From Gene, posted 9-11-2004
Another favourite story - Eddie was a pretty fast thinker. The USS Missouri paid a visit to Trinidad, in late 1949 and was anchored in the harbour, so every one had to take a boat to get ashore. It was probably a half hour ride in a boat that would hold about 40 people. There were probably about 500 sailors authorised to leave the ship on liberty at one time and they would leave the ship throughout the afternoon. So you really never had to wait too long to get a boat, unless you wanted to be the first ashore. Coming back to the ship was a different story. Liberty was up at midnight and a lot of people would go back to the ship early and not have to wait too long for a boat. But if you waited until midnight, there would be a couple hundred sailors waiting to get back all at the same time. - it could take a couple of hours. We were sort of at the end of the line when the Officer in Charge of the returning boats announced that he wanted to get all the drunks back to the ship first. Eddie thought real fast, he pretended he had passed out and told four of us to grab him by his arms and legs and carry him to one of the first boats. It worked and sure saved a long wait for all five of us.

By Gene: Post 0n September 13, 2004This one has to be recorded.
Whenever I doubt that prayers do not work, I think back to about 1936 when our neighbor George Riewer lost his wallet with $40.00 in it. The Riewers, moved onto the Oscar Simon farm in 1936. The farm joined out place to the west. Dad saw George and his wife walking up and down a 20-acre field ,then they would drag it with a harrow. This went on for a week when Dad found out George had lost a major part of his annual income. $40.00 was real money in 1936. He told dad that he would be willing to pay anyone $5.00 if they could find it. He explained he had returned from town with his wallet in his pocket of the bib on his overalls. But He forgot to put his wallet in the house before he went working in the Fields. He was sure the wallet was somewhere in that 20 acre field. Eddie, Lee and I decided we would go out on Saturday after catechism and look for the wallet. First, we prayed very hard to St. Anthony to give us some help. If we found it, we would split it three ways. As soon as we got home from catechism on the next Saturday, Eddie and I made a beeline across the field, it was 1/2 mile to the property line. Lee did not join us right away as she had to wash her hair first she would come and help look a little later.Eddie and I crossed the fence and took about 10 steps, we were bare foot of course and the ground was real loose, when I stepped on something hard, looking down I saw a little leather lace cord sticking out of the dirt. I pulled it and attached was the wallet. We ran over to George Riewer, another 1/2 mile, to deliver the money and collect our reward, then we ran home. Lee had finished washing her hair and was just coming out to help. We did not do an even 3 way split - Lee got $1.00 Eddie and I each $2.00. Rather makes some sense to believe in the communion of saints. What are the chances of stepping on a wallet be without some outside help?

From Gene,posted 9-11-2004
Eddie and I were shipmates on the USS Missouri, the Battleship on which the Japanese signed the surrender. I reported aboard about a year before Eddie. I was assigned to the Disbursing Office and Eddie was a deck hand in the 1st division. At that time we looked pretty much alike, except Eddie was about 1 1/2" taller. One day at Mass the chaplain said he had been thinking I was about the hardest worker on the ship. He would see me in the Disbursing Office, then up working on deck. When he saw us both at Mass he realised there were really two of us.