In August 0f 1969, my U.S. Army draft notice arrived in the mail at the Lodge. It was a great relief. I was saved from my desperate dilemma. My draft notice was my ticket to get away from Fin and Marty.
If I let the Army draft me, I was afraid that they would probably put me in the infantry and send me to Vietnam. I based my fear on the fact that people all around the world knew that an infantryman in Vietnam had a short life expectancy.
A few days after receiving my draft letter, I went down to the Army Recruiting Office in Bangor, Maine and found out that I was probably going to be drafted into the Army in less than two weeks from that day. The best thing for me to do was to immediately sign up for the Army. This would give me the opportunity to choose an Army school to attend that would train me in a skill which I could use if I made it through the Vietnam War and back into civilian life. I chose Photographic Laboratory Technician School. The Army instructed me to report to Ft. Dix New, Jersey for basic training on November 17, 1969.
My first day at the US Army Photo Lab Tech School.
It wasn’t the Merchant Marines, but I was still going to get to travel and see new places. Best of all, I was finally going to be free from Fin and Marty’s ignorant treatment of me. The entire time that I worked for them, they never said one, single complimentary word to me about the outstanding accomplishments that I had made as a bear hunting guide. They never thanked me for doing anything at any time.
I had no way out of there, till my draft notice came; I didn’t have the money for bus or plane fare out of there; I never received a regular pay check. My weekly pay had been ten or twenty bucks on a Saturday night or Sunday afternoon and the use of a pick up truck with a full gas tank to go to town.
In October of 1969, I left the lodge to go back to see my family in Maryland for a few weeks, before facing the possibility of death in Vietnam. The night before I left, Marty gave me $350.00 cash. She said it was what I would have had saved up if they had paid me a full salary. It wasn’t right. Ten months at $125.00 a week was the fair wage.
According to my calculations and after deducting the cash payments I received from Fin and Marty, I still come up with a figure of at least $4,250.00 that they owe me from 1969–not including accrued interest.
That calculation was done in 1969 money values, and I only used the 1969 part of their debt to me here, I have since then added what they also owe me from 1977 + 1979 then converted the amounts to year 2002 dollars, and I came up with $27,500.15 that they owe me. The amount has gone up since then due to inflation and now I want interest on the money.
I am a disabled veteran living on such a small fixed income, well below the poverty level, that I couldn’t and still can’t go to Maine and pursue this matter up there in person.
Copyright 2006 David Robert Crews
ursusdave
Patten Maine
Katahdin Lodge
David Robert Crews
I had no way out of there, till my draft notice came; I didn’t have the money for bus or plane fare out of there; I never received a regular pay check. My weekly pay had been ten or twenty bucks on a Saturday night or Sunday afternoon and the use of a pick up truck with a full gas tank to go to town.
In October of 1969, I left the lodge to go back to see my family in Maryland for a few weeks, before facing the possibility of death in Vietnam. The night before I left, Marty gave me $350.00 cash. She said it was what I would have had saved up if they had paid me a full salary. It wasn’t right. Ten months at $125.00 a week was the fair wage.
According to my calculations and after deducting the cash payments I received from Fin and Marty, I still come up with a figure of at least $4,250.00 that they owe me from 1969–not including accrued interest.
That calculation was done in 1969 money values, and I only used the 1969 part of their debt to me here, I have since then added what they also owe me from 1977 + 1979 then converted the amounts to year 2002 dollars, and I came up with $27,500.15 that they owe me. The amount has gone up since then due to inflation and now I want interest on the money.
I am a disabled veteran living on such a small fixed income, well below the poverty level, that I couldn’t and still can’t go to Maine and pursue this matter up there in person.
Copyright 2006 David Robert Crews
ursusdave
Patten Maine
Katahdin Lodge
David Robert Crews
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