PORT TOWNSEND — Tom Boone was working on his family’s wheat farm in the Palouse. Don Young was working for Foss Tug and Towing in Seattle. Ted Anstensen was commercial fishing in Alaska, and John Singhose was driving a logging truck out of Port Angeles.
All were young men in their early 20s when the letter, which started “Greetings,” arrived that changed their lives — at least for the next two years.
They and other members of 369th Engineer Amphibious Support Unit gathered again last week at Fort Worden State Park, the place where they reported for basic training more than half a century ago during the Korean War.
“We took them out here and exercised them,” Sgt. Elbert Keller said Friday, indicating the parade ground.
Keller and Sgt. Dick Cox were members of the Army Reserve in Portland, Ore., when they were called to active duty in the summer of 1950.
Unit reunion
On Thursday, they again made the trip from Oregon to Port Townsend for the unit’s reunion, which started Friday with a tour of Building 201.
The building next to park headquarters, it is now the Coast Artillery Museum, but when Keller arrived at Fort Worden from Portland with his family, it looked much different.
“There was one big room in the middle, which was the day room, with offices on each end,” Keller recalled. “The barracks were upstairs.”
Keller and his family lived in one of the Civilian Conservation Corps buildings near what is now the upper campground, he said, then they moved to a duplex on Non-Commissioned Officers Row, then known as Master Sergeants Row.
Boone, Singhose and the other draftees lived in barracks, rolling out of their bunks at “Reveille” to dress and report for roll call.
On Friday, Keller recalled standing in the middle of Building 201’s front porch and looking down at the men standing at attention on the ground below.
After roll call, each man stretched out his arms, then leaned over and picked any debris within reach on the ground.
The standing order to the draftees: “If it’s lying there, pick it up. If it’s moving, salute it. If it’s growing, leave it there,” Keller said.
Alvin Hominda, who is from Tacoma, said that after basic training, the duty consisted of going down to the boat, a 50-foot landing craft used to land supplies, and either cleaning it or painting it.
He also recalled how to field dress a cigarette — after smoking it, scatter the tobacco to the wind, then fold the paper up in a tiny square and put it in a pocket.
Inspection
Keeping one’s uniform and equipment in order was more challenging.
“Inspection was the hardest part,” Singhose said.
“Everybody’s display had to be the same — your extra underwear and socks, the shoes polished and set under the bunk. We weren’t used to that regimen.”
And yes, the bunk had to be made so tight that a quarter bounced off it would flip 6 inches into the air, Singhose said.
But the officers didn’t test every bunk, he added.
The penalty for not passing inspection: You couldn’t go home on the weekend, he said, which was allowed after passing basic training.
Men who lived within driving distance were allowed to bring back a car, something he did, Singhose said.
Thanksgiving dinner
Other memories: the Thanksgiving dinner that the mess cooks prepared in 1950.
Keller still has a copy of the program, listing everyone in attendance and what they were served: shrimp cocktail, turkey with dressing and gravy, candied sweet potatoes, whipped potatoes, buttered peas, Parker House rolls and Waldorf salad. There was pumpkin pie with ice cream for dessert.
Steve Kerr, a mess sergeant who was transferred from Fort Lewis in November 1950, recalled the dinner from a different perspective.
“I remember carving the turkey in the serving line,” Kerr said.
After basic training, some of the draftees were sent to Fort Flagler, where they formed a shore battalion, said Ed Claplanhoo of Neah Bay.
He and others were sent to Thule, Greenland, where they landed supplies to build an airstrip.
They also received training in Coronado, California, and Fort McArthur in Texas, but always came back to Fort Worden, he said.
“They gave us good training,” Claplanhoo said. “Some of our group went to Korea, and the reports that came back were that people trained at Fort Worden were the best trained.”
Tom Boone attended the weekend reunion with his son, Tom Boone Jr., and grandson Eric Boone.
A hobby carpenter, he made a wooden sign, 18-by-60-inches long, with the words “369th EASR” carved in it, which was presented to Fort Worden State Park in 2004.
Other letters engraved in their memories: the opening of the letter calling them to military service.
It said “Your friends and neighbors invite you to join the Army,” Hominda recalled.
“We all took a cut in pay,” Singhose said, noting that at that time, Army pay was $40 or $50 a month. “I sent money home to my parents every month.”
After his two-year stint, Singhose returned to Port Angeles. Young now lives in Kingston, and Anstensen lives in Anacortes.
Hominda married at the start of his last year in the military and stayed on in Port Townsend, working at the Safeway store when it was downtown.
Tom Boone returned to the farm.
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Port Townsend/Jefferson County reporter-columnist Jennifer Jackson can be reached at jjackson@olypen.com.
