] that we had to haul down to a hole in the ground where —

somewheres out there in the tundra, you know, and, ah, and BUILD it, you

know. So that’s what we did.

Carol: Gee! This is still winter.

John: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We did it then. [chuckle] We did it. [chuckle]

Well, we got fairly comfortable quarters after we finally got it up there.

Carol: Oh, I bet! A little better than tents.

John: It wasn’t a quonset hut — these metal quansits. This was a

fabric — ah — like a big [canvas] quilt that you draped over the framework,

you know? And it had wooden panels on each end, with a doorway stuck in

it, and ... But they were FAIRLY warm. You had a — an oil stove, I think it

was — NO,no, no, no. No, it was still a coal stove. Yeah, that’s right. There

John Hakala 22

was still a coal stove, and you had to pack in your coal, and — if you wanted

to be warm, you know.

Carol: [laugh] Where did the coal come from?

John: Well, they hauled it in with their freighters, to the harbor there.

‘Course all this activity was goin’ on — the Corps of Engineers was there,

building docks, and building all this stuff, and they were doing all this while

we were running these missions. See, I don’t know what was going on on-site

except MY phase of it — which was all combat.

There was a period of time then, that — from July — in July, where the

weather was socked in so bad that there was NO flying — until one day —

well, we had received reports that the Navy had had a big battle with the

Japanese fleet — outside of Kiska. And they — I forget how many battle

ships the U.S. Navy had there, but they had ‘em strung out in line, and they

kept on shootin’ these high-powered guns, you know, towards Kiska itself,

with — as they explained to me later, that — they said that they were seeing

these sightings with radar. And they were shootin’ at these radar sightings.

And they emptied out all this ammunition, they emptied out all their oil,

steaming back and forth, and shootin’ away, shootin’ away! And finally they

had to drop back a hundred or a hundred and fifty miles to the Southeast to

refuel and reload with ammunition. And it was then, when the Japanese

were out there with their fleet, that they came in to Kiska, and they

evacuated ALL their MEN! They — in less than an HOUR they had ‘em all

aboard, and they were going out! This came to light after the war, of course.

Nobody KNEW about this.

But anyway, this weather was all socked in solid, you know? And all of

a sudden, we got a report — I — well, actually, I’d been packing my briefcase

with all my maps, and all my accouterments, you know — my slip-sticks, and

my slides, and all that stuff — for figuring out the time/distance, and drift,

and all that. And I happened to have a — I don’t know HOW I had it in my

pocket, but I had a map of Alaska in my pocket, showing this road that went

from — where was it? — this road wasn’t — the Richardson Highway wasn’t

in yet — it was from Valdez to Fairbanks — THAT road. That dirt road, you

know? [pause]

Oh! I FORGOT to say: When I first arrived in Alaska, after I checked

out that plane?

Carol: Mm-hm.

John Hakala 23

John: I swung that compass?

Carol: Yeah?

John: Of course I had to check out the airplane, too. And, well, I did!

I checked out the airplane. I flew it, and I — that’s the first time I saw the

Kenai Peninsula, you know? Well, that’s right. Just previous to that, that

Fall before — it was ‘41 that the Kenai Moose Range was established by

executive order — by President Roosevelt! And I had said at that time, when

I saw this, and I was back there at Randolph Field, or Kelly Field, or ONE of

those places, where I saw this little item in my home-town newspaper — it

was a little piece, you know? I says, “BOY!! Wouldn’t THAT be a place to GO

to!!” [laugh] Yeah! And the first thing I did when I took off, you know, on

the [check-out] flight, I made this whole flight down to the Kenai Peninsula,

all the way to the end of Homer Spit, you know? Of course the maps we had

didn’t have ANY of this stuff on it. There was no Homer there! There was

NOTHING, you know? But I remember when I was coming back, I saw all

these MOOSE up there between Tustumena and Skilak Lakes, you know.

‘Course I didn’t even know the names of those two lakes, ‘cause all we had

was — all we operated with was Navy maps! And they were all WATER maps,

you know? Showing — showing the different fathoms! Not heights, you

know? [laugh]

But anyway, this one morning in July, — well, see, I’d been packin’ this

gol-darn case back and forth, and slogging through that MUD, and I think it

was about a mile and a half to where my abode was, the one we had built,

you know? So I said, well — see, I was going off duty. This was the last day

of my shift, to be on alert. I wouldn’t have to be sittin’ there on that flight

line, you know, come daylight — or — seven o’clock in the morning. So I

figured, “Why, SHUCKS! With this weather, the way it’s been holding, — no

aircraft could take off outa here, you know? So I go merrily back up there,

leave my bag at home. But I had this-here road map, for some reason, stuck

in my pocket! I don’t know HOW it was! I got there, and no sooner I got in

that tent, than that crank phone rang, you know, and “Pilots get ready!

You’re going out on an immediate mission” you know.

So — nothing I could do, but just get out to my aircraft, and check it

out — see that everything was [in working order], and — well, the lead pilot

had a navigator with him, but the weather was socked in so solid, when we

took off on the strip, I had to set my compass — not my magnetic — [a Gyro]

John Hakala 24

compass — so that I’d hold a straight course down the runway. I couldn’t

SEE anything. Took off, and I flew for pretty near four hours, just skipping

the waves, but we were told one course to head on after we got off the strip

— off the landing strip, you know. So I set that course up, and I tried flying

as close to the water as I could, so I was just seeing dimples out there. And

it was blowin’! And this fog was just SO thick! For four hours, I was just

flying instruments. And all of a sudden, I POPPED out into the clear — it

was just like an inverted bowl, you know? A huge inverted bowl. And up in

the corner, WA-AY up there, there was a Navy PBY flying. And that’s what we

were homing in on. And off to my [left], here, this [line] of ships! And these

must have been the same ships that had [left] Kiska, you know. They had

made that big circle, and they were coming — and this was toward the Kuril

Islands! This is how FAR [west] we were! We had flown all that way out

there, you know?

Carol: With nothin’ but your instruments!

John: [laugh]

Carol: GEE! Were they American ships, or Japanese ships?

John: NO! These were all Japanese ships! Well I, ah, — I didn’t

know who they were, but I figured that they had to be the enemy, because

that’s the only reason they sent us out there. ‘Course I was the left man on

the lead man’s — five-plane formation — I mean I was the left wingman. So

when he wobbled his wing, well, I peeled off, and I made for the one that I

saw. And he came after the next one, and then the next one followed on

down. Well anyway, I made this run on ‘em, and we had four five-hundred-pound

bombs. I came in — this is where those torpedoes maybe would’a

come in handy, but — but they superseded the torpedoes with the skip-bombing

— with five-hundred-pound bombs. I had four five-hundred-pound

bombs on, and came in, and we were spraying that deck, you know, back and

forth, with fifty-caliber machine-gun bullets, and of course, they’re shootin’

back at us, you know, and I remember I had all — I was pressing the [button

to the] machine guns with [the thumb of my left hand], and then [when we

were in bombing range] I started droppin’ the bombs [with my right thmb on

the other button at the heifght of 150 feet.] And I hit that ship! I must have

hit ‘em with three bombs, right in the side, you know? They skipped off the

water. But the fourth bomb hit the deck. And the next thing I — as soon as

— ‘course I had to [pull] up and go over that ship, you know? And I heard my

John Hakala 25

tail-gunner holler, [over my earphones], he says, “TURN! TURN! TURN!

That bomb is coming right after us!!” And I turned, I dumped the [left] wing,

and I turned it as hard as I could, you know? And I swung around, and all I

saw, was a BIG — ‘course, in that turn, all of a sudden we [BOUNCED] up

and down, when that bomb had burst in the air, and of course it riddled my

aircraft a little, too, but nobody was injured. But then, as I turned around

looking down. . . [pause] That ship was GONE! Just that fast!! It was ALL

GONE! And I can’t remember how — it was a LARGE ship, because when I

popped up over it, well, there must have been a hundred feet over on this

end, and a hundred feet over — or MORE, you know — on that end. It was

that big a ship — I mean, ah, from MY [view]point of seeing it — [comparing it

with] the wings of MY aircraft, see? And it just [pause] It was just [pause]

so ASTONISHING, I couldn’t believe it! There wasn’t a sign of . . . [the ship]

just a so- — swirl — a — big swirl of water! So I must have hit their

magazine, and the whole thing must’a blown [and it went down instantly.]

Carol: And it blew up their stuff.

John: Mm-hm. Well anyway, I climbed up to wait for the others, and

the others were having problems. Their bombs wouldn’t drop! One fella even

crawled in the bomb bay to try to drop the bombs from the bomb bay, and

they couldn’t get ‘em loose. They may have — mine was the only ship that

dropped the bombs on that whole flight! They had to finally — well, after

they made so many passes, they used up so much gas, that there was no way

that they were gonna get back to Amchitka, and I knew that myself. So I pull

out this map then, while I was up there flying around, waiting for ‘em. I laid

it out in front of me, and I — I drew this line from — with that heading that

I’d left Amchitka on. And I estimated my time, you know — time and

distance. I made a spot over there where — and then I, ah, figured out,

“Now where would Attu be?” ‘Cause I wanted to get — what I wanted to do

was find Attu and crash-land on the beach, see?

At the same time, Attu was being, ah, invaded. Yeah. The American

troops had gone in — into Attu. That’s right. ‘Course! I had flown a couple

a missions there prior to that — that’s right. I was dumping bombs on Attu

also from Amchitka, you know. But now this flight I was going — went out to

the Kuril Islands in Northern Japan!!

So I made this point, and — I don’t know what I used — did I use a

string, or what, — but I drew a line. I had the co-pilot scratch a line, and we

John Hakala 26

estimated time and distance to get to Attu, and when that time was up, I

figured, well, I’m gonna either run into that island, or else I’ve missed it

completely, and it was all socked in again! See, as soon as you left this

“bowl,” you were back in that solid fog! You’re flying instruments the whole

while! You couldn’t see anything ahead of you ... [and the wind was blowing

so hard that I was flying at a right angle to the wind with my right wing

pointing in the direction I had estimated would bring me to Attu. After my

estimated time of arrival had been reached, I was afraid of running into rock

cliffs or mountains, so] — I called to my squadron. I said, “I’m going up to

see what it’s like on the top,” I says, “see if I can see any mountain peaks.”

So they all followed me up. We were all strung out up there. We came out at

eleven thousand feet above this, ah, this MESS, you know — this mist, and

fog, and [swirling] clouds, and everything. It was all just one big mass! We

came out of it, and I immediately went into a 360° turn, and called my radio

operator to let out his trailing antenna, and send out a “May-Day” requesting

directions to the nearest land, which we figured was Attu Island, as we could

not see any mountain peaks or anything above this overcast. This signal, I

learned afterwards, had been picked up in southeast Alaska, somewheres —

whether by a private individual, or a Federal installation such as the [Army]

Signal Corps, or one of the military establishments, I don’t know. But it was

transferred to Juneau immediately, and from Juneau to Elmendorf Air Force

Base, and from there down to Admiral Kinkaid’s office in — where he was

located in Kodiak — Kodiak being the headquarters for the Navy. They, in

turn, had sent the message to their forces, which were lying off of Attu, and

apparently the message was gotten by this destroyer, who immediately went

out and began broadcasting on that emergency [network], and kept it in line

with the emergency field that was then under construction.

We circled for at least fifteen minutes — possibly more. I had turned

on my radio compass, and finally the needle began wiggling. I settled it

down, and immediately began — well, first I notified the rest of the aircraft

that were in the air that I was going to descend on this heading, which was a

special [emergency frequency] that the Navy used for directional guidance.

So we began to descend through this solid mass of clouds. I couldn’t believe

it when I got down to zero feet in elevation, that I could not see the waves on

the ocean. I still was afraid of running into mountains, but I held this

course, since this was the course that had been indicated on the radio

John Hakala 27

compass. Finally, after the altimeter caught up to my level, that showed me

that I was down below — at least a thousand feet below sea level, I began to

pick up a few white spots underneath me, which indicated cresting waves.

So I started leveling off. And no sooner I leveled off, there in front of me all

of a sudden appeared this HUGE GRAY MASS — hidden in this swirling mist

and fog and black clouds. I immediately pulled my wheel back, and swung

over it. And here was this destroyer! I says, “Well what do I do NOW?” you

know? I kept on the same direction that — after I got over that destroyer, I

was back on the water. I kept on that same direction. All of a sudden,

beneath me was a strip of LAND, you know? It was the north end of, ah, —

what’s the name of that harbor? — Massacre Bay! Massacre Bay on the east

side of Attu! Well, I didn’t know it, not having ever BEEN there, you know?

And my eyes just popped outa my head! I saw MEN down there , you know,

with TRACTORS! They were makin’ an air strip! And they had about a

thousand feet — I saw outa the corner of my eye as I went over this, there

was what I estimated was about a thousand feet of steel matting laid

already, you know? So as SOON as I crossed that strip, I put myself in a

timed turn, one needle-width wide on my [Gyro Compass], you know, I HELD

it there, made a two-hundred and seventy degree turn, and I started

dropping down, and I — Oh, that’s right! I — Yeah, yeah, yeah. — Well, I

was IN that turn — towards the END of it. And I ordered, “Wheels down.”

And the wheels just dropped and HUNG! They just HUNG, and FLOPPED

there. So I immediately told them, “Let’s start pumpin’!” So we pumped, and

we pumped, and we pumped. ‘Course I had to fly the plane. And we got

straightened out — I was just into that two-seventy degree turn, I could see

just ahead of me, that I was just lined up with — exactly with what was

there ahead of me, you know, on the end of this strip? And just then I

heard, “CLICK! [pause] CLICK!” as we were pumping, you know. And then

finally — finally the THIRD “CLICK!” for the nose wheel! And as I came in, I

pulled up my nose, and the wheels set down — I got as close to the edge of

that strip as possible — and my ENGINES quit! So the only thing I could do

then was, I jammed my rudder — right rudder — as HARD as I could, so that

— I knew these other airplanes were following me — and I scooted off that

metal into this — well, it’s all volcanic ash — very soft, you know. But

fortunately it didn’t wreck my front wheel. But see, I had forgot to say that

John Hakala 28

all my hydraulics — all my hydraulics had been shot off. That’s why I was

doing this, see?

Carol: But you could pump it...?

John: Yeah. I could pump. Because there was — in the big tank

where all the hydraulic fluid was kept there was a small tank — just for this

purpose — in case you had a bad leak — so that you may have sufficient

[fluid] to get your wheels down. But I didn’t have enough for flaps, see? But

anyway I didn’t need those flaps, ‘cause the engines quit right there, and

that’s where I would have been sittin’ if I hadn’t scooted off the runway,

‘cause I was out of gasoline!

Carol: WOW!

John: Well, anyway, for thirteen days I sat on that island. WE sat on

that island.

Carol: Everybody else made it in, too, huh?

John: Yeah, they all came in. I mean, let’s see — NO, no! The flight

leader — he had tried to get back — he had the navigator. He thought he

could get back to Amchitka. The navigator brought him to the north end of

Kiska, and of course they sent out a “May-day” there, too, I guess, when they

went down. They ran out of gas on the north end of Kiska, and went down in

the ocean. But the best part was: a Navy PBY was right there to save ‘em!

Think of it! Boy, I’ll tell ya, that Navy did some wondrous things with their

ninety-mile-an-hour aircraft — those huge [PBY] boats, you know?

Carol: So they heard the “May-day,” and they just zipped over there?

John: Yep, yep. They got over there, and they got ‘em. They may have

been in life rafts by that time. I don’t know. I don’t know what the full

extent was, but anyway, they picked ‘em up! But then there was — so that

left four ships: myself, and then the three others — yeah — mm-hm. So

there was four of us on Attu, then, that waited. Until the weather — so-called

weather “cleared.” And they sent — ‘course we got messages then to

Amchitka that — what we needed for repairs, you know? And of course they

sent up an aircraft with these repairs the first break in the weather they got,

but as soon as that aircraft got up to [chuckle] — or LEFT Amchitka, well, the

weather [became] socked in at Amchitka! This is the way it is in the

summer, you know. And they got into Attu, and we got the repair parts, but

then the fellow that flew that airplane in was — some Captain — he says,

“You’re assigned to take this aircraft back to Amchitka.” (You know, the one

John Hakala 29

that he came with.) “I’m to stay here and get this thing repaired.” ‘Course

they wanted time — they wanted time to be in the combat zone. I mean on

the GROUND, you know!

Carol: [laugh] Not COMBATING, just...

John: NO! Just — BE there! But anyway, well, we loaded up with

gasoline, and we took off! And no sooner we took off, we hit this weather!

So instead of flying into it, I decided to fly above it. So I climbed up, and I

came out again at maybe twelve thousand feet, twelve thousand five hundred

feet, and I was headed for Amchitka first, but it was socked in solid. There

were no radio communications with Amchitka at that time, so — although

they could hear us when we, you know, called, but they couldn’t send

messages back to us. So I just told them that I’m continuing on to Adak. I

flew to Adak, and here at Adak they had set up some — I forget ...— “cone of

silence” that you could direct yourself in with your radio compass, and — but

here, again, it was all socked in to the water. Well, the Cone of silence gave

you a position point over the air field where you could figure out your course,

then your glide down to the ocean, and what course you’re to follow to come

back on that air strip, see? Well, I tried it twice. The first time I went down

to a thousand feet below sea level on my altimeter. The second time I went

down to fifteen HUNDRED feet! And I still couldn’t see water. In that short

distance — there was a big change in the barometric pressure. ‘Course if I

had been out of gas, I’d have kept on going down. You know, if I had been to

that critical point. But I was afraid — I knew darn well there were these

mountains right ahead of me — that I would be flying into them at any time.

So I refused. I went back up, and I started east again. I was heading then

for Unalaska. — Yeah. Yeah, I figured that I’d try to get to Unalaska, {though

I didn’t have enough gas for the trip.] I’d gotten up above that whole mess

again — I think it was — it was the same height, I guess, around twelve

thousand feet, twelve thousand five hundred, somewhere around there. I

was proceeding east, all of a sudden to the southeast of me, I saw this black

— ah — ah — what appeared to be a black — I don’t know what it — what it

signified to me, but it was BLACK. I moved over to look at it. And BY

GOLLY! There was a HOLE — ALL the way down to the WATER!! And you

should’a seen me when I — I took off, I — I just — like a screw, you know?

Goin’ DOWN! I’ll tell ya! As fast as I could, and I got outa there, and I

leveled off on the water, — and I was on the east end of Atka! It was the

John Hakala 30

first island of — east of Adak! And as I came around the point, I couldn’t

believe it! During those fifteen days that I’d been on — ah — well, of course

all the while I’d been on Amchitka, too, — but the Sea Bees — again, see,

the Sea Bees were building that strip up there on Massacre Bay. They were

the Sea Bees that were doing that. Here they had put in another metal mat

in this cove. The [Navy] had been using this cove as a refueling site for all

their PBY’s that were out on station. And then they put that strip in just so

they could get supplies in quicker if they needed ‘em, you know? And I saw

these — couple of ships out there, which were the ones that did the

refueling of these PBY’s, and I saw a few PBY’s floatin’ on the water, but

then I saw that STRIP! And boy, I’ll tell you, there was no happier person in

this world! I’ll tell you! We went in there, and we set down, — [and then we

were socked in by weather] again. We were THERE for three days, and —

NOW! That brings to mind! — Mothers’ day was [coming] in a couple of days!

And this was one of the only places outside of Kiska where they had had a

weather station. The Japanese, when they went [into Kiska], captured those

weathermen, you know. There were seven or eight of them that were in there

on Kiska, and this was the second point where they had set up a weather

station with broadcasting facilities. And at the top of this one mountain

behind the airstrip, well, they had this radio station. It was — it was a

signal corps station. That’s right. It was a signal corps station — it was

military. It was part of the Army. I’m pretty sure it was part of the Army.

But anyway, they had this station there, and we went for a hike one of those

days that we were weathered in there, and climbed up to it, and this signal

corps man, whoever he was — I can’t even remember what his face looked

like. But anyway, he told us , he said that, “Would you fellas want to send

flowers to your mothers?” THINK of it!! For MOTHERS’ DAY?!

Carol: Oh MAN! I bet that’d make your mother...

John: Oh! I gave him — well, he said the charge’d be fifteen dollars. I

gave him fifteen dollars, and he took down the address! HA! Isn’t that

something?! [laugh]

Carol: That’s AMAZING!! Did your mother just about DIE?!

John: Oh, I — I didn’t hear. I mean, ah, — well, I MAY have, but I

can’t remember, you know.

Carol: Oh! I bet she just... ‘Course she couldn’t KNOW how...

John: Yeah. Where it was from! [laugh] Oh, golly!

John Hakala 31

But anyway, we took off from there, then, and went back to Amchitka

when the weather opened up. Then how did it go? Oh yeah! We resumed,

supposedly, bombing of Kiska. That’s right. Next weather that was clear

enough to go to Kiska they had a tremendous — see, at this time Attu had

been taken already, and of course they had all these troops. They figured

that they might as well finish up the job and clear out Kiska at the same

time, since they had the Navy out there. And of course they had all this

preprogrammed already, and it was all in action. ‘Course I didn’t know it.

Carol: You were just told where to fly, and...

John: Just told where to fly and what to do, you know? So I was in on

this here bombing run, and everybody that came back said that, “Boy, those

‘Japs’ were shootin’ at us,” and, why, shucks! There wasn’t a thing shot at

us, you know? I said, “There was no flak, there was no NOTHING, you

know?” And I told ‘em, I said, when I got back to be debriefed, I told ‘em, I

says, “There isn’t a single ‘Jap’ left on that island.” I says, “You ...” They

wouldn’t believe me. I says, “Ok. Load up my airplane with gasoline. I’ll

take a volunteer crew, I’ll fly it right in there. I’ll fly at deck level, and I’ll

show you.” Which I did. I got back. No sooner I got outa that airplane, my

mouth was sealed! They had orders for me and my crew. They put me aboard

an airplane to ship us to Elmendorf.

Carol: Why??

John: Well, so that the word wouldn’t get out that the “Japs” had

evacuated! Here this whole — all this big troop movement was in force that

they’re gonna go through with it, you know?

Carol: Oh MAN!

John: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Carol: So they all got there to an empty island, huh?

John: Yeah, they got there to an empty island, but the Canadians

came from the west, up through this valley, and the Americans came from

the east, up through that valley, and here they slaughtered each other — in

that valley!

Carol: [gasp] You’re KIDding!!

John: Why, sure! They each thought the other were the Japanese!

[laugh]

Carol: That is HORRIBLE!! Whoa! And why didn’t they want you to

say? ‘Cause they just... wanted...

John Hakala 32

John: Well, that whole — well, everything is under military security,

you know? They didn’t want any word to get out that this whole big

movement — ‘course, ah — I couldn’t PROVE that there weren’t any “Japs” in

those hills. But there were nothing down there on the flats. I saw that dog

that those weathermen had had. I saw HIM running around down there. I

was that low that I passed over the . . . [interruption]

So anyhow, I got back to Elmendorf, yeah. I was held there — we were

held there in, ah, incommunicado for a couple of weeks, until this whole

situation had developed at Kiska, you know.

Carol: UNbelievable!

John: And then finally they handed me and my crew orders to return to

the states. And see, I was assigned to the seventy-third bomb squadron,

and I had been flying for the seventy-seventh. And all — all my flying records

were mismatched. I — I don’t have credit for practically NOTHING, you

know? It’s — ALL the flying I did! [chuckle]

Carol: Unbelievable!

John: And then to top it off, the seventy-third bomb squadron — as

soon as I hit the states — was deactivated!

Carol: OH, MAN! Why?

John: I don’t know. That — that was the big question in my mind!

Why did they deactivate it? But the seventy-third bomb squadron was no

more! Well, anyway, I got back home. I remember, first, we landed in

Seattle. We hadn’t had anything green for so many MONTHS — YEARS, and

that. We went to the — well, the hotel we where in, we went down to the

dining room, and we each ordered a whole head of lettuce! A WHOLE HEAD

of LETTUCE!! I’ll tell you! And we chewed on that lettuce! BOY!! That was

the BEST TASTING STUFF!! O-OH! I’ll tell you! It was WONDERFUL! M-M-M-

M-M-M-M-M!!!!!! That meat and stuff they had, they can push that aside!

That lettuce took precedence! I’ll tell you!!

Well, anyway, I finally got back home. I flew from Seattle to

Minneapolis, had to spend the night at Minneapolis, ‘cause there was no air

transportation to home. I had to take a bus. So I had to wait till the

following morning, so I sent a telegram to my folks sayin’ that [poignant

pause] — how did I word it? Oh. “Your prodigal son returns.” [bittersweet

laugh] That I was arriving on the following evening, you know, at a certain

John Hakala 33

time — that’s, anyway according to the bus schedule. Sure enough, I made it

on time.

So then from there I went back to ...What the heck was it?

Carol: Well now when you were deactivated, did that mean you weren’t

IN the service any more?

John: NO NO! NO! I was in the service. It was just the squadron!

No! I was transferred. I was transferred back stateside. But the squadron I

was in was deactivated. So then I don’t know where my records went from

there, or if the seventy-seventh ever turned them over to the seventy-third,

or what. But I never — my flight records didn’t conform to what I had, you

know, in my little book that I scratched every time I flew.

(What the heck happened then?) Oh! I remember I had to go down to

[San Antonio], Texas. (What the heck did I have to do in Texas?) Oh! OK!

For a PHYSICAL! Yeah! They flew me — no, how did that go? I had to travel

to Texas, (that’s right), to have this physical. Then they reassigned me —

no, they sent me to Tampa Bay, Florida, for reassignment! Then — I mean —

all this scattering of stuff, you know? And from Tampa Bay, they sent me

right back to Greenville, South Carolina! [LAUGH, LAUGH!]

Carol: [laugh] Goin’ around in circles!

John: [laugh, laugh] Aw, gee!! And when I got to Greenville, they said,

“Well, that — bozo doesn’t want to do any more FLYING,” you know, — that’s

— they ASSUMED!!

Carol: Without askin’ ya.

John: Yeah. They assigned me to, ah, as a battalion commander of a

black troop of — black troops — ah — on a bombing range. So I was in

charge of this detachment of black troops, you know? Battalion sized — on

this bombing range. And that was located — ( now where was it?) — was it

still in South Carolina, or was that in North Carolina? It was right close to

the boarder, anyway, I forget which. It was in a National Forest — in the

center of a National Forest where they had this bombing range set up. And

— well, I went there, and when I saw the conditions these troops were

working under, I thought I’d improve their conditions. I set up a rec-room for

‘em, with pool tables, and all this stuff, you know? And I set up a PX —

that’s the word: PX — I was trying to figure out that word — PX. But they

wouldn’t — the military wouldn’t finance it. So I financed it. I had the

construction done by the battalion carpenters, and that, and it was right in

John Hakala 34

the buildings themselves. [quietly] But the bad part was [pause] (How many

months was I there? I can’t even remember that.) I was there through

Christmas. That’s right. It was in January. January they must have had a

blast! I mean, somewheres — these Negro troops, I mean the black troops.

They came back to the station, and they wrecked the whole place! They tore

down the door to the PX, and they scattered — well, not SCATTERED — not

only scattered — they removed all the — everything that was in there, and

they — the pool tables were dumped over, all the felt, you know, was ripped,

and torn, and all that! So I figured up the damage, you know? I first called

them all together, when I first saw this, I had the whole troop lined up. I

told ‘em what the situation was, that I had set this up for them, thinkin’ that

I was helpin’ ‘em out, makin’ it easier for their time away from home, to have

these things available to them: their cigarettes, and their pop, and whatever

they wanted, you know — their candy bars, and all that? Why, shucks! It

was well-stocked! And I told ‘em, I said that, if those responsible will step

forward, that I — I’d accept the financial loss — you know — of all this —

that I’d have that pool table repaired outa my own pocket. Nobody would

move. Not a single man would move. I says, “I know ALL of you aren’t

involved in this — or WEREN’T involved in this. It was just a few individuals

that came in drunk, you know?” But nobody would step forward and say

anything. So I said, “OK.” I said, “The next payday you can just figure that

it’s gonna be ALL deducted from your pay.” I says, “I’ve got a total here. I’ve

got it divided up so that each man of you will pay — each your share — since

you don’t want to state who did it, or anything about it.” Well, then, this

caused a BIG RUCKUS back at the base, you know! That Chaplain! You

should have seen the Chaplains coming! Every — Here that ogre’s taking it

out on these black troops, you know? So when the payroll did come, I just —

course everybody was there — I mean the Chaplains, the — they had set up

some Majors, and all that, to observe this thing, see? And I — I just counted

out their money as — I deducted it from ‘em as each one on my sheet of

paper told me to deduct, and I says, “Fine. It’s all settled.” So the next

thing I know, the Colonel of the base comes up — shortly, you know — to see

what the results were. And, ah, ‘course they just come up to — they have a

special meal all the time that you put on for visiting troops, you know? And

as we were sittin’ there at the dining table, I turned to the Colonel I said

that, ah, “How long would it take me to — How long would it take to have me

John Hakala 35

transferred back to flying?” He looked at me — — — see, prior to this — to

keep your rating up, you had to get in so many hours over a two- or three-month

period — of flying. And I couldn’t get that in. But when I’d go into the

main base, to — well, like on business, like gettin’ that payroll, and all that

stuff, I had to do that on my — personally, on my own. ‘Course they’d — the

military truck would drive me there and bring me back. But then a couple of

times — or no, just one time. That’s right. It just occurred one time — I

knew my three month period was over — that I’d be losing out on my flying

status if I didn’t get a flight in. So I went down to my old squadron that I

had been in, and I asked, “Is there any chance of getting some flying in? Do

you have a long cruise — night cruise, or something, you know — mission

that — training mission that I could accompany, as copilot, or whatever?”

And they put me on right away! I flew down to Texas, you know? And I came

back, and I had my time, you know? I held my flight status! But as soon as I

got back to the base, well, this underling, now, of the Colonel’s, you know —

the Lieutenant Colonel — the Executive Officer — that’s right! (That’s what I

was there at Kelly field. I was the “Executive Officer!” [laugh] So we can go

back to that cassette and put in “Executive Officer!” [laugh]) He had me

there. He had me on the rug! Oh, boy, did he chew me out! And he was —

he wasn’t a flying officer, see? And of course the Colonel, himself, wasn’t a

flying officer. He was from World War One days from France, you know. So I

had made up my mind, then, after I got this chewin’ out. I put in an official

application: “Immediate transfer” you know — to — back to flying status,

after I knew I had the status still. Otherwise I’d have had to go through

another big training — retraining program. So I put this through, and, you

know, the Colonel approved it immediately! Within a — I don’t think it was a

WEEK, I was gone from — as soon as they got a replacement for me at this

bombin’ range, I was OUTA THERE! I was back to Greenville, South Carolina!

[laugh]

Carol: Welcome home! [laugh]

John: But then as I came — when I got in there, I reported to

whatever “casual” group I had to report to, they told me, they said, that “You

have to get your own crew.” They said, “We don’t have any men available

except the ‘discards’ over here in this one, ah, one [laugh] quonset — or

building,” you know, for the fellas that hadn’t been assigned, and had been

eliminated from other crews, you know, all the old “[rejects]” — SO-called

John Hakala 36

“has-beens.” Well, I went over there, and I checked with them, talked to

them, and I finally picked out a copilot, navigator — ‘course the navigator —

there was only one navigator, and I wasn’t gonna take him, anyway, but [he

was] the only one there — I had to have a full crew, so I had to take him. I

took an engineer, a radio man, and a tail-gunner — yeah. I got all five — I

got the whole crew. So I proceeded to indoctrinate ‘em back into flying. And,

of course, reindoctrinating myself, too. And, ah, we were doing a lot of

bombing on that bombing range, too! [laugh] Which I had left, you know.

They knew when Hakala was up there, though! [laugh] All the black troops

[laugh] I was gonna tell one of ‘em, I said, “I’m gonna put this down your

gizzard.” [laugh] But I didn’t. I had pity on ‘em.

But then, ah, (how was it?) Oh yes! As soon as I — yeah. Yeah. As

soon as I completed my check-out flights, and I’d run the course that

needed to be done, I’d flown instruments, had come in on instrument

landing, and checked out in all my various activities that I had to check out

in, well, I immediately applied for transfer overseas. So they looked at me,

and they said, “What’s wrong with you?” [laugh] I says, “I want to get outa

HERE!” So next thing I knew, we were aboard a train heading back to

California.

Carol: Now this is in ‘43.

John: This is in ‘43. NO! ‘43 — This is ‘44! This was ‘44! And it was

during this interval, when I had been at home — see, my wife was the best

friend of my younger sister. And their 40 [acres] was just opposite ours, you

know, just a fence line was between us, but I had paid no attention to her

whatsoever all these years, you know, till I got back to Ironwood, and, of

course, being, ah, wanting to see, ah, (oh, what do you call the) —

“excitement” of the town, decided to go into Ironwood itself, and there was

only one little place open for eating, and they served, maybe, some beer and

wine. So I had gone into this place — that’s the ONLY place open in

Ironwood! That’s what kinda town it is, see? And, ah, while I was in there

sittin’ down, in walks a former teacher of mine from my younger days, and he

comes over with his wife, which I had known sometime in the past, too. But

they called me over to their booth, that’s right. They were sittin’ down.

When they saw me, they called me over to their booth, that’s right. I

suppose we were doin’ a little talkin’, and that, and all of a sudden I turned

and looked, and in the door came two ladies — two young ladies. One was

John Hakala 37

the sister of the wife of this teacher — former teacher of mine, — and the

other one was, ah, my later wife, Mae! And I hadn’t seen her since —well,

she was a snotty-nosed little brat, you know? That’s about the size of it, you

know? And here she’s a young lady, you know?! I says, “HO-ly SMOkers!!” I

got up, and I went to there, and I invited her over to the table, too, you know.

Of course, she would have come over there with — being the sister of the

other one — with the sister of the other one. Anyway, that started our [life]

together, but then in between times, she got ill. She got very ill. [quietly]

That’s another story. . .

But anyway, I, ah, shipped out to Sacramento, California, where I

picked up a brand new bomber — checked it out — had to swing those

compasses again, you know? But this time it was on a rotating platform, you

know? It was NICE! It was a quick job! Oh, golly! [laugh] It wasn’t like up

here at Elmendorf! Oh! MAN!! It took time and muscle! And, ah, I got the

aircraft all checked out, and took it out on a couple of maiden flights, and

had long-range tanks installed in it. Everything seemed to be hunky-dory.

They gave me my orders, and — (what time was it in the morning?) — I think

it was one o’clock — one o’clock in the morning I took off from Sacramento,

California, to head for the Phillip- — to head for the Hawaiian Islands. And

before I got half-way, of course, we had to transfer gas from the extra tanks

that we had installed to our wing tanks, where it could be used, you know?

Well, the pump wouldn’t work! So I had to turn around! GOLLY!! I’ll tell

you, was I disappointed!! I had to turn around and go all the way back to

Sacramento! Then I had to fly for hours up there, just doing NOTHing, you

know, trying to get the weight of my load down, so that I could land safely!

So then the next night, we did the same thing again! And we had to come

back! The fuel pumps wouldn’t work! They worked on the ground. I told ‘em

— and they worked before — I made SURE they worked before we took off!

But when we got over there where we needed to transfer gas — they flicked

on, and they went out! So — back we went again!! TWICE now! Now the

THIRD time, I said, “Now THIS is IT!” [laugh] And the same — well, — yeah.

But then we took off — or I took off — WE took off — the whole crew. No!

There — there was just — we had sent a couple of fellas ahead. I don’t know

if they went by water, or if they had flown by other military transportation.

Could have been other military — I don’t recall. But there was myself, my

copilot, my [so-called Navigator], and my — was it the radio man? — yeah!

John Hakala 38

NO! The radio man didn’t accompany me. My engineer accompanied me.

That’s right! Mm-hm. So there were three of us. Two were sent by other

transportation. That was, again, to lighten the load.

Well, the second take-off was the same thing, but when I came back,

my wheels wouldn’t fall — wouldn’t drop! I put the lever down, — nothing!

Anyway, the signal light still showed red — that they weren’t locked, you

know? So, I — (how was it?) — No, it was the NOSE wheel that wasn’t

locked! That’s right! The nose wheel wouldn’t lock. The other wheels

indicated locked. So I called in, and I told them, I said that “Well, I’ll bump

this thing along the runway, and see if I can’t make that nose wheel lock.”

So I came in a couple of times and bumped the bomber down the runway, you

know, and the light wouldn’t change, so then I finally called them, I said,

“Well, you’d better spread some foam out there,” and I said, “I’m gonna come

in anyway. And if that nose wheel collapses, well, at least we’ll have

something greasy to slide on, you know? It wouldn’t wreck the WHOLE

airplane.” So — came in and landed, and — NOTHing! It was just the gol-dang

electrical malfunction! [laugh]

Carol: It was working, but you just didn’t know it.

John: Yeah! It just didn’t show it was working, you know? [laugh] The

red light was on!

TAPE #2 SIDE B

Well, we had to stay that evening until around one o’clock in the

morning at Sacramento. I forget what the name of the military base was, but

this was my third try now to get to the Hawaiian Islands. Everything checked

out. The plane checked out well. We took off, got half-way to the mid-point.

Gas was transferred nicely. We passed over the mid-point ship, which we

had homed in on, — it was anchored out there in mid-Pacific. Then we

turned our course toward Oahu — the Hawaiian Islands. We made our way,

and as we were proceeding, we could see the gas gauge just lowering itself,

and nothing visible in front of you. The weather had been fine all night, and

all of a sudden I saw the largest island. I think it’s where the — I forget the

name of it, but I could see that coming over the horizon, and I was looking at

my gas gauge, and I figured I’d head directly for this largest island. I knew

Oahu was off to my right more, but I wanted to be sure I’d be in the range of

a beach for an emergency landing, because apparently my aircraft was using a

lot more gasoline than normal. [interruption?] Until I made out what I figured

John Hakala 39

was Diamond Head appearing on Oahu. So I turned the airplane towards

Oahu for Diamond Head, and as I approached, I was maybe an hour and a

half out still, my gas needles were both on zero, so I dropped my flaps, lifted

up the tail, reduced speed, and just worked along until I got around Diamond

Head. I sent out an SOS in case we went down in the water. Fortunately,

being in that attitude, it was draining all the gas forward, so that it was all

going into the fuel lines and into the carburetor, where it was needed. We

made it all the way to the mouth of where Pearl Harbor came out, and we had

to swing right then, a hundred eighty degree [turn] to make a landing at the

Air Corps base there. We landed, and immediately a vehicle was in front of

us, and scooted us off to a parking area, and we had to sit in the airplane

and buzz-bomb the inside of the airplane for an hour. ‘Course all this while

I’d shut the engines down. Then the tow truck came, after an hour, and

towed us to the regular parking area. And I had the mechanic, who came

over to the plane, I asked him specifically to check exactly the amount of gas

I had left in those tanks. Which he did. Later on I learned the total was ten

gallons in both tanks! So you can see how close — without having my —

[laugh] how close we were! And we were supposed to have had long-range

carburetors on our aircraft for this flight, so something had gone wrong. But

anyway, we made it. We spent the night there, and — well, no. It was — we

had arrived — it must have been around noon. That’s right. We spent, then,

that afternoon and the night there sleeping. I remember sleeping. We got

up at — for an early breakfast the following morning, and then we were

supposed to take off for Christmas Island, which was due south of Hawaii.

So I went out to the plane after we had our breakfast, ran it up, checked it

out, everything seemed to be functioning properly, so we got aboard, and we

took off, and headed south. We weren’t — well, we had reached the point of

— where we had to transfer gasoline again, and the same thing occurred. So

the red lights came on, no pump working, so we had to turn back to Oahu!

When I arrived there, well, they made me — made us fly — stay in the air for

close to three and a half hours, so it reduced the weight of the airplane for

landing on their airstrip. And when we got — taxied back to the parking area,

the only thing that was wrong was the electrical connections!

Carol: Oh, gee! So you could have made it.

John: Yeah. Well, we couldn’t make it, no! Because the gas didn’t

transfer.

John Hakala 40

Carol: Oh! Oh! The electrical connections wouldn’t allow it!

John: Mm-hm. So the following morning we did the same thing. But

this time I was determined I was going to get through! So even though a

front had been predicted, they had stated that it wouldn’t be a very solid

front. It’d be a very narrow strip that we’d have to cross through in our

southerly direction. But as I approached this front, it kept on getting blacker

and blacker! And I started climbing. I’d been flying down at nine hundred

feet. I climbed to five thousand feet, and looked for an opening through the

front, running down the face of it. I saw what I thought was a light ahead of

me, so I swung the airplane into it to cross over to the other side. And

instead, I must have hit very close to the center of the storm! Because the

next thing we knew, we were up at fifteen thousand feet — and this was —

the altimeter had not been catching up to us rapidly as we had rose, and the

next thing we were plunging down — straight down for the water, and it was

raining so solidly that the inside of the plane was just as though we had —

nothing between us and the elements! It was just POURING rain inside the

plane, and here I was on instruments! Flying those instruments, that —

part — well, one time I know for sure we were even laying on our back! It

had flipped us over, and I got it back straightened out, and we were — I was

VERY happy, though, that the engines didn’t sputter! They kept on running,

even though I had — I had reduced power when we had started these ups

and downs. We had gone up and down at least five times, and all of a

sudden we broke out into the clear! And this is when my navigator — the

one that I had picked up at one of the excess [Baggage”] — refused to do any

more as far as navigating! So I just reached over and switched on my radio

compass as I had done there in the Alleutians, and I let the needle swing

around while I kept the course that I had previously been flying until that

needle started working, and by — before long, it swung over, and I turned the

airplane, and within a [couple of hours] or so, I don’t remember how long it

was, but there was Christmas Island! We landed, and parked, and got off the

plane. A Major came up to me, and he saluted me, and he said, “Major

Baun!” I says, “No, Sir,” I says, “It’s Lieutenant Hakala!” [laugh] I must

have looked like Major Baun, you know. [laugh]

We spent one full day at Christmas Island, and then we took off to go

westward. We left — I forget what day, our dates, what time it was as far as

the leaving part, but we were following the reverse course of Amelia Earhart.

John Hakala 41

And we flew — actually, I found out later I’d flown over the same islands

where she had been reported missing — in that general vicinity. So I was

flying her course, only in reverse. My next stop was Tarawa, then Guadle

Canal, then another point on New Guinea — I can’t remember the name of

the strip, but it was across from Tarawa, where the Japanese had their big

installation, and of course we were flying without any protection. We had no

guns. We were completely, as you call it, in the nude! And the Japanese

were swarming around there, but we made it through to our landing point,

which was northwest of the island of — the HUGE island of New Guinea.

Then from there I proceeded to the Phillipines. But my main station, after I

got to Manila, the main station that was assigned to me was Pallowan. So

my crew and I were shipped out to Palowan, which is just southwest of the

Phillipines itself in the China Sea. And here’s where I spent the last days of

the war. We flew — we were flying raids when MacArthur landed, and then

on the main island of the Phillipines — I forget — there are so many islands

there! I was on a bombing run on — was it April — NO! August seventh,

with my bomb bay doors open, when my radio man called me on the intercom,

and he says, “I just received a message that the war is over!” [emotional

chuckle]

Carol: OH, MAN!

John: So I immediately ordered the bomb bay doors CLOSED!

Carol: YES!

John: And we headed back for Palowan! [quietly] Yes.

And then, during those days immediately after the cessation of actual

combat, we were on patrol duty, because the Russians at that time were

acting up as far as the Kuril Islands were concerned, and they were afraid

that they might invade the Kuril Islands, which were the north end of Japan,

you know? And — but then I guess satisfactory diplomatic relations were

arranged, which ceased all this conflict, but we still patrolled the China Sea

until — and we were actually patrolling between China and — Taiwan — the

island of Taiwan. Because of the Chang Kai Chek had moved his troops over

to Taiwan, and I guess they were just wanting to be sure that the Chinese

troops who had taken over China — the Communists — wouldn’t invade

Taiwan at that time.

So I was there on the islands from August till in November, when an

offer was made to me to take a squadron to go to Korea, and I thought it

John Hakala 42

over. And they also offered me a Majority along with the squadron. That was

supposed to be an enticement. But I had made a commitment with my friend

back home, who was in the hospital, and — undergoing this operation down

in East Lansing — that I would — as soon as my war duty was over, I’d

return to the United States. So I put in my forms for that purpose, and I

came out high man because of my previous service in the Aleutian Islands,

and I was one of the first aboard the ship returning to the States.

Carol: All Right!

John: [chuckle] Well, I returned, then, finally, to San Francisco, the

Golden Gate Bridge, rode under it aboard ship, and was discharged from the

ship, assigned to a military base for transportation eastward. Then what

followed — No! I received orders, then, to — for my final destination, which

was in Wisconsin — for my final discharge action. I’ve forgotten the name of

the place where I went to. It was one of the fields, but for some reason I

can’t remember. Well, anyway, I arrived back in Ironwood two days before my

future wife, Mae returned from East Lansing. She was sent directly to the

Grand View Hospital, where I met with her, and then they gave her a

furlough. This was just before Christmas — for over Christmas week. So I

accompanied her. I brought her to her home, and — saw her set up there,

and then after Christmas was over with, she went back into the hospital for

a few more weeks — I forget weeks or was it a month’s stay before they

finally discharged her. And apparently they figured that they had [her

problem] all corrected, which they did.

Well, by that time, of course, we had made our commitments; we were

to be married that following summer, June seventh, [pause] forty-seven.

[pause] Which we did. And then, thinking it would be preferable — I was

thinking of going back to college, of course, and I was thinking that that

Arizona weather would be a lot better for my wife than that clammy climate

up in northern Michigan — upper Michigan. So we packed up, and we loaded

the forty-one Ford — I had a forty-one Ford — two-door. And we headed out

West! I drove all the way to — first to Arizona, I think. I can’t remember the

places where the universities are located, but I went to the universities at

Arizona, New Mexico, and finally to Denver, or in Colorado, and they all

turned me down. They said that, “You have a good university back in your

area, so that you — you better go back there, and ...” I tried to tell them that

John Hakala 43

this was for my wife’s benefit, I’m wanting to move out West, but they

wouldn’t take that as a . . .

So we returned back to Michigan, and I applied to Michigan College of

Mining and Technology, and they accepted me immediately. It’s now known

as the Michigan Technological University, though. So after four years there, I

got my degree in Forestry, and part of that degree I had made a commitment

with my wife, I said that “We, ah — as soon as I get that degree, we’re

heading for Alaska!” [laugh]

Carol: [laugh] It wasn’t COLD enough in Michigan, huh?

John: [laugh] And she KNEW about this all those years! So when we

finally got back to Ironwood, and we repacked, and — NO, no, NO! NO, no!

That was a big operation! I had to buy a new vehicle, that’s right! ‘Cause

that old forty-one Ford was no longer usable! I made the rounds of all the

garages, and I came upon this one [laugh] — what was it? A forty-nine three-quarter-

ton International truck, painted in bright yellow!

[laugh]

Carol: Here we come! [laugh]

John: And of course by that time we had had — obtained a house

trailer that we had been living in during that last year at Tech, you know. So

I hooked that trailer behind that truck after I had modified the truck to hold

a fifty-gallon reserve tank of gasoline, in the back, that I could run off of. I’d

run till that tank was dry, and then I’d have my eighteen gallon tank, which

was behind the seat, to get me to — HOPEFULLY, to the next gas station.

And of course I had to put on electrical wiring to work the brakes on the

trailer that followed — I mean the house trailer.

So we got all that done, and we took off. And we arrived in — we

crossed the border — the boundary — we arrived at the boundary on July 4,

1950! [chuckle]

Carol: All right! Wow!

John: So we proceeded up the highway to Fairbanks!

Oh! I left out a part! Yeah. That’s right. Prior to this, I had been

making inquiries on going further in school at the University of Alaska. I

received word from one of my inquiries that the new Cooperative Wildlife

Research Unit [Leader], that was being assigned to the University of Alaska,

Fairbanks, would be coming to Tomahawk, Wisconsin, to pick up some beaver

traps — live beaver traps — that when he reached Tomahawk, why he was

John Hakala 44

going to make a side trip to Ironwood to see me. Well, I made arrangements

that we’d meet at the St. James Hotel in the lobby, and, of course, we met

there that morning, and — I had my wife, Mae, come in with me, and I told

her before she went in there, that “This is MY interview,” that “You’re not to

say anything.” [laugh] So she came in, and she sat down alongside of me,

and we talked with this Dr. Hosley, who was the first Cooperative Wildlife

Unit head at the University. He asked me various questions, and how we

were going to make our way, you know, and what we were going to do when

we got there, and I told him that I would need to work this summer, after I

arrived, that we had very little money, that we had just enough money for

that trip up, and I had borrowed to purchase that truck — from relatives, and

that we were sadly in the HOLE, actually. So he turned to my wife, and he

said that, “Do you take dictation?” [laugh] My wife said, “Yes.” He says,

“MY secretary!” and he hired her on the spot! [laugh]

Carol: [laugh] Isn’t that NEAT!

John: Yeah, yeah. So here we arrived in Fairbanks, then, after a —

well, it was a more or less uneventful trip. I had a few flat tires, and stuff

like that, but we made it in, I think it was eleven or twelve days. But we

drove into College, and followed the road up to where the University was

supposed to be, and I got up around the turn-off, just above Dr. Bunnell’s

cottage, where his home — where he lived at the time, and I stopped my

vehicle [chuckle] in the middle of nowhere! And I looked around, and I said,

“Well WHERE’s the University?!” then I see two people come walkin’ towards

me from way in the distance, and they come up to me, and it’s Dr. Hosley

and his son, Ralph. And I asked him, I says, “Where’s the University?” He

says, “It’s right HERE!” [laugh, laugh] All there was then was a big building,

and that was half way over the brow of this hill that we’re on, you know? And

you could barely see the building there! And then there was the water tower,

and then they had — they had begun building one section where they had a

post office on one end of it. They had the post office part done, and they

were building on the rest of it. But then they had various other former

military buildings that they had hauled in and set up for student housing —

that’s right, for student housing. So then I asked, I said, “Well, where am I

going to be able to put up, you know? Set my trailer up?” ‘Cause we figured

we’d use our trailer for our winter home. And we found out we could not park

John Hakala 45

anywheres on University land! We had to get off it completely!! Those were

the regulations those days! [laugh]

Carol: [laugh] Nothin’ THERE, but you can’t USE it!

John: [laugh, laugh] Oh, golly, I’ll tell ya! And then Dr. Hosley says,

“Well I been checkin’ with the Fish and Wildlife service, and there IS a job

being offered that — if you’re interested in, to go to Kodiak Island, Alaska,

and study the bear for the summer.”

I says, “Yes,” I says, “That’d be VERY VERY interesting, but would my

wife be able to accompany me?”

So he said he’ll find out. And he went and — well, maybe it was the

following day that he came, and he say, “No. They will not accept others, you

know?”

So I says, “Well, I’ll have to turn down the job.”

So then the next thing I heard, they opened up a SPECIAL job right

here on the Kenai [National] Moose Range, setting up research plots in this

‘47 burn. They had set it up specifically, I guess, because, ah, — why I don’t

know, but they must have received word from down in Juneau, the Regional

Office, that I had a former friend there who had been my Intelligence Officer

in the seventy-third bomb squadron, and he was a high “mucky-muck” down

there, and he said, “You find a job for JOHN!” [laugh] See, that’s how you

get ahead in this game: by knowing SOMEONE! [laugh]

Carol: Oh, WOW! So he was in Juneau still.

John: He was in Juneau. Oh, yes. He had gone back to Juneau and

took up his former job, and — ‘course he wasn’t the HIGH mucky-muck, but

he was one of the lower totems, you know? But he had enough influence,

anyway, that, ah, — AND, to top it off, he flew all the way to Anchorage, then,

when we drove down, with the truck. I left the trailer there [in Fairbanks],

parked on some private property, to get it off of the — [chuckle] get it off of

University land, and it took us a day and a half to get down. And I remember

— we were coming down what LATER I found out was Sheep Hill — Sheep

Mountain? — and as we were coming down, it was ALL FOG! And all of a

sudden, this HUGE Bull Moose walks — comes across the road! And, of

course. I had to slam on the brakes! He — he just floats through that mist,

you know, this HUGE ANIMAL, you know?! I told Mae, I said, “We’re gonna

have to stop here and, you know, wait until this fog clears up.” So I went a

little further, and I parked, — I saw where there was a place where I could

John Hakala 46

back up into — NO! I DROVE into it, because the tail-end of the truck was

out to the road. And I fixed up our bed back there with a big tarp over it, you

know, and all this mist, and — well, it was even raining slightly. And we

woke up that morning — I stuck my head out from under the tarp, you know,

and I looked ——— and HERE’s Matanuska Glacier right there BESIDE us!!!

[laugh] See how things happen?! [laugh] There it was!! Matanuska Glacier!

RIGHT THERE BESIDE us!! We couldn’t believe it!! [laugh]

So, anyway, we continued on, towards Anchorage, and about — well,

let’s see, was it — it was before you get to Palmer — no, before you get to

Wasilla there’s a stretch of road — and along this road was a long trailer,

both tires flat, and we recognized the rig, because we had driven part way up

the highway with these people, but every time I had a flat, I was in BEHIND,

and every time HE had HIS flats, he was in FRONT, so I was always [helping]

repair flats for HIM, plus my own flats [while] behind! But they made it THAT

far! They were camped out there right alongside the road. They couldn’t GO

any further, ‘cause they had no more TIRES, and they were BROKE. He had

gotten a job immediately in town. He was a skilled carpenter. But [chuckle,

chuckle] They straightened it out afterwards, you know, after he got his first

paycheck, I guess, but...

Well, anyway, we came into town, and we met — it was on a Friday that

we got there. That’s right, ‘cause we had to spend that week end, then. I got

to the Fish and Wildlife office, and they told me that I’ll have to come back

Monday, that they hadn’t received any definite word on this job — I mean

HERE at this location — from Juneau, on the Kenai Moose Range, you know.

So I told Mae, I said, “Well,” I says, “It looks like we’re gonna have to find a

place to park for the week end. So we decided to drive back to where these

people were, you know? Where THEY were parked alongside the road. Yeah,

we KNEW them, at least!! [laugh] Yeah, and THAT’s right, and there was a

spring there — a bubbling spring, where there was lots of water! So I told

Mae, I said, “Well, we’ll get you there, and we’ll heat up water, we’ll wash

your head, and all this and that, and we’ll get set up, you know?” Which we

did.

So the following Monday, we went back to Anchorage, and who should

meet us, but Elkins! My former Intelligence Officer from the Aleutians, you

know? And, of course, he says, “The job is all set up, that you just have to

get down there, and it’s all ready to go. And Mr. Spencer will be up here

John Hakala 47

shortly just to meet with you, and visit with you, you know? Give you some

idea of what the work is.”

So, he says, “In between time,” he said, “let us go over here to this —”

(Gee! Now the word doesn’t come to mind!) — “Oysters!” Yes! Oysters!

BOY! Did we have a meal of oysters with Elkins!

Well, I met with Mr. Spencer, and he gave me a run-down on what the

work was, and how I was to get there. I found I had to go down to the

railroad station, ship my truck a day in advance, and follow it with our

carcasses the following day in the passenger train, and we’d meet up at

Moose Pass — get together at Moose Pass. Which we did. We unloaded the

truck from the freight train, and took off for Kenai. But the road in those

days was nothing like the road now. It was all cobblestones! And it was UP

and DOWN! Weaving through the timber, and it was ALL — there was no

fine gravel, it was ALL BIG BOULDERS! And it took us a half day, from the

time we left Moose Pass to get to Kenai Lake — to the [north] — to Quartz

Creak on Kenai Lake, where we camped for the night.

The following day we drove — finally made it into Kenai. ‘Course you’re

just driving twenty-five, thirty miles an hour, you know, and over this rough

road. And, of course, you’re trying to protect your tires, too, but...

Carol: Good thing you had an International.

John: Yeah, yeah. That was for sure! Then we finally — when we DID

arrive at the Kenai National Moose Range Headquarters, there was just the

log building, which had been the first Agricultural Experimental Station

building in Alaska. That’s where that business had started. And then the

Fish and Wildlife Service, I guess, had taken over that land, but that building

was still set there, and it was — I don’t know how — it must have been

thirty, forty years old at the time, too. But then alongside of it was, of

course, where the Refuge Manager lived. But here, again, that house — or

that place was being remodified — rebuilt by a basement being put on it, so

that was some of my first work. Pick and shovel, [laugh] pick and shovel.

But THEN, to my surprise, I was assigned another job: to make a privy —

‘cause we had no private privy. So we had to build a privy, and . . .

We occupied the upstairs of this former Agricultural building, and there

were no doors, the windows were solidly fly-specked. I tried washing it from

the inside, but it was so dirty on the outside, and I had no ladder to get up

there. And we had one car — or airplane seat, that — unless you had it

John Hakala 48

pressed against the wall, it’d topple over, and I got out our air mattresses,

and I dug out two two-by-fours, and put ‘em on the floor, and put the two

mattresses on the floor along — within the two-by-fours, and that was going

to be our bed. And then we had a small — what was it? — it was a drum —

NO! It was a reel — yeah — a small reel, that we set our gas stove on. And

that was our —[chuckle] that was our quarters for the summer! [laugh] I

hung my rain parka over the doorway for my door! [laugh]

Well, anyway, we got established. ‘Course the — how was it? — My

first assignment — after I’d been pick-and-shoveling, yeah, — on that

basement, well then — I started collecting plants — and mounting plants. So

this had gone on for maybe a half a day, when Mae had gone — or the Refuge

Manager had called her and asked her if she was able to pound a typewriter,

and do that kind of work, and she said, “Sure!” So he says, “Well, would you

come here to my office, and I’ve got some work that needs to be completed.”

But then they got to the office, and he looked in there, and he says, — this

— there’s a big tub in there, you know? He says, “This tub has to be moved

first. Where are we gonna move it?” He had hauled it there from the

bathroom, you know? They were remolding the bathroom! So he was a man

of — well, he was a man of few words, and he said, “Well, ah, — when we get

this tub moved, then we’ll start on the — with the typewriter,” you know?

Then he LEFT! He went FLYING! Yeah! He went FLYING! The next thing I

hear was a tapping at the window, you know? And a hand waving for me to

come, you know? [laugh] Mae’s at the window, and [laugh] I come to see

what’s the problem, and she tells me what’s the story, you know, and — but

she says, “Before we can move that tub in that bathroom, we have to lay the

LINOLEUM!!!” [laugh!! laugh!! laugh!!]

SO! We [chuckle] — I said, “Well, I’ll tell you,” I said, “You go outside.

You go collect plants for me, and you — you put ‘em in this binder — I mean

— the drier, you know.” (I forget what I used to call it.)

Carol: A press?

John: A PRESS! Yeah! A press. And — “I’ll take care of a little of

what I can do here.”

So I proceeded into the bathroom, and I took a look, and — well, I

FIRST looked to see what they had done with the other rooms. I saw they

had first laid another — ONE layer of some kind of a black tar paper down,

that they had glued down, and then they put this linoleum over that. So

John Hakala 49

here I had to cut out all this stuff, and GLUE, and REglue, and GLUE, you

know? And I finally got it set up, and I went and I started draggin’ that —

well, by that time it was — yeah, close to quittin’ time, I guess, that first

day, and — well, I got the tub over there, just ready to go into the bathroom,

but I didn’t want to drag it over that floor, ‘cause I was afraid — it hadn’t

dried enough, you know —or that the linoleum would slip — not stay in one

spot.

Well, Spencer returned later that evening, after he had made his

patrols, and — I heard him drive up. I went in the house, and he helped me

move that bathtub into the bathroom where it was supposed to be! Then we

set up the office for next day’s work.

Carol: [laugh] Was he surprised?

John: Oh, yeah! Well, NAW! HE wasn’t surprised! He knew what

would go on! So then Mae began working for him as a — well, as a typist —

office worker. And, of course, to get ME in there, they had to set up a new

scale. They set up a scale of IGS-1. Nobody knows what it meant, or what it

consisted of, but only it had a fee associated with it, and that was

proportionate to the “I” grade — the number one grade, which was maybe a

hundred-fifty or so dollars a month, you know.

So, well, anyway, I got all my equipment together that I figured I’d need

to use out there setting up these plots. Actually, I had to do a lot of

constructing. I had to make a — that’s right — a meter-square frame, and I

had to dig up a lot of steel posts, for camera points, and then steel posts to

mark the ends of the plots, and I had a truckload of equipment when I

started out. Of course I took my wife with me, and my tent.

We went out there, and we spent — that full week I was settin’ up

these plots, in this burn — ‘47 — it was the ‘47 burn, and here it was 1950,

and it was just as BLACK as the ace of spades! I’d go in those trees, and —

to find out [interruption]

One of these sites that I was setting up, along came a truck, and it had

a flat tire. [interruption]

#TAPE THREE#

As I said, this truck came by, and it had a flat tire. It parked in front of

our vehicle, and the people in it got out. I later learned that his name was

Harold — Harold Waugh, one of the first guides working the Kenai

Peninsula. In later years we had a wonderful gathering with him as a

John Hakala 50

celebration of the tire I helped to repair out on the [chuckle] moose range in

1950.

We continued these plot sites until we had the total, I believe of

twelve established. My wife was with me every day, but then again, she

wanted to be located near water every evening. So here, not knowing

whether I’d be back to the same campsite or not, I’d pack up all our camping

gear, bring it back to my vehicle, move on