No, I didn’t ride with the sheep.

My daughter enjoys asking that question whenever I tell this story.

I enlisted in the Navy in 1944 and was sent to Great Lakes Naval Training Center. After boot camp, I stayed there for several weeks of gunnery school. On a weekend pass, I went home to the farm to see my family and my girlfriend. This was about 160 miles from the base. Check-in time was midnight Sunday. I stayed too long at my girl’s house and missed the train back to Chicago.

My brother knew of a trucker who was taking a load of sheep up to the union stockyards, and I got a ride with him, walked several blocks, and caught a streetcar for the train station. It was after midnight, but my mates called “present” for me at bedcheck as I had never been late before. They got away with it!

When school was over, I was sent to Hunters Point, Calif., where I joined the crew of the USS Intrepid. After the war was over, we came back to the States where the Intrepid was mothballed in 1946.

The girl in the story became my wife in 1947, and we will celebrate 70 years of marriage this June.

I have also been a member of the Potomac, Ill., American Legion Post for 51 years.