RICHIE HENDERSHOT
Age: 90
Born: Sept. 15, 1919
Hometown: South Los Angeles
Residence: Palm Desert
Military branch: U.S. Navy; APL 46
Years served: November 1944-May 1946
Rank: 3rd class electrician's mate
Family: Wife Betty (deceased); four children, Yvonne Clark of Palm Desert, Lynette Hill of Lodi, James Hendershot (deceased) and Sharon Wicker of Firestone, Colo.; eight grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren.
About this series
Staff writer Denise Goolsby will profile desert veterans from World War II through the end of 2010 — the 65th anniversary of the end of the war. Contact her at (760) 778-4587 or via e-mail at denise.goolsby@thedesertsun.com
Coming tomorrow
U.S. Coast Guard veteran William Swisher of Desert Hot Springs.
LEARN MORE: Read about other Coachella Valley residents who served in World War II at www.mydesert.com/WWII
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Richie Hendershot waited months to find out what type of ship he'd be sailing into enemy territory during World War II, but his excitement turned to disappointment as soon as he saw the vessel.
“It was a (expletive) barge!” he said. “It was a floating hotel!”
The APL 46, known as a “nonself-propelled barracks ship,” could sleep 700 men and a crew of 70.
“The barge was fully self-contained,” he said. “Everything needed for men except propulsion.”
A big, seagoing tugboat lugged the buoyant barracks across the Pacific Ocean.
“They took us to Pearl Harbor and we were supposed to go to Leyte, but the war was over,” he said.
Hendershot, a refrigeration specialist, soon found himself docked in Tokyo with a barge full of commissioned officers assigned to occupation duty.
Hendershot was married with two small children when he was drafted.
Before he was called to the service — and most likely assigned to the Army — he went to enlist in the Navy — a much safer branch for a man with a family, he thought.
But he was told he couldn't enlist — he'd have to wait until he was drafted. When he finally was, it was anyone's guess which branch he'd be assigned.
There were three desks — Army, Navy and Marines — at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro, and Hendershot made a beeline for the man at the Navy table.
He looked at Hendershot's papers and slapped a big stamp across the paperwork.
“I said, ‘What's that mean?'” Hendershot said. He said, ‘It means you're in the Navy,' and I damn near kissed him.”
Hendershot was sent to boot camp in San Diego where he made the acquaintance of a light-footed entertainer.
“I spent half of boot camp with Gene Kelly, the dancer,” Hendershot said. “He was a regular guy.”
But six weeks into the 12-week training program, Hendershot came down with scarlet fever and spent weeks in Balboa Naval Hospital.
“The one time I thought I wanted to die,” he said.
“It set me back five weeks in boot camp,” he said. “They put me in a different company.”
After finishing boot camp, Hendershot was called in for an interview and was asked what he'd like to do next.
“I said, ‘It's the Navy. Aren't we supposed to get on a boat or ship or something?'” Hendershot said, laughing.
He was sent to basic engineering school in Gulfport, Miss. After finishing at the top of his class, he was given a choice of destroyer, compressed gas or refrigeration school.
Hendershot didn't think destroyer school would be much use when he got out of the service and he already knew about compressed gas.
“I didn't know too much about refrigeration,” he said. “I got a real education there. I had an instructor who was fantastic.”
Hendershot was finally assigned to the APL 46.
“I couldn't find a soul that knew what ‘APL' stood for,” he said.
He was sent to Portland, Ore. where he'd soon find out.
Hendershot proceeded to check for leaks on the brand-new vessel — and he found quite a few.
“I got 'em all fixed,” he said.
Once the ship was loaded with all the necessary supplies, including, “Carloads of meat and carloads of beer they hauled us down the Columbia River to Astoria,” and out to the Pacific, Hendershot said.
Hendershot said they kept themselves entertained on the voyage across the sea, guzzling Hyde Park beer in short brown bottles called “stubbies.”
“Going over, we drank at least one or two cases of beer a night,” he said. “It was supposed to be locked, but I would get in and get it out, throw it in the meat locker where it was freezing and cooled it down.”
The barge picked up and delivered troops to military installations in the Pacific before being ordered to Tokyo.
Hendershot, who sent all of his money home to his young family, picked up a few extra bucks on the side.
“I became a movie projectionist,” he said. “I showed movies every night on the barge. I got a buck a night for showing the movie.”
“I was just lucky, lucky, lucky,” Hendershot said of his time in the service. “They saw me coming and the war ended,” he joked.
