Radio School Graduate

Lou Butler - Bud Burns - Rob DeTar

The dorms were quiet at night and I had three great guys for roommates. None of them liked to drink, and for some reason their language was not nearly as vulgar as I had gotten used to at Boot Camp and Ship’s Company. My roommates were Bud Burns, from someplace in the Midwest I think – maybe Indiana, Rob Roy DeTar from Denver, and Fred Busch from Cheyenne, Wyoming. They were all three real nice guys. I was lucky to get them for roommates because they wanted to study and do a good job, and they went to bed on time, etc. Some of the guys were always wanting to sneak out of the dorms and go downtown at night to get beer, so I was lucky. Some of them spent all of their money on booze and wanted to borrow money all of the time also.

Bud Burns - Lou Butler

Rob Roy DeTar - Lou Butler

When we went to town on liberty, we usually went to a show or to eat in a restaurant. Sometimes we would go down to Lewiston, which was a rough logging town. Most of all, though, it was a bus ride down a long hill that wound around and zig-zagged down the hill. We could see the river and the whole town from the bus. Those old buses really groaned going back up the hill.

It was a great place to be after boot camp. Good food cooked by the civilian cooks of the college, and plenty of it. The rooms held just 4 men each, and that was great after the large numbers per room at Boot Camp. It was also nice to be able to walk downtown and see civilians and to be in a college atmosphere, even though there were mainly sailors around.

Certificate of Completion - Navy Training School (Radio)
Scores listed on back:
Code Sending: 18 wpm - Code Receiving: 18 wpm
Typing: 58 wpm - Radio Theory: 88%
Radio Procedure: 86%

Radio School Company - University of Idaho, Moscow - August 1943
Lou Butler, 2nd Row (follow the arrow)

I finished the school and received my 3rd Class stripes at the end of the summer (August 2, 1943) and had a 30-day leave. I was assigned to another school, this time on Bainbridge Island in the Puget Sound area just across from the Seattle docks, in the downtown of Seattle. I didn’t exactly know what I was getting into, but I knew that the FBI had been all around our neighborhood in Pueblo asking questions about me. People were asking the folks why they were interviewed as to my character. It turned out to be for security clearance, which was necessary for the school I was going to attend. The new assignment was an advanced radio school which was kept top secret at the time.

Radio School Graduate
August 2, 1943