Becoming a Sailor

Picture a 19 year old boy leaving home to go to Naval Boot Camp:

In front of the family home in Pueblo, Colorado

Newspaper announcement of Lou's enlistment
October 1942

"Going to the Navy"
Kenny Hood - Lou Butler - Jim Shelhammer

Lou didn't record anything about his actual experience at boot camp, but these excerpts from his account of his next assignment at Radio School indicate that boot camp accommodations were not luxurious!

When I arrived in Moscow [Idaho] and was taken up to this beautiful dorm, I could hardly believe that I would be living here after living in that ugly, crowded barracks for what seemed like an eternity. But there it was, and I was hauling my sea bag into it just though I had earned it!

It was even a greater surprise when we went to chow that evening and saw food cooked by women who were pleasant, instead of the faces of those sailors on KP who resented doing that job and resented serving us. These people actually acted like it was a privilege to be serving us and they were even asking if we wanted more!

If you have never had to live in a barracks with 120 other people, you can’t appreciate what it is like to be assigned to a room with just 3 other guys. And we even had our own shower, wash basins, and toilet! And the water was hot!

Boot Camp - 1943