Frederick Repole

Soldiers of the 9th NY Coast Defense Command at Fort Hancock

NPS Photo

Sandy Hook, Gateway NRA, NPS
An Oral History Interview with Frederick Repole
26th Coast Artillery Band 9th New York Coast Defense Command 1917-1918
Interviewed by Tom Hoffman, NPS July 15, 1975
Transcribed by Mary Rasa, 2011
Editor’s notes in parenthesis ( )
(Talking before interview starts was not transcribed)

Tom Hoffman: But your family did come here roughly about 1910 you were saying?

Frederick Repole: Oh they brought me down as a baby, 1897.

Tom Hoffman: What did Highlands look like then? You know your earliest remembrances as a little boy growing up?

Frederick Repole: Not too much difference in a way. Let’s face it. What we are getting now is these high rises along the waterfront. (Tape stops and restarts)

Tom Hoffman: What about Highlands? What it looked like when you were a boy besides the condominiums?

Frederick Repole: Well, first thing there was railroad. The railroad ran right through the Highlands. And they had a stop at Water Witch which is where I am in the Highlands. Then it went down over the bridge and so on. And then we had two movies in town that I can remember and a big dance hall down by the bridge. Creighton’s they called it. And Bahrs’ and all those restaurants. But physically, not much changed, you know. A couple of new houses. Up the hill, all that changed is up the hill and at the Lighthouse. You noticed that?

Tom Hoffman: Yes, the new buildings.

Frederick Repole: Now they have the new high school up there and so forth and so on.

Tom Hoffman: Did they have dirt roads back then? In Highlands were the roads dirt or paved?

Frederick Repole: No. No. We had dirt roads. Oh, I got, oh I forgot. You know I have a book home from the 50th anniversary. You want to see real old pictures. They are in there. It shows you what…oh when Bob when he came he used to tell me he would find his way back to the hotel they used to stick a lantern on a stick to show you which street to walk on.

Tom Hoffman: really?

Frederick Repole: There were no real sidewalks.

Tom Hoffman: So we were discussing how you got into the Army.

Frederick Repole: Yeah well, not only that like I said before I was subject to draft. No question about it. 19, a little over 19, and my neighbor, boy friend Davy we didn’t feel like getting drafted or nothing, you know. So we didn’t. We just walked up to the regiment, the local regiment and our Father knew somebody in the regiment and I spoke to somebody and he spoke to him and being as I said before the regiment, all the regiments the personnel the elderly personnel are all getting out and the they kind of always like to go out with a big full band. A full band and a full compliment and everything. So, from April ‘til about August they was doing nothing but recruiting, you know. Coming in and out and getting organized and around April we got notice that we were going and going and going but like everything else you didn’t know where you were going. And the payoff was I wind up here in Sandy Hook. This was my old stamping grounds since I was a kid in the town of Highlands.

Tom Hoffman: This is right off of here is where you would go fishing.

Frederick Repole: Oh the fishing here was great then. The fishing, the crabbing. The crabbing is coming back again too I understand but the fishing and the clamming and what not. It was like I said you didn’t need a penny in your pocket. You needed a little muscle a pair of oars and that was it.

Tom Hoffman: And you would go out and do pretty well.

Frederick Repole: Yeah. We would get plenty, oh we used to right off the Hook here later on after I got the outboard and then he had boat my friend we came up here to go fishing. He said he heard all about it. So, I brought him up here. I said, “Bring a tub up with you.” He thought I was kidding. So he brought a tub. We got one I think, we got 150 and he lived in Red Bank and he had a lot of neighbors. So, he goes home with all this fish see and everybody spoke to him would like to know are they all cleaned. He cursed me for days afterwards. They wanted them but they didn’t want to clean them. (laughter) How was that?

Tom Hoffman: Quite a job to say the least.

Frederick Repole: We just cleaned 18, we had 23 the other day and last week we got 28 one day and 25 another day. When you come home you get tired of cleaning them and then we filleted them. Some people like them with the bones and some people like a fillet.

Tom Hoffman: What about the, getting back to your entering the Army? Remember you said you joined up?

Frederick Repole: We joined up two weeks after war was declared. We went up to regiment and we spoke to the bandmaster ‘cause he wanted to know the instruments we played. I said I told him I played a little fiddle. The friend of mine he played a little trumpet. He said, “Fine.” Suddenly we went in and talked to him and the first thing I know before we left we had signed our names on the papers. Then we went home to tell our folks and the riot was on. Without…

Tom Hoffman: You were saying why was that because you’re….

Frederick Repole: Yeah because we had signed up.

Tom Hoffman: Your parents didn’t want you to go, right?

Frederick Repole: Well yeah, they figured different. My son he was in World War II, my son and he was a musician too. Well, he was an accomplished musician. I mean he went to Julliard School of Music and colleges and he played in Radio City Music Hall for years. So, when they called him he was out on the road with a band. So, I went down to the office with the card and explained. I said, “He is a full fledged musician. He is out on the road.” I said, “He will be back and give me an extension.” When he came back he went in the Army. He really went traveling.

Tom Hoffman: I imagine so being a…

Frederick Repole: He got in with a band and he went all over Europe. He was in Germany, down around Italy, he was in France and England. In fact, right now he is over someplace in Berlin on vacation.

Tom Hoffman: Well what happened to you after you signed up? When you signed up here?

Frederick Repole: Well, I just signed up and went away over here and just a couple of months later we wound up over here. Then we put the whole winter in over here. (Tape stops and starts.)

Tom Hoffman: I am sorry. You were saying before that it was awful cold when you got down here.

Frederick Repole: Oh it was really bad and then we had the barracks was close by to the… see they kept the band separate. We had 26 men, 26 or 28 men in the band. And we were sort of a separate unit attached to Headquarters. And we lived in the wooden cantonments here right by the Lighthouse. We had our little luncheonette and everything was mostly out in the open. It was god damn cold. Whenever you got stuck on KP it wasn’t funny. I am telling you that. And then it got so damn cold they finally they gave it up and we went in the basement of the barracks across the way. And what a ride we had down there. We were all most of us were about my age see. And we were hell raisers. We would have all the music instruments and everything down in the back down there. And then the drums would be set and someone, one guy would give one a kick and every god damn drum would go rolling down the stairway or something like that. I am telling you we did a lot of hell raising these guys did.

Tom Hoffman: What about when you first came down to Fort Hancock were you assigned a unit?

Frederick Repole: Oh, no we came down as a regiment.

Tom Hoffman: As a regiment?

Frederick Repole: Oh yeah as the 26th Coast Artillery.

Tom Hoffman: The 26th?

Frederick Repole: No. The original name 9th CDC, 9th Coast Defense Command. And the boys up there in the Armory had 12-inch disappearing guns on the floor.

Tom Hoffman: What armory is this?

Frederick Repole: The 9th Regiment. West 14th Street and 6th Avenue. Greenwich Village. That’s been there for years and years. It’s still there by the way. But that was, see every regiment had a different type and CDC meant Coast Defense Command. So, no matter where we go it had to be on the coast with that type of regiment you know. And who the devil knew where you were going to be exact. It was always was the story in the Army you are gone you are moving and that’s it you just pack up and go. Or you pack up and you wait, they used to say. (laughs) We did that and we wound up right in here at Sandy Hook. Very nice place there. It is still the same. It don’t look no different at all.

Tom Hoffman: When you were in World War, the 1917 period, World War I what were the roads made out of like? Were they paved over or were they dirt?

Frederick Repole: Not really dirty. No. They were nice. As near as I can remember we had a nice setup. I can’t exactly remember the roadway. The only thing I can remember, the movies. The movies in the wooden shack down here and they had a crank handle machine and I used to hang out in there with the boys and the fella would get tired of turning and give me a chance to turn it. And if you didn’t turn it fast enough then the picture would look a little funny and you know, you had to do it at just a certain speed to have a correct picture on the screen, by hand though. And no talkies of course.

Tom Hoffman: Yeah they were all silent films.

Frederick Repole: All silent.

Tom Hoffman: Were they the popular ones of the day then? Charlie Chaplin and….

Frederick Repole: Charlie Chaplin and oh yeah that would be the same. And the other team, the big fat guy and little skinny guy.

Tom Hoffman: Oliver and Hardy? Yeah.

Frederick Repole: No. Laurel and Hardy that was another name but (inaudible) and then the funny thing, we were here awhile and they made up what they called the 52nd Railroad Artillery. They took some of our boys and some of, because there was a couple of regiments here 5 from different spots so they made this railroad artillery out of them and they sent them overseas see. Well, I wound up down in New Orleans. That was another nice town.

Tom Hoffman: About how long did you stay here then at Fort Hancock?

Frederick Repole: I was just trying to figure it out. We got down here in August of ’18 as near as I can think of, remember you know. Yeah we went down with all the coats on and everything else and by the time we got down there we had everything off. We stopped at Atlanta, Georgia on the way down. Now that was another funny thing. We only went down with a small group. I think we had a sergeant. It was a group of about a dozen and yeah we had a regular Pullman car and we were always hooked on one of the other regular trains. So we got in a tunnel in Atlanta, Georgia. I don’t know how it happened. The first thing we all they had them unhook the car, they left us in Georgia and we all went sightseeing. I always remember I pitied this poor sergeant that we lost anybody on the way by the time we got down to where we was to go. Then we got down to Jackson Barracks, New Orleans. A Lake Pontchartrain, I think they call it. So, we got down there and it was dark and everything else you know. You know you were assigned to your quarters and you the cots, you know, all the cots were open and ready and we walked in and everything and somebody kind of kicked it. It looked like all the god damn cots were going to walk away. There must have been a million cockroaches of every size. All over the whole god damn cot and you couldn’t see them. No. We all ducked out of there fast and we went downtown and we slept on a boat. (inaudible) Somewhere down there for the night.

Tom Hoffman: No. I was just wondering about this is you were mentioning this was when you went down south. I was wondering how long you were at Fort Hancock?

Frederick Repole: That time, I can’t remember the time myself. We weren’t here too long. Let me see.

Tom Hoffman: You say about 1917. Two weeks after War had been declared. That was 1917.

Frederick Repole: Yeah well, that was when I enlisted.

Tom Hoffman: Right.

Frederick Repole: That was two weeks after that was in April, April something you know. (tapes stops)

Tom Hoffman: Okay. Well, we have established that…

Fred Repole: April 4 I think. War was declared April 4 or something.

Tom Hoffman: Well, it was early in April.

Frederick Repole: The beginning of April, yeah that is April.

Tom Hoffman: So, you entered the service April 20, 1917.

Frederick Repole: Right. That’s when and so on.

Tom Hoffman: And you were later discharged December 23, 1918. Yes. That is just after the…

Frederick Repole: No. See we were down in New Orleans. It’s that time when we were there awhile. I don’t know exactly. Down there in the south. And you know the difference between the south?

Tom Hoffman: And the north, yeah.

Frederick Repole: Boy it was…

Tom Hoffman: Even way back then sure.

Frederick Repole: The colored boys if you were walking down the street they would walk out in the street and out of your way and everything else. You know what I mean?

Tom Hoffman: Yeah the difference. But I am just wondering what did you do here in the band at Fort Hancock?

Frederick Repole: Oh see now here in the band at Fort Hancock we had to do evening parade or reveille, not reveille much with the band but evening parade we had to do here every now and then. And then we would service between Keansburg and down in Long Branch, Little Silver and all these towns we went around selling war bonds. That was our hard patrol work, in other words.

Tom Hoffman: You would march to the towns with the band or…

Frederick Repole: No. They would get to a hall.

Tom Hoffman: I see.

Frederick Repole: We would get to a hall, some big hall and a couple of times we were down there to have the, in Sea Bright. That was where they had all those big (inaudible) we would get down at the field down there and we would do our little exercises and so on playing and selling war bonds that way.

Tom Hoffman: What kind of songs was the band playing then?

Frederick Repole: I can’t remember them.

Tom Hoffman: How about, Over There?

Frederick Repole: Oh that was amazing. Like today, Roll out the Barrel and what not.

Tom Hoffman: But do you think it was Over There? Was that one of the popular, Over There?

Frederick Repole: Oh yeah. In fact, now the Legion Band that I am with now see, they are from Brooklyn, we go to quite all the conventions we have been going and we have been to California and Niagara Falls and Washington, D. C. and everything else. So, going past the grandstand our favorite song is, East Side, West Side New York.

Tom Hoffman: Yes.

Frederick Repole: I’ll be damned and we were up to Rochester a couple of weeks ago and we just played the song, East Side, West Side and All Around the Town and everybody was singing with it and some other big bands going by us had about a hundred in them was playing just regular (inaudible) but just play those couple of songs. What the hell else? We had about three or four songs that we always worked. Use the same song day in and out. Miami Beach and LA, California, Boston, we have been to all them places. Like I say but we just use those popular songs indicating we came from New York and that’s it.

Tom Hoffman: Yes.

Frederick Repole: And it went big. We only had 15 men in the last parade. We are losing the you know, I don’t know what is going on but we all seem to be having the same trouble, lodges, different big lodges: Masonic lodge and Elks lodge. You know, the young people don’t go for that. The old days that was all big stuff.

Tom Hoffman: What was your first impression when you came into the Army at Fort Hancock? What was it like to come up the road then? It was a dirt road then, right?

Frederick Repole: Well, yeah most of it was a dirt road all the way along there as far as I can remember you know. Most of the time we, the weather, we used to get about, well we always had the Army trucks. Everyplace we went the Army trucks would take us everyplace but if you were out by yourself you had got to hitch in and might hit some officer and somebody might hitch in. And then we went to town and walked around town. Our town really hasn’t changed that much.

Tom Hoffman: What about when you first came in? Can you recall where you had to report at Fort Hancock?

Frederick Repole: Oh yeah they had a time limit. You had to be by a certain time and you would pass a guard there see. And they would look at you and show you their pass. And everything was alright. Getting out was the same way. Always had to have a pass in and out near as I can remember now, see.

Tom Hoffman: You were in the wooden barrack buildings?

Frederick Repole: Yeah.

Tom Hoffman: What did they look like? Can you describe what your bunk looked like or?

Frederick Repole: Oh they just. I don’t know they are still here. Any of those wooden barracks…

Tom Hoffman: Most of them are gone. Over by the Lighthouse they were all torn down a few years ago.

Frederick Repole: Oh, well its just all wood and you have a coal stove. That’s a part. They had one or two belly coal stoves and all night long somebody would be on deck to see that the fire would keep going and the fire wasn’t you know out of order, you know. So you get assigned to that now and then.

Tom Hoffman: And did you have a bunk with a locker or anything?

Frederick Repole: Now we just had these Army cots, Army cots and we had a little box at the foot of your bed to keep you own personal things in. In fact, I still have the box. It is home in Brooklyn.

Tom Hoffman: You really do?

Frederick Repole: Sure and that’s the box. It’s about that big. Near as I can remember that is the same one.

Tom Hoffman: Would you store your uniform in that and things of that nature? Your shirts and…

Frederick Repole: Well what you were wearing most of the time, most of the time would be your clothing. Then you could either do your own laundry or we had laundries I think there was a laundry around here where we used to duck up and have it done. Well, here you had everything. Well, some of the other folks were out where there was nothing and it was different. On the Fort here was all together different.

Tom Hoffman: What were you issued? Can you remember the type of clothing you were issued?

Frederick Repole: Everything was woolen. And then we had the wrap arounds.

Tom Hoffman: Leggings.

Frederick Repole: Leggings. And they had sort of a canvas.

Tom Hoffman: Legging like too.

Frederick Repole: Leggings and they had a couple of slits in those.

Tom Hoffman: Were they usually the brown khaki colored clothes?

Frederick Repole: Oh yes the khaki, yeah.

Tom Hoffman: And I guess you wore the high collared uniforms.

Frederick Repole: Oh yeah and you had the big flat hat.

Tom Hoffman: Campaign hat?

Frederick Repole: Campaign hat. I’ve got a picture of myself someplace.

Tom Hoffman: Your shoes were Army

Frederick Repole: Oh yeah. All army shoes. Yeah.

Tom Hoffman: I am just interested. I just wonder what kind of undergarments? Were they the long john type back in 19--?

Frederick Repole: Yes. We had them. We had them.

Tom Hoffman: 1917. Issued by the…

Frederick Repole: Everything was issued to you. Everything was issued. One thing in the service, everything is always issued to you.

Tom Hoffman: Yeah I was just wondering what type of things were…

Frederick Repole: I think, I think, I recollect you make an exchange with the clothing as they go sour you know. I think you exchange them. Turn one in and get another.

Tom Hoffman: Did you have any patch or anything to wear that signified that you were a band member or anything?

Frederick Repole: We had a button with the band insignia around it and one from New York, I think the other button said New York.

Tom Hoffman: I see.

Frederick Repole: I don’t know where the hell them things went.

Tom Hoffman: Do you think you have your uniform or…

Frederick Repole: Yeah. There was one where we were getting on and off the train. I think that one was taken in Atlanta, Georgia. With the full pack on. I know there is one around. And another one up on the, Atlanta, Georgia I have got one of those. I know there is one of them standing by the train just getting on.

Tom Hoffman: Wearing a campaign hat at the time?

Frederick Repole: Oh yeah.

Tom Hoffman: And full uniform.

Frederick Repole: Oh yeah.

Tom Hoffman: Did you carry you instruments with you or were they stored away?

Frederick Repole: Well, we used to, most of them were stored away because they had to go traveling in regular boxes so they don’t get ruined. But some boys, I myself was one of them. We bought our own instruments. We were, what I am getting at is they needed clarinets, see, a clarinet was one of the hottest instruments. It really played something a class of the fiddle and everybody wasn’t interested in you know. So, they issued us an Army issue but the type they issued was an old system. They called it the Albert system. And around that time this new system called the Boehm system which came out with more keys on it which means you can do more and you can work more fingers and you could on the other ones. So all of us, we all went out and bought our own instruments.

Tom Hoffman: I see.

Frederick Repole: All the band instruments went in the closet. Went in the closet, left them in the box and that was it. We would have nothing to do with them.

Tom Hoffman: Now with your instruments, where did the band play? You were the 26th Band?

Frederick Repole: We were the 26th Coast Artillery. Well we would always get stuck here and do the parade. Do the parade.

Tom Hoffman: Near the flagpole or out right in front of it here?

Frederick Repole: We would parade the whole field. Parade the whole field yeah.

Tom Hoffman: I see.

Frederick Repole: And then at other times we would just play concerts. For everybody you know. Yeah that is the regular routine for the Army band.

Tom Hoffman: You were saying.

Frederick Repole: Marching and concert playing. And then in between we would make up a dance band to play for the dances. Like the officers’ dances and the enlisted men’s dance. Everything was all music.

Tom Hoffman: Now your group never served on the guns out here though?

Frederick Repole: No. We carried sidearm’s but we never used them.

Tom Hoffman: What type of sidearm is that?

Frederick Repole: The old .45s.

Tom Hoffman: You mean the automatic Colt .45?

Frederick Repole: They were big too.

Tom Hoffman: Yeah I know. No rifles or did you.

Frederick Repole: No. No rifles.

Tom Hoffman: Did you ever fire any of this off or target practice or anything (must be nodding no) Just band just practicing in the band? What did the other fellas do here? I am sure they had other…

Frederick Repole: Oh yeah. They had target practice all the time.

Tom Hoffman: How about drilling out here on the Parade Ground? Did they go through drills?

Frederick Repole: Oh yeah. They had drills out here yes. The other boys, regular bands and barracks and so on. And then the other boys worked off the guns here and somebody towed the targets out there.

Tom Hoffman: Yeah the targets out in the water

Frederick Repole: Well, see in the regiment we were known as the, “Saturday Night Soldiers.” That was the password, Saturday Night Soldiers. So, all Saturday Night Soldiers came down here I heard and they pushed them on here and they set them on the targets. They never told us they are not supposed to hit the targets but our Saturday Night Boys were wrecking all the targets (laughter). I mean and that’s all the props they got on the floor of the armory in the city. All the armories are the same way. Every armory was different. They had a medical score and you had the Air Force and everybody, every regiment in the city. It was quite an honor being in a regiment being in a regiment in those days.

Tom Hoffman: Yes.

Frederick Repole: It was nice. And every regiment had different uniforms for the bandsmen.

Tom Hoffman: Really.

Frederick Repole: They had their own special color and staff outside the regular Army staffs which they would use on parades sometimes. They used to use the Army bands a lot. All of the different regiments all over the city. Thanksgiving Day Parade and New Year Eve Parade and all that.

Tom Hoffman: Did you ever get a chance, to get away from that though, when you were here did you ever get a chance to see the guns or was that off limits?

Frederick Repole: No. We were off limits. We were bandsmen.

Tom Hoffman: Yeah

Frederick Repole: We could walk, well we couldn’t get too close.

Tom Hoffman: But at no time did you ever get to see the guns here or sneak a…

Frederick Repole: I've seen them once or twice and then after when they had started to fall apart I don’t know how I got in that time. I know I got in once or twice, walked all along or rode all alone the roadway there where all the guns were, see. But while we were in service and during the war at the time that was strictly taboo, you know.

Tom Hoffman: Did you ever here them firing off?

Frederick Repole: Oh yeah. When these boys fired those damn things over there, this house shook over here in Highlands. We would get a warning. Target practice off the Hook. Keep your windows open.

Tom Hoffman: From the concussion.

Frederick Repole: Yep. I am telling you. Yeah. That I can remember too.

Tom Hoffman: What was your, where would you eat like? If you lived back over here by the Lighthouse and you had a field the Army barracks.

Frederick Repole: They had the, what did we call it, the Commissary, yeah. It was right here someplace. Right on that road too I think it was. The Commissary…

Tom Hoffman: Back behind the…

Frederick Repole: Where the Bowling Alley was you could go in and get a soda or a sandwich or things like that. I don’t know, no I don’t think it was in that building.

Tom Hoffman: But back behind us. We are here in the Post Jailhouse.

Frederick Repole: Yeah.

Tom Hoffman: Back over here.

Frederick Repole: Well, what did they call it? The Exchange, the Post Exchange. Yeah finally get it. Yeah we had the Post Exchange. Yeah we had the Commissary down here where we could go in and buy cigarettes and cigars and things like that.

Tom Hoffman: What were the prices like then in the Army? Really cheap?

Frederick Repole: Oh yeah. Dirt cheap. But we had a couple of wise guys. Their folks had stores and they used to buy everything by the dozen and bring them home and sell them through the stores.

Tom Hoffman: Real wise guys, yes.

Frederick Repole: Well, you get that in every business and every racket, you know that.

Tom Hoffman: By the way you mention to me you had, was it a colonel out here, with the band, he always wanted you playing. What was the story behind that?

Frederick Repole: Oh well, this colonel we had always wanted the band out regardless of the weather or the coldness so once a couple of times we get out there and the boys just start to play, they hit about four notes and that was it. The saliva in the instruments just froze up.

Tom Hoffman: What would you be playing then out here. What did the colonel want to hear, was it morning or …

Frederick Repole: It was according to what they wanted. If it was a concert we would pick up good musical numbers from shows and show numbers. We always used those. And other band numbers, see. Some of them were very nice, very descriptive and you really got to know your music to play the damn thing. And then some of the other numbers were, and then they had the regular band marching you know. That was the main thing marching and playing. Then they had the regular march tunes, the band master and the drum major and the song.

Tom Hoffman: What was a routine day for you like? You and the boys in the band?

Frederick Repole: Well, we never knew. Well, here we were lucky. We had three bands. We had a week or two weeks off. One week one band for the whole Fort and then we would get lost and take the, go up on the boat and go up to the city for three or four days and come back.

Tom Hoffman: You told me about that experience with the ice. Can you tell me that?

Frederick Repole: Oh yeah, that one, that was a good one.

Tom Hoffman: About what year was that?

Frederick Repole: We would get on down to Wall Street see, and we came down this way but the weather was so damn cold and the ice in the river, by the time we hit here, this river was one cake of ice.

Tom Hoffman: This whole bay, you mean the Shrewsbury River?

Frederick Repole: Yeah.

Tom Hoffman: Sandy Hook Bay.

Frederick Repole: Well, they tell me they used to drive horses and wagons right across the river down there by where the bridge is.

Tom Hoffman: Yeah around Route 36 Bridge.

Frederick Repole: It doesn’t get that cold anymore.

Tom Hoffman: Not from what I have heard. I have heard that too where it would freeze up.

Frederick Repole: Well, that is what we had here. The only experience is what we had that day when we couldn’t come back on pass as I said and if you don’t get back on time with you pass then you are assigned AWOL and of course there is a little penalty of some kind. So to be on the safe side we got the captain and had him sign our pass that we were on that boat ready and would have been here on time up until the boat see.

Tom Hoffman: I am wondering though getting back to the routine, the day to day thing. Did you have band practice or how would you get up in the morning, you know? Was there reveille by bugle?

Frederick Repole: Yeah. Well, you see as a band unit it was sort of a little band unit out by itself. We would get up and have our regular breakfast. We had to do our own stuff in the band. We had have our own cooks. We had to take our turns at the dishes and so on and so forth. We were a separate little gang you know. And then, of course, later on they had all machinery but at that time it was all hand work. Everything had to be done by hand. You had to help out in the kitchen by peeling potatoes and what not.

Tom Hoffman: KP, right.

Frederick Repole: KP they called it. Can’t remember all the different things but you know.

Tom Hoffman: Yeah. Well, I was just thinking after breakfast if you got KP duty you had to clean up.

Frederick Repole: Oh yes. You all had your assignment. Everybody had to take a certain time for KP and sweeping the floor.

Tom Hoffman: Keeping the place clean.

Frederick Repole: And keeping the fire going and the buckets of coal

Tom Hoffman: Did it keep the place warm for you or was it still cold in the winter months?

Frederick Repole: Well, it wasn’t that bad because the way they had the barracks, no nothing bad at all.

Tom Hoffman: I guess you had your regulation Army blankets too right?

Frederick Repole: Oh yeah, the regulation Army and you had the long johns and everything else you know.

Tom Hoffman: Was it pretty comfortable? I am just thinking the winter months are cold for me. And I was out here in February. I am just thinking of the soldiers then.

Frederick Repole: No. I was just, talking about being cold, I just finished 44 years with my Con Edison and I never worked indoors.

Tom Hoffman: Yeah. You were always out.

Frederick Repole: Always out on different jobs you know. Most of the time it was on the meter department, putting in meters or taking meters out. You know it wasn’t funny some times when you were trying to do something and it was god damn ice cold. You fingers are froze. And you got to solder them in too, you know. Oh, we had some cold weather up in the city. I don’t know how about here. Well, here it must have been about the same as the city.

Tom Hoffman: What about getting back to that routine after you cleaned up the barracks did you ever have band practice or were you given other assignments too?

Frederick Repole: No. We had a regular routine. The orders were always sitting up on a board what time and of course for band practice.

Tom Hoffman: You said the fellas had a wild time here. What did you mean by that?

Frederick Repole: Well we used to go out got to town, see. One of the boys had a car and get a couple together, you know in a car, you know, and then they go to town and get liquored up.

Tom Hoffman: What were the favorite spots? Were they local here like Highlands and Sea Bright?

Frederick Repole: Well in Highlands there were a lot of small places, see. They still are. Town is full of little small places, see. Some of had some of the real hot stuff, you know. A couple down there yet that are always raided. Pulling them in but in little towns what goes on and what they don’t know it ain’t funny. I guess it is all over the country.

Tom Hoffman: Was the Fort area kept pretty well clean when you were here? Were there always men working on the place?

Frederick Repole: Yep. It’s what you got now. It’s still the same. There ain’t no difference.

Tom Hoffman: This is the war years. You said things were going pretty quick here. Were there a lot of men here?

Frederick Repole: We were loaded. We were loaded.

Tom Hoffman: Really?

Frederick Repole: All over. They had these wooden barracks all over the joint in here. Sure.

Tom Hoffman: They are called temporary barracks.

Frederick Repole: They are temporary barracks set up. Just throw them up in a hurry.

Tom Hoffman: Did they have any like tents set up too?

Frederick Repole: Oh yes, we had some tents too. In fact, we were in tents I think when we first got here. And tents done rightly are warm. Don’t forget they are warm.

Tom Hoffman: When they are put up?

Frederick Repole: Yes. I think I told you they are warmer than you imagine. They have a different type stove you know that you could use in a tent. You just have to be careful of the canvas. But the tents some of them weren’t cold. I know the wooden barracks some of them boy you could look through the cracks.

Tom Hoffman: It was pretty well built up here then. Were there a lot of soldiers here? Were they training or drilling?

Frederick Repole: Always training or drilling yeah. Oh yeah.

Tom Hoffman: I understand of units were sent out from here to Europe to fight over in Europe.

Frederick Repole: Oh yeah they did.

Tom Hoffman: Did you see off any?

Frederick Repole: Our bunch, some of my gang went off over there as the 57th Railroad Artillery.

Tom Hoffman: And they went off to fight in Europe?

Frederick Repole: Oh yeah sure.

Tom Hoffman: Did you see them off back then?

Frederick Repole: Well, you could never see what the hell was going on?

Tom Hoffman: Yeah.

Frederick Repole: You were limited to where you could…

Tom Hoffman: Go.

Frederick Repole: You couldn’t walk around here. Privates more or less, we couldn’t walk around here. That was all the Officers’ Quarters. Near as I could remember see we had the main street there. You went from there up to the Commissary, the Post Exchange and so on. It wasn’t bad. I am not sorry. I wish I had another couple of years. Stayed in.

Tom Hoffman: Really, in the service?

Frederick Repole: Because musical training I would be better off than I am now in music. I tell you if you are doing it every day of the week it ain’t funny. I pick it up once a week and every now and again I get fouled up. In plain English, you know, what I mean.

Tom Hoffman: As I understand it you couldn’t go by Officers’ Row. Was that off limits?

Frederick Repole: Yeah.

Tom Hoffman: They were pretty well segregated back then. I guess it was much stricter?

Frederick Repole: Yeah.

Tom Hoffman: Regulations.

Frederick Repole: Oh yes. Especially during war time. They never know who the hell is around. And then they had places in the mounds down there, of course, where they had everything all buried and so on. And the big golf balls we had in here for a while.

Tom Hoffman: What is buried here? You say the mounds. Do you mean the gun emplacements?

Frederick Repole: No, the ammunition.

Tom Hoffman: Oh yeah the ammunition.

Frederick Repole: You see them alongside Spermaceti Cove in there.

Tom Hoffman: The bunkers right.

Frederick Repole: You can tell they are there but you can’t see them because they are, the ground, everything has growed right over. Only might see a door or something see. No. They are very strict in war time. Not like peacetime. Big difference.

Tom Hoffman: Did they ever use Army mules when you were here or horse?

Frederick Repole: There were a few horses I notice but mules I didn’t notice.

Tom Hoffman: By that time you were mostly mechanized with trucks and things?

Frerick Repole: Well, you see, that’s why this outfit was strictly guns on the waterfront. On the harbors.

Tom Hoffman: Harbor defense.

Frederick Repole: Harbor defense and so on. That is why we didn’t have anything like that. But you had the Infantry boys for background on the run, you know, things like that. That what it was, you know. We were Coast Defense Command. Just come down and man the big guns. And when they went off, they went off. (laughter)

Tom Hoffman: Have you seen any of your friends? Do you remember anyone or keep friendships with the band members?

Frederick Repole: The last one I had seen I had seen one of those books but I think he is gone too. Because he went back to the old 13th Regiment after the War was over. He worked at Wannamaker’s. John Wannamaker’s. I remember that. And John Wannamaker had a big band see and he went back to that and joined to local regiment. And I went to that regiment too after a while hung out with them a while. I only went down there for the business. The band would go out and play at the horse shows at Madison Square Garden, New York. And that was strictly business see. You get paid the regular fee. And that is why I used to hang out with the regiment see. You could get paid the regular fee. A dollar an hour and that’s it and music is, I got stuck on music. But the fiddle, madone.

Tom Hoffman: These building like Building 47 here, were these warehouses in your day if you can recall? I mean it is a long time ago.

Frederick Repole: They must have.

Tom Hoffman: They were here.

Frederick Repole: It wasn’t the Bakery was it?

Tom Hoffman: No. No this was just warehouses.

Frederick Repole: They must have been here. You can see that. Yeah they have been here all that time.

Tom Hoffman: I just thought maybe you could recall if there was a specific use you saw it being used for….

Frederick Repole: No. Worked anything done during war time, everything was too close and ...

Tom Hoffman: Secretive.

Frederick Repole: Never wide open is what I am trying to say.

Tom Hoffman: Yeah right.

Frederick Repole: Be careful where you walked and all the way down when we had to walk in sometimes this looks somewhat…

Tom Hoffman: This right up here?

Frederick Repole: Yeah, yeah. That one little stool and then the movie house was here.

Tom Hoffman: Right here now where the movie theater is now? This theater was built in…

Frederick Repole: I wonder if that was the building was here or is that new.

Tom Hoffman: Well that was built in 1941. That building is the Post Chapel but it might have been built on that site.

Frederick Repole: Yeah I think it was right in this section here that I can remember.

Tom Hoffman: The Post Bakery, how did that operate? Did you buy things here or was it just baked here?

Frederick Repole: No. We would come in and get our order of bread for the mess you know what I mean? I don’t know how it worked. I forget how it worked but we used to come up and get our number.

Tom Hoffman: Right. You seem to remember. You wanted to see the Bakery. You can go right here. Did you used to go down here? You know was the bread good?

Frederick Repole: Oh yeah it was the same like in a regular bakery like routine.

Tom Hoffman: Did they make just more than bread or?

Frederick Repole: They didn’t do much on the cake or maybe they did too. But I just always remember somebody one of us always got detailed to go down to…

Tom Hoffman: There’s your wooden Army barrack there with the green roof.

Frederick Repole: Nothing is standing. There are still older in Eatontown. There are a lot of them there, Fort Monmouth.

Tom Hoffman: This is that field there in the photographs in the Museum of where all the Army barracks were. This is by Battery Potter.

Frederick Repole: I was just looking at that and was trying to figure.

Tom Hoffman: Because there you could see over by the Lighthouse out in the background.

Frederick Repole: Well, this was all covered with the, that’s right. This I forget now.

Tom Hoffman: That’s the oldest brick building out at Sandy Hook.

Frederick Repole: I mean was it something?

Tom Hoffman: What was it used for when you were here? I know it was the Officers’ Club.

Frederick Repole: Maybe that’s it. The Officers’ Club. I know it was something.

Tom Hoffman: Right. When you were here?

Frederick Repole: Yeah. That would be the Officer Club there. (Building 114 in World War I would have been the Officers Quarters for the Sandy Hook Proving Ground before becoming the Fort Hancock Officers’ Club in the 1920s.)

Tom Hoffman: And then over here you can make a right and pass in front of Battery Potter here. This is a big gun battery here where they had the earliest type of disappearing guns on top here. You can see it here on your left.

Frederick Repole: 1890. See off limits. That’s what we always had to be careful.

Tom Hoffman: That’s the old Post Exchange building because see the old Gymnasium here this was converted into the Post Exchange. Last year it was still used as a Post Exchange but you remember the old building here that was the Post Exchange.

Frederick Repole: Well, the old buildings is what I am saying.

Tom Hoffman: You could buy odds and ends there, sort of.

Frederick Repole: Yeah, you know, I was about to say little odds and ends. If you wanted to get a sandwich. We had that 3 point beer too and that was about it and soda and candy and ice cream and so on.

Tom Hoffman: What about right here? You can see the Lighthouse is to your right.

Frederick Repole: I would assume I lived in this section.

Tom Hoffman: So this would be northwest corner of the Lighthouse right in here.

Frederick Repole: I will have to go through my old relics to see my old pictures. Actually find some from here.

Tom Hoffman: We would appreciate it.

Frederick Repole: Well if I can. See over here they used to call me the colored boy because you see what happens to me.

Tom Hoffman: You are tan, yeah.

Frederick Repole: I get so god damn black and everything else they don’t know who I am. So I always liked to wear a hat. A hat to keep the sun off mostly. We were only youngsters. A bunch of youngsters were over here.

END OF INTERVIEW