Richmond Tripp Interview

Testing machine guns of Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat fighters aboard USS Ranger (CV-4), while en route from the U.S. to North African waters, circa early November 1942. Note the special markings used during this operation, with a yellow ring painted around the national insignia on aircraft fuselages.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-30362

Richmond J. Tripp was an Aviation Boatswain’s Mate 2^nd Class during World War II. He worked on the USS Ranger and USS Mission Bay, mostly in the Atlantic Theater. He was on a date when he heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Tripp enlisted in the Navy shortly thereafter and was placed on the aircraft carrier USS Ranger with about 5,000 other people.

He saw the American and British invasion French Northern Africa and Casablanca through Operation Torch. Later, he recalls shore leave to London, and experiencing an air raid before being dispatched to India (now Karachi, Pakistan) on the USS Mission Bay. After the war, he married his girlfriend, attended the Rhode Island School of Design, and worked for the Fram Corporation as a design engineer.

Listen to his interview below.

• Richmond Tripp Interview

  
  

  Richmond J. Tripp was an Aviation Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class during World War II. He worked on the USS Ranger and USS Mission Bay, mostly in the Atlantic Theater. He was on a date when he heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Tripp enlisted in the Navy shortly thereafter and was placed on the aircraft carrier USS Ranger with about 5,000 other people.

  Credit / Author:

  NPS/Joshua Bell

  Audio Transcript

  Interview with Aviation Boatswain's Mate 2nd Class Richmond J. Tripp

  Aleutian World War II National Historic Area Oral History Program

  August 3, 2016 Dighton, MA

  Interviewed by Joshua Bell, Park Ranger Aleutian World War II National Historic Area, National Park Service

  This interview is part of the Aleutian World War II National Historic Area Oral History Project. The interview was recorded, with the interviewee’s permission, on a digital recorder. Copies of the audio file are preserved in, wav format and are on file at the offices of the National Park Service in Anchorage, Alaska. The transcript has been lightly edited.

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  [Start of recorded material 0:00:00]

  Joshua Bell: Today is August 3, 2016. I’m Josh Bell, Park Ranger with the Aleutian World War II National Historic Area. I have with us today Richmond J. Tripp, who is a World War II veteran of the U.S. Navy. How are you today, Mr. Tripp?

  Richmond J. Tripp: I’m fine, thank you.

  Joshua Bell: Excellent. Now, this conversation is being recorded, is that okay?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes.

  Joshua Bell: Excellent. For the record, could I have you say your name, please?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Richmond James Tripp.

  Joshua Bell: Alright. And when and where were you born?

  Richmond J. Tripp: I was born in New Bedford, July 7, 1923.

  Joshua Bell: Alright. Well happy birthday. A belated happy birthday to you.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Thank you. [Laughter] I’ll be 39. [Laughter]

  Joshua Bell: What were your parents’ names?

  Richmond J. Tripp: My father was Earl Richmond Tripp; my mother was Lucy May James Tripp.

  Joshua Bell: And what did they do?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, my father was a guard at the New Bedford Merchants National Bank and my mother was a stay-at-home mother.

  Joshua Bell: Do you have any siblings?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes, I have one sister.

  Joshua Bell: Younger or older?

  Richmond J. Tripp: She’s younger.

  Joshua Bell: She’s younger? And did you grow up in New Bedford?

  Richmond J. Tripp: No, we moved – well, the first four years we were in New Bedford, then we moved to Fairhaven.

  Joshua Bell: And what was it like growing up in the twenties and thirties.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, it was much simpler then than it is today. My father didn’t have a lot of money so we made things go as far as we could. We never threw anything away. We always tried to repair them or rebuild them and tried to get as much use out of our money as possible.

  Joshua Bell: Did your family feel the effects of the Depression?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Not too much. No. My father worked all through the years.

  Joshua Bell: Where did you go to school?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Fairhaven school system.

  Joshua Bell: And what’s the highest grade you completed?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well I completed high school, then when I got out of the Navy, under the GI Bill of Rights, I went to the Rhode Island School of Design for four years. I received a Bachelor’s Degree in machine design.

  Joshua Bell: That’s interesting. I didn’t know they had that program.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Oh yes. There was a – we were a class of about 30 veterans, all under the GI Bill, and we received 50 dollars a month, and then when my son was born, it was upped to 75 dollars a month. So.

  Joshua Bell: Let’s see – when you were in high school, did you and your friends talk about what was going on in the world?

  Richmond J. Tripp: To a point, yes.

  Joshua Bell: What kinds of things did you talk about?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, a lot of us wondered what we would be doing when we graduated. Whether we’d go into the Army, as you’d be drafted. Or go into the Navy and I wanted to become a naval aviator. The day that we graduated, a Navy bomber flew over the Fairhaven high school, which was interesting. Joshua Bell: What was that like?

  Richmond J. Tripp: It was very nice to see it. It made me want to be an aviator more than ever.

  Joshua Bell: Alright. Before you joined the – let’s see – what year did you graduate?

  Richmond J. Tripp: 1941.

  Joshua Bell: 1941. Okay.

  Richmond J. Tripp: June.

  Joshua Bell: When – let me see – what do you remember about hearing about Pearl Harbor being attacked?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well it was a great surprise because everybody couldn’t believe it. And then as we heard Franklin – President Roosevelt come on it was, we realized it had happened and we just thought “what’s next?” We had heard about the Nazis in the Atlantic, sinking ships and the British were fighting them, so we knew something was coming.

  Joshua Bell: What were you doing when you heard about Pearl Harbor?

  Richmond J. Tripp: What was I doing?

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hmm.

  Richmond J. Tripp: I was on a date with a girl and we were walking around the Fairhaven high school football field because she lived there and I was just visiting with her. And somebody came by in a car and yelled out at us and they were blowing a horn or something.

  Joshua Bell: And they yelled to you that Pearl Harbor had been attacked?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes, yeah. So we immediately went to her house and they turned the radio on and - Joshua Bell: How do you remember feeling at that moment?

  Richmond J. Tripp: I couldn’t believe it and I was very – I felt bad for the sailors that were killed in the attack. I wanted more than ever to become a naval aviator.

  Joshua Bell: So is this the point where you – were you drafted or did you enlist?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well I went to Boston in February to have an exam for Navy aviation and my eyes weren’t good enough, so I went to a local Navy recruiting and enlisted.

  Joshua Bell: It sounds like you were probably pretty upset that you didn’t make the naval aviator qualification.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Right. Yes. But I was determined. I was, I would like to serve on an aircraft carrier and at least be close to the aircraft.

  Joshua Bell: So what was it like enlisting? What was that day like?

  Richmond J. Tripp: What?

  Joshua Bell: When you enlisted. What was the process like?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well I had to go to Boston from New Bedford by bus. And we went to the Fargo Building and they assembled us and this lieutenant commander came and “Raise your right hand”. We were sworn into it. And then we were all herded into a bus to head towards a training station at Newport, RI. And when we arrived there, going through the gate, there were some sailors there that were yelling “You’re gonna be sorry! You’ll be sorry!” [Laughter] But I never was, really.

  Joshua Bell: What was basic training down at Newport like?

  Richmond J. Tripp: It was out of this world, because a lot of the things, I had no idea about and the first day of course, they sit you in a chair and there’s, these are barbers, and they had over the mirror “Our record today is 37 seconds”. [Laughter] So they proceeded to, with the big clipper just go from nose to back and within the 37 seconds I was bald. [Laughter] And then they gave us a physical and issued our clothing. And that night, we all had to sling hammocks with no sheets or anything and when I crawled in, apparently the mattress had been stored with camphor and I got some in my eyes and then it was miserable.

  And then some guy yelled “Well, only three more years, 364 days to go.” [Laughter] That was, that was a bad night. But after that, things smoothed out.

  Joshua Bell: How did your parents feel about you enlisting?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well my father was proud of me and my mother just shook her head and said she wished I hadn’t, but at that time, when I was in boot camp, I received a notice from the draft board. So I just beat them.

  Joshua Bell: Yeah. Did any of your friends from high school join up with you?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Not with me, but they did join up. Unfortunately, two of them never survived. One was killed in the Battle of Guadalcanal and the other one was at Great Lakes Training Station and he dove into the pool too deep and broke his neck, so that was bad.

  Joshua Bell: Oh geez. Like far too many of the generation.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes. Joshua Bell: So after basic training, what specialty did you go into? What was your specialty track?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, from the basic training, I went aboard the USS Ranger CV4, which was the first carrier built as such. And I was assigned to V2, which is the hangar deck. And I started to earn to a rating of Aviation Machinist Mate.

  Joshua Bell: Just making a note. Where was that ship stationed?

  Richmond J. Tripp: We operated out of Quonset Point, RI for about a month. Training naval aviators.

  Joshua Bell: And what was that process like?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Very nerve-wracking at times, because these, this was the first landings and takeoffs that these fellows did and we – in one day, we had five crashes. And because of conditions, they had these ramps from the flight deck over the side and we couldn’t send them crashed planes down below because there were still planes in the air, so a plane captain would go into the cockpit and take out the clock which was highly desirable, and we pushed the planes over the side. So it was – it was devastating sometimes.

  Joshua Bell: Being somebody who wanted to be in aviation and seeing all this happen, what kind of thoughts went through your head?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well I still wondered how it would have been if I could have been an aviator. And when I had, when I was off-duty, sometimes I would climb into the cockpit of a plane and just imagine that I was flying it because I still wanted to be an aviator.

  Joshua Bell: Absolutely. Had you ever left home before?

  Richmond J. Tripp: No, that was the first.

  Joshua Bell: That was the first time? Richmond J. Tripp: Yeah. And of course, one thing that was bothering me, when I was home on leave from boot camp, I went to the local amusement park, which was Lincoln Park. And I happened to see these two girls. The blonde girl got my eye, but the other girl started talking to me and finally the blonde girl stole my hat and started running and – because we had been told don’t ever get caught outdoors without your hat. So I chased the girl, and I chased her for another 70 years. She became my wife. [Laughter] We wrote back and forth many letters.

  She was my inspiration.

  Joshua Bell: That’s nice. That’s nice. So you did stay in touch with her while you were out at [unintelligible 0:14:42]?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Oh yes. Yes, she would write to me and I would write to her. And we saved the letters and she passed away January 5, 2014 and since then I’ve been re-reading her letters because they were so full of love and plans for the future and we were married for 68 years.

  Joshua Bell: It’s nice to have those things, huh?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes, it is.

  Joshua Bell: So, let’s see. One thing I like to ask everybody is what that was like, to leave home for the first time? Like far away from home. Like where did you leave from Newport?

  Richmond J. Tripp: When did I leave?

  Joshua Bell: Where did you head from Newport?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well we headed to Norfolk and then we were heading east across the Atlantic to take place in the Operation Torch. The invasion of North Africa.

  Joshua Bell: So what was it like to leave home – leave, leave home for the first time? Richmond J. Tripp: It bothered me somewhat, but yet, I was surrounded by airplanes and I was – that kind of took the bite out of it.

  Joshua Bell: Absolutely. So are you still on the USS Ranger at this point?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes. Yeah.

  Joshua Bell: Okay. And what was it like, living on an aircraft carrier?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well it was like living in a small city. We had about 5,000 people – officers and crew. And we slept in racks, we called them, and the food was quite good. We had what we called [gedunks] which was ice cream sundaes. We had pogey bait, which was chocolate bars and – we always had an escort of maybe three or four destroyers. Destroyer escorts. And sometimes out in the Atlantic it was so rough that they were taking water over the bow up to the bridge and those poor guys were having sandwiches while we were still having nice hot meals. So it was a better life.

  Joshua Bell: Oh definitely. What planes did you have on board?

  Richmond J. Tripp: We had Grumman F4 Wildcats, Grumman Avengers, and Douglas SBD dive-bombers. Oh, and we had two Piper Cubs, which, once we got to Casablanca, the day of the invasion, they sent those aloft as spotters. Unfortunately, they couldn’t land back on the ship so they were captured. But they did their job.

  Joshua Bell: So, Operation Torch was a big deal.

  Richmond J. Tripp: It was. It was the first Allied invasion of the war of the British and the Americans. And at one time, we were, we had torpedoes coming at us. I happened to be standing there when they spotted them and the ship made an abrupt turn to stop and the wake caused these two torpedoes to come out of the water like porpoises and then they came back down and almost hit the ship behind us. I don’t know if you ever heard of – we had a chaplain – Father O’Callaghan - who was from Wareham. He became the chaplain of the Franklin and got a Congressional Medal of Honor.

  But anyway, he was describing to the crew, especially the men that were down below, just what was happening. That we were – he said “oh hell. We’re surrounded by submarines”, so – he was a very nice chaplain.

  Joshua Bell: So take me – so during the operation, did your task force come under fire? Sounds like it did.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes. Yeah.

  Joshua Bell: Was it more than just the Navy? The -

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, yeah. The Army must have sent, oh I don’t know, 30,000 troops ashore. The Germans had built this submarine base in Casablanca. The Vichy French allowed them to do that. And this made it so easy for submarines to get to the Atlantic to attack the boats. That’s why we had to kind of do what we could to destroy them.

  Joshua Bell: So when you were – during the operation, were there Luftwaffe planes, were there German planes also attacking the task force?

  Richmond J. Tripp: No. They were French. Vichy French. And strangely, most of them were American-built Curtiss Hawks. So on the way over, the planes on the Ranger had a yellow circle painted around the stars so that friendly fire wouldn’t shoot them. Because as I said, the Curtiss Hawk was similar to the Wildcat.

  Joshua Bell: Interesting. That’s a part of the story that doesn’t get told very often.

  Richmond J. Tripp: No. Well you had to be there to realize what was going on. Joshua Bell: So, over the course of the time that you were, you know, were in combat mode, what were you doing? What was your role?

  Richmond J. Tripp: I was well, on basic plane closure. We had to – whenever you pushed planes on a carrier then, someone had to be in the cockpit to ride the brakes. And that was my duty, to ride the brakes. There was a plane director. He had to make sure that the brakes were working or else he might go over the side because of the rolling of the ship.

  Joshua Bell: So that’s what you did all day long.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Mostly – well, when I wasn’t doing that, I did help overhaul some engines. The Navy at that point had a ruling that if a plane landed and the propeller was stopped abruptly, whether by the deck or by the wires, that engine had to be replaced. You couldn’t, you wouldn’t even try to start it up again. So we had to replace several engines.

  Joshua Bell: So you had extra engines on board.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Oh yes. Yeah. I can remember these Pratt and Whitneys came in great big, blue wooden crates. They were so nice to work with.

  Joshua Bell: Let’s see. Did any of the planes ever come back shot up?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes. I think three of the SBDs, the dive-bombers, came back. Unfortunately, the tail-gunners had been – in these three planes – had been hit with bullets and they just bled to death before they could be landed and anything done to them. When we left there we had a burial at sea of five people.

  Joshua Bell: That must have been a somber experience.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes, it was a very – because you kept saying, well, that could be me. If those torpedoes had hit the Ranger, they would have hit where they stored the torpedoes. It would have blown the stern off so - I wouldn’t be talking to you today, I don’t think.

  Joshua Bell: So you were, you were working under fire.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes, yes.

  Joshua Bell: Well, what was going through your mind?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, I just wondered how long this is going to go on and would we be victorious and would the ship survive.

  Joshua Bell: How long were you in the operation?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Three days. November 8th to the 12th.

  Joshua Bell: Sounds like a pretty hectic three days.

  Richmond J. Tripp: It was, yes. Yeah, we were in general quarters all that time, which meant you had to be careful. They had Marines stationed at the hatches, and if someone panicked down below, came running up, they would have taken care of them. This was the first major invasion, so mistakes were made but they learned a lot for future invasions.

  Joshua Bell: They sure did. Sure did. So, when you’re at general quarters, how does, how does that function? Do you get a break at some point? Some rack time?

  Richmond J. Tripp: No you have a station that you had to get to and you stayed there until general quarters was secured.

  Joshua Bell: Mm. So there was no time for rest.

  Richmond J. Tripp: No.

  Joshua Bell: That must have been a tired boat.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Oh it was -

  Joshua Bell: After a couple of days.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yeah.

  Joshua Bell: So, what happened after? After the invasion?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, we headed back to the States and later on, about two months after that, we headed up towards Norway. We were assigned to the British Home Fleet. We operated out of Scapa Flow, Scotland. And the Nazis had established themselves in Norway very heavily. So the Ranger and a couple of British escorts, we headed towards [Bodo] Norway, and we launched our planes and they sank quite a few ships that were in the harbor. Meanwhile the German Air Force sent a couple of planes towards us. But luckily the naval aviators were able to shoot them down.

  Joshua Bell: I forgot to ask, when you left Africa, how did that feel knowing that the in-, did you know the invasion had been successful?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes. Because the captain, Captain Durgan came on and he said “If John Paul Jones was alive today, he’d would commend you all. You’ve done a fine job. The U.S. Navy has been victorious.” So we knew we had won.

  Joshua Bell: How did that feel?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Wonderful.

  Joshua Bell: Because this is one of the first times the U.S. gets to hit back.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes.

  Joshua Bell: That must have been a big – how was morale on the ship after that?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Very good. Very good.

  Joshua Bell: And then you get sent up to Scotland.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes.

  Joshua Bell: Did you ever get to make port? Did you ever get some shore leave?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes. I had a four-day leave. So I went – there was three of us – we went ashore and got on a train in Edinburgh and went down to London. The USO had taken over two hotels, so we stayed in London for three nights. And that was very interesting. We went through a rather heavy air raid one night. We were in Hyde Park and we went down into the Tubes, where everybody went and they were singing their English songs and yet you could hear the bombs exploding. So that was quite an experience.

  Joshua Bell: Yeah. What do you remember thinking about that because we’re – you might have seen that on a newsreel or something.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, I was wondering if I would ever see my girl again and I hoped that they’d shoot the planes down before they got there. But because of the singing and everything, it kind of eased the pain a little. They were very nice, the English people. They appreciated what the United States was doing, because they had been fighting the Nazis for, well since 1939, and they were almost starving. Churchill was after President Roosevelt to send help for a long time before we did get into it.

  Joshua Bell: So you felt, welcomed.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes. When you were – did you have a greater sense of what had been going on when you were down in that Tube? Like before -

  Richmond J. Tripp: Oh yes.

  Joshua Bell: Yeah.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yeah. I said well, I’ve been lucky so far. Will my luck continue? I hope it will. It did.

  Joshua Bell: So aside from having to go down and hang out in the Tube system for a while, what else did you do?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, we went sight-seeing. Hyde Park was very nice and we saw Big Ben and so forth and then one night the USO had a dance, so I wasn’t much of a dancer and I felt guilty that my girl wasn’t there, so I enjoyed the music.

  Joshua Bell: They probably played the greatest hits.

  Richmond J. Tripp: What’s that?

  Joshua Bell: They probably played the top hits of the day, didn’t they?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes, yeah, yeah. Music back then told a story. And we had favorites. We did have a band on the ship that used to play. Every once in a while they’d have a concert.

  Joshua Bell: What were some of your favorites?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Favorite songs?

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hmm.

  Richmond J. Tripp: “I’ll Be Seeing You”, “White Cliffs of Dover”. I can’t recall the titles right now. Joshua Bell: Those are both very good songs.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hmm.

  Richmond J. Tripp: My girlfriend would always sign her letters “I’ll be looking at the moon, but I’ll be seeing you”, which is from the “I’ll Be Seeing You” song.

  Joshua Bell: Yeah. That sounds like quite the romance you had there.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes it was.

  Joshua Bell: And from a couple of thousands of miles away.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yeah, yeah and the trouble is, she wouldn’t hear from me for, well when I made the cruise to India, she didn’t hear from me for three months.

  Joshua Bell: Oh, wow.

  Richmond J. Tripp: She continued to write, and would write to her, so when the ship got into port, I’d receive well 14, 15, 20 letters and she would too, so - [Laughter]. It was...

  Joshua Bell: Is that where you headed after Scotland?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, after Scotland, the ship went back to Norfolk and I was transferred to the USS Mission Bay, which is an escort carrier. And our first cruise, we were loaded up with B-38s and B-47s and air force personnel. And we headed off. Our goal was Karachi, India. Karachi was Indian then, not Pakistan. So that was a three month cruise. And we had two destroyer escorts as far as Cape Town, South Africa but they turned around because they had orders, there was some submarines doing things in the Atlantic, so they – we went from there to Karachi all by ourselves. Joshua Bell: Yikes. Mm. So, did you get any leave when you were home in Norfolk?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes. I had a leave and came home and -

  Joshua Bell: Yeah? What was the visit home like?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Oh, it was an answer to my prayers.

  Joshua Bell: I imagine so.

  Richmond J. Tripp: It made me realize that I had been very lucky to meet her and that we were still that close.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hmm. How long were you home?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Oh, about four days.

  Joshua Bell: Your parents must have been thrilled to see you.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes, they were.

  Joshua Bell: So did you have like a big family supper, family gathering or anything?

  Richmond J. Tripp: I don’t really remember what we did.

  Joshua Bell: That’s alright. So was the ship that you got transferred to, was that a smaller ship?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes. The escort carrier was about half the size of the Ranger. And because the flight deck was so small, we had to catapult just about every plane off, and when I was assigned to the ship I was able to become a catapult operator. Which was a good duty because there were six of us but we slept in the catapult shack and we had our own quarters so it was much nicer. But I heard later that the catapult and the arresting gear was about the most dangerous job in the Navy, so…

  Joshua Bell: But you didn’t seem to mind it.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, there again, I had a nice – five buddies, and we were launching aircraft and then I’d go [aft] and sometimes the work would be landing signal officer and they always had to have a spotter who, when the plane was coming in for a landing, he would make sure that the landing gear, the tail hook, and the flaps were down. And if they weren’t, he’d yell to the LSO and the LSO would wave him off.

  And for some reason, one day the catapult officer came to me and says “the air boss wants to see you and me”. Oh, what did I do now? [Laughter] So we went and the air boss said “Richmond J. Tripp” and I wondered, how does he know my name. And I realized it was written right across my shirt. He said “we want to try something. We want to see if we can help aviators land at night.” That was the most dangerous time, because the ship wasn’t allowed to have any lights on.

  So he says “We want you to go aft at night with a signal light and very carefully shine the light on the airplane and make sure everything is down, and if it isn’t, you’ll have a button to tell the LSO to wave him off, so that was very exciting. To stand there on the fantail and see a plane. You could just see his exhaust. Then I’d shine the light – hopefully I didn’t blind him.

  Joshua Bell: [Laughter] Right?

  Richmond J. Tripp: That went on for two nights and finally the aviator said “He doesn’t blind me, but it’s the anticipation of looking for something that fouls us up.” So I stopped it. I just wondered why they picked me. What I had done that they wanted to get rid of me. [Laughter] Because I’d seen planes hit the end of the flight deck, which is right over my head, so I was glad that didn’t last too long.

  Joshua Bell: Well you probably learned some stuff from that very short amount of time.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Oh yes. Yeah.

  Joshua Bell: So this was happening on your way to India.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Ah, no, this was during training operations.

  Joshua Bell: Oh, during training operations. Okay.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yeah. When we went to India, there was no flight operations, because the flight deck was completely covered with Army airplanes.

  Joshua Bell: Oh, I got you. Mm-hmm. So, what did you do to pass the time on that voyage?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, I read a lot, and I studied a correspondence course in navigation. I read, wrote letters. And then I built a small model of a Gloucester fishing schooner because my ideal when I got out of the Navy, that I wanted to have a fishing schooner to go fishing.

  Joshua Bell: Seems like a good way to pass the time to me.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, I wasn’t into crap games which were very prevalent. I wasn’t lucky at cards, so I didn’t play. [Laughter]

  Joshua Bell: When did you reach India?

  Richmond J. Tripp: When? It was April of 1944.

  Joshua Bell: Mm. And what was, what was that experience like? Reaching India.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Oh, it was something that I had never experienced before. The dock that we tied up to, they had a group of people – men, women – with small like, whisk-brooms, sweeping the dock. And they went from one end to the other for the four days that we were there. And then of course when I went ashore to the city, it was, it was so unusual to see the sights. Like beggars that were begging. Cattle running, walking down the middle of the street, and it was just unbelievable.

  Joshua Bell: A different world.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes. Yeah.

  Joshua Bell: Do you remember writing home about that?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well no, because we couldn’t tell where we were.

  Joshua Bell: Oh, that’s right.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Every letter that was written had to be censored and if you said that you were in Karachi, they’d just cut it right out.

  My wife - my girlfriend – got two letters that she said it’s like it says hello and goodbye. The rest of it was cut out. [Laughter] And I understand some of the officers thought it was very touching and moving to read the letters because there’s guys out fighting in a war and yet they write love letters to their girlfriends.

  Joshua Bell: Absolutely. So from India, where did you head next?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, we headed back to the States. And then we went submarine hunting and this was in September of ’44 and off of Dakar, French West Africa, one of the destroyers that was with us sank a submarine. U-1062. And we continued up and down the Atlantic until February. President Roosevelt was over at the Yalta Conference and he was – we went to meet his ship to provide air coverage so that no submarines would get him and he could get home safe.

  Then later on, up until May, we sank three more submarines. We were known as “Hunter-Killers”. [Laughter]

  Joshua Bell: That must have been something, to be part of a Presidential, Presidential escort at one point.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes, it was. Of course, we couldn’t see the ship. It was our planes that were just flying over it, but to know what we were doing was nice and we hoped that he could get back to the States.

  Joshua Bell: What was it like when you got word on ship that he had passed away?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, it was very devastating and you wondered what’s going to happen now? Who’s going to take over and what will he do and what kind of a Commander-in-Chief will he be, and – because as far as the Mission Bay, the escort carrier, it was pretty much President Roosevelt’s idea to come up with such a thing, so…

  Joshua Bell: Hmm. And I wanted to ask about, when the planes got back after they sunk U-boats and it was confirmed, what was their welcome like on the deck? On the flight deck?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, everybody congratulated them and as soon as possible, the plane would have a swastika painted on it. I don’t know what the officers did, because they would just go below. I wasn’t in that area.

  Joshua Bell: Well that’s, when they got out of the plane, it stopped being their plane, right?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes.

  Joshua Bell: [Laughter] They had to hand it back over to you guys.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yeah. Right.

  Joshua Bell: That was your bird.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yeah. Clean it up and refuel it and get it ready for the next flight.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hmm. And that’s something you would have been part of?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes. Yeah.

  Joshua Bell: Excellent. And after those couple of subs, what happened next?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, this boat took us to the end of the war. The Mission Bay crew actually sank the last submarine just before the armistice. There was one other submarine sank by surface vessels in Rhode Island, but we sank the last one in the Atlantic.

  Joshua Bell: Mm. And what was VE Day like on the ship?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Uh, it was good, Very good. We all were around loudspeakers throughout the ship and they acknowledged it and we congratulated one another and I think they served extra dessert that night. [Laughter]

  Joshua Bell: How did you feel?

  Richmond J. Tripp: I felt good. It seemed like everything was coming to a good conclusion.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hmm. Now we had – now, there was Japan left.

  Richmond J. Tripp: What’s that?

  Joshua Bell: Japan was left.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes.

  Joshua Bell: Were you concerned that you would be shipped over to Japan?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, I was thinking possibly but there was no word on it and we were still qualifying aviators, or you know, wanted their wings.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hmm.

  Richmond J. Tripp: And then I was granted a four-day leave so I came home and married my wife.

  And like things happen in the Navy, my enlistment was up after that, so I was granted a 30-day leave. [Laughter] And when I got back to the ship, the ship was at Quonset Point, RI, and they were scraping paint under the catwalk when they got word that a hurricane was on the way. So they had rigged the staging under the catwalk for about six men. And I had just come back aboard, so they wanted to double up to make sure they get it scraped before the ship got underway because of the hurricane.

  And they doubled us up and I just about got up there and the staging broke and we fell 43 feet from the catwalk to the dock.

  Joshua Bell: Oh, wow.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yeah. They took us to the hospital right there at Quonset and I was just lucky because I had been taking [roll call], I was all by myself. I was the first one discharged from the ship – uh, from the hospital about a month later, but there were still guys that were in casts from their neck to their feet. It was real bad.

  Joshua Bell: What happened to you?

  Richmond J. Tripp: I landed on my butt. And they thought I had a broken spine, because I had no feeling. It was just numb. But I didn’t have any breakage. I was, as I say, I was the lucky one.

  Joshua Bell: That must have been terrifying, though.

  Richmond J. Tripp: It was, yeah. My poor wife. For a month she came to visit me every night at the hospital.

  Joshua Bell: What was it like, being in the hospital, stateside?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, it was good and bad. It was very noisy. They had a lot of coming and goings. And, but they had some nice corpsmen, Navy nurses, and doctors. It was about as good as you could get. Good food.

  Joshua Bell: And then you were discharged.

  Richmond J. Tripp: What’s that?

  Joshua Bell: And then you were discharged? After you were healed up?

  Richmond J. Tripp: When I left the hospital, I had to go back to the ship. She was down in Miami, and that was tough. But finally, about a month later, I went to Sampson, NY and I was discharged October 4th, 1945.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hmm. So you were with the ship for VJ Day?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes.

  Joshua Bell: What was the atmosphere after – with that announcement?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well actually, I was in the hospital VJ Day.

  Joshua Bell: Oh, you were in the hospital for VJ Day. Richmond J. Tripp: Yeah. And my wife and another wife had gone to get some ice cream for us and they announced VJ Day and everybody in the Quonset Point came running out and they were kissing, grabbing every girl they could. [Laughter] So my wife ran back to the hospital with no ice cream. [Laughter]

  Joshua Bell: I can’t imagine that – there must have been a sen-, was there a sense of relief?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Oh yes, yeah. Yeah, all we wanted then was to get out of the Navy. I wasn’t a 20-year man.

  Joshua Bell: And then from there you went to school?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes.

  Joshua Bell: And what did you do after that?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well I worked for, I became a design engineer for Fram Corporation. We made filters.

  Joshua Bell: Mm-hmm.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Oil filters. I worked for them until I retired.

  Joshua Bell: What’s the highest rank you achieved?

  Richmond J. Tripp: I was Aviation Boatswain’s Mate, Second Class.

  Joshua Bell: What, if anything, would you have done differently about your time in the service?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, nothing really, because I enjoyed being on a ship. I would much rather have gone there than on an airbase. And as I said, I loved airplanes and I was with them all the time, so…

  Joshua Bell: Is there anything that I didn’t ask you that you’d like to share? That I didn’t ask about that you’d like to share with us?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, I just thought that more should be known about the Battle of the Atlantic. I realize the Battle of the Pacific was more involved, more men lost their lives, and it was a great thing. But the Battle of the Atlantic was the longest battle of the war. It started in 1939 with the British and it went to 1945. And there were many men that lost their lives. And fighting the Atlantic itself was a battle, so I just would like people to know about the Battle of the Atlantic. Joshua Bell: Absolutely. What are you – and this is probably one of the last questions I have – what are you most proud of? About your time in the service.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, there was one time when a plane was on the catapult, ready to be launched. And I happened to look up and there was what they call the piddock tube on the wing. It was what gave the aviator his speed. But when the plane was secured on the flight deck, there was a canvas cover over it. So here was this plane, ready to be launched with the cover still on it. The aviator hadn’t noticed it, the plane captain, or the catapult operator. And I believe if he had been launched, he would not have been able to know his exact flying speed and coming in he might have stalled, so I shut the catapult down.

  The catapult operator came over and he said, very picturesque, what’s wrong? [Laughter] And I told him – I just pointed up to the paddock tube which was over our head, and he said another flowery – and he went and got the plane captain, the plane captain had to run out and take the cover off and we launched the plane. So I don’t know, but I think I may have saved the plane and three people in it, so…

  Joshua Bell: I think so. That would’ve – which plane would that have been? What were -

  Richmond J. Tripp: It was a TBF. They had three men in it. The pilot, a radioman, and a gunner.

  Joshua Bell: You said TBF?

  Richmond J. Tripp: Yes. A Grumman Avenger, a TBF.

  Joshua Bell: Oh, an Avenger. Yup. I believe you did.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Well, nobody ever thanked me, but I – there was an old saying, “If you don’t hear anything, it’s okay.”

  Joshua Bell: Well, on behalf of the Aleutian World War II National Historic Area, and my generation, I thank you. I thank you for that moment, and your service overall.

  Richmond J. Tripp: Thank you.

  Joshua Bell: It’s our pleasure.

  [End of recorded material 0:57:03]