00:00:00JONES: Today is Thursday, April 30, 2026. This is an interview conducted via Zoom with Navy veteran Lori Brindle. The interviewer is Raleigh Jones. This interview is being recorded for the Wisconsin Veterans Museum Oral History Project. Why don't you start by telling us about your early years.
00:00:36BRINDLE: Uh, pre-Navy?
00:00:37JONES: Yeah.
00:00:38BRINDLE: Okay. Um, I grew up, I was born in Menominee, Wisconsin, and my dad graduated from Stout up there, and then he eventually took a job at Western. So we moved to La Crescent. So technically I grew up in Minnesota, but, uh, if you're not familiar with the area, La Crescent's only four miles across the Mississippi from La Crosse. And La Crosse is our, where we had our livelihood. Everything was in La Crosse. So I have fond memories of La Crosse, or being in La Crosse. So once I went to high school, I didn't know what I wanted to do in life. You know, I felt completely overwhelmed. And so I just kind of stagnated. I tried the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse for a semester and I just wasn't there mentally. And so I decided that I wanted to join the Navy. My father had been in the Navy and I probably saw some recruiting video that thought, well, let me go out and see the world. 'Cause I wasn't too impressed with the La Crosse area at the time. I thought it was boring. So I went into the recruiter's office without telling anyone. And I signed the papers. And once I did, I went to my dad's work. He taught at Western, he taught electronics. And I went into his office and I told him, and I'm getting all teary eyed right now because he was just so proud of me to be able to do that. So that, basically in a nutshell, that is my pre-Navy, um, life.
00:02:41JONES: Um, other than your dad, was anybody else in the military in your family?
00:02:47BRINDLE: Um, not that I was aware of at the time, but I have since learned that my, my maternal grandfather was a war hero. He has a Bronze Star and, um, so I didn't know that at the time though, my only thought is I needed to go out and explore the world.
00:03:13JONES: Before we move to your story, a little bit more about the grandfather. Where did he get the Bronze Star?
00:03:22BRINDLE: Um, he was a pilot in the, the predecessor of the air force, which was the Army--I forget what it was called. The Army--
00:03:33JONES: Air Corps.
00:03:35BRINDLE: Thank you. Army Air Corps. And my cousin and I, we have the medal, we have the certificate, but we don't have the write-up, and I have been trying for two years to get the write-up. Both our parents said that he never talked about it, so nobody knows any information about it yet, and I'm still on that quest to find out, because you can't just find out by name. I learned at one point that I needed his Social, and nobody has his Social. He passed away in the '90s. So.
00:04:13JONES: So his service must have been in World War II?
00:04:16BRINDLE: Yes. Still looking for it though, I have not given up.
00:04:24JONES: Good luck on that quest.
00:04:25BRINDLE: Yeah, thank you.
00:04:27JONES: Okay. Now, pivoting to your story, when you were talking about going in to see your dad after you had joined, I was just surprised that your dad took the position he did, okay? That you thought he was going to be jumping all over you for enlisting?
00:04:57BRINDLE: Well, not necessarily. He was just totally happy. I had been stagnant for two years after I graduated high school. Waitressing, you know, not really going anywhere. And I got a constant barrage from my mother, both of them together. My dad was more quiet about it, you know, "What are you going to do with your life? What are you gonna do with you're life," you know, and, and--So that's where he just glowed. He was so happy that I finally made a decision on my own instead of them pressuring me to do something, go to school or something.
00:05:43JONES: Okay. So essentially two years after high school is when you joined the Navy.
00:05:50BRINDLE: Correct. 1983.
00:06:04JONES: Was it '83 or '82?
00:06:07BRINDLE: Well, '82. You're correct. '82. '83 is when I joined boot camp. '82 was my Delayed Entry signing. So that's where the dates are.
00:06:18JONES: Okay, so boot camp was in '83?
00:06:23BRINDLE: Correct.
00:06:24JONES: And where was it?
00:06:26BRINDLE: Orlando, Florida, that was the only boot camp that could handle women. Bad choice of words, but that had women in boot camp that had a barracks to accommodate women.
00:06:48JONES: Okay, so tell us about the boot camp experience.
00:06:54BRINDLE: Oh gosh, it was very rewarding, very intimidating at first. Growing up in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in this area, the most diversity that we had was whether somebody was Catholic or Lutheran. So to go to boot camp and see everybody from all over the country, every, you know, and every background, African-Americans, Asians, it was it was intimidating at first, but you know our Midwestern values, I was able to accept everybody. And I got along wonderfully with everybody. Um, some women, you know, and I saw how some women were averse to, you know, um, showering out, you know, in front of others and all that stuff. But I just took it in stride. Like, Hey, we're all in this together. So let's do it. Um, and the biggest, uh, I got awarded to carry the Cheerio flag and bootcamp now. What the Cheerio flag was, every company got awards based on their merits, of course, and we were basically competing with other companies. Well, the Cheerio flag was an award for excellence in achievement, teamwork, and just being all around good. So, and they nominated me to carry that for the rest of the boot camp.
00:08:38JONES: Now, when you described that flag, did I hear you say Cheerio? Like the breakfast cereal?
00:08:45BRINDLE: Yes, yes.
00:08:46JONES: OK. That's what I had for breakfast this morning. How did you deal with, say, the yelling of the drill sergeant?
00:09:05BRINDLE: I took it all in stride. I mean, I knew it was, they were testing us. That's how I came in it. They were testing us, and let's prove them wrong. Let's prove that we can do it.
00:09:21JONES: What about the physical component, the constant exercise and running?
00:09:27BRINDLE: Actually, that was the hardest part for me of the whole thing, because I didn't play sports in high school. I had never had any type of physical type of training. So I did struggle with that; never failed. But I did struggled with that. And that is actually the reason that I got awarded to carry the Cheerio flag because I had improved physically so much.
00:10:08JONES: Okay. Anything else about boot camp that you want to tell us?
00:10:13BRINDLE: Um, no, it was a little disappointing. My parents couldn't come to my, my, um, graduation ceremony. And, you know, you see all your friends parents coming and stuff, but, you know, now looking back in that they, I have two younger sisters and, you know, it, it was expensive back then. So, but I think that helped make me strong for my career too.
00:10:42JONES: OK, so after boot camp, then what?
00:10:49BRINDLE: I got stationed at the Naval Air Station in Meridian, Mississippi. And the going joke for that, it was in the middle of the state of Mississippi. And here I joined the Navy to see the ocean, never seen an ocean before. And there was no ocean around Meridian, Mississippi. I didn't, again, I struggled when I first joined the Navy. I didn't know what I wanted to be. I didn't know what job I wanted to do. So I went in as, I call it non-rate, and I don't what they call it in the other services, but I was in a general duties until I figured out what I want to do. So what did that consist of? That consisted of three years of cleaning barracks. I was miserable work-wise, but I still went in with the attitude that, Hey, this is a job I'm, I've been given. I'm going to give it all I got, do the best job I can, chin up and figure out a way to figure out what I want to do in the Navy. Um, I, I got married there. I had my son, um, there too. So that was a good part of it. I'm since divorced, but. But that was basically, it was exciting for somebody that had never been anywhere because Meridian is actually where they trained pilots. That was their first, Navy pilots. That was the first duty station. And so there was all, there was these trainers. I actually got to sit in a trainer, a real trainer, you know, and we play it like video games. You weren't allowed to do it very often, but. So it was exciting in that sense, but otherwise I did my best and I actually did. So on the base itself, it had a school where I could get, there was four different schools where I can get a job and actually my next duty station, I could go out, you know, being rated. And so I selected the storekeeper school, which storekeeper for other services is the equivalent, like the Army, of quartermaster. Logistics is essentially it. So, I selected Storekeeper School. I waited, I had to wait for a while to get in there, but I finally got in there and graduated.
00:13:40JONES: How long was that school?
00:13:43BRINDLE: I want to say five weeks, six weeks.
00:13:50JONES: Okay. Okay, so after you went to that school, the Navy considers you a storekeeper.
00:14:04BRINDLE: Correct.
00:14:05JONES: And what happened next?
00:14:08BRINDLE: Then I got my first real orders as a storekeeper and I finally, so I wanted a ship because obviously, you join the Navy to be on a ship and go out on the ocean. Well, back then women didn't have much opportunities for ships. So, and not to mention I was married and he was a jet mechanic. So we had--they tried to station us together. So we went to Sicily, the naval air station in Sicily. And I spent four glorious years there. It was absolutely amazing. There is an active volcano there and the base--You can see the volcano. It's spewing lava, slowly, about 50% of the time. Absolutely beautiful island, great food, great people, a wonderful, wonderful experience.
00:15:25JONES: So. While you were stationed there, the work that you were doing was storekeeper work in terms of logistics. And was it just logistics for that particular Navy base?
00:15:43BRINDLE: Um, and anything that was coming into the Mediterranean, any general type of thing, one story that I, um, I was kind of proud of, but at the, at the time we didn't know, so it, first of all, tracking shipments over to Sicily took a lot of work because we didn't have email and we didn't have you know, texting. We didn't have all the stuff that we have now. So it was basically phone calls and we did have, oh God, we used the old punch cards! We used the old punch cards to track our shipments. And if they weren't coming like they, if they were delayed for some reason, then we'd get on the phone and find out what's going on. But one job that I had that was kind of exciting is George Bush was coming to and was planning on staying on one of the ships in 1989. And I got to--so the ship needed a presidential mattress for him to sleep.
00:16:59JONES: Okay, and just let me clarify. Is this Bush 1 or Bush 2?
00:17:04BRINDLE: Bush 2.
00:17:05JONES: Okay.
00:17:06BRINDLE: I believe.
00:17:07JONES: Okay, so did you have to get this presidential mattress?
00:17:11BRINDLE: Um, I actually had to track it. It was big priority for the base to make sure that this mattress got to Sicily. So that--
00:17:21JONES: So, President Bush was coming to your base in Sicily?
00:17:27BRINDLE: He, I don't remember if he was stopping over. So a lot of this stuff was classified, but through hush-hush, we knew it was a mattress for him. And it was set to, and then it was eventually going to go to a ship. And I did not know what ship that was. And I actually looked it up later and it was the Belknap.
00:17:53JONES: Okay.
00:17:55BRINDLE: CG-26.
00:17:56JONES: Interesting.
00:17:57BRINDLE: Yeah, yeah. So we did get the mattress there. I don't know if he stayed there overnight. Doesn't matter, but that was an exciting time.
00:18:10JONES: Um, I have down, uh, that while you were in Sicily you had something to do with the Tour de France.
00:18:23BRINDLE: Oh, well, no, I followed. So my ex-husband is an avid bicycle racer. Um, and he, every weekend he would race in Sicily. And in fact, we had more Italian or Sicilian friends than we did military, Navy military friends, because he was constantly in the community doing racing. Well, we took... A week's vacation and flew up to Northern Italy and then rented a little Fiat to go follow the Tour de France in the French Alps. And that was truly, that was amazing to see that and just be in that area. So it was very exciting at the time. And my parents--So, again, we had no email, we had our-- my communication with home at the time was letters and once in a blue moon, phone calls, phone calls were very expensive, you know, international phone calls. So, um, I did not communicate that much with my parents. And they kind of, you know, they would suggest that I come home and visit because that was four years, four long years, not to mention they had a grandson too. Um, it was really, really tough at that time, but my, my ex-husband and I made the decision, Hey, we're not, we are not going to be in Sicily again. We let's just, let's, let stay here. Let's take if when we have vacation time, stay in the area because we may never come back here again.
00:20:15JONES: So you were quite the tourist at the time.
00:20:19BRINDLE: Well, yeah, just to experience it as much as possible, because like I said, we never, we probably wouldn't go back there again. Um, and you know, you had a limited time, limited amount of free time, because you still had your Navy jobs.
00:20:39JONES: Right.
00:20:39BRINDLE: So, it was a tough decision, but my family accepted it. And it was hard because you miss four years of weddings, funerals, birth dates, you know, whatever.
00:20:51JONES: Now, in Sicily, did you live on the base?
00:20:56BRINDLE: Yes, we lived in base housing that was actually kind of off the base, but essentially, yes, in base housing.
00:21:07JONES: And was your job as a storekeeper, did you work say conventional Monday through Friday shift?
00:21:17BRINDLE: Um, yes, but then we had to stay on at work. We had duty nights where it was once either every week or every 10 days, we would have to stay on base, because the supply department was open 24 hours a day, you know, so we had to take turns manning that 24 hours. And we would actually sleep in the warehouse.
00:21:48JONES: So essentially at various times you were on call.
00:21:53BRINDLE: Correct. And physically had to be on the base or in the warehouse. And the same thing for my husband. He had his duty days too. So, you know, dual military was challenging to--raise a child.
00:22:16JONES: Wow. So the child was born in Sicily?
00:22:25BRINDLE: He was born in Mississippi.
00:22:27JONES: Okay.
00:22:28BRINDLE: Yeah.
00:22:29JONES: So, when you were in Sicily, you've got initially a two and three and four-year-old toddler?
00:22:38BRINDLE: Daycare, yes, daycare. And they had a wonderful daycare on base. But it was logistically challenging sometimes because, you know, who's got to work late, whatever.
00:23:00JONES: Anything else about Sicily that we have that we have not covered that you'd like to talk about?
00:23:06BRINDLE: No.
00:23:07JONES: Okay. Now let's move next to--it's my understanding that you went to the Navy Supply Corps School?
00:23:18BRINDLE: In Athens, Georgia, that's correct, from 1990 to 1993.
00:23:24JONES: Okay, just wanted to clarify, I thought that the Navy Corps school--
00:23:31BRINDLE: Supply Corps.
00:23:32JONES: --was in Newport, Rhode Island.
00:23:34BRINDLE: No, no, unh-uh, that is--no. That is the Senior Enlisted Academy in Newport, Rhode Island.
00:23:43JONES: OK, so the school you went to is where?
00:23:47BRINDLE: Uh, well, this isn't a school I went to. Well, it was a school, but I was stationed there as support personnel.
00:23:56JONES: OK, so.
00:23:58BRINDLE: So the Navy Supply Corps is the supply officers. It's the school that teaches supply officers how to do it.
00:24:08JONES: Okay, and where was this again?
00:24:11BRINDLE: Athens, Georgia.
00:24:12JONES: Athens, Georgia.
00:24:14BRINDLE: Yes.
00:24:20JONES: Is it fair to say that you were the storekeeper there?
00:24:24BRINDLE: Ye--One of three, one of three. We had to--basically we were the supply for all the instructors. Pens, paper, books. It's kind of a boring job.
00:24:43JONES: Why was that?
00:24:45BRINDLE: Um, it was just, it, it was just simple, you know, um, it was good to, to, to meet the instructors and talk to the instructors and learn more about Supply Corps. Whereas I was enlisted. This was an officer school. So, um. I don't know. It-workwise, professionally-wise, it wasn't that exciting because it was, it was a three--there was three of us to make sure that, you know, this small supply office stocked everything for the instructors.
00:25:28JONES: So it sounded like there wasn't that much to do.
00:25:31BRINDLE: No, no, professionally-wise, but you know, you--We were able to work on our schooling. You know, the Navy always promoted furthering your schooling, so college courses and stuff.
00:25:52JONES: Okay. So did you take some college courses while you were there?
00:25:55BRINDLE: Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's when I started taking them.
00:26:10JONES: Okay. And it's my understanding that you were there for three years?
00:26:20BRINDLE: Yes.
00:26:22JONES: Okay. Anything else about that experience that you want to talk about that we have not covered?
00:26:31BRINDLE: Uh, no, although within, well, no, and, yes. Um, that's when, when I was stationed in Athens, that when I got called into my boss's office, which scared me. I mean, he was all serious and he had me, he closed the door and he sat down and he says, "Lori, they're looking for, uh, they want to know if you want to go to Operation Desert Storm." And I'm like, what? I mean, we all knew about the Operation Desert Storm coming up because you watch the news and they talk about it and stuff. But I had a week's notice, a week's notice they said, and I said, "Well, what am I going to be doing?" And he said, "Nobody knows, but you've got to bring, we've got to get a chemical suit for you and a mask." And I'm like, oh, okay. "Where am I going to be staying?" "We don't know." "Am I wearing my uniform?" "No." And I'm like, "Okay, let me go talk to my husband about this." So we went and talked and we both agreed it would be good for my career to go, so I went. And I arrived in Bahrain, which is an island off of Saudi Arabia, January 9th. And Operation Desert Storm started January 17th.
00:28:23JONES: Just a second.
00:28:24BRINDLE: I-yeah.
00:28:29JONES: When did you arrive in Bahrain again, January what?
00:28:33BRINDLE: Ninth.
00:28:34JONES: And what year is that? "89?
00:28:36BRINDLE: Uh, 91.
00:28:40JONES: Okay.
00:28:54BRINDLE: And they flew me in on Gulf Air, which is commercial airlines. And the airlines told us we were one of the last commercial planes flying into Bahrain. It's like, oh, okay.
00:29:17JONES: And the war, again, started in, would you say mid-January?
00:29:22BRINDLE: The war started January 17th, Operation Desert Storm, yes.
00:29:35JONES: Um, let's talk a little bit about Bahrain. How long were you on Bahrain?
00:29:48BRINDLE: From January to August. Or, July.
00:29:52JONES: Like six months, roughly.
00:29:54BRINDLE: Correct. Correct.
00:30:02JONES: Just yesterday and to prepare for our interview, I got a map out and looked to see where Bahrain was and I see that it's you know next to Saudi Arabia and then you go down the peninsula and then, you run into the country of Qatar and then I'm following it and then I say to myself rhetorically, "Holy cow, there's the Strait of Hormuz!"
00:30:28BRINDLE: Absolutely, yes, yes. And in fact, Bahrain just got bombed during this when we started. Yes.
00:30:38JONES: Wow.
00:30:39BRINDLE: Yeah.
00:30:39JONES: So you had no idea at the time that the Strait of Hormuz would be a thing that most Americans would know about in subsequent years.
00:30:50BRINDLE: Right, right. Yeah, I was I was nervous and terrified and especially when you they couldn't tell me anything but make sure you bring your chemical suit and your mask.
00:31:03JONES: Okay. So in Bahrain, did you live on a military base?
00:31:10BRINDLE: Well, this is the funny part. Bahrain got completely inundated with military people from all services. They didn't have room for us on the base. Bahrain's usually a little old base. They didn't have room. So I was put in the five-star Gulf Hotel.
00:31:35JONES: Holy cow!
00:31:38BRINDLE: I know, I know, that calmed my mom down, 'cause my mom was terrified. And I'm like, "Mom, I'm living in a hotel!"
00:31:48JONES: What was the name of the hotel, do you remember?
00:31:50BRINDLE: Gulf. Gulf Hotel. Gulf. G-U-L-F. Gulf Hotel, yes. And I still got some of my meal tickets for them that I can donate to you guys if you want. But the ironic--so that was wonderful, but at the same time, it was absolutely terrifying because you didn't know who was who. We're in a civilian hotel where there's people, there's Sau--so Bahrain was known, the Saudi Arabians would come to Bahrain for R&R. Saudi Arabia was very strict with no drinking. And other things I believe in Bahrain was like, okay, they come there to drink and stuff. And so they'd stay at these hotels. We didn't know who is who.
00:32:40JONES: So, Bahrain is kind of a Las Vegas, if you will--
00:32:43BRINDLE: Yes!
00:32:44JONES: --for--
00:32:45BRINDLE: That's a beautiful way to put it.
00:32:47JONES: --for the Saudi Arabians.
00:32:48BRINDLE: Correct.
00:32:49JONES: They would go there and blow off steam and engage in vice activities, etc.
00:32:55BRINDLE: Yes!
00:32:56JONES: Okay. Interesting.
00:32:57BRINDLE: Good way to put it.
00:32:59JONES: Um--Were--How many women soldiers did you encounter when you were in Bahrain?
00:33:10BRINDLE: There wasn't many. There was not many at all. Um, and to be honest with you, I never, I I never thought about that. I never looked at it from that perspective. You know, and once I got there for at least the first month, there was no time to think about anything else. For example, when I first, so the office that I worked at was called Ship Repair Unit. And it was that office's job to track supplies for any ships that were broken in the Persian Gulf. So. That office was normally manned by like six people. And I have our rosters, our Alpha rosters from the time. We were almost up to 80 people that came in. And we literally had like a little trailer, what do you call those mobile home size offices that are on wheels. We literally had that and there was 80 of us. So, it was my job. Everybody needed beepers, you know, this is pre-cell phone days, everybody, some people needed cell phones. Yeah, only the top people like my commander and stuff got the cell phones, and then just simple office supplies to accommodate 80 people working out of. So I was literally up for 48 hours straight when I first got on the ground there to try to, you know, trying to get, okay, where am I? I had to get I had to get a truck. I got assigned a pickup truck. I had to get a license to drive there, which I still have to that I can, I can put in the stuff to donate to you guys. And, but, you don't think about stuff like that, cause I'm completely working off of adrenaline and coffee. You know, we got to get this set because January 17th is right around the corner. So I didn't stay at that five-star hotel for very much.
00:35:44JONES: In that respect, it's a shame.
00:35:47BRINDLE: Yes, yes!
00:35:51JONES: It's, to continue with the Las Vegas analogy, it's like you're in Vegas, but you're spending so much time working that you can't engage in any of the extracurricular activities.
00:36:05BRINDLE: Absolutely. And my meal tickets were at the hotel too. And so I would usually end up getting like a granola bar at the little store on base, you know, the little, we called it Gee Dunk, you know, junk food store, your 7-Eleven, your Qwick Trip.
00:36:26JONES: So you worked on the base most of the time.
00:36:30BRINDLE: Um, yes, but it was my job to run out to the pier to either deliver things or pick up things. And the pier was probably six miles away. I had to run out to the airfield to do the same thing. So basically what would happen is if a ship had an essential piece, part, that was broken and none of the other ships could help them out, a new part would get flown in and it would come in through Europe and eventually go down and over and finally get down to us and I'd have to run out to the airfield and then deliver that part to the pier for the ship to pick up. So it was a constant back and forth, back and forth, back and forward. I was in my pickup truck more than on the base, actually. So I was out in the community. And I couldn't wear a uniform. Like, people couldn't figure out that I was American, right?
00:37:37JONES: Why couldn't you wear a uniform?
00:37:39BRINDLE: They didn't want us screaming that we were Americans. They were worried about terrorists targeting us. But clearly, I'm American. So that was a little scary. I was constantly aware of my surroundings. I wasn't issued a weapon.
00:38:15JONES: But weren't the people you were working with, weren't they in uniform?
00:38:22BRINDLE: Uh, my office, nobody wore uniforms.
00:38:27JONES: Okay.
00:38:28BRINDLE: Nobody wore uniforms, except for my commander. He was a captain. 0-6.
00:38:44JONES: In hindsight, it just seems to me that it wouldn't have taken someone--It wouldn't have been that difficult to, you know, to see that all those people that came to Bahrain in very quick succession had to be military.
00:39:08BRINDLE: Right. Right! Right! It was kind of silly, same thing on the plane. They didn't want us wearing uniforms. Cvilian clothes. That's like, really, really? Okay.
00:39:28JONES: Now, when you were back, say, in Athens, Georgia, and the other places you had been, you were, I take it you were in uniform all that time.
00:39:37BRINDLE: Yes, yes, of course, of course, the Operation Desert Storm was the only, Bahrain was my only duty station where I never wore a uniform. But there's a story that comes up--
00:39:59BRINDLE: Go ahead.
00:40:00BRINDLE: That relates to that. That's where one of the things that I was most memorable about that time is my commander finally gave me orders in Saudi Arabia, in Riyadh. Or no, it wasn't Riyad. Riyagh was up north. There was a base right at the end of the bridge. There was a bridge from Bahrain to Saudi Arabia. The bridge was 15 miles long. At the end of the bridge, there was a city, Dhahran, I think it was, and I think, now that I'm thinking of it, those barracks got bombed at some time too. But that, in Dhahran, there was a place where everybody's--the guy's coming in off the desert. I don't think there was any gals. There could have been. But they had all their desert cammies on, right? And they would just take the desert cammies and put them in these huge drywalls. They didn't even bother washing them. They would just issue them new desert cammies. So my commander learned of this and he gave me orders to go to that and pick up uniforms for some of the people that we're in our unit. Uh, because they would have to be making trips to Qatar and, and various places. So I drove, first of all, this, this bridge, it was loaded with explosives. And that, which was very intimidating and they had checkpoints at both ends of the bridges and a full checkpoint where it took half an hour to go through the entire truck. I had to get out and they'd have the dogs and the mirrors and everything. And for me to drive in Saudi Arabia was unheard of at the time too. So that, and I even have, I've even got my pass and it's even notarized. I've got it right here for when I did that. I had to get approval to do this. For various reasons. So I went to this great big place in Dhahran and got, I went through nasty uniforms because they were all hot and sweaty and stuff, but went through those uniforms and picked out enough uniforms for the individuals that I worked with that needed them and brought them back.
00:42:51JONES: Um, so, returning to the topic of women driving in Saudi Arabia, we know that that was forbidden at the time. So it was a very unusual set of circumstances for you to be driving at the time on that bridge. And again, at that point, you were in civilian clothing, right?
00:43:22BRINDLE: Correct.
00:43:23JONES: And without any head scarf or--
00:43:25BRINDLE: No headscarf, but they wanted long sleeves.
00:43:29JONES: Okay. Did you catch any grief from any of the locals over the fact that you were driving?
00:43:40BRINDLE: Uh, no, Bahrain was pretty liberal with that because they knew why we were there and--
00:43:46JONES: But I'm talking about in Saudi Arabia.
00:43:49BRINDLE: Oh, no, because I wasn't supposed to stop anywhere. No stopping for gas. You go right to the base. You know, they're--just driving itself. I could see people in other cars as they were passing me, kind of looking twice, you know, and stuff. But yeah, I didn't stop anywhere to--.
00:44:13JONES: And this base where you picked up the uniforms was in Saudi Arabia?
00:44:20BRINDLE: Correct.
00:44:21JONES: Okay. Anything else about the Bahrain experience that we have not covered that you want to talk about?
00:44:37BRINDLE: Yeah, I got a couple things. Another memorable moment that showed how important my office's job was and how much trust they put in me is the the USS Tripoli got hit by a mine early on. And I don't remember, was it February? I think it was in February. They had a big hole and they were basically incapacitated. And it was my office's job to get them back to work in because we were fighting a war, right? So they got a part on its way from the United States and I was issued a plane, all by myself, a plane a C-2 to fly up to Riyadh and grab this part and get it and then come back down to Bahrain and deliver it to the pier for another ship to pick it up for the Tripoli. And that was pretty intimidating too.
00:45:51JONES: Let's revisit that.
00:45:54BRINDLE: I've got those orders too.
00:45:56JONES: Okay. In essence, an airplane was dispatched for you to get on to fly from Bahrain to another location over there--
00:46:12BRINDLE: To Riyadh.
00:46:13JONES: --to Riyadh--to pick up a part and then take that part back to Bahrain for repair on the USS Tripoli.
00:46:24BRINDLE: Correct.
00:46:25JONES: And was there any, on this airplane that you took to Riyadh, was there anyone else other than you and the flight crew?
00:46:34BRINDLE: Me. So that was very intimidating. And the flight crew was at my disposal. It was my responsibility to--get there. So the other challenging thing, this was the Riyadh airport. It was a commercial airport, right? But it wasn't operating at the time. So luckily the flight crew and I had a hard time finding out, figuring out where this other plane was at, at this airport. And so it took us a little bit to find the airport because like I said, it was, the commercial airport was not working at the time. So it took us a little bit to find our plane and pick up the part.
00:47:35JONES: Do you remember the approximate size of the flight crew?
00:47:41BRINDLE: Oh gosh, no I don't.
00:47:47JONES: Okay. Well, I'm just struck by the fact that the cost of your taking that plane with the flight crew must have been in the tens of thousands of dollars--
00:48:02BRINDLE: Absolutely!
00:48:03JONES: --going north of that.
00:48:06BRINDLE: Yeah and for them to dedicate that completely, because there were so many flights coming in and out of the region and the logistics behind it were just so complicated and yeah that was half the challenge of my office too is figuring out which planes were coming with what and when where. So yeah, it was an incredible, and so to stop a plane and devote it solely to that one piece, that was a huge endeavor too, because we, there was a lot of stuff going back and forth.
00:48:51JONES: And the piece that you picked up, I imagine we're not talking about something that you could hold in say the palm of your hand. We're talking about--
00:49:05BRINDLE: Oh gosh, no. But it wasn't, it was, but I could carry it.
00:49:10JONES: OK.
00:49:12BRINDLE: I could--Yeah, I could drag it. It was what, 60 pounds? I don't even remember what the part was, but But like I said, I have those orders that I can give to the museum if you so wish.
00:49:28JONES: Okay. Anything else about the Bahrain experience?
00:49:37BRINDLE: Um, yeah, only because it was a war and there was a lot of stuff. Um, one of, so once things calmed down and we were at the, you know, I was there for six months, so the, the Operation Desert Storm, you know, we won fairly early and once things started calming down and. I would say probably four months into it. So what are we talking? January, February, March, April, May, around May timeframe. People started, people had souvenirs and there would be souvenir trades and all this stuff, right? Because there was a lot of bombed-out cars. There was the oil fields were burning and we had smoke like you wouldn't believe that would drift over from Saudi. But one of the souvenirs that I got that I think the museum would really be impressed with is I had some friends that worked in the--in flying. And I was given a whole bunch of the pamphlets that we dropped over Kuwait and Saudi, and--.
00:51:06JONES: Can you can you lift them up your picture? Okay.
00:51:14BRINDLE: And see, I got a whole stack of them, and they're all in Arabic, but so what happened is when I came back from the Gulf, so I was back to my original duty station of Athens, Georgia, I-- They had international students at the school, which all military schools do. Well, there just happened to be a Kuwaiti international student there. And so I was introduced, this is a photo of both of us. Can you see it?
00:51:58JONES: Yeah. Yes, I can see it.
00:52:00BRINDLE: Okay, so I asked him to translate the pamphlets. So I have all the translations of the pamophlets, which helps to understand. I thought that was really cool that he did that for me, because that took a lot of work. I've got like 20 pamphlets in here or something.
00:52:48JONES: Anything else about the Bahrain experience.
00:52:53BRINDLE: This is my Bahrain driver's license.
00:52:55JONES: Okay.
00:52:56BRINDLE: Dated January 14th. This is after I was up for this. Yeah, this is after I was up for a few days too. And one more thing that I don't know if you guys would be interested, but the La Crosse JCs sent my mom and dad a letter saying that they raised money to give to the families for long distance phone calls. So I thought that was kind of cool when they did that. Yeah, yeah. And I have a bunch of to any service member, oh yeah, to any servicemember, mail. You know, that came in by the droves when we were there. And I didn't grab too much of it, because honestly, I was too busy, but one of them that I did grab, and I have a small bag of them that I can contribute to, but of them, that I did grab and I can't find it right now, it was a letter from Gloria Estevan on her Miami Sound Machine letterhead, and it was a to any service member letter. And, and she had copied them, you know, in the old days of Xerox. So this is a copy, but, you know, the envelope was very nondescript and it didn't have a return address or anything. So I thought that was kind of cool.
00:54:28JONES: That is neat.
00:54:30BRINDLE: Yeah! And I'd say that's probably all about Bahrain. But yeah.
00:54:42JONES: Say one final question about the pickup that you drove when you were in Bahrain. I assume this was a nondescript regular pickup without any reference to the military being on the side of it.
00:55:00BRINDLE: Correct. A white, I think it was American though, if I remember right.
00:55:06JONES: Okay.
00:55:08BRINDLE: Ford.
00:55:14JONES: You know, when you drive here in America, you always have to be concerned about whether you have insurance. And I suppose it didn't even cross your mind when you were in Bahrain--
00:55:25BRINDLE: No.
00:55:26JONES: -- to worry about insurance matters.
00:55:29BRINDLE: No, no, didn't care about it. It did have insurance. I think we used a rental agent, a rental car agency. Now that I'm-- Yes, we had rental cars. A rental truck. Yeah. And I want to say it was like Hertz or Avis or something. They actually add a rental--Yeah, an American rental car company. Our biggest worry, our biggest concern was air conditioning because it gets hot real fast there. We're talking 120 degrees.
00:56:04JONES: Tell us a little bit about the heat.
00:56:06BRINDLE: Oh my goodness, it was stifling. It was just, and it didn't take long. I want to say come March, it starts getting hot there. And it, by the time I left in July, it was just and everybody has the air conditioning on so high. You know, it would be 60 degrees in buildings and then you got 110 degrees outside. Ooh, it Was terrible. So you didn't do much outside, kind of like our winters.
00:56:47JONES: So, summers in Bahrain are the equivalent of winters in Wisconsin.
00:56:53BRINDLE: Exactly. Exactly. Although I beg to say our winters haven't been so bad.
00:57:12JONES: Okay, so your time comes to an end in Bahrain and then do I understand that you went back to Athens, Georgia?
00:57:22BRINDLE: Yep. Since that was only a six-month tour, I was only temporarily assigned there and had to go back to my Athens, Georgia, to finish my my three-year tour.
00:57:38JONES: So Athens, Georgia was where you finished your three-year time commitment down there?
00:57:47BRINDLE: Correct.
00:57:50JONES: But when we talk about three years in Athens, it was actually interrupted by six months in Bahrain.
00:57:58BRINDLE: Correct.
00:58:16JONES: Okay, so after you leave Athens, Georgia, tell us what happened next.
00:58:25BRINDLE: I get my first ship! I finally got a ship, USS Puget Sound, AD-38, stationed out of Norfolk, Virginia. It was a destroyer.
00:58:38JONES: Did you say AD-38?
00:58:40BRINDLE: Yes. And a destroyer tender is basically a machine shop. A floating machine shop. There was 1,350 sailors that were on board there. And, um, yeah, we were, that ship was tasked with repairing ships, usually follow a battle group here or there. Um, so it was very exciting, very intimidating at first, because I was going on board as an E-6, a senior enlisted person, and not having any shipboard experience and being a female was, um, made me a little anxious, but eventually, you know, after I earned the trust and the respect, it took probably about six months. I had to learn the ship and the ship life first until I could get that respect.
00:59:46JONES: Okay, did you say that there was roughly a thousand people on the ship?
00:59:50BRINDLE: Yeah, 1,350 is what it could accommodate.
00:59:57JONES: And how many women were on the ship?
01:00:00BRINDLE: 10%, 10%. Little over a hundred.
01:00:08JONES: Okay. Now--when--you were on that ship, did it stay in Norfolk the whole time that you were on it?
01:00:35BRINDLE: No, no, we actually I did a six month deployment on her. So we went to the Mediterranean Sea. And with that, where did we go? We went to Portugal--
01:00:53JONES: Just a second.
01:00:54BRINDLE: Palma. Oh. Okay. Are you writing all these down?
01:01:01JONES: Yeah.
01:01:02BRINDLE: There's a lot of pieces.
01:01:04JONES: Okay, that's fine. So to Portugal, go ahead.
01:01:08BRINDLE: Yep, uh, Palma, P-A-L-M-A. Rota, Spain, R-O-T-A, Spain. Almeria. In Sicily, we went to Palermo and Augusta Bay. In Italy, we went to Naples and Tarranto, T-A-R-R A-N-T-O. Corfu, Greece, spent six straight weeks there. Our ship was docked there. That was awesome.
01:02:05JONES: What was the city in Greece?
01:02:08BRINDLE: Um, Corfu, C-O-R-F-U.
01:02:23JONES: And I assume that you were able to have some shore leave during that six-week period.
01:02:29BRINDLE: Yeah. So every fourth day, we had to stay on the ship for 24 hours, but those other three days, we could go out. We would work till five o'clock or four o' clock. And then we could go out on Liberty as long as we were back by, I believe curfew was like midnight. So, you know, to go out in town and sit on the, you know. They had seafood restaurants on the on the water and and you know they had tours where we could go you know to olive oil places and stuff so yeah there was a lot of liberty and it was wonderful
01:03:15JONES: Um, so you had good food, I take it.
01:03:19BRINDLE: Oh, jeez, yes. Spoiled us rotten.
01:03:27JONES: Essentially, you got to be a tourist--
01:03:31BRINDLE: Yes
01:03:31JONES: --in Greece.
01:03:32BRINDLE: For six weeks. Yes, it was incredible.
01:03:39JONES: Back when you and I grew up, the Navy's advertising slogan was, "Join the Navy and See the World."
01:03:51BRINDLE: Yes! Yes!
01:03:52JONES: And it strikes me that on this particular Mediterranean deployment, you really did see the world.
01:04:00BRINDLE: Yes. And I'm not done yet. We also went to two stops in Turkey, Antalya, A-N-T-A-Y-L-A. And this other one, I'm gonna have to spell.
01:04:14JONES: That's okay.
01:04:14BRINDLE: A-K--do you want it--A-K-S-A-Z, and then the other word is K-A R-A Q-A-C.
01:04:25JONES: So was Turkey the last country?
01:04:27BRINDLE: Uh, and then before we went there, we spent, uh, we've got to go to Cuba. So when a ship deployed, they would normally do their training and get their certification off the coast of Cuba. And then that was always pretty, um, intense, lot of damage-control training and making sure all our systems were up to par. And then as a reward for completing your qualifications, we got to spend, I don't remember how many days, a couple of days in Gitmo--Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. And we couldn't go off the base there, but they had a beach and they had a restaurant. And, you know, so I can, I can say that I've been to Cuba, even though it was on the military base. On the Puget Sound, one of the biggest things I was, my biggest milestones is I earned my Enlisted Surface Warfare [Specialist] [ESWS] pin there. And that's a pretty big deal for enlisted people. That proves that you know the ship, you had to learn all about the ship. Everything from, you know, how it, how it works to the uh, weapons systems to everything. And then you stand in front of an oral board and, um, get questioned on it. So I was very proud of earning my Enlisted Surface Warfare pin. And then at the end of that, I decommissioned the Puget Sound. That was her last Mediterranean deployment. And then they decommisioned her and what we had to do, which, oh my God, it was crazy. You have to clear out everything from the ship. They basically, you rip everything out and it just becomes this hull that they send to the scrap metal pile.
01:06:52JONES: So you helped clean the contents of the ship?
01:06:56BRINDLE: Yeah. Yeah, we had to chip paint off, depending on what kind of paint it was and just all sorts of crazy stuff. But when you decommission ships and commission ships, you get these huge certificates. I believe I have one here. No, I don't. That say that that you decommissioned it and I don't have the decommisioning one, but I have the commissioning one for my next duty station.
01:07:57JONES: Okay, anything else about your time on the Puget Sound that we've not covered that you want to cover?
01:08:03BRINDLE: No.
01:08:04JONES: Okay, let's move on to the next ship.
01:08:07BRINDLE: Next ship was the USS Stennis, CVN-74. That's an aircraft carrier out of Norfolk, Virginia. I had the luxury of commissioning her. So I went from an old ship to a new ship and the Stennis I was on there for one year, '96 to '97 and only one year because I had to finish my three-year sea duty commitment and I, and, um, the Puget Sound, I hadn't completed my, my sea duty commitments. So they sent me to the Stennis to do a year on board there.
01:08:48JONES: Okay, so let me follow up on that. Explain a little bit about the three-year commitment.
01:08:59BRINDLE: Mm-hmm. Every-- sailors, you had to spend so many years on sea duty or overseas and then you could transfer to a shore duty. And now it's eluding me what the time frames are, but basically they wanted, so you had, to rotate. And so every couple of years you would get orders to something brand new within your occupation, so my occupation was storekeeper.
01:09:35JONES: Okay, but sailors have to spend three years at sea. Is that correct?
01:09:40BRINDLE: Yes.
01:09:40JONES: Okay.
01:09:41BRINDLE: Yes.
01:09:42JONES: And so that's you had spent apparently two years with the Puget Sound and then one year with the Stennis.
01:09:50BRINDLE: Correct.
01:09:51JONES: Okay. Let me get this down.
01:09:55BRINDLE: Sure.
01:10:11JONES: Okay, so after one year on the Stennis, then at that point you've had three years at sea, and then essentially the HR department decides that it's time for you to be moved elsewhere.
01:10:25BRINDLE: Correct.
01:10:26JONES: Okay. And then where did--Okay, before we move on though to that, let's talk about the Stennis in that I know it's a carrier and they carr--what, 3,000 people-- on the Stennis?
01:10:44BRINDLE: 6,500 if they're deploying, when they deploy. So there's a whole bunch of air wings, which an air wing is like, let's say fighter planes, right? They'll have their own air wings.
01:11:00JONES: So when you were on that ship, were there 6,000 people?
01:11:04BRINDLE: I, when we went out, not most of the time, not most of the time.
01:11:10JONES: So it would have been a smaller number.
01:11:13BRINDLE: It's complicated. You're right.
01:11:16JONES: Um, and, um, what did you do as a storekeeper on the Stennis?
01:11:24BRINDLE: It was my job to make sure that they had every, we did not, since we were not aviation related, we didn't have anything to do with the aviation parts, but any parts for the ship, anything for the engines on the ship. Some of the ammunition systems. Uh, even the simple consumables like toilet paper, um, any of that stuff, it was my department's job to, to make sure that we had enough to, at all times, depending on if we were deploying or not.
01:12:12JONES: And when you when you're on this, the Stennis. For that one year, were you deployed or were you back at Norfolk?
01:12:23BRINDLE: We were in training mode where we would go out and train off the coast of Virginia. So there was actually one time where we went to St. John and it was a longer training mission, you know, we got to make sure all our fighting capabilities are up to speed. The planes got to make sure, so there was planes landing and taking off and all that stuff. Um, one of the interesting things that happened on that is we were training off the coast of Virginia and, and that, and so the, the planes would be taking off almost all night long, boom, boom. Very loud, very, very hazardous, no matter where you were on the plane, you couldn't get away from it. It was, it was quite noisy. Um, One night, I want to say it was around 9:30 at night. All of a sudden--we would have overboard drills, man overboard drills. And you were always drilling. You were drilling to fight fires all the time. You were drillin', you know, if man overboard. And all of a suddenly, about 9.30, the ship just makes this U-turn. And you wouldn't think a carrier, you know when you turn a car real sharply and you're going like this? Well, the carrier did that and. And they got on the 1MC, "Man overboard! This is not a drill." Well, long story short, so then you have to go to your station and you got to be accounted for so that they know who's missing kind of thing. Well, a long story, short, we ran over one of the planes and they never did find it. So, we were-
01:14:15JONES: Okay, did you say you ran over a plane? What do you mean?
01:14:20BRINDLE: Missed, it missed the the wire to catch it, and it fell, it it went off the ship
01:14:29JONES: Okay.
01:14:30BRINDLE: Yeah.
01:14:33JONES: Was there a pilot in it at the time?
01:14:35BRINDLE: Yes, a crew. Yep.
01:14:39JONES: Did they recover?
01:14:44BRINDLE: I'm told that sometimes that happens, the force is so strong of that carrier that it just--Yeah.
01:14:52JONES: Was it like a two-person plane?
01:14:56BRINDLE: I don't know.
01:14:59JONES: But there were no survivors.
01:15:01BRINDLE: Correct.
01:15:11JONES: That must have been traumatic.
01:15:14BRINDLE: It was, it was, it was pretty--the realism of it kind of hits home because back at the time, this was when Top Gun was big and so we're all like, "oh, this is so cool" and everything and that brought it all back into perspective and reminds people that yes, this stuff is very, very dangerous.
01:15:51JONES: It's not all with the Kenny Loggins soundtrack playing all the time.
01:15:58BRINDLE: Exactly.
01:15:59JONES: It's very dangerous work.
01:16:01BRINDLE: Mm-hmm. Yes.
01:16:09JONES: Any other experiences like that when you were serving on the Stennis?
01:16:14BRINDLE: Ah, no, thank goodness. That was enough for me.
01:16:29JONES: And we talked earlier about these certificates that you get when a ship is commissioned or decommissioned. Did you get a certificate for commissioning the Stennis?
01:16:44BRINDLE: Yes. Yes, I did. It's kind of big. See?
01:16:52JONES: Yeah.
01:16:54BRINDLE: Can you see with the glare?
01:16:55JONES: Yeah, even with the glare, I can see it. Your name is right there in the middle.
01:16:59BRINDLE: Uh-huh. Yeah. So I will certainly give it, if you guys want it, if you don't want it that's fine. But it's just gathering dust at my house.
01:17:17JONES: Anything else about your time on the Stennis that you want to, that we have not covered?
01:17:22BRINDLE: No. Thank you.
01:17:25JONES: We're gonna move now to what happened after you got off the Stennis.
01:17:31BRINDLE: Yeah, 1997 through 2000, I was at the Military Sealift Command, shore duty in Norfolk, Virginia. And it was our job, at that command. We--Military Sealift is--they look like Navy ships, but they're operated by civilians. And on those Navy ship or on those civilian ships, and they're the refuelers, the ones that bring out gas to other ships. And stuff like that. And they had a contingent of Navy people that would run the kitchens. So it was my command's job to support those Navy chefs, basically.
01:18:30JONES: My notes indicate that the Sealift command is, quote, "the Navy's main organization for ocean transportation and provides sealift and logistical support for 125 ships," end quote. Does that sound like what you did?
01:18:54BRINDLE: Yep. Yep. So that 125, that's probably broken up into East Coast and West Coast. Okay. And Norfolk, Virginia, we had about half that. Yeah.
01:19:07JONES: So during that time, you're on, I take it, a base for those three years?
01:19:15BRINDLE: Yep. On Norfolk Naval Station.
01:19:24JONES: Which I understand is huge.
01:19:27BRINDLE: Very, very big. That's also where all these ships previously were home docked out of. So yeah, it's a big base.
01:19:39JONES: And were you living on the base?
01:19:42BRINDLE: No. Unh-uh.
01:19:43JONES: Thank you.
01:19:44BRINDLE: Livin' out in town.
01:19:52JONES: Um, now, let's talk about Fleet Week. Remember that experience?
01:20:04BRINDLE: Yeah. So, so Fleet Week up in New York City is a big thing every year around Memorial Day. And they just it's literally what it says they they take a week and New York city opens up its arms to any ships that want to come and stay there. So or dock there and you get tickets to free Broadway shows--your-- Navy people are treated like celebrities during that time. It's really quite an experience. Like I said, free Broadway shows. You get tickets to any of the network shows that are, you know, that, so it's just an amazing thing. I've had a couple of unique opportunities. Oh, so I went, one of the things I did, is I went to the Today Show with some of my friends and we got to meet Katie Couric. I don't know if you can see that here.
01:21:12JONES: Can you lift the picture up a little bit more? There you go. And you're in that picture?
01:21:19BRINDLE: Yep. Which one's me? This one over here.
01:21:22JONES: OK.
01:21:23BRINDLE: Yes. So we thought that was super fun that we got to see her. One of the times, oh, no, that was another Fleet Week. So I also went to Fleet Week on the Mahan, which is my next ship coming up, but that one, we actually hosted the UN on the flight deck and stuff. That was pretty incredible, but that's a whole other thing. Military Sealift Command. Yes, I went to fleet week once on--We rode one of her ships. So I wasn't attached to a ship at the time, but they asked for volunteers to ride the ship and go and enjoy Fleet Week because they needed more sailors because they didn't have very many sailors on those ships.
01:22:13JONES: Fleet Week was in the national news here in America about a year ago when a sailing ship from some other country was going up one of the rivers, either the East River or the Hudson River.
01:22:34BRINDLE: Yes.
01:22:35JONES: And it hit a bridge, and some, a couple people on the ship were killed.
01:22:45BRINDLE: Oh my gosh, I don't remember this story, and I'm a news junkie.
01:22:48JONES: But anyway, it simply caught my attention because to give some background for why that ship was there, they had to explain a little bit about Ship Week.
01:23:03BRINDLE: Fleet Week, yes.
01:23:05JONES: Fleet Week. Excuse me.
01:23:06BRINDLE: Wow! Huh. That's not good.
01:23:10JONES: Yeah. So.
01:23:19BRINDLE: So not much about Military Sealift Command. I mean, it was basic. It was my job then to help the chefs make sure, all I did was basically food stuff, make sure that they got all their food supplies. So professionally, it wasn't that challenging. Oh, but I did get, I did go to school and I got, I earned. I completed certification to be a Navy counselor, which is basically an HR person. So I was the Navy counselor for those military people that were on those ships. So professionally, that was probably my biggest highlight for that one.
01:24:07JONES: Okay, so this, tell us a little bit about the course.
01:24:11BRINDLE: It was a six-week course and it was-- basically the goal is to counsel sailors to be the best they could be, professionally. All the different resources that are available, all the different schools, that kind of stuff. So that part was very rewarding to be able to help sailors.
01:24:36JONES: Is it fair to compare that type of training with say back in high school when once a year the students would go and see the counselor--
01:24:49BRINDLE: Yes
01:24:50JONES: and the counselor would say, "Okay. Here's the traditional options. You've got the military or college or working life." And in essence, what you were doing was explaining the options to other seamen what they could do in the military.
01:25:07BRINDLE: Absolutely. And like I said, we all had to rotate every couple of years. So it was my job to counsel on what kind of duty station would be beneficial for their career. Or if they wanted to get out to try to persuade them that, oh, okay, here, if you stay in, you'll get a retirement every month for the rest of your life.
01:25:34JONES: Right. Right. Okay. So, uh,
01:25:44BRINDLE: And that was nontraditional for my rate, for my job, that was non-traditional to be able to go to the Navy Counselor School. That was a job in itself normally, but they didn't have one. So they said, Laura, you go to school.
01:26:02JONES: Okay.
01:26:03BRINDLE: Okay. Sure
01:26:06JONES: So you went to that school and then after that school, did you ever get a chance to be the counselor?
01:26:16BRINDLE: Yes, not professionally, but it did help me in the long run and I'll get to that in a little bit because I won a leadership award, but that's down the pike a little bit here.
01:26:34JONES: Okay. So, ultimately, you were at Sealift Command for three years.
01:26:42BRINDLE: Correct. Then I got to go to a ship again!
01:26:46JONES: Okay, just a second. And where was the Sealift Command at?
01:26:53BRINDLE: Norfolk Naval Station in Norfolk, Virginia.
01:27:10JONES: So this must have been like the second time you were at Norfolk?
01:27:16BRINDLE: Yes, yeah. All in all throughout my 22-year career, I spent 12 years in Norfolk, so you'll see that most of it was in Norfolk.
01:27:37JONES: So roughly 12 years at Norfolk and 12 years at sea?
01:27:43BRINDLE: Um, 10 years, uh, well, four years in Sicily. Yeah.
01:27:49JONES: Okay, so I'm just trying to kind of encapsulate all of it, so you have 12 years at Norfolk.
01:27:55BRINDLE: And then 10 years elsewhere.
01:28:00JONES: Okay.
01:28:03BRINDLE: Nothing's ever black and white in this stuff.
01:28:07JONES: Right. Okay, so after Norfork, then you go back to sea again.
01:28:15BRINDLE: Yes, USS Mahan, based out of Norfolk. USS Mahan was DDG-72. Guided missile destroyer.
01:28:34JONES: What were the numbers again for the Mahan?
01:28:38BRINDLE: DDG-72.
01:28:41JONES: Got it. Okay, and you said it's a destroyer?
01:28:49BRINDLE: Yes. 270 sailors.
01:29:02JONES: Okay, so it's in comparison to the Stennis, it's a very small ship, much smaller.
01:29:12BRINDLE: Which, that was, Mahan was the most rewarding duty station of my entire career because of that. So being that you are so small, you're much more integrated in the actual ship life. For example, one of the things that I trained in, we got to do things that you can't do on a carrier because there's so many people. For example, I trained to be up on the bridge communicating--one of the jobs of the destroyer was to board cargo ships, right? For drugs, contraband, whatever, right, which is what they're doing right now, I might add, but, so we would train on that. And one of jobs that I got to do, is stand up on the bridge and be the communicator between the boarding team and the ship, the captain. So me as a little old logistician, being up there as the main communications between the boarding ship and the captain, just-- I was overwhelmed with, you know, really feeling a part of the team.
01:30:44JONES: At that oint you're saying to yourself, "Wow I'm a long way from La Crosse!"
01:30:49BRINDLE: Exactly! Exactly! You know, we did helicopter operations to bring supplies on the ship when we were deployed. And you know, I mean, here, I'm out there. It was just incredible the the stuff that I got to be a part of now. You really felt--You really felt needed. You had a purpose, you weren't just doing one little job, you were doing everything and everybody was. So that was super cool.
01:31:42JONES: So those two experiences in particular were very meaningful for you?
01:31:48BRINDLE: Yes, the Mahan was an incredible ship, um, that made me who I am.
01:32:00JONES: Um, and I see that you, you were on the Mahan for three years?
01:32:05BRINDLE: Yes. Yep.
01:32:16JONES: Okay. So it's also safe to say that, did you still have storekeeper duties, some of that work, but in addition to those storekeeper duty, you were doing this other stuff as well because of the size of the ship?
01:32:42BRINDLE: Correct, correct. I was the senior enlisted, I was the chief of all the storekeepers on the ship. I maintained the ship's checkbook basically and all the supplies that go with it and I had 20 people working under me at the time, 20 direct people and I was also leading chief petty officer of the supply department and that included another 40 people. So I basically had 60 people I was in charge of. That and being the most senior female, I was usually nominated to handle any--Oh, for lack of a better word, female infringements. A lot of men were hesitant to address any--I'd say the biggest problem that I'd get involved in is hair infractions. We had strict uniform standards, and if hair was too long or something like that. Some of the men would try to address it, but if they got pushback, they really felt uncomfortable.
01:34:01JONES: So you were the resident--
01:34:04BRINDLE: Yeah.
01:34:05JONES: --expert who was pressed into service.
01:34:08BRINDLE: That's right.
01:34:10JONES: --to, in essence, be a de facto HR person.
01:34:13BRINDLE: Yes. Yeah.
01:34:14JONES: --to mediate those matters.
01:34:17BRINDLE: Yes, yes.
01:34:19JONES: Okay. And I take it to use your terminology, there were numerous "female matters" in quotes.
01:34:28BRINDLE: Yeah. Yes!
01:34:28JONES: --and [inaudible] you dealt with.
01:34:31BRINDLE: Yes, yes. But that could go both ways too. Sometimes the men didn't quite understand. So I was like the interpreter between the two worlds, being the most the senior enlisted.
01:34:46JONES: Okay, so you were at that point the senior enlisted female?
01:34:53BRINDLE: Yeah.
01:34:59JONES: And what was your rank at that point?
01:35:02BRINDLE: Well, I reported on board as an E-7, and then I got advanced to E-8. Senior Chief Petty Officer.
01:35:25JONES: Chief Petty Officer.
01:35:27BRINDLE: Yes!
01:35:30JONES: And this is all with somebody--Now, I knew you took some college classes, okay? But had you taken other college classes since, back whenever it was that you took them initially?
01:35:49BRINDLE: Yeah, so I eventually got my bachelor's degree.
01:35:56JONES: When did you get that?
01:35:57BRINDLE: Oh, my goodness, I don't remember now, but I believe I had it when I was on the Mahan.
01:36:03JONES: Okay.
01:36:04BRINDLE: Because I think that's what helped me--
01:36:07JONES: I thought you did not have a bachelor's degree--
01:36:10BRINDLE: Yes, I do.
01:36:11JONES: --when you were on the Mahan. Okay.
01:36:13BRINDLE: I do. I did. Yes, I earned it. Because advancement, you basically needed a bachelor's degree to become E-8.
01:36:22JONES: Okay.
01:36:23BRINDLE: That helped me get advanced, promoted. Lots of night classes.
01:36:35JONES: Okay. And what was the field of study?
01:36:38BRINDLE: Business--
01:36:39JONES: Pardon?
01:36:40BRINDLE: Business administration--
01:36:42JONES: Okay.
01:36:43BRINDLE: Which helped in my job as storekeeper.
01:36:47JONES: Okay. Okay. Now, um--I've got some notes here I'm gonna make reference to. You make a reference while you're on the Mahan to September 11th.
01:37:09BRINDLE: Wooh. Yes.
01:37:10JONES: Okay, so tell us about that.
01:37:12BRINDLE: Okay, we were training off the coast of Virginia on September 11th and what would happen. So the Mahan would go out every month. Um, I don't remember the rotation for when you do deployment. I think you're in for two years. The ship is homeported for two years and then goes out for deployment on the third year. If I remember right, I could be wrong. So anyways. This was one of those two years where we, when you're homeported, you would still go out once a month and train for a few days off the coast of Virginia. Basically going up and down and testing all your systems and, and, you know, so that you're, you're ready. Right. So we were at the end of our trip. I think it was a four-day trip that we were out to sea. So on the fourth day we were all ready to go home and, and, you know, do our laundry and such and such. And all of a sudden the ship just goes on full power and you can feel it. 'Cause it's kind of starts rumbling, kind of like your car would do if you just pump the gas, you know, floored it. And, um, the captain got on the 1MC and told us that, um, the Twin Towers had been hit. And I think he just said the first tower. Now I don't even remember. And that we were zooming up to New York City to patrol the harbor. And he said, alongside that, you know, he gave us some pep talk. And he said, "I am turning off all communications." So on the Mahan, now we had email so we could communicate with our loved ones via email. Um, and we also had a satellite phone, right? And, um, so people would take turns with that, at certain hours. Well, he cut all that off. 'Cause he says, No, we are going to be--"Everybody, get your battle stations ready. We're going up there. We don't know what's going on. I'll keep you informed as I learn things." So that just--Everybody went, "Whoa, whoa. What's going on?" So we all got in the adrenaline mode. And yeah, so we zoomed up to the Harbor. He'd brief us what little he knew. Once the towers were completely down, he had told us. But they still didn't know who had done it or anything like that, which I'm sure you guys knew on the news. Yeah, that was another thing. We didn't have TV. We didn't know what was happening on the news either. So we just, we were all ready. We were all, you know, it was such incredible teamwork and nobody was complaining. Nobody was doing anything but let's be ready to do what we need to do. So we patrolled up there for a couple of days or we patrolled up there a day and then, so when you train outside the coast of Virginia, you're not loaded with your Tomahawk missiles or anything, right? Then the next day, he says, we're going back down to Yorktown, Virginia, which is--Uh, Norfolk is on the coast, and Yorktown you got to go up the St. James River and it's a weapon station. He said, "Now we're going down to Yorktown to load with missiles." And we're all like, "Oh my goodness. Wow. What is going on?" So we loaded up with missiles and went back up and, um, we were up there for a couple of days and obviously we didn't end up doing anything except being super vigilant. Nobody could sleep that well, it wasn't about sleep right now, it was like, what is going on? And so, long story short, our mission, they decided they didn't need us anymore once they got control of the airways. And once we came back and pulled into port--the Naval Station was absolutely huge, right? And it was on lockdown. It wouldn't let any of our family members come out and pick us up. Some people don't park their cars there and the family members couldn't come pick them up, right? They weren't lettin' anybody on base. So we all figured out and we all carpooled and everybody eventually got home and got to their loved ones. And then I watched the news nonstop for about two days straight. It was awful. It was just awful. So yeah, when people say, "Where were you September 11th?"--I can say, yeah, we were actually a little part of it. Thank God we didn't need to be needed, used, but we were there ready to--do something. We got back to Norfolk three days after the 11th, so 14. Yeah. So that was pretty amazing.
01:43:01JONES: Okay, while you were on the Mahan, it's my understanding that you got some kind of award.
01:43:11BRINDLE: My proudest achievement ever. Yes, I got the Naval Academy's Alfred Thayer Mahan Leadership Award. I'm kind of blocking the write-up now, but that's to show they gave me a thousand dollars and a beautiful write-up for my leadership. For the people on the ship, which that goes back to what I was saying when I got career counselor qualified. I took great pride in trying to lift everybody up. It was, I didn't care about me. I wanted to make sure that you could do the best job. You could go far, bump you up, do what you can, take some college courses, go volunteer somewhere. You know, work on your qualifications for your job. Oh, is there something else you can learn that will get you ahead in life? That kind of thing. So I spent a lot of time on the Mahan, building people up, not even the people that work directly for me, just anybody and everybody. And that was rewarded by that leadership award from the Naval Academy.
01:44:58JONES: So that was a very personally rewarding experience for you.
01:45:03BRINDLE: Extremely. I was at the top of my game on the Mahan for everything. Yes, I loved it and it was extremely rewarding. Um, back to Fleet Week, so we went to Fleet Week on the Mahan, too. And we hosted the United Nations on board the ship. We had to get all dressed up, and the cooks had to serve cocktails on table, on trays, walking around the ship and everything. That was quite an experience.
01:45:58JONES: Um, was it during Fleet Week that you had this fancy dinner at the Hilton?
01:46:05BRINDLE: No, that was on one of the deploy--I did two six-month deployments on the Mahan. And you really don't--Well, that's a long list of places. I could show it to you if you wanna make--
01:46:20JONES: Sure. Yes.
01:46:25BRINDLE: Can you see?
01:46:26JONES: Yes, I can. Okay, so I'm just, it looks like about ten stops.
01:46:37BRINDLE: Yeah. And there's multiple, some of them have multiple places. Yeah, so basically, most of the countries around the Mediterranean and then Scotland and France and England.
01:46:59JONES: So you went to the Mediterranean Sea again, as well as Scotland?
01:47:04BRINDLE: Yes, in England. Yep, so two separate deployments, which I have the cruise books for, which if you guys want them at the Museum. They say all the places we went and what we did. But that was the one we were at the fancy dinner at. See, this is a picture at the Hilton on the beach.
01:47:29JONES: Can you lift the picture up a little bit? Okay. Okay.
01:47:38BRINDLE: Yeah, so we had to, we were also basically ambassadors for the country at different times. So we would be asked to do official functions at times and I would have never got those opportunities if I was on a carrier. There's too many people. So that's why that was incredible.
01:48:11JONES: I understand that the Mahan was, you thought was a big part of your experience there in the Navy. But, did you make the decision to go to the Mahan or did the Navy make the decision for you?
01:48:31BRINDLE: What happens when you're due to transfer, you get a list of places that are available to you. And it all depends who's leaving from that job. You know, you gotta go fill somebody else's shoes. So it's a big logistical type challenge. So essentially the Mahan was open, but there was other places open too. I selected the Mahan out of my options because in order to advance in the Navy, you needed to show that you were adaptable to different environments. So I had done the large ships. Now I wanna go to a small ship was what my mentality was.
01:49:25JONES: So you served on the big ship and the small ship.
01:49:28BRINDLE: Correct. And that's what they looked at for promotion. How adaptable are you to different environments and how well do you perform in those environments? And so the Mahan, I was at the pinnacle, pinnacle of everything. And so at that point, when I was getting ready to leave towards the last year, my bosses had approached me and says, "Have you thought about the Senior Enlisted Academy?" And so they talked me into applying for it because I had done such a good job on the Mahan. And so I got accepted, which was, it was a challenging school to get accepted to. I forget the percentage of people that got accepted, but it was, just a guess. I'm going to say it was only 50% got accepted to go to the Senior Enlisted Academy. So I mean, I was going full force. I was ready to do 30 years. And then I had my first failure.
01:50:43JONES: Okay, so tell us about that.
01:50:45BRINDLE: Yeah, so I went to the Senior Enlisted Academy in Newport, Rhode Island. It's a very prestigious school. And it basically sets you up to become a command master chief, which is as high as you can go with the enlisted ranks in the Navy. So that's what my goal was, was to be a command master chief, because I was just, I was at the pinnacle. It was a six-week course. We did everything from naval--They taught us everything from naval doctrine to how, you know, protocol, Navy regulations, just it was a super- intense course. Part of the, and it was senior enlisted, mainly Navy people, but we did have a small percentage of Air Force people and Army people. There was Navy SEALs. I wanna say there was five Navy SEAls. I still got the Alpha roster. And it was very intimidating, running, running right next to a Navy SEA,let me tell you. And women were not treated any differently. We were running right alongside them in ranks. [With men??].
01:52:12JONES: How many how many women were in the course?
01:52:16BRINDLE: Um, again, I, I want to say 10% that was usually the going, 10% across the board. I want say 10%, like I said, I have the alpha roster, but there wasn't many of us. Um, yeah, so it was a six-week course. Well, I immediately struggled with the pushups. So long story short, pushups, I have never done a real pushup in my entire life. And I did not know that the, the we had physical fitness tests every six months in the Navy, regardless of where you're stationed, right? And with those physical fitness tests, you had to run a mile and a half. You had to do so many push-ups and you had do so much sit-ups and then you had a do a sit-reach. Can you touch your toes? Those are all gender and age specific. I have never failed a PT test, right? Always did my push-ups. Well, I was never doing them right. And nobody had ever corrected me. Senior Enlisted Academy saw that I was not doing a correct pushup and they gave me a couple weeks to get up to par. So on week five, a week before we graduate, I flunk out because I can't do a real pushup. Now normally people wouldn't say they're failures in life, but I think this is just as important. I was devastated because up until now, I had done everything in the Navy that I could possibly do, and excelled at it. So now I hit a wall and was completely devastated. But you learn from your failures and what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? So I, you know, it took a couple weeks to get over it. I wasn't intend-- So now I--a duty station to go to, I went to Naval Station, Great Lakes, in Illinois. The reason that I selected there is because now my younger sister, four years younger than me is sick and real sick and going to Mayo every day and stuff. And I'm learning about this stuff. You know, I've had 19 years of being away and coming home once a year, maybe for a week or two. And now I've got a sister that's, that's painfully sick and my mother's having to nurse her. So I selected duty, the Great Lakes, Illinois, as a duty station. That would not have been my first duty station and it wasn't a real good place to pick for getting promoted, but I figured I can make it work, right? But she wasn't getting any better, and I ended up actually towards the end of her life. I was going home every, driving from Chicago to La Crosse every weekend to be with her and my mom and dad. But at Naval Station Great Lakes, I worked in the business office. And Great Lakes has a region in the Navy and that region encompasses eight states. So every naval entity that, um, is in those eight states fell under Naval station, Great Lakes. And so I worked for the business manager and so I was his number two. And my job while I was there was to, we, the big mission we had was BRAC, which I don't know if you remember, BRAC is every so often, I forget how many years it is, Congress looks at what bases they can either get rid of or--
01:56:44JONES: You're talking about the Military Base Closing Commission.
01:56:48BRINDLE: Yes, yes, base realignment. Yeah, committee. So we were tasked with seeing how could we what could we do to save money in the Great Lakes region. So that was my job. We're basically creating surveys for these naval entities to complete so that we my boss could determine where we could, where, if at all, we could save money. And that was a rewarding job too. It was kind of dicey because people didn't want to answer questions because they were worried about their jobs and their entities, but-- You know, I was able to navigate it, you know, to make them feel comfortable about it enough to be honest with answering the questions.
01:57:46JONES: While you were based there, how long did you do the weekend commuting back to La Crosse?
01:57:53BRINDLE: Oh, well, so I was from in Great Lakes from 2003 to 2005. I would say the last year, I was pretty much going two, three times a month, hop back here to La Crosse to be with my sister and my mom. And dad. And then she passed, and then she did pass at the end. And at that point, I said, "Okay, I'm done. I am retiring. I've missed too much family."
01:58:42JONES: So your sister must have passed around 2005.
01:58:47BRINDLE: She did. Yep. And it was at that time that I was due to re-enlist and I said, "Nope, I don't know what I'm gonna do, but I'll figure it out when I go back home."
01:59:09JONES: So, you retired in 2005.
01:59:13BRINDLE: Correct.
01:59:14JONES: After 22 years with the Navy.
01:59:17BRINDLE: Correct. Mm-hmm.
01:59:32JONES: You know, it strikes me that you were in many ways a trailblazer for women in that era because there weren't many women choosing to make a career in the Navy at that point in time.
01:59:57BRINDLE: Correct.
01:59:58JONES: And I'm just very impressed with the career that you had.
02:00:04BRINDLE: Oh, well, thank you. I am too. When I looked back at it, I'm like, "Oh, yeah, I did some things."
02:00:11JONES: Yeah, you did.
02:00:12BRINDLE: I was able to experience some things, I fulfilled my prophecy of getting out and seeing the world.
02:00:19JONES: Yes, you did. for, you know, especially when you consider that as an unfocused 18-year-old--
02:00:31BRINDLE: Mm-hmm.
02:00:32JONES: --your focus certainly became much more laser-like as you advanced in age.
02:00:39BRINDLE: Yes.
02:00:40JONES: And assumed these various leadership positions in the Navy.
02:00:50BRINDLE: Yes, yes, it served me well. I served it well and it served me well. True.
02:01:01JONES: Before we move on to the next part of the interview, I just want to ask if there's anything that we have not covered about your service in the Navy in those 22 years that you still want to include on this interview.
02:01:22BRINDLE: Um, no, I think I think we covered it all. Like I said, I had to have notes because I didn't want to forget dates and stuff. But I think, I I think we covered it all. And for the longest time, I wouldn't talk about this stuff now that I'm a civilian, because I didn't want to bore people, right? But then, you know, as you get older, it's like, "Wait a second," you know, "this could help someone somewhere along the lines." You know, there is a world out there and you can find your purpose. So hopefully someday this could help someone.
02:02:10JONES: I just wrote down the phrase you used, because it's very apropos to you, and that was, "You found your purpose," which--
02:02:21BRINDLE: Yes.
02:02:22JONES: --who would have known--
02:02:24BRINDLE: Exactly! Exactly!
02:02:27JONES: Back in the day.
02:02:30BRINDLE: So true.
02:02:33JONES: Okay, so after you retired from the Navy in 2005, that's 20 years ago, what you've been doing the last 20 years?
02:02:43BRINDLE: Wow. So like I said, I said I'm not going to worry about what I'm going to do when I come back to La Crosse. I'll figure out something. So which was unheard of in the day. You do not, you know, go without knowing. But I said you know what, I've got a retired--I've got retired pay now. It's not enough to live as comfortable a life, but I'll figured it out. So I come back home. And there was nine months where I was applying for jobs and I was actually do-- I actually worked in a call center since nothing came up right away and I don't want to be sitting at home you know being a being a bum or anything I'm like okay let me go work at a call center but so it all works out I went in cold to Logistics Health Incorporated and applied and I I don't remember how I found--
02:03:41JONES: Excuse me. Let me interrupt. Did you say Kohls, like the department?
02:03:46BRINDLE: No, no, cold. No. So I didn't really know anybody anymore in this area. I returned to my home. But I didn t know anybody, right? I didn't keep up with my high school friends or anything. So I did not have a network or connections. So And so I was doing it the old fashioned way, reading wanted ads and stuff. I just didn't know anybody. And so, I don't remember how I ended up applying to Logistics Health, Incorporated. But it couldn't have been a bigger, it was amazing how it worked because they were looking for military people! So, Logistics Health, Incorporated is a company that does medical and dental screenings and tests for Reserve people all over for all the different militaries, right? And so they needed somebody to represent the Navy. I'm like, oh my God, this couldn't be more perfect.
02:05:03JONES: Okay. So what was the name of the company again?
02:05:07BRINDLE: Logistics Health Incorporated.
02:05:09JONES: Health, okay.
02:05:10BRINDLE: Health. Yes.
02:05:12JONES: And explain again what they did.
02:05:18BRINDLE: Um, okay. So you got your, you got Reserve centers all around the country, right? You got your Army reserves, your Navy reserves, Coast Guard reserves, all, you know, Air Force, all of them. All those Reserve centers have people that have to be medically and dentally fit to deploy, right. So with that, my company would bring the dentists and the hygienists to clean their teeth, you know, give them a once-a-year exam, would bring nurses to give the shots, the required shots, to do the required lab tests. Every year, military people need an annual health assessment. So we would bring physician assistants to do that stuff and to counsel people, you know, on their health and stuff. And my company does that. And they hired me to represent the Navy for that. So what I was, was, the Navy has certain medical and dental requirements that are different than the Army's medical and dental requirements. So I would bring back the Navy's requirements to the company so that we can incorporate them into what they need and then with that, I represented the Navy to the LHI and LHI to the Navy, so I would tell the Navy well we can't do that contractually because you're asking us to do something that's not in writing, you know, that kind of stuff. So I was an account manager for Logistics Health, Incorporated, and the Navy--So then we did the Na-- I got the Navy, and then it expanded to the Marines and then it expanded to the Coast Guard. And then I took on some of the Na--uh, Army commands. So I, I spent 15 years at Logistics Health Incorporated and I retired as a senior account manager with the company.
02:07:39JONES: And was this in La Crosse?
02:07:41BRINDLE: Yes.
02:07:46JONES: And when did you retire from them?
02:07:50BRINDLE: Five years ago.
02:07:51JONES: Five years ago.
02:07:52BRINDLE: Five years ago today.
02:07:54JONES: Oh! So that would have been '21, 2021.
02:08:06BRINDLE: Yeah, well, sure, yes. The day my grandson was born. It all just kind of worked right in stride. And that job had a lot to do with the military, because you know the military's got their whole language. Every military component had their separate language and their acronyms, and so I was in the interpreter.
02:08:43JONES: You know, strikes me that there's no way you would have gotten the job with LHI, which you got, if you had simply stayed back in Mississippi--
02:08:58BRINDLE: Yes!
02:09:00JONES: -- for three years and doing the cleaning work. It was the other work that you did in the Navy where you learned logistics that gave you the marketable skills to ultimately get hired by LHI.
02:09:17BRINDLE: Absolutely. And I had, so I traveled the United States more with LHI than I did in the Navy. And then with LHI, oh my gosh, we actually did dental exams and health screenings at the Pentagon! I was literally outside of the secretary's office! I've had some amazing experiences at LHI too, and it's like, wow!
02:10:00JONES: Wow. Lori, anything else that we have not covered that you'd like to include in this interview?
02:10:20BRINDLE: Um, one last thing, so none of this--kind of along your lines--none of this would have been possible without the acceptance--Now I'm going to get all--of my son.
02:10:36JONES: Yeah.
02:10:38BRINDLE: Oh, he went through a lot for this and he is a wonderful, wonderful man now. He's a firefighter over here and stuff, but he had to endure all these--I wasn't around as much as I would have been if I didn't have a job like this. So, um, I really thank him for being supportive in this endeavor.
02:11:22JONES: Well, Lori, I want to say two things. Number one, thank you for your 22 years of service to the Navy. It was greatly appreciated. And secondly, I want to thank you for agreeing to do this interview with the Wisconsin Veterans Museum Oral History Project, so that your personal story can be around for future generations to hear. Again, thank you for your time.
02:12:01BRINDLE: Thank you too.
02:12:03JONES: Thank you, Lori.
