Everybody Has a Story: He enlisted in wartime, ended up in extracurricular fights

Watching “The Spoilers” being filmed in the summer of 1942 only required a half-mile walk from my home in Southern California. Many movies filmed in our part of town, but this one was special. John Wayne was coming to town, and he was the favorite movie star of this 9-year-old. The choreographed bar fight scene was spectacular.

Never in my wildest dreams did I suspect that 10 years later I would be involved in a bar brawl.

We met in 1952 on the train headed south to boot camp in San Diego. Benny Gonzales, Henry Garcia and Albert Torres would in the next four years become good friends of mine. They had all joined the Navy together after graduating high school. Benny was fun, Henry was serious and Albert just loved a good fight. Albert’s older brother Enrique was a successful pro wrestler; Albert’s goal was to become big and strong enough to wrestle with his brother as a tag team.

While our ship was in port one time in San Francisco, Albert’s brother Enrique was wrestling in the local arena, so we all got liberty and went to the fight and met Enrique himself afterwards. (As a side note, Albert achieved all of his goals as he and his brother became a top draw around the country. They wrestled a headliner match in Havana, Cuba, the night that the Batista regime fell to Castro’s rebel army in 1959. Tragically, it all ended in 1971; Albert ruptured his spleen when fighting Ox Baker, and died a few days later.)

After boot camp, we all were assigned to the USS Renville, just coming out of mothballs following World War II. The Renville was a troop transport ship with its own landing craft. When we had troops on board, conditions were crowded. We always tried to put the troops first, as they were coming off weeks of combat, sometimes right from the front lines.

But when on liberty and off ship, they were all fair game, no matter if they happened to be Army or Marine. We would take no guff or insults, and many fights would occur. One night, Benny, Henry, Albert and I were on liberty in Yokosuka, Japan, and sitting near us were Army troops from the 7th Calvary division.

“I don’t like those guys, they said a lot of insulting things while on board,” Albert said. “Dick, you go over and insult them, then get back to our table quick.” Unfortunately, alcohol sometimes brings out the worst in a person.

It started quickly — one punch, then another and another, a chair thrown, the sound of glass breaking, a body sailing through the air. The owners of the bar called the shore patrol, who arrived quickly and promptly separated and arrested us all. After much discussion with the officer in charge, the bar owners agreed to not press charges if we paid for damages. We all kicked in every yen that we had, and I believe the bar made money on this deal.

But that didn’t let us off the hook. Still under arrest, we were taken back to our ship. I remember that no one was seriously hurt, just cuts and bruises that would all eventually heal. But now we had to face our commanding officer. He read the report, gave us a good chewing out and said we would not face a court-martial. But we would have to appear before a captain’s mast — a hearing he would conduct and a punishment he would determine himself. The result was, we were restricted to the ship for two weeks. That was the end of it. Considering that it took us three weeks to sail from Korea to San Diego, being restricted for two weeks didn’t curtail our fun. Fortunately, there were no more brawls.

Some time later, while the Renville was in dry dock for repairs in the Philippines, I was “volunteered” for the boxing team. Seems that the ship had been challenged by the Seabees (CBs, the “construction battalion”) stationed there to a friendly boxing tournament. I learned very quickly that I did not want to be a fighter, even though I won my three bouts.

I promptly got off the boxing team!

Everybody Has a Story welcomes nonfiction contributions, 1,000 words maximum, and relevant photographs. Email is the best way to send materials so we don’t have to retype your words or borrow original photos. Send to: neighbors@columbian.com or P.O. Box 180, Vancouver WA, 98666. Call “Everybody Has an Editor” Scott Hewitt, 360-735-4525, with questions.