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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEddie Thompson Radio Transcription #1City of College Station Heritage Programs Oral History Interviewee: Eddie Thompson Interviewer: Tom Turbiville Place: College Station, Texas Project: Veterans of the Valley Transcriber: Brooke Linsenbardt 00:00: Tom Turbiville (TT): This fall Eddie Thompson of College Station will turn 98 years old. The years have robbed him of some of his hearing and his eye sight. But not of his sprit, or his memory of his proud service in World War II aboard the cruiser U.S.S. Birmingham. One of the most active and significant battle ships of the war. Hi I’m Tom Turbiville, this is Bravo Brazos Valley and we’ll be back to start the story of Eddie Thompson of College Station. Right after this from Meis and Associates. [Meis and Associates commercial] TT: Just last week Eddie Thompson observed the 60th anniversary of the day he almost died aboard the Birmingham, when a Japanese suicide plane crashed on the deck, right next to the cabin where Eddie Thompson worked. He’ll talk more about that tomorrow, but today, well let’s go back more than 60 years when then, (Dallas?), Eddie Thompson worked his way up the corporate ladder at the Baker Hotel in downtown big D. 01:20: Eddie Thompson (ET): Well I was startin’ out as a bell hop. (mumble) The bell man you know. They have people carry luggage and show ‘em to the rooms and do whatever they can for ‘em. And then uh, I got to be bell captain. And then I got to be night manager of the hotel. Came on at 11:00 at night and get off at 7 the next morning. And, I didn’t like the night work but I decided to do it anyway. TT: Yeah to start out, he toted the luggage of many a politicians, entertainers, and other V.I.P.s. 01:50: ET: A lot of comedians and all that. Bob Hope even. He was down there. TT: Turns out he didn’t have to join up in the service, but he would have it no other way. But young Eddie Thompson, he wanted Navy all the way. 02:02: ET: Well I didn’t want to be drafted and put in the Army. I, I, I just want to be in the Navy instead of the Army so I made a choice. Th-, the government declared the hotel industry essential to the war effort. And key personnel would not be drafted indefinitely. They just, wouldn’t, probably wouldn’t ever be, be drafted. And I was, ke-, key personnel. I was the night manager of the Baker Hotel. TT: And his assignment. 02:31: ET: And I was assigned to the Birmingham. And, I was on it, almost a year. TT: He learned his skills for the Birmingham in the office of Naval Procurement. They figured that working at the Baker all those years, this guy had to be a people person. 02:46: BP: Learned how to handle people you know, tryin’. I had to get ‘em to fill out papers, one thing another. Forms of all kinds to fill out. And I had to see that they did it right. And I’d run in some crazy ones and then some good ones. TT: On the Birmingham, he was pretty much the brains behind the gunners. 03:06: ET: Well we were in the computer room they called it. We had, we had a, instruments that aimed the guns. And, uh, guns ran amount up on the decks you know. And they can’t fire or do anything unless an officer tells ‘em to. And we were in the room and, five decks down in that ship, uh, connected with phones, to the (kurids?) and, we told ‘em what to do. The g-, they couldn’t do anything unless we, we told ‘em to. TT: Eddie Thompson was involved in several battles from the deck of the Birmingham. Most significant battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. And there was the suicide plane on May the 4th of 1945. We’ll hear that story tomorrow with Eddie Thompson of CL62, the U.S.S. Birmingham. I’m Tom Turbiville, this is Bravo Brazos Valley.