Richard W. Johnson, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, June 3, 2004: Saving the Legacy tape no. 654

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RICHARD W. JOHN ON J 2004 So the whole engineering school, who were not seniors ready to graduate w nt trooping down to the post office. The Salt Lake recruiting office of the Navy got a gold star that month, they recruited so much. Well, my draft board sent me a letter saying "We see that you're within three months of graduating so we're going to give you another deferment." You know, deferments were given for short periods of time. So then, I could graduate. Well that was good for me when I looked around to see what my options were after that. With a college degree, my options were extended. The Navy had a program where I joined and received a commission and became an officer. That was interesting because I knew nothing about the Navy. I received this telegram saying, "Your ensign commission held this office. Go find a Navy officer and give him these papers and get him to swear you in." So I went down to the Salt Lake City post office on Fourth South and Main Street. The only Navy officer that I knew about was the medical doctor who was giving the physical exams in the recruiting office. So I went into him and stuffed these papers in his hand and he looked at the papers. He said, "Is this you?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Kind of young, aren't you?" He said, "Raise your hand." He swore me in as an officer in the Navy. I went down to the Deseret Book Store and bought a book called the Naval Officer's Guide and sat down to read this book to find out what I was getting into (laughs). BEC: Did that wind up being usef\11, that book? DICK: Yes, the book was helpful. You know, the thing that was scary was that if you walked down the street and other naval persons were supposed to salute you, I thought, "What do I need with that?" I had to buy all of the uniforms here in Salt Lake City. They gave me a list of all the things. I was ordered to arrive at a station in New York 8