Richard and Betty Larsen

Richard and Betty Larsen

Personal photo, used with permission

Sandy Hook, Gateway NRA, NPS
Oral History Telephone Interview with Richard Larsen and Betty Larsen 51st Air Defense Artillery (ADA) 1968-71
Interviewed by Mary Rasa, NPS
June 26, 2004
Transcribed by Mary Rasa 2010

Editor’s notes on parenthesis ( )

Mary Rasa: Today is June 26, 2004. My name is Mary Rasa, Sandy Hook Museum Curator and I am on the telephone with Richard Larsen, who served at Fort Hancock and I am going to start out right now by asking what is your full name?

Richard Larsen: Richard Larsen.

Mary Rasa: When and where were you born?

Richard Larsen: Weehawken, New Jersey.

Mary Rasa: What schools did you attend?

Richard Larsen: High school was Westwood High School.

Mary Rasa: And what year did you graduate?

Richard Larsen: 1966.

Mary Rasa: Were your father or grandfather in the military?

Richard Larsen: My father was.

Mary Rasa: Did he serve in World War II?

Richard Larsen: Yes, he did in Germany.

Mary Rasa: So until the end of the War probably?

Richard Larsen: I really don’t know that.

Mary Rasa: Okay. Were you drafted?

Richard Larsen: No. I would have been.

Mary Rasa: Okay. So how did you become involved at Fort Hancock?

Richard Larsen: I enlisted knowing that I was draft material.

Mary Rasa: Were you then allowed to choose what branch you wanted to be in?

Richard Larsen: I was guaranteed thirteen months in New Jersey.

Mary Rasa: Oh, okay.

Richard Larsen: That was part of the… but I had to join for four years to do that.

Mary Rasa: What was you start and end date at Fort Hancock approximately?

Richard LarsenL: Ah, Fort Hancock, well, see originally I went to a battery in Hazlet.

Mary Rasa: Okay.

Richard Larsen: So that was the… I joined in February, four months after that.

Mary Rasa: This is 1969?

Richard Larsen: No. 1968.

Mary Rasa: Okay.

Richard Larsen: I was six months in Hazlet and then went down to Fort Hancock.

Mary Rasa: And were you here for about two years, three years.

Richard Larsen: Yeah. I finished up there. I was there until December of ’71.

Mary Rasa: Okay.

Richard Larsen: And they were in the process of closing down.

Mary Rasa: And you were actually just processed out at that point in time?

Richard Larsen: Yes.

Mary Rasa: Did you know anything about this place before you came here?

Richard Larsen: No. No idea.

Mary Rasa: Did you go to Missile School?

Richard Larsen: I went to Basic Training in Fort Dix and then went to Fort Bliss in Texas for Missile School.

Mary Rasa: And were you in the Launcher Area?

Richard Larsen: No. I was in the Battery Control.

Mary Rasa: So, you were with the radar?

Richard Larsen: Right.

Mary Rasa: What was your actual job?

Richard Larsen: I was Missile Tracking Radar.

Mary Rasa: Okay. And your rank was?

Richard Larsen: E-5.

Mary Rasa: And you were in Battery C?

Richard Larsen: Battery C, yes. There were two batteries there. I was in the one in the front, right nearest the road.

Mary Rasa: Which is to the west side?

Richard Larsen: Yes.

Mary Rasa: That’s C-2. Yeah, okay. What was your training like in Fort Bliss?

Richard Larsen: They gave us, I guess, an all around view of how the system worked. And then when you got to let’s say, Fort Hancock, you really didn’t know where they were going to put you, but whatever they needed at the time, that’s what you were.

Mary Rasa: So, while you were watching the scopes, did you ever have any alerts that something was coming closely and…?

Richard Larsen: No. Never. We were called down there because we were on 24 (hours) on and 24 off and we were called down a few times, but never saw anything. No.

Mary Rasa: Now did you actually see the commercial airline on your radar?

Richard Larsen: No.

Mary Rasa: Okay. So I guess, what were there two people on the 24 hour shifts while you were there or just yourself would be on duty?

Richard Larsen: Oh, no. There would be a whole crew.

Mary Rasa: Oh. Okay.

Richard Larsen: And if you were on, you had to stay on base. And if there was anything going on like I guess in the news or something like that then you would have to stay right at the site.

Mary Rasa: In the barracks there.

Richard Larsen: They had a little room where we stayed at right on site inside the gate.

Mary Rasa: So you were with the missile tracking, you were inside one of the trailers?

Richard Larsen: Yes.

Mary Rasa: And what was in the inter-connecting corridor building? Did they have it set up like a break room?

Richard Larsen: No. They had a separate break room in a different building. But there was, you know, there was like desks and phone. I would say almost like a garage type thing and a trailer attached on each side.

Mary Rasa: Did this job aid you in future work?

Richard Larsen: No. Not a bit.

Mary Rasa: (laughter) What do you do now?

Richard Larsen: Now I am a tool and die maker.

Mary Rasa: Okay. Let’s see, I’m just looking down the list. And you lived in Barracks 74, the U shaped barracks when you were off.

Richard Larsen: Yeah.

Mary Rasa: I guess when you were off duty. When you were off your 24 hour shifts?

Richard Larsen: Yeah. Until I got married.

Mary Rasa: Okay.

Richard Larsen: Then I moved off base.

Mary Rasa: Where did you live then?

Richard Larsen: Long Branch, a block away from the ocean. It was really nice.

Mary Rasa: Which street was that?

Richard Larsen: Right on Ocean Boulevard.

Mary Rasa: Okay. When you were living in the barracks, there was also a mess in that same barracks?

Richard Larsen: Yes.

Mary Rasa: Tell me a little bit about the social activities that you took part in while you were stationed here?

Richard Larsen: Well, we used to go to the beach sometimes depending on the time of the year.

Mary Rasa: Did you go to the theater to watch any movies?

Richard Larsen: I don’t remember doing the theater. We had basketball and we had a team. There was Headquarters Battery up in Highlands. They had dances at the.. where we used to get our mail.

Mary Rasa: The Service Club?

Richard Larsen: Yeah it was like a Service Club. They had dances there and that is where I met my wife.

Mary Rasa: Okay. We will go back to that in a minute. I just want to go over a couple of more questions. Did you attend any religious services here?

Richard Larsen: No I didn’t.

Mary Rasa: Did you go to the PX? Did they still have kind of like a lunch bar or…?

Richard Larsen: Yes, they did. They had excellent chili.

Mary Rasa: Oh, that’s good.

Richard Larsen: It was really good.

Mary Rasa: Did you take trips to I guess see your family? Go to New York, things like that?

Richard Larsen: We never went to New York. I would go home. If I was off on a weekend I would go home. It was close enough that I could go home.

Mary Rasa: Did you have your own car?

Richard Larsen: Yes.

Mary Rasa: Okay. Did you ever deal with any women while you were here? Were there ever any civilian women working where you were or anything like that?

Richard Larsen: Maybe in the PX. Other than that, I don’t think so.

Mary Rasa: Were there civilian men working on the equipment, the radar equipment?

Richard Larsen: No. They had…they were like officers, but they weren’t…

Mary Rasa: The warrant officers?

Richard Larsen: Warrant officers, yeah. They used to do most of the, you know, if something was broken they would fix it, not us.

Mary Rasa: Was this a fun or boring place to be working?

Richard Larsen: It was fine. It was good times.

Mary Rasa: Was it better than being in Hazlet?

Richard Larsen: Actually there was more to do than in Hazlet. That’s for sure.

Mary Rasa: ‘Cause you were actually on a real base, I guess.

Richard Larsen: Well, yeah. Hazlet was just us. It was like two small groups and two shifts. Down there, there was a lot of other people there. You know, things going on. It was a much better setup.

Mary Rasa: Did anything especially humorous occur while you were here?

Richard Larsen: This was a long time ago.

Mary Rasa: I just thought I’d ask.

Richard Larsen: No. Well, the one time we were there, I don’t know if you were aware of it, it was towards the end. We used to get a lot of different people coming in all the time as batteries were closing. I think these fellows came in from Buffalo. They were a little bit flamboyant; I guess you would call it. And it was going to be Halloween and we had the big white covers on the radar domes.

Mary Rasa: Yeah.

Richard Larsen: So, they put, they made it like a big pumpkin.

Mary Rasa: Oh. (laughter)

Richard Larsen: They put orange lamps in it. It really came out neat. I know the picture was in the paper, but it was a cool thing. That was the kind of thing that they did. But of course we didn’t have a whole lot to do.

Mary Rasa: Were the ..the radomes were actually inflated by air?

Richard Larsen: Yes.

Mary Rasa: That’s how they kept up?

Richard Larsen: They had blowers in there. We used to hate it when we got a big storm because they used to come down and that was a real job.

Mary Rasa: I guess it took a lot of people to get them back up?

Richard Larsen: Oh yeah.

Mary Rasa: Do you keep in touch with anyone?

Richard Larsen: No. We keep in touch with one fellow’s wife and that’s about it. We kind of all separated.

Mary Rasa: Okay, well let’s go back and talk a little bit about how you met your wife.

Richard Larsen: Okay. It was out, they had these, once a month, did they have a dance there? (asking his wife off tape.) I’m checking with her.

Mary Rasa: Okay.

Richard Larsen: And there was a group, I think they were from Ridgewood, New Jersey and there would just be girls. They’d come down on a bus and there’d just be a dance at the club there. And that’s how we met.

Mary Rasa: And how soon thereafter did you get married?

Richard Larsen: A year. The strange part was she only lived, you know, from my hometown maybe five miles away.

Mary Rasa: Oh. (laughter)

Richard Larsen: So, that was kind of odd.

Mary Rasa: So, anything else you would like to talk about?

Richard Larsen: No. It was good duty. That’s for sure. No problems with anything.

Mary Rasa: Okay. Can I talk to your wife now?

Richard Larsen: Sure.

Mary Rasa: I’d like to ask her about that.

Richard Larsen: Okay.

Betty Larsen: Hello.

Mary Rasa: Hi. Could you state your name for the recording?

Betty Larsen: My name is Betty Larsen.

Mary Rasa: Tell me a little about the organization that went to the dance.

Betty Larsen: I think it was called Junior Hostess and it had to do with the Ridgewood Y(MCA). And my sister had gone there because her husband was in Vietnam and she was looking for something to do while he was oversees and she found out about this. So, my other sister and I did the going to the dances. We would go to Fort Hancock, Stewart Air Force Base, and West Point on a weeknight.

Mary Rasa: Oh, okay.

Betty Larsen: And we would just go dance and that’s it.

Mary Rasa: Where was Stewart Air Force Base?

Betty Larsen: In Newburgh, New York.

Mary Rasa: Oh, okay. So when you went down for the Fort Hancock dance, tell me a little bit about it. It was in the Service Club?

Betty Larsen: It was in the Service Club and I know there was one dance where they made, you know, all the guys get up to dance. But they just wanted to sit and do nothing. And I know my girlfriend came back and said, “I met a guy from my hometown.” She was from Westwood. And then later that night I met him. And we danced all night and he asked me my phone number and he asked me my name because he forgot it already. (laughter)

Mary Rasa: There began the whirlwind romance.

Betty Larsen: Yeah right. How about that huh? Well, stranger things have been known to happen, right. We dated, and we got married, like a year later. We got married on his birthday so he never forgets our anniversary. (laughter) Oh, he’s got some information here.

Mary Rasa: Okay. Well thank you very much.

Betty Larsen: And he’s got something for you. Here he is.

Mary Rasa: Okay great.

Richard Larsen: Yeah. It was the 51st artillery.

Mary Rasa: Okay.

Richard Larsen: Okay. And one thing we used to do is every year each unit had to go back to Fort Bliss to run a practice run.

Mary Rasa: Yes.

Richard Larsen: And so we used to go down. We had two batteries and each battery used to go down separately. But I got a letter here from the Army saying that, oh, this is from the commander at the time. That we scored a perfect score a 100%.

Mary Rasa: Who was the commander?

Richard Larsen: Charles H. Mayhew. M-A-Y-H-E-W. And it says here, “You and the other members of fire control should be especially proud of being the only regular army unit to attain this since 1961.” So that was 10 years.

Mary Rasa: Wow.

Richard Larsen: So, you might want to mention that.

Mary Rasa: Alright, I am going to end the tape right now. Thank you very much.
End of Interview