Oral History Interview with Richard Petri, May 12, 2001

Transcript of an oral interview with Richard Petri. Born in 1922 in Kansas City, Missouri, he joined the Navy in 1943. He began his training in the Naval Air Corps, but soon discovered he had no aptitude for flying and was assigned to the Navy's V-12 college student program. After completing his Bachelor's Degree, he completed Basic Training in Norfolk and Midshipman Training at Notre Dame and Navy Supply Corps school at Harvard. Upon completion of Supply Corps School he was assigned to the Navy Yard in Washington, DC. He was told to await further orders which arrived after two weeks when he was sent to Patuxent River, Maryland where he boarded a plane, beginning a long journey east, eventually flying over "The Hump" and into Kunming, China, where he assumed duties at the Naval Supply Depot, one of two such depots in China (the other at Chungking). He recounts the excellent treatment he and the other young officers received from the Chinese National Army. He recalls that after the release of American officers taken at the fall of the Philippines, including General Wainwright, all of whom had been imprisoned in China, a group of them came through Kunming. He remembers that a great luncheon was prepared for them at the Depot. All of the prisoners were very thin and malnourished, but they did attend the luncheon and enjoyed it. He talks about interactions with the local Chinese, especially the wonderful meals and the intriguing manner of exchanging US to Chinese currency. He talks about shipping supplies from the States over the ?Hump? until they opened the old Burma Road, in February of 1945. He recounts the old, Chinese, home-made tile roofs, mud huts, which he described as "very adequate." He said that the houses where the Americans stayed were larger houses that the Navy rented from the owners. He recalls a trip to the Yangtze River to determine if it was navigable and the beauty of the countryside. He describes several encounters with General Tai Lei, the head of the Military Intelligence Bureau of the Chinese Government, whom he likened to our head of the FBI, and his American counterpart, Captain Milton E. ("Merry") Miles, who was indispensable to the SACO operation. "Merry" Miles had been an enlisted man during World War One, had operated in China during the 1930s and after the war retired as a Vice Admiral. At the end of the war Lieutenant Petri's unit was ordered to pack up and fly to Shanghai. In their haste they left behind 5,000-10,000 U.S. Treasury Checks. The checks were not recovered and the US Treasury had to write them off, an outcome which left him highly embarrassed. He recalls his experiences in Shanghai, including the primitive means of providing hot water for baths. Badly wanting to get home, he sought and was assigned as Supply Officer on the USS Sabine (AO-25) which landed in San Francisco for repairs at the end of the war, at which time Lieutenant Petri finally returned home, married and reported for duty aboard the USS Vermilion (AKA-107) in Norfolk