Keith Tillotson

The Physical (1942)

"I went down to join the Navy, and I couldn't pass the physical."

Wasn't too long before Kenneth came in to port in Long Beach. So, he came out and told me about Pearl Harbor. I didn't think it was as bad as it was until he came told me what it was. He knew. The public didn't know, but Kenneth told me. And I didn't want to say anything about it – you know it's hard to keep a secret? I did. I never told anybody.

But I knew that more ships were sunk than people thought, than was in the paper. They knew the Japanese bombed, but they didn't know how bad it was. He knew.

My ship, the USS Shaw, it was out there in dry dock. It got the bow blown off. I don't know how many people got killed on that – maybe not too many. Kenneth didn't know about that either for sure. The reason I found out about that was after I got in the Merchant Marine.

Smoking

After I got in the Navy I started smokin' cigarettes. 'Course, I use to smoke a little pipe and pretend to smoke when I was living with Perry. I had a little bitty pipe. You'd go down to Red Line and buy one for 25 cents. Little crooked pipe, little miniature. I'd smoke that, but I never inhaled or anything like that. Until finally Kenneth told me it was silly to be smoking. So I quit smoking then, you know.

But I never learned how to inhale 'til I got in the Navy. Everybody says, "You're a sissy if you don't inhale." Boy, that was hard – I started inhaling and finally you get used to it. Then you get addicted. I smoked a pack a day or more – a carton a week. 'Course in those days I don't know what it cost. I know at sea, in the Merchant Marine you could buy 'em six cents a pack, no tax. Luckies, Camels – mostly Camels, I guess. Chesterfields – the name brands. I didn't like any of those cheapies.

I'm still workin' for Lockheed, and I told them I wanted to quit and join the Navy – go back in the Navy. They tried to talk me out of that. Says, "You don't have to. You're a 4A." That would exempt me for quite a long time. But I wanted to.

So I went down to join the Navy, and I couldn't pass the physical. Might have had somethin' to do with my heart or high blood pressure or something. But I never knew there was anything wrong with me. See, I didn't have a physical when I got out of the Navy. I was paid off right aboard ship.

They told me to go home and rest and then come back. So I thought, well, maybe because I was up half the night thinkin' about it and smokin' cigarettes and things like that. So I rested a couple of days, I went back down to try it again and when I was standing in line, somebody mentioned the Merchant Marine. Said, "Well, you don't pass this physical, you might join the Merchant Marine." The physical's not so strict for the Merchant Marine.

So I didn't take the physical. I just got out of line and went over a couple blocks away to the Merchant Marine, signed up, and they took me right away. They didn't even give me a physical there. In fact I didn't even have a physical until I got up to Alameda, went to engineering school.

Next: Engineering School (1942)