Robert Earl Compton, West Jordan, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, July 7, 2004: Saving the Legacy tape no. 679

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R B RT RL OMPTO J 7 20 4 th U . Th n n my econd trip on the way back I got notic that I wa g ing h m [! r thirty-days leave. I hadn't had leave for so much time that I had to go tak om tim ff. I went home for thirty days. BEC: To St. Joseph? BOB: Yes. Then I got reassigned to an LCI. It was up the West Coast. I came back from leave and reported for duty in Stockton, California. I had my sea bag and handed them my orders. We got a thing a guy wrote we got the other day about a sea bag. The handles they put on a sea bag are about as handy as putting a handle on top of a Greyhound Bus. Anyway, I reported for duty on this LCI. They had just come back from the Pacific and they'd sent it into the boat works in there for repairs. It was supposed to be all finished. I walked up to that thing. I had just been promoted to boatswain's mate. I looked at that thing and I thought, "Boy, oh, boy, they didn't do me any favors shipping me to this thing." There was grease on the decks and wire and rope, dirt, mud, rust. So then I figured out that we were supposed to take this thing to the decommissioned fleet. It was supposed to be shipshape and ready for sea. Not this tub. So I went aboard and there was nobody on board. Finally, that afternoon, I went up and walked up on top and went down in the gun tub and there was this guy asleep up there. He was a second-class signalman. So I put my foot in there and touched him and said, "Hey, wake up! Who are you?" He said, "Who are you?" I gave him my name and rating. Oh, he jumped up and said, "Oh, good, I'm damned glad to see you, Boatswain, you outrank me. Now, this is your tub." He was a second-class seaman and a boatswain's mate out ranked him. I said, "What do you think of this tub?" He said, "It's good to sleep on." We got to be pretty 36