World War II Begins

For most of us reading this blog, World War II was a major historical event that we have studied in history classes in school. But for Lou Butler and thousands of other young men of the 1940's, it was a major life event that required them to delay their future hopes and dreams.
This is the first of several posts detailing Dad's service in the Navy .


Louis Edward Butler
High School Senior - 1941

After eating dinner at Carpenters [Leona's family], I was working at the San Isabel Creamery selling ice cream, milk shakes, etc, on Sunday December 7, 1941 when we heard over the radio that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor and had sunk many ships and killed many Americans. We were at war.

I was attending a business school at the time and got a job with a pipe company keeping books, time, etc. Then in the spring when they started building the air base east of town, I got a job as a clerk in the receiving department with Broderick & Gordon Construction Company making a lot more money. As that drew near to an end, I got a job at Rainbo bakery in the wrapping department where I worked until I went into the Navy in October of 1942.

Saying goodbye
October 28, 1942

In October of 1942 I joined the Navy as it was getting close to the time that I would be drafted and I didn’t want to go into the Army. Jim Shelhammer, Kenny Hood and I enlisted at the same time and left the old 5th Street neighborhood together on 28 October 1942. We went to Denver for our physical exams, and upon passing those, took the Oath of Allegiance to the [United States] Government, and then were sworn into the Navy.

While I was in Denver, I went over to the Denver Stake Center and on October 30, 1942 President Edward E. Drury, Jr., Denver Stake President, conferred the Melchizidek Priesthood on me and ordained me an Elder there-in.

We were in Denver for about three days as we took the exams and filled out numerous papers and waited in many long lines. We were put up in some cheap hotel and were given meal tickets at one of the cafeterias. We were glad when we finally had a large group on board the train and were sent to Athol, Idaho headed for active duty. We were then taken over to the Naval Camp at the training station, Camp Farragut near Bonners Ferry, Idaho. Kenny and I were in Company #64 and Jim was in another company.

Until the end of the year we were in boot camp; at the close of boot camp, I was assigned to the Ship’s Company because I could type and was assigned to the office where they assigned the “boots” as they graduated to either school or an active duty assignment. That was convenient, as Jim had gone to Moscow, Idaho to Radio School at the University of Idaho and his brother Chuck, as a radioman on a submarine. It was a three-month assignment, so when my time was up I was able to put my name on the list for the class starting on April 1st at Moscow Radio School at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho.

I got home on leave after finishing Ship’s Company duty at Camp Farragut. We had a Butler-Carpenter dinner on a Sunday and took a picture beside our home in the driveway.

back row: Ream-Lorene-Chuck-Pinky-Leona-Lou-Mable-Jess
front row: Don-Della Davis-Eldon-Delbert

To figure out who belongs to the Butler family and who belongs to the Carpenter family, check the family group sheets by clicking on those links.