Howard Herron Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Howard Herron 4 3
into the government for this Black Lung. The widow women, a lot of widow
women was left, their husbands died from it, they get-- lot of women
right here in Auburn--they get Black Lung from their husband. Now after
they awarded me the Black Lung, I got a letter from them if I would prove
up that I was married, that I would add so much too for my wife. And so
I did and they well, after she passed away I had to tell them and they
took off what they was giving for her. It was a wonderful thing. Black
Lung.
Q: Are you taking medicine for that?
A: I take Quinidine. I take one pill every morning.
Q: Do you have any trouble catching your breath?
A: No, I had a heart attack. I had a heart attack in 1949 and I was in
the hospital in Milwaukee. I was on my way to Canada and it hit me there
and I was in the hospital three months and for two months I couldn't get
out of bed. I got over it I guess and I am still taking medicine.
Q: I understand that during World War T there was a terrible flu
epidemic, do you remember anything about that?
A: Yes, of course I was in the navy then and I was appointed police of
the ship and you worked four hours on and about eight hours off. And
then you'd go back four and on the ship where the heat comes from the
boiler room up there, they would pile up there, the men would and cold
and sick and everything else. And they had their pea coats on, that was
a heavy blue coat, and the captain would say, "Get them off of there, get
them off of that thing." You would get them off of it and you'd go away
and come back and they would be piled up there again just like they were
before, and you had to do it again, and you hated to do it but. . . .
Q: They were trying to keep warm?
A: Yes, but the captain wanted them off of there, and if they did have
the flu they would give it to the other guy. I remember our Chief Mate,
Red Griep was his name, we pulled into New York and we had to take him
over to the side in a stretcher and put him in a boat and take him to a
hospital. And he looked up and smiled and he said, "Look out now, don't
you drop me." If we would have dropped him we would have dropped him in
the water of course, but we took him and he did die that night. But I
was very fortunate, I went through it all and I never got sick. When I
was at Great Lakes I had a job of taking eight men, firing squad were
called there, pallbearers, and there was more than eight men, there was a
firing squad. I'd take an eight men, firing squad and pallbearers and
color guards and they would meet us at the Great Lakes Training Station.
This was my first job in the navy. They would take us to some funeral
home and we had some sailors died and we would conduct a funeral there
and then. They would take us in taxicabs to the next funeral. We'd make
four funerals a day. That was my job for a while. I was glad to get rid
of that job. They had an awful nice meal for us at the place where we
would go. I saw them lined up at Great Lakes, they died like flies.
They didn' t have boxes to send them in. They would just cart them up.