BEVERLY JEAN McGEE Long Beach, Ca.

Yes, I agree--- it looks like her !

On one of the treks to the Los Angelos area,
I was walking down American Blvd., in
Long Beach one early morning, hitching a
ride back to San Diego.

A car stopped and I met Beverly Jean McGee
and her Mother.  Beverly was only 15 or 16
and of course I was only 18 at the time.

They had just been to church and were driving
down the beach road when they saw me.
They drove me back to Corps school in San
Diego.

I wrote to Beverly and the next liberty I had
back to Long Beach where the parents
welcomed me and Beverly showed me around
the area.

I had an Aunt, my Father`s aged sister who had
lived her life as a sourdough in Alaska, she now
lived on Angels Flight, a little tram up the side
of a cliff in downtoan Los Angelos.
Beverly went with me and we visited the Aunt.

On another trip she showed, took me to visit
a Great Aunt in another city near Los Angelos.
 One day we went to the races at Santa Anita
where I won a couple of hundred dollars betting
on Whirlaway.

Beverly`s Mother had been a figure model and
her father was a stand-in for George Raft, a movie
star in the pre-war years.  They had many friends,
entertained a lot, so my visits were always full of
fun and excitement.

Beverly had access to the family car and spent days
showing me the LosAngelos area, visiting --- even
to Mid-night Mass one Christmas

Where was I  ?    Oh, yes, there was a war.  well
we will get back to the war in a minute. OK ?

Corps school eventually ended and I was sent to
Mare Island Navy Hospital.   On arrival we new
corpsmen assembled in front of the administration
building , role was called and a first class pointed
to the short fellows in the front row and assigned
them to Bldg. 4, ward 1.
The second row of men were a little larger and
were assigned to ward 2, the third row to ward 3
and the fourth row, tall guys in which I was, were
assigned to ward 4.   The violent ward !

Ward 4 contained 32 patients, a long row of rooms
on each side of a long hall, then at the end, a
solarium where there were beds for ten more.
I was given a briefing on care of violent patients,
then a doctor accompanied me to ward 4, unlocked
the gate ,  let me inside and locked the gate .

I did not have a key, but there was a button near the
gate.  If I desperately needed help I would push the
button to summon assistance.

Everything went pretty well.  I was called on to help
subdue violent patients in other areas from time
to time.  I became friends with  a little man who had
been a professional "bughouser" in one of the state
hospitals.  He requested that I be assigned to him .
Now the staff had the two of us whom they called on
whenever a violent situation occurred.  "Doc" and
we were all "Doc" , Pemberton taught me to subdue
a violent patient by holding a mattress in front of me,
push the patient against a wall and Doc would go
under the mattress and jerk the patient`s feet out .
He also taught me the "neck holds" and other tricks
to subdue patients without injury to the patient.

Many of these "tricks" came in handy later, after the
war when I became a policeman.

Commander Jensen was the psychiatrist in charge of
Building 4.   From time to time I was asked to talk
with him.  One day when I was summoned to his
office he handed me a letter in which he had asked
that I be transferred to the psychiatric facility in
Bethesda , Maryland for further training in
Neuropsychiatry.    Instead the local Chief of Staff
transferred me to Imola, the Napa State Hospital
in which the Navy had two wards.  I spent about
six months at Imola and was then given orders to
the U.S.S, Rochambeau  for transport to the South
Pacific Command.

------   John Crowley