00:00:00JONES: Today is May 4, 2026. This is an interview conducted via Zoom with Navy veteran, Christine Leitzke. The interviewer is Raleigh Jones, and this interview is being recorded for the Wisconsin Veterans Museum Oral History Program. Christine, why don't you tell us a little bit about your early years.
00:00:34LEITZKE: Okay, um, I don't know how far back you--.
00:00:38JONES: Well, whatever, however far back you want to go. I mean, where'd you grow up? Did you have siblings? Why don't we start with that.
00:00:49LEITZKE: Um, I, well, I was born in Appleton, Wisconsin. Um, and in eighth grade, uh, my family moved to Schofield, Wisconsin, and that's where I was living when I went to, uh middle school, high school, and then eventually joined the Navy. I was livin' in Schofield, Wisconsin I have a brother and two sisters. One of my sisters has passed away. Um, and I graduated high school, DC Everest High School in 1981. I didn't really have any plans for my future really. I worked some customer service jobs for about three years. I worked in a gas station. I worked as a waitress. Nothing real exciting. And then in my late 20s, I joined the Navy in 1989 or '84, sorry, 1984. I joined the Navy because two of my friends--
00:02:18JONES: Okay, before we get to that, Christine, I just want to have you repeat about your dad and your grandfather's military experience.
00:02:28LEITZKE: Okay, sorry, forgot about that. My dad served in the Navy in the late 1950s. My grandpa, his stepfather, served in the army during World War II. Um, up until that point in my life, those were the only two family members that had, that I know of had served in the military. So I, like I say, when I graduated from high school, I had no plans for my future and I ran into a couple of friends who said that they were joining the Navy and they wanted me to go go with them to boot camp, which was something we were able to do on the Buddy Plan. And that's kind of what, how I ended up joining the Navy is because they, you know, they came to me and suggested I go with them.
00:03:53JONES: Okay. And were these female friends?
00:03:58LEITZKE: Yes.
00:03:59JONES: Okay. And so, what, the two of you or three of you joined together?
00:04:08LEITZKE: Yes.
00:04:14JONES: And this was in 1984, correct?
00:04:18LEITZKE: That's correct.
00:04:19JONES: Okay. So did you, the three of you go to boot camp together?
00:04:25LEITZKE: Um-- Well, that was the plan. They didn't go. I went by myself. So.
00:04:41JONES: Did they end up, did the other two women end up joining?
00:04:46LEITZKE: No.
00:04:47JONES: Okay. So it was just you who ended up.
00:04:49LEITZKE: Yep, it was just me. You know what? Interestingly enough, my goal when I decided to join was to get into either computers or electronics because I kind of felt like that was the future. But because we were supposed to go in on the Buddy Plan, I had to pick a rate, which is the job you do. I had to pick one that would be open, so I could go to boot camp at the same time they went. I had to pick something I didn't really want, to be able to go with them. And then they didn't go. And I couldn't change my mind. So I ended up a hull maintenance technician. Um. Tried to, I tried to, you know, talk to different people to try and change that to go to a school like that I really wanted, but I wasn't able to because I was graduating second in my class out of 35 students, and they said you're just doing so well that we have no reason to really take you out of this school. So that's what I ended up doing.
00:06:19JONES: Well, before we get to that part of your story, let's talk now a little bit about boot camp. So tell us about that experience.
00:06:31LEITZKE: Um, boot camp. Was-- I just, I had no idea what to expect. Nobody really prepared me for what it was going to be like. Um, it's somewhat scary at first because everybody's yelling at you and you don't feel like I had any idea what was going on really and why we were all being yelled at so much. Um, so that's kind of how it started. I did, I ended up, um, on the drill team. I did extra curricular activities that had to be done sooner than later to get on the drill team. And that's kind of how I survived boot camp as I sort of got into that. And it's something I really wanted to do. So that sort of made everything worth all the work.
00:07:36JONES: And for boot camp, this was at Naval Station Center Orlando?
00:07:43LEITZKE: Correct.
00:07:44JONES: Okay. Tell us about the physical component of boot camp. How did you do with that?
00:07:52LEITZKE: Um, well, I-- So that, that ties into what I was saying about joining the drill team, because we had the physical fitness part of it and we had to be able to pass this physical fitness test by, I think it was week six in boot camp and you know, we were working up toward that slowly, but to get on the drill team, I had to pass the week six physical fitness test in week four. And so that was a lot of extra, like I had to do, I'd be able to do that much in a lot less time than normal. And I managed to do that. I had a double ear infection. So it wasn't easy to run the two miles and do the other things, but I made it. So. So that, for me, that was the most successful thing I did in boot camp. And what that means is on graduation day, we on the drill team marched for all the families, everybody that was there plus the other groups of sailors. We did the stuff with the rifles, like you throw them in the air and catch the one coming at you while you throw the one behind you and spin the rifles and you march in certain, you know, different ways like that kind of a drill group. And that's what I did. And that was really--we did a really good job of it. And it was really fun to show off like that.
00:09:59JONES: What's the size of the drill team?
00:10:03LEITZKE: Well, that's a good question. I'm going to say maybe 16, and it was male and female.
00:10:30JONES: So obviously at Naval Station Center Orlando, it was a co-ed drill camp.
00:10:39LEITZKE: Yes, that's correct. That was the only boot camp spot for females in the Navy at that time. The other two places, um, didn't allow females. It was just Orlando-- was the only one.
00:11:13JONES: Okay.. Any particularly negative experiences about boot camp that you want to talk about?
00:11:28LEITZKE: Um I mean-- You know, going through it was very hard, but considering I graduated, I just look back and think, wow, I can't believe I actually did that. So I'm proud of it. I was very sick. Through most of it and--But we all struggled with things, you know, and we pulled together and that's, that's when I learned teamwork. That was one of the main points of boot camp is to teach us how to function as a team of people and not to be just a bunch of individuals running around doing your own thing. And so that was a lot to learn for people in their 20s and late teens. I think there was 80, 82 of us in our company boot camp. So a lot of a lot people all in one building.
00:12:59JONES: I take it also that boot camp was a pretty cosmopolitan place in comparison, say, to Appleton and the Wausau area.
00:13:11LEITZKE: I'm not sure what you mean.
00:13:15JONES: Well, I just mean, for instance, Appleton, and the Wausau area are, back then, were just generally white, uh, white people.
00:13:25LEITZKE: Mm-hmm.
00:13:25JONES: And what I'm assuming is that at Camp Orlando, you were exposed to a broad cross section of society.
00:13:34LEITZKE: Yes, that is very true. Yeah. And. If I had a lot to learn about other cultures and-- You know, growing up. Yeah, we Yeah, you're right. And where I where I grew up, it was almost 100% Caucasian population. And so it was kind of blew me away a little bit to experience what you know other ethnicities and what they were like in groups. Because I never experienced any of that before. And I had a lot to learn. They didn't like me very much in the beginning, but they learned to like me after I admitted that I'm pretty inexperienced with a lot of those. Yeah. Politically correct wasn't even a term back then. So yeah, I had lot to learn, but I was honest about it and they appreciated that. And then they started to try to acclimate me to what it was like to be in mixed, you know, mixed race groups and things like that. So I learned a lot. It was good for me.
00:15:16JONES: Do you remember anything in particular that you learned about people of other cultures at boot camp?
00:15:26LEITZKE: Um-- I guess just the way they interacted with each other when they were in their social groups, I observed, I guess I stared a lot because-- I wasn't really trying to stare, but I was trying to understand and observe. So they, you know--We all acted different when we were in groups of the people of our same race. And I was kind of in awe, I guess, of how they talked to each other, how they supported each other. You know, what being part of that group was different than being, you know, in the Caucasian group. It was just, it was really a huge learning experience. And I-- Yeah, like I say, they didn't like me very much when we first started out, but about halfway through boot camp, they realized I was at least honest about how naive I was. And I was willing to learn how to behave in a way that let them know that I accepted them as part of my group. So.
00:17:11JONES: It sounds like you were constantly learning.
00:17:15LEITZKE: Mm-hmm.
00:17:16JONES: And what I'm referring to is, sure the drill sergeants were trying to teach you components of physical activity, military discipline, et cetera, but at the same time, you're constantly learning about your peers through your interactions with them when the drill sergeant's are not around.
00:17:40LEITZKE: Yes, that's a very good way of putting it. Yeah, because we were together for eight weeks, 24 seven. I mean, we, you know, We slept in the same barracks. We ate together. We did everything together. And that was '82, I think, women--all strangers--had to go from being all strangers to being one functioning group of people that all worked together to get the job done. And that's a lot, you know, in eight weeks to learn all that.
00:18:21JONES: Yep.
00:18:22LEITZKE: Yeah. So.
00:18:23JONES: Okay, but in the end you made it through boot camp
00:18:27LEITZKE: I did.
00:18:28JONES: And then what?
00:18:32LEITZKE: Um, then I went to school, A School. Um--
00:18:38JONES: Now let me stop you right there. You've kind of touched on this already, but I know you ended up going to school to be a hull maintenance technician, but tell us about how that unfolded, meaning how did that happen, that that's the school you went to.
00:19:04LEITZKE: Um, well, that, so that's the, that's the job I signed up for when I was at the MEPS station and enlist in while you're going through the enlistment procedures at the MEPS station, you have to pick a rate. You can go without picking a rate and just be, you know, boat--a boatswain and that's just general. But um, I wanted to go to boot camp with my two friends. And that was the only way I could could go with them. Yeah. Um, and then my recruiter said, "You know, when you go to boot camp, you're going to go through this." I think they called it classification?
00:19:52JONES: Right.
00:19:53LEITZKE: "You're going to through this again in boot camp." That's when you tell them you don't want to be a hull maintenance technician. You don't want that school. You changed your mind, then you tell them you want to do computers or electronics, and that's how you're going to get to the school that you really want, and that's not what happened. They said, "Oh, well, you know, you signed up for school and we have to give you the school you signed up for. There's no changing your mind, that that's, that's not how it works." So.
00:20:27JONES: OK, now before you talk about going to school, okay, for instance, when I saw your job title, I was just intrigued because I said to myself rhetorically, "Holy cow, here's a woman 40 years ago who, in essence, wanted to be, you know, to work with her hands in a very male-dominated field."
00:20:59LEITZKE: Yeah.
00:21:00JONES: And you must have been aware of that. So tell us a little bit about that.
00:21:09LEITZKE: Um, well, yeah, you're correct in saying that. I mean, I knew, I knew what most of the job duties I was going to have to perform were gonna be, like firefighting was one, welding, sheet metal work--just like all these different, very male-dominated type positions, you know, jobs. I'm I'm not embarrassed to say, when I saw that welding was going to be one of the things I was going have to learn to do, the movie "Flashdance" had just come out.
00:21:50JONES: Right. I remember that.
00:21:51LEITZKE: I don't know if you remember "Flashdance."
00:21:52JONES: Oh yeah.
00:21:53LEITZKE: Well, I thought, "Hey, I can learn to be a welder," you know.
00:22:01JONES: Right.
00:22:02LEITZKE: It kind of piqued my interest in that way because that movie just came out and it was about a woman who was a welder. So. And then, and that job was very, just had a lot of differen, a lot ot of there was just a lot of pieces it was kind of like a master of all trades you know how they say that, or a jack of all trades and a master of none-- that's sort of what that job was like. Yeah. I had to learn metallurgy and just all kinds of different skills just to be able to do that job and you never knew what you're going to end up doing once you got to your final duty station. So you had to learn it all.
00:22:57JONES: OK. So. Now that boot camp is over, you head off to, I think it's called A School. And it's the one where you went in Philadelphia.
00:23:12LEITZKE: Yes, that's correct.
00:23:14JONES: Do you remember the name of the school?
00:23:17LEITZKE: HTA school, I guess.
00:23:20JONES: HTA--
00:23:21LEITZKE: HTA, for, like, Hull Technician A School.
00:23:25JONES: Okay.
00:23:26LEITZKE: I don't know. We were on the naval base in Philadelphia. That's where the school was.
00:23:36JONES: Okay.
00:23:37LEITZKE: Yeah, I don't know how much I don't really know much more than that about it.
00:23:46JONES: Well, I looked up, I did not know what an A school was and I looked it up and essentially what I learned is that A school is where sailors receive technical training for their job after boot camp. Does that sound about right?
00:24:04LEITZKE: Yes, that's exactly correct.
00:24:06JONES: Yes. And it's my understanding that that was like 10 weeks long.
00:24:15LEITZKE: Um, that could be true. Uh, I was thinking 12 weeks, but I mean, what, I mean yeah, 10, 12 weeks. So it was a while, a little bit longer than boot camp lasted.
00:24:31JONES: Now, was A School, was that co-ed or was that all-female?
00:24:40LEITZKE: It was co-ed.
00:24:42JONES: Okay.
00:24:43LEITZKE: Yep.
00:24:45JONES: And about how many were in your training class?
00:24:49LEITZKE: About 35, I believe.
00:25:00JONES: Okay, so. Is it-- It was the school that you went to, A school, was that somewhat similar to say when you were back at D.C. Everest? Would that be comparable to like shop classes that the guys used to take?
00:25:23LEITZKE: Yes. Yeah, that's that's a good, good comparison.
00:25:34JONES: Okay, so to follow up on that, I'm referring to is it safe to say that you had-- sometimes you would sit in a classroom and a teacher would be telling you stuff and then later in the day there would be hands-on training?
00:25:58LEITZKE: Yes.
00:25:59JONES: Okay. So she got--you got classroom instruction and hands-on training.
00:26:11LEITZKE: Mm-hmm.
00:26:17JONES: What was the breakdown of those two components? Was it safe to say that classroom instruction was about half of the time, or was it less than that?
00:26:30LEITZKE: Um, I would say. Hmm. I'd say classroom maybe was two-thirds of the time we put in, and then the other third would have been hands on. There was, yeah.
00:26:57JONES: OK, so. Let's talk a little bit about how you were doing in that--at A School. I mean, initially, were you overwhelmed with the material you were getting? Or did you say, "Okay, I can handle this. I understand the stuff that they're teaching me."
00:27:30LEITZKE: Um, um, well, I mean, I guess I was overwhelmed. I think a lot because I that's not really what I wanted to do. So I was learning stuff I didn't really care about, or I wasn't all gung-ho to learn. And so it made it a little bit harder for me to put everything I had into it, you know, but I didn't have a choice. And I'm an over-achiever, so I ended up graduating second in my class at the end. Yeah.
00:28:18JONES: That's, uh, to me that's very impressive.
00:28:22LEITZKE: Thank you. Yeah. And it was a lot because it was not just welding, brazing, all the different types of shop work, but it was also damage-control. Firefighting. We had to learn what all the different types of warfare were. We had to--we got put in a gas chamber and had to put on a-- figure out how to put on our gas masks, so that they didn't leak. And it was tear gas in there. And so we all were in there, then they started the tear gas up. And we had to put on our tear or our gas mask and then tighten everything to a point where nothing was leaking in and making you cry or teary. I was the last one out of that. I just couldn't get my mask sealed up right. And it was awful. It was really awful. But once it started to work, it was kind of cool to see what it could really do to protect you. You know, otherwise, how would you know? Because part of the job on the damage control side and firefighting side would have been like in nuclear warfare or biological warfare or any kind of warfare that would include things that you couldn't breathe in or you would die. The gas mask was the only thing we had to protect us. You know? So.
00:30:11JONES: Okay, um--So after--is there anything else about your A school experience that you want to talk about that we have not already covered?
00:30:33LEITZKE: I mean-- No, I mean, [look,??] it was a lot, you know, that was--Nothing I learned was anything I had any experience with before that. And it was it was just it was lot of physical a lot of things were very physical very demanding physically and yeah, it, was a, lot to learn. But, you know, I kept up with it and it wasn't dull or boring, I can tell you that. Maybe computers or electronics would have been boring, I don't know, but Hull Maintenance Technician School was not boring. So.
00:31:32JONES: Was your A School, was it broken down so that it was roughly half female and half male or was it just a handful of women in the class?
00:31:48LEITZKE: Um, yeah, there, I would say. Uh, there was just a handful of women in the class was very, you know, yeah. I don't remember how many exactly, but there weren't very many of us.
00:32:13JONES: That makes it all the more impressive to me that you were number two in that class.
00:32:19LEITZKE: Thank you, thank you. I appreciate you saying so.
00:32:26JONES: Yeah.
00:32:26LEITZKE: It was a lot. Yep.
00:32:27JONES: Okay. Say, I'm going to pivot away from the school and just talk about how your folks were taking the fact that after boot camp, you were going into this very male-dominated field. What was their reaction to that?
00:32:54LEITZKE: Um, they never really said much about it. So my parents got divorced when I was graduating high school. So I didn't have much contact with my dad. I was living with my mom and she, you know, I didn't talk to my parents that much about what I was doing. Um, unfortunately. I think my mom just said, wow. That's about it. Yeah.
00:33:42JONES: Okidoke. So after A school comes to an end, then what happens next in your story?
00:33:51LEITZKE: Next in my story, I went on leave and went home for like three weeks until I had to check on board the ship I was going to be stationed on.
00:34:10JONES: Okay, so at that point, are you talking about going to San Diego?
00:34:18LEITZKE: Mm-hmm. Yes.
00:34:26JONES: Um-- Prior to going to San Diego, had you ever been there before?
00:34:37LEITZKE: No.
00:34:38JONES: OK. The reason I bring that up is my first time at San Diego, I stood like at the end of the peninsula and I was amaz--I counted the number of ships that I saw there and it was just in my direct line of sight I saw about a dozen and a half ships at sea and it just absolutely amazed me that the San Diego Naval Facility was that big.
00:35:12LEITZKE: Mm-hmm. Yeah, there was, I don't even remember how many-- like in port, you know, at the piers. When they were, you know, tied up to the piers when I first went there to get on my ship. I, there had to be at least 50 to 80 ships there. Um, it was a sight I'll probably never forget. And all the ships, you know, they had their flags up on the mast and all the, and it was so colorful and it was just amazing to see. Yeah. Very scary.
00:36:04JONES: Okie doke, and is the ship that you're reporting to the USS Gompers?
00:36:09LEITZKE: Yes, Samuel Gompers.
00:36:25JONES: And I know from looking at your bio that the Gompers was a destroyer tender. And why don't you explain for our audience what a floating tender is?
00:36:44LEITZKE: Um, so the destroyer tender. Was like, yeah, it was a floating repair facility. So half of the crew on our ship were all people that were trained to fix anything that was wrong with all the other ships that they were traveling with. Another half of our ship were all the people that, like storekeepers and boatswain's mates and all the the people you need to keep your ship going. We were, our crew was like 1300 people, sailors. So it was a big crew, it was big ship. But. But that was our job when we traveled with the fleet to the Persian Gulf. We stayed anchored outside of the Gulf. And when ships needed repairs or anything done, so they could keep running at full efficiency, they would come to us, tie up to our ship, use all of our services. And then we would just. Go over there in groups and just fix everything and then send them back to the Gulf. So that was our main, you know, mission, I guess. There were also ships that were submarine tenders. So that was the distinction of a destroyer tender was that we repaired ships that were ships that we're above the waterline, surface ships. And then the subtenders took care of the submarines and other types of. I guess that's, as far as I know, it was just submarines that traveled under the water, but they were a different type of a tender. So there was that distinction between the two.
00:39:01JONES: Just a couple of days ago, I interviewed another sailor that also was on a destroyer tender. Oh. So, small world in that respect.
00:39:14LEITZKE: Yeah, and just, I mean, just to throw this out there, when I first went got on board my ship, there was only like around 200 women stationed on that ship out of a 1300-person crew.
00:39:35JONES: That was her statistic also, roughly.
00:39:38LEITZKE: Is that right?
00:39:38JONES: Well, the statistic she used was about 10% of her shipmates were women.
00:39:46LEITZKE: Okay, yeah, that's, yeah. So, yeah and that was in '84. By '89 when I was getting out and, you know. Uh, our ship was almost half and half. So over that five years, they just kept adding females, you know, onto the ships and to even out the crew a little bit better.
00:40:26JONES: Now, I know that you were on the Gompers basically for your whole length of service.
00:40:37LEITZKE: Mm-hmm.
00:40:39JONES: Was it, let's talk about how much time you spent docked off San Diego. Was that kind of give us a percentage, was that half of the time?
00:40:55LEITZKE: Um, well, there's a little bit of a detail there that might be missing. We, so when I checked on board the ship, it was stationed in San Diego. Not long after that though, we traded places with a ship from Alameda Naval Air Station up by San Francisco. They came down to San Diego and took our spot down there. And we went up to Alameda and took their spot. So I wasn't in San Diego that long, maybe like six months or something. I'm not sure. As far as time at the pier versus time out at sea, are you saying?
00:41:47JONES: Yeah.
00:41:52LEITZKE: Well, I spent a total of a year out at sea, but it was split up over like a one and a half year period of time. And I was on my ship for five years. So, um. So I was, when I was on my ship in Alameda, we were at the, we didn't go overseas until my like second--I think I was on the ship two and a half years before the first time I went overseas to the Gulf. Yeah, something like that.
00:42:33JONES: Okay, I've got that information and I'll come back to that later. What I want to go to now is that I know that you also, that we've already covered you going to A School, but I see that you went to numerous other schools to learn stuff for your job. For example, you went, as I understand it, to something called structural repair school. Do you remember that?
00:43:13LEITZKE: Um, what, do you know what the dates of that?
00:43:16JONES: No. Uh, it did not list the date.
00:43:20LEITZKE: Okay. Because I went to two schools, I went to A School and then I went C School.
00:43:25JONES: OK.
00:43:26LEITZKE: And I'm not sure. I think the structural repair maybe.
00:43:30JONES: Was later?
00:43:31LEITZKE: Was later part of the C-School I went to?
00:43:35JONES: Okay. So let's let's talk about C School. When was that?
00:43:40LEITZKE: Um, that was, uh, Did you say when or what?
00:43:50JONES: Yeah, approximately when was that?
00:43:53LEITZKE: Um was before the second time I went to the Persian Gulf.
00:43:59JONES: Okay so that would have been about 19--
00:44:03LEITZKE: It was after the first time, so somewhere between the two Persian Gulf excursions we went on?
00:44:06JONES: Yeah.
00:44:07LEITZKE: I went into school for six months I think.
00:44:10JONES: Okay.
00:44:12LEITZKE: Oh, I know what you're talking about! Okay, I'm sorry. Yeah, I did do two different schools.
00:44:19JONES: Okay.
00:44:21LEITZKE: During that timeframe.
00:44:25JONES: Okay, where did you go to C School?
00:44:30LEITZKE: In San Diego.
00:44:33JONES: Okay. And when you went to C School, were you living on base?
00:44:40LEITZKE: Yes. Yep.
00:44:45JONES: And as I understand it, C-School was essentially learning more about hull maintenance, is that correct?
00:44:56LEITZKE: Yes.
00:44:57JONES: Okay, so tell us a little bit what C-School was about.
00:45:03LEITZKE: C-School. So I requested, I requested C-School. It was, so, I could get into a more specialized area of being a hull maintenance technician. And that school was about learning how to inspect welds. Like to be a weld inspector, basically. And there was three different types of inspection I had to learn how to do in order to get through that school.
00:45:43JONES: Okay. So that was a very specialized school teaching weld inspection.
00:45:49LEITZKE: Yes, "non-destructive testing" is the official term for that.
00:45:57JONES: Okay, what was the term again, please?
00:45:59LEITZKE: Non-destructive testing, meaning you inspect the weld without doing anything to cut it open or to change it in any way, physically change it. We learned how to inspect a weld for pinhole leaks and things like that without destruction of the weld itself or the material that it was on. Non-destructive testing. Yeah.
00:46:33JONES: I remember seeing that phrase and I wrote it down, but when I wrote it down I said to myself rhetorically, "I have no idea what that means." And now I do.
00:46:45LEITZKE: Yeah. It's nobody knows what it means. So.
00:46:48JONES: And and I see that you got some certificates in non-destructive testing. Tell us about that.
00:47:00LEITZKE: Um, that, that is why that's what the C school is for, is so that you end up certified to do a certain specialized portion of the overall job that I was trained to do in A school, the C schools, C standing for certification and you needed certification in order to do those types of inspections. You know, yeah. So I got certified in magnetic testing, dipenetrate testing, and visual testing.
00:47:44JONES: Okay. Could you give me those three again, please? First one was--
00:47:48LEITZKE: Visual.
00:47:49JONES: Visual?
00:47:51LEITZKE: Yep.
00:47:51JONES: OK.
00:47:52LEITZKE: Magnetic. And the last one is dy-d-y-e, penetrant. Testing.
00:48:13JONES: Okay.
00:48:14LEITZKE: And then a lot of that was class time, you know, was hands on and a lot of it was like class time because we had to learn all the different types of, a lot of metallurgy and how, you know, different combinations of metals that make up like chromium and all at these--We had to learn the element table, or whatever you call that. Yep, Periodic table, all that kind of stuff about metal, in order to be able to do our job properly. And how to look up all the everything, all the, you know, standards that there were for each type of defect in the weld, we had to be able to look all that up to see if the weld would pass or not. There's a lot of bookwork. Yeah.
00:49:16JONES: So after your six months of schooling at C class is over, then I take it you go back to the Gompers.
00:49:25LEITZKE: Well, so--There was another school.
00:49:31JONES: Okay.
00:49:32LEITZKE: As well, the structural.
00:49:36JONES: Structural repair.
00:49:37LEITZKE: Yeah, that school was what I already talked about. And then that I did so I graduated second in my class again. But I did so well in that school. The the USS Samuel Gompers requested that I stay there at that school and get go through school for ultrasound testing. And I had to sign up for an extra year of active duty to be able to do that, but I felt like it was worth it. So that's why the school was six months instead of just three. So it was like two schools that all crammed together. Mm-hmm.
00:50:23JONES: Okay, now to, to, when you went to structural repair class, what the Navy said to you is, "Look," essentially, "Look, we'll send you to this other school, but to do that, you have to re-up for one additional year, correct?
00:50:44LEITZKE: Just the ultrasound school part. I--The first, the non-destructive testing part of the school, I didn't have to give them an extra year for. But because they wanted me to stay and do the ultrasound school too, that's when I had to give them, had to sign up for an additional year of active duty.
00:51:10JONES: Okay, now I take it before that you had signed up for a four-year hitch?
00:51:18LEITZKE: Yep.
00:51:19JONES: Okay.
00:51:20LEITZKE: Four active and two inactive was what the original enlistment was. Yeah.
00:51:40JONES: Okay, so as I was looking over your paperwork and I saw that you had a five-year hitch, I simply said to myself, "Well, there's a story there." And--
00:51:51LEITZKE: Yeah.
00:51:52JONES: And now we know the story.
00:51:53LEITZKE: Now you know, I ended up doing five years of active duty because of that extra school I stayed for. Yeah.
00:52:06JONES: Tell us a little bit about the schooling you went to for ultrasound testing.
00:52:11LEITZKE: Um, and that was, you know, at the same place in San Diego. It was almost all classwork. We did learn how to read ultrasound machine, you no ultrasound machines and use them and stuff. But it was a lot of math. We had, you know, like geometry-type math and things like that, which I didn't have in high school. So that was all new to me. So as it was a, both of those schools were not easily passed. Like you had to be over and above a very good student, a very smart person in order to pass either of those schools. They were very particular about who they sent because it was very expensive to send anyone to do that. So I had to be sure that I passed. And again, graduated I think in that school, I graduated third in my class. So it was always book, you know, kind of book smart, but the other part was pretty hard to learn.
00:53:35JONES: Okay. Now, was the ultrasound testing class, were you one of the few women in that class?
00:53:54LEITZKE: Um, gosh, you know, I don't think about that school very often. I'm not even sure if there was any other women in that class. It was a small class. I might've been the only female in that class.
00:54:11JONES: .And do you remember the approximate size of the class?
00:54:14LEITZKE: I'm thinking it was only like low 20s, you know, like 22 or 23, something like that. So smaller. Um, yeah, but I don't remember any other females being in that class.
00:54:35JONES: Okay. Now, after the ultrasound testing class was over, then did you go back to the Gompers?
00:54:49LEITZKE: Yes.
00:55:04JONES: Okay. And at this point, in your story yet, have you been to sea yet, meaning going to the Gulf?
00:55:17LEITZKE: Yeah, I went to the Gulf. The first time I went to the Gulf was before I went to C-School. And. And then the second time I went to the Gulf was after C-School. Um, yeah.
00:55:47JONES: I'm trying to get this all down.
00:55:48LEITZKE: Yeah, I'm sorry I'm jumping ahead.
00:55:51JONES: I understand.
00:55:53LEITZKE: It's a lot.
00:55:58JONES: Well, I'm just trying to get the information down about your schooling, because as I looked at it all, I simply was stunned by how many specialized classes you ended up going to.
00:56:16LEITZKE: Hmm.
00:56:16JONES: For example, it's my understanding you also went to something called U.T. Thickness Class?
00:56:24LEITZKE: That was the ultrasound.
00:56:25JONES: That was the--okay. So the UT must refer to ultrasound training. Okay.
00:56:30LEITZKE: Yes.
00:56:31JONES: Okay. Then did you go to an ultrasonic silver braze class?
00:56:34LEITZKE: Yes.
00:56:37JONES: And when was that?
00:56:40LEITZKE: That's the same ultrasound.
00:56:43JONES: Okay, so that's, again, the--
00:56:46LEITZKE: Yeah.
00:56:46JONES: Okay.
00:56:46LEITZKE: So, it could have been two different certifications that I got, or something.
00:56:51JONES: Okay, did you get certification for the ultrasound testing?
00:56:56LEITZKE: Yes.
00:56:57JONES: So I'm not, it strikes me that at this point, you probably got certifications in probably five areas by now.
00:57:07LEITZKE: Yes.
00:57:08JONES: Does that sound about right?
00:57:10LEITZKE: Yes. That's about right.
00:57:22JONES: OK. Now, I'm going to move away from the classes you took. And we're going to talk in detail about your two trips to the Gulf of Oman. And when I was prepping for the interview, I said to myself, "Well, I've got to find out exactly where that is". And, when I was looking at a map, I saw that the Gulf of Oman where you went was just south of the Strait of Hormuz. Which of course has been in the news a little bit of late.
00:58:06LEITZKE: Yeah.
00:58:09JONES: Okay, so--
00:58:10LEITZKE: Go figure.
00:58:12JONES: It's my understanding that it looks like you, your first trip to the Gulf of Oman looks like you were gone about say eight months. Does that sound correct?
00:58:27LEITZKE: Um--
00:58:28JONES: In 19--between 1986 and '87?
00:58:32LEITZKE: I-- I guess it could be.
00:58:34JONES: Okay.
00:58:35LEITZKE: I thought it was only '6, but--
00:58:36JONES: Okay.
00:58:37LEITZKE: I guess I never really took the time to exactly count it all out.
00:58:41JONES: Okay
00:58:44LEITZKE: Um. Yeah.
00:58:47JONES: Okie doke. So, in 1986, there was not a war going on at that point, was there?
00:59:03LEITZKE: No.
00:59:04JONES: Okay.
00:59:05LEITZKE: No.
00:59:06JONES: And, uh-- Why was your ship sent to the Gulf of Oman?
00:59:13LEITZKE: So we were part of the Seventh Fleet. Of ships. Whenever they went to the Gulf, we went with them. There was always, there were always US Navy ships patrolling the Gulf at all times. But they kind of altered it between the East Coast ships and the West Coast ships. So that, you know, we were staggered, like, in time. We traveled with the Seventh Fleet. So where they went, we went.
01:00:05JONES: Okay. So, as we've talked about, your ship is a destroyer tender, so you're going to be repairing the various ships. Do you recall approximately how many ships the Seventh Fleet had in the Gulf at that point? I mean, are we talking a dozen ships, for example?
01:00:30LEITZKE: Um-- I really don't know.
01:00:35JONES: Okay.
01:00:36LEITZKE: I mean, that's, you know, a reasonable amount. I almost, but I'm not sure.
01:00:45JONES: Okay. So the Gompers, is it safe to say that basically the Gomper's was just parked in the Gulf and then the ships needing repair came to the Gompers?
01:01:01LEITZKE: Correct.
01:01:02JONES: Okay. And then I take it you're doing various whole maintenance work for those ships. Is that correct?
01:01:14LEITZKE: Um, yeah.
01:01:15JONES: Okay, so tell us about that. What types of work were you doing on the ship? The various ships.
01:01:22LEITZKE: What specifically, me?
01:01:24JONES: Yeah.
01:01:26LEITZKE: Um, so during that time, I was in a shop called the lagging shop. And that "lagging" was a term for insulation. And I was this, I was a second-class petty officer, the senior second class petty officer. So I was kind of a team leader. And so when the ships tied up to us, whenever they needed any kind of like replacement of insulation or repair of insulation, anything like that, that's what my team went over there to do.
01:02:17JONES: Okay. And when I hear the word insulation, I think asbestos.
01:02:24LEITZKE: Yes.
01:02:25JONES: Is that what you were working with?
01:02:27LEITZKE: Well, in when I was in that shop, we did asbestos rip-outs, but we didn't do them when we were out in the Gulf. Um, but but I was involved in some asbestos removal when we were at, you know, at our own station in Alameda. Yeah, we worked with fiberglass. And the, you know, the black rubber tubing that goes over pipes.
01:03:01JONES: Right.
01:03:02LEITZKE: We worked with that and. There was a type of installation that they were like soundproof types of tiles that we would put on the inside of offices to cut down on the sound in the office and we applied those in some places.
01:03:32JONES: Okay, what were some other types of work that you did? When you were in the Gulf, working on various ships.
01:03:48LEITZKE: I think, I think the first time I went to the, I went out, the first time I went--Oh--Um--I'm thinking, I think the only thing I did during that Western Pacific cruise or WESTPAC--The only thing I did was the insulation type work. Yeah, which was gross because it was like 120 degrees there on any given day and we were working with fiberglass. So, as you can imagine. We were pretty uncomfortable most of the time because we have fiberglass in our pores.
01:05:04JONES: Wow.
01:05:06LEITZKE: Yeah, it was pretty gross
01:05:15JONES: So, during, on your first trip to the Gulf, is it safe to say that for the most part you were simply parked in the Gulf of Oman for pretty much that six-month period?
01:05:35LEITZKE: Yeah, well, so this is the first time we went, we were anchored in the Gulf of Oman, maybe about a month and a half total, but it took a while to get there and then a while to get back home again to San Francisco. And that's why we were gone for such a long time, but we only sat there anchored for about, I think, a month and a half. Maybe, I don't think much more than that. We worked on the other ships when we stopped at different ports on the way out and on the back to though. Like, wherever we were when we stopped for a visit at different places like Hong Kong or Singapore, you know, when we went to those ports, we also worked on the ships that were there too. So it wasn't only in the Gulf of Oman, it was that whole entire time we were traveling. Yeah.
01:06:52JONES: When you stopped at a couple of the places you just mentioned, namely Hong Kong, did you have any shore leave?
01:07:00LEITZKE: Yes.
01:07:03JONES: And tell us some of the places you had shore leave.
01:07:08LEITZKE: Um-- Sasebo, Japan. The Philippines. Subic Bay, Philippines. Singapore. There's this little island below the equator called Diego Garcia. And then Hong Kong. And I think from Hong Kong, we ended up in the Gulf.
01:07:44JONES: That's about five pretty exotic places right there.
01:07:48LEITZKE: Yeah, yeah.
01:07:51JONES: Let's, uh-- Back when you and I were growing up and we listened to the commercials for the Navy, they would say, join the Navy and see the world.
01:08:03LEITZKE: Yep.
01:08:04JONES: And it strikes me that in that respect, when you were going to the Gulf of Oman and then home, you really did see the world.
01:08:15LEITZKE: Yeah. Half of it, anyway. Yup. Oh, and, and we always stopped at Hawaii, which isn't, you know, I mean, it's not a foreign country, but kind of seems like.
01:08:18JONES: It's always fun to stop there.
01:08:40LEITZKE: Yeah.
01:08:41JONES: Okay. Um, so after, um, your first trip to the Gulf of Oman is over, um then it looks to me like you spent, did you spend, uh, a year back in San Diego, approximately?
01:09:01LEITZKE: No. Alameda.
01:09:03JONES: Alameda.
01:09:04LEITZKE: Yeah, I went to school my C-School was in San Diego, but my ship was stationed in Alameda. Um, yeah. There was a stretch of time. I don't remember when we started it. I think it was right after we got back from the first trip to the Oman. Myself, Lieutenant Roka, Senior Chief Rudman, and Chief Smith, the four of us started a safety office on the ship. It wasn't my idea, but because I was in the repair department and none of the rest of them really were, they asked me to be a part of that team. So we kind of came up with all the criteria that we wanted to keep track of and have data on, on the ship for safety concerns. And that was the four of us, we came, we did that all ourselves. No other ship had had a safety office before. That was like a, you know, something we knew we just tried. And I worked in the safety office for about I think five months maybe, six maybe, and I was, when I was working in the safety office, that's when I requested C-School. And they, the three people I was workin' in the safety office with got behind me in that and convinced Samuel Gompers', upper, you know, bigger, you know, the captain and all the people that make decisions. They didn't want to send me because they didn't think I would be able to graduate. But these three guys that I was in the safety office with convinced them that I would be fine. I would, be able, to graduate, I was smart enough to get through that. And they were, they backed me on it. And that's how I ended up being able to go to C- School. Does that make sense?
01:11:48JONES: Yes, it does.
01:11:50LEITZKE: OK. I just remembered that. I didn't even remember I was in the safety office until just now. So, yeah.
01:12:11JONES: Okay, so after being in Alameda for approximately a year, it looks like in February of '88, you make a second trip back to the Gulf of Oman.
01:12:27LEITZKE: Yes.
01:12:28JONES: Why don't you tell us about that.
01:12:30LEITZKE: Um-- So by that time, I had gotten out of C-School and then I was working in a different part of the ship. It was called the NDT lab, Non-Destructive Testing lab, so. I was in a completely different area of the ship than I had been the first time I went, we went. And we didn't stop in Sasebo, Japan, that time. But we hit all the other ports that I spoke of. We sat in the Gulf of Oman that time, we sat there for three months. Yep. And so that was--If you ask me, that was arduous duty.
01:13:48JONES: Okay.
01:13:49LEITZKE: We weren't under attack or anything, but being anchored in one spot in this big Gulf of Oman, you can't see anything but sand anywhere you look for, you know--It was just water. Water and sand, for three months we were just sitting there. Um, it was, it was--pretty rough. We were all pretty homesick by the time we got to pull up the anchor and start back home.
01:14:28JONES: During those three months that you sat there, what was the workload like? I mean, did you have a lot of work to keep you busy or were there times where there weren't any ships needing repair?
01:14:49LEITZKE: I would say we- it was sporadic. Um. But we had things we had to do even when there wasn't ships that needed us to do what we were supposed to be doing. And we stripped and waxed the floors in our shop like every week. They kept us busy.
01:15:21JONES: So even if other ships did not need repair, your supervisors found plenty of work for you?
01:15:28LEITZKE: Yeah, because we had stuff on our own ship that had to be done. And so when this-- when there weren't other ships coming to us for repairs, we did repairs on our own ship. And just like I like we there was a lot to do for our own ship that kept us busy too. So.
01:15:55JONES: Got it.
01:15:56LEITZKE: Then we had to-- the certified welders on the ship--I think there was like seven or eight of them--we had to keep up their records and keep certifying their, like they had to bring stuff down to us that they welded and then we had to inspect that to keep their certifications current. And so you know what I mean that that was a lot of stuff we did to keep them certified. That was part of our job too. [Inaudible].
01:16:34JONES: So at that point one of your job responsibilities was to review the work and the welds done by the welders to maintain their certification. Is that correct?
01:16:51LEITZKE: Yes, we kept records for them and we had to inspect their welds that they did to keep their applications current. And there was other things to do.
01:17:19JONES: Okay.
01:17:20LEITZKE: Yeah.
01:17:21JONES: Anything else about the second trip to the Gulf of Oman that we have not covered that you'd like to talk about?
01:17:35LEITZKE: Um, well, I mentioned we didn't go to Sasebo, Japan, that time, but we did stop at a port that wasn't normal or, you know, like usual, on the trip. It was the Seychelles Islands off of the coast of Africa.
01:17:59JONES: What was the name of the place again?
01:18:01LEITZKE: Seychelles Islands. It's like S-E-Y-C-H-E L-L-E Islands.
01:18:15JONES: Okay.
01:18:18LEITZKE: And so that was kind of a liberty stop for us after we were in the Gulf, in the Gulf of Oman for three months, that was kind of where they brought us to just to have liberty and get off the ship for a while. They had a casino there and different things so. Yeah.
01:18:46JONES: Other than that that stop, anything else that you want to tell me about your second time on the--being in the Gulf of Oman?
01:18:57LEITZKE: Um-- Nothing comes to mind.
01:19:05JONES: OK. OK, so at this point, it's the summer of 1988. And I see in your record also that you went to another class that goes by the initials NADSAP. Does that ring a bell? NAD-SAP? Was that something like dealing with HR matters or something like that?
01:19:41LEITZKE: Is that what it says?
01:19:43JONES: No, I--
01:19:43LEITZKE: Oh. I--
01:19:43JONES: It all makes sense--
01:19:45LEITZKE: I went to a class--hum.
01:19:48JONES: And I see you also went to a career awareness program.
01:19:55LEITZKE: Mm-hmm.
01:19:56JONES: Okay, but was that the same thing as NADSAP?
01:20:01LEITZKE: Honestly, I don't know what the NADSAP was.
01:20:04JONES: Okay. Got it.
01:20:05LEITZKE: I know that when I was in the, when I worked in the safety office, one of the things, one of things I had, I went to school to learn about mesothelioma, asbestosis and the cancer you get from asbestos. Because I worked at the safety office, I want to this class to learn all that and then I had to come back to our ship and have classes for our people on our ship to teach them about all that.
01:20:39JONES: Got it.
01:20:41LEITZKE: So that was something extra I was asked to do when I was in the safety office. But none of neither of those two things you said would have been done at that point in time. Would have been before I went to C-School. So.
01:20:56JONES: Okay. So, after the second trip to the Gulf of Oman, you returned to the States, and did you go back to Alameda, California?
01:21:10LEITZKE: Yes.
01:21:29JONES: And what did you do in Alameda after that?
01:21:33LEITZKE: Um, we, so we, there was ships also stationed in Alameda, there was the USS Enterprise--aircraft carrier--and the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier. So when we were in port, at our own home port, we did jobs on their ships to keep them afloat and in good working condition. They were nuclear-powered ships.
01:22:06JONES: Right.
01:22:07LEITZKE: Yep. So.
01:22:10JONES: Prior to that, had you ever done work on a carrier?
01:22:15LEITZKE: No, those were the only two.
01:22:18JONES: Okay, so tell us about your work on those carriers.
01:22:22LEITZKE: Um, we did some asbestos rip-outs on the Enterprise up in their hanger bay. So we were like, I don't even know how high up into their, their ceiling ripping out asbestos up there. Uh, that was one of the jobs I was involved in. We had to replace some valves on a system that was, had nuclear fuel that ran through that system. And we had to replace some valves. So another thing that my shop did was we did X-rays of welds. I wasn't involved in that, in the X-ray part, but I was involved in, like I would hold a Geiger counter at some part of an opening of that area to make sure that the radiation wasn't escaping into the rest of the ship.
01:23:28JONES: Got it.
01:23:30LEITZKE: And so that was part of what also the lab I worked in, you know, we did the, we had the lead box of plutonium, I think, or uranium. I don't remember. One of those two and carried it over there and did X- rays that way. So that was kind of cool. I don't remember any other jobs that we did.
01:23:55JONES: OK. Well, at this point, it looks like your time in the Navy is coming to an end.
01:24:05LEITZKE: Mm-hmm.
01:24:06JONES: Because I see that you left in June of '89. And so that was about nine months after your second trip to the Gulf of Oman. Is there anything else that you did during that nine month period that you'd like to talk about?
01:24:29LEITZKE: Nothing that stands out. Our ship was in dry dock. When I got out, we were in drydock for quite a while in San Francisco. So there wasn't a whole lot going on for us. And I don't really remember anything that sticks out. My last, like the last couple of weeks I was in the Navy before I got out. I had to do a job, an ultrasound job on our ship. It was big, huge metal cylinders that had silver plating on the inside of them.
01:25:13JONES: Are you talking about the Gompers?
01:25:15LEITZKE: Yeah.
01:25:16JONES: Okay.
01:25:17LEITZKE: We had these huge cylinders on the ship and they got re-plated. And I had to test the plating to make sure it was the right thickness inside of these big cylinders. That was the last job I did before I got out. Yeah. So.
01:25:42JONES: Okie doke. So it looks like you--Your military service ended in June of 1989. Does that sound about right?
01:25:58LEITZKE: Active duty. Yeah. Yep, that's correct.
01:26:11JONES: Okie doke. And then after your active duty ended in June of '89, did you stay in the reserves for a while?
01:26:22LEITZKE: Yeah, I was in active reserves.
01:26:34JONES: And was that for about six months?
01:26:38LEITZKE: That could be about right. Yeah, that sounds about right.
01:26:49JONES: And when that came to an end, did you hang it up, so to speak, with the reserves at that point?
01:26:57LEITZKE: Yes.
01:27:07JONES: OK. So before we leave and move on to the next area, is there anything else about your service, your five years of active duty, that we have not covered that you would like to cover?
01:27:26LEITZKE: Boy, I really can't think of anything. I think we're pretty, pretty, did a pretty good job covering a lot of things.
01:27:36JONES: One final thing is what was your rank when you left the mili--when you left the Navy?
01:27:43LEITZKE: Uh, E-5.
01:27:54JONES: Okay.
01:27:55LEITZKE: Oh!
01:27:56JONES: Go ahead.
01:27:57LEITZKE: I'm sorry-- that that's kind of-- um-- If you don't mind it.
01:28:03JONES: Yeah, go ahead.
01:28:04LEITZKE: The reason I decided to get out. And not continue. Um Um was because the Navy decided that the rate I was in, hull maintenance technician, they were splitting that up into two different rates. Some were going to stay hull maintenance technicians, and some were going be damage-control people. They wanted to break that rate up into two different types, two different rates. And the people that decided to switch over, to cross over into the damage-control rate, which was new, they got to go up a whole rank without any doing anything other than crossing over. They didn't have to take a test, they didn't to do anything, just change their rank, their rate. Because I was certified in non-destructive testing, I wasn't able to take advantage of that. I was ready to go up for E-6. I met all the requirements to be able to go up for E-6. But they froze our rate. To force people to cross over to the damage-control rate. They froze our rate and I was stuck because I couldn't change over and go up a rank because I was certified. So both ways, I was struck where I was and I couldn't advance up to the next rank. And so I thought, you know what? I'm out. You know, that was it for me. That seemed really unfair. And that, that pretty much was the reason why I didn't re-enlist. They didn't know how long, how long our rate was going to be frozen. So there was nothing really to look forward to for me, you know. I think that's kind of important.
01:30:23JONES: Okay. Okay. So this next part, you left the Navy. It looks like the active reserves that was at the end of 1989. So that's roughly 36 years ago. Tell us about what you've been doing, what you have been doing for the last 36 years.
01:31:02LEITZKE: Um, after I got out of the Navy, I tried to stay in that line of work as a civilian. And I, I knew I could be making really good money doing that. I'm, you know, as a civilian. Um, and I tried really hard to get a job doing that for about a year. And it was very male-oriented. There were like two other women I met that were doing that job on the out--you know, as civilians--otherwise it was all men. I joined two different charters trying to get my resume out and to get to know the people that were doing that type of work as civilians, um, to no avail. Nobody would hire me because they said because I didn't have a college degree. I needed a bachelor's degree from college to be able to get a job doing that, what I was doing in the Navy for two and a half years, I needed to have a college degree to do that as a civilian. So nobody would hire me. That was a bunch of hooey. I'm telling you right now, they just didn't want me because I was a female. So after about a year of trying to stay with what I had just gotten certified to do, I gave up on it and went into banking. Um--Yeah.
01:33:03JONES: Wow. Yeah, that part of your story strikes me as, you know, I I know that, in a sense, I guess what I'll say is that it seems to me that you were ahead of your time in that while no one would hire you at that time, I think that it would be a different story now. Because essentially society, has opened up more job opportunities to women. And I'm simply sorry that those opportunities were not available to you. Um--When I read your bio, I simply assumed that you had ended up, say, with one of the shipbuilders over on the Lake Michigan shoreline.
01:34:22LEITZKE: Oh, sure.
01:34:23JONES: Because it seems to me that you have a skill set that they would be very interested in.
01:34:31LEITZKE: You know, I could have probably gotten hired at the shipyards in San Francisco. That's where my ship was in dry dock.
01:34:41JONES: Right.
01:34:42LEITZKE: When I got out, I'm guessing they probably would have had no problem hiring me to do what I was doing. But I didn't want to work in the shipyards because that was so much a lot like the Navy. You know a lot of harassment, a lot of, you know, discrimination toward women and all that so I wanted to get away from that so I I just thought I would work with really you know much more professional people and work in a lab somewhere and I couldn't get a job doing that in the San Francisco area which is kind of crazy because San Francisco was sort of ahead of their time in some things too.
01:35:31JONES: Right.
01:35:32LEITZKE: You know, back then. But yeah.
01:35:39JONES: So because of that, why did you in essence leave California and come back to Wisconsin?
01:35:51LEITZKE: Um, I was in a relationship when I got out of the Navy.
01:35:55JONES: Okay.
01:35:56LEITZKE: Why I stayed in California, but then that ended and my mom wanted me to move back home, um, so I did.
01:36:13JONES: Got it.
01:36:14LEITZKE: Yeah.
01:36:15JONES: So you came back to Wisconsin and you stayed here for the duration?
01:36:18LEITZKE: Yes.
01:36:26JONES: And did you stay in banking?
01:36:29LEITZKE: No, I did about seven years in banking.
01:36:33JONES: Then what did you do?
01:36:36LEITZKE: Um, then I went to work at a window factory. For about a year. And then I worked, then I got a job working for a company in Stevens Point called the Noel Group. So I was working in travel insurance, a travel insurance call center. And I did that for, I think, two years, and then I worked, I got a job at Portage County Health and Human Services. And I worked there for four and a half years. And I really liked that type of work. It was, I was an economic support specialist helping people get on food stamps and Medicaid and things like that. My husband and I then moved away. We moved up to Superior. In '07. And I ended up working for Douglas County Health and Human Services up there. For about five years doing the same thing. Um, and I went to school. to learn to be, to learn medical billing and coding, um, from 2008 to--2009 to 2011, I was in school for that. My husband ended up dying from cancer in 2011. But I did get my associate's degree in medical billing and coding. So I had that to fall back on since he passed away. Uh, so. Guess what? I graduated second in my class. No, I'm just kidding. I did have a I did have a 3.99 GPA though. from college. Well, that was kind of neat.
01:39:17JONES: So after you went to school to learn medical billing, did you end up getting a job in that field?
01:39:23LEITZKE: Uh, not right away, but I had, I did eventually. Last--a year ago. I was doing that here in La Crosse, um, working for Gunderson. So I only worked one year doing that, what I got a degree in, and then I retired last year.
01:39:51JONES: Okay. So your last employer was with Gunderson?
01:39:57LEITZKE: Yeah.
01:40:10JONES: You know, back when you worked for Portage County and Douglas County, it's possible that our paths might have crossed.
01:40:21LEITZKE: Really?
01:40:22JONES: Because I was a state employee who did labor relations work. And I would sometimes go to places like Portage or Stevens Point or Superior for mediation with their, you know, various employee bargaining units.
01:40:43LEITZKE: Oh my gosh!
01:40:44JONES: And I can remember doing, you know, mediations with those two counties when, and this would have been when, when you were working for them. So.
01:40:57LEITZKE: Wow!
01:40:59JONES: Small, small world.
01:41:00LEITZKE: It is a small world. Yes, indeed.
01:41:03JONES: Okay. Well, Christine, I want to thank you for, number one, your five years of service to the Navy and to our country. And I also want to think you for agreeing to do this interview for the Wisconsin Veterans Museum.
01:41:27LEITZKE: You're welcome.
