Served On Carriers Lake Champlain and Wolverine-- Part 2

The Lake Champlain was not finished so he had to wait.  In the meantime, he was assigned for a month to the aircraft carrier Wolverine in Lake Michigan.  New pilots from Glenview Naval Air Base on land would fly out to the Wolverine in practice landings and take offs.  Lake Michigan was safe from submarine attacks.

The Wolverine was a converted passenger ship fired by coal and he remembered men assigned to stoke the boilers would come up on deck completely covered in black soot.

Several planes ended up crashing into the sea while he was on board.  Planes are pulled up from Lake Michigan every so often now and in excellent shape.

He finally got on the Lake Champlain but never saw action but did participate in returning the Marines and GIs from overseas after the war.

These Stories Need to Be Written Down efore They Are Lost.  --GreGen