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Transcript of interview with Arthur Bedard about his experiences during World War I. He describes how he enlisted in the Navy to avoid being drafted into the Army and what it was like being in the Naval Reserves. He also discusses the difficulty finding work after the war and the role of the American Legion in helping veterans. ; WWI Transcriptions Arthur Bedard Transcriber: John Pino Date Started 2/9/18 (Interview Begins) Fred Holder (Interviewer): This interview is taking place in the home of Mr. Arthur Bedard on Wall St. in Fitchburg [Massachusetts]. Holder: First of all Mr. Bedard where were you born? Arthur Bedard (Interviewee): Fitchburg. Holder: You were born in Fitchburg? Did you live in Fitchburg when you entered the service? Bedard: Yes sir. Holder: You did, how old were you at that time? Bedard: When I entered the service I was around 21, I think. I was gone for around 14 months, so I think it's around there, I can't say for sure now. Background Voice: I think it was more around 20. Bedard: 20? Background Voice: (unintelligible). Bedard: Well I'd say around 20 then at least. Holder: Did you volunteer or were you drafted? Bedard: Oh yeah, I enlisted. Holder: You enlisted? Bedard: Oh yeah, it was because I escaped the draft, I didn't want to get drafted. In other words I wanted to go in the navy, instead of the army. Holder: Why'd you pick the navy? Bedard: Cause' I had an idea I'd be better off there. (chuckles). Holder: It turn out that way? Bedard: Yes it did. Holder: What was your attitude upon entering the war? Bedard: Who? Holder (repeating himself): What was attitude upon entering the war, what did you think of the war? Bedard: I had nothin' to say, I figured I had to go either there or there. So I took it as it came. Holder: Were you single then? Bedard: Oh yeah. Holder: Everyone I've talked to have been single there were no married men in the war! (Both men laugh) Holder: What was your family's attitude, your parents? Your sisters or brothers? Bedard: There wasn't too much they could say about it, I tried to make em' understand that I had to go sooner or later so I took my pick. And that was it. Holder: Where was your basic training? Bedard: Newport, Rhode Island. Holder: What did it consist of? Bedard: Training? Hold: Yep. Bedard: Well I don't know if you've ever heard of "the grinder" where you'd parade up and down the military grounds with rifles and the likes of that. That's what they called it that was the only training I got there. I wasn't in the barracks too long, I went in what they called the "ship's company." When I enlisted, I tried to get the electrician rating. Holder: What was your occupation before the war? Bedard: I was working for telephone people. Holder: You were, and after the war? After the war did you go back to the telephone? Bedard: I went back but they didn't take us back. Holder: You went back but they wouldn't take you? Why not? Bedard: Jobs were filled up, it's what they told me. Holder: And they didn't hold it open for ya? Bedard: There was 2 of us in one, from the telephone company, and the big shots told us that "when you boys come home, just come back and you can go to work." Well we went back and went to go to work, and they told us our jobs were filled. They just said… toodle loo. Holder: The veterans' organizations, could they have helped at all? Bedard: Well I'll tell you that the truth of the matter didn't go that far. We just figured we lost our jobs and had to go somewhere else. So I went in the automobile business. Holder: What were you being paid when you went into the service? Bedard: How much? Holder: Yeah, how much? Bedard: Well I figured it was about a dollar a day. Holder: A dollar a day? Bedard: Yeah. Holder: That's about what the army got after I talked with a few people. Bedard: What was your rank? Well as I said, I enlisted as an electrician, but I found out the guy told me I'm going to be a seaman second class. Holder: What were you when you got out? Bedard: The same thing. Holder: The same thing? How long were you in the service? Bedard: 14 months, I was in what they called the naval reserves. For an unspecified amount of time. Holder: You didn't serve overseas? Bedard: Oh no, I stayed over this side. Holder: Did you stay in the Fitchburg area? Bedard: Oh no, I was in Boston, Newport. Holder: Were you able to come home a lot? Bedard: Oh I came home quite often, when I was in Newport I had to be hospitalized for an operation. When I got better, I asked for leave. They let me come home for a weekend. Holder: How was the food? Bedard: I wasn't a fussy guy. Holder: (Laughing). Bedard: I always had a pretty good appetite, of course you always had it set in your mind that you weren't home. What they had you either eat or go without, that's the point. Holder: What type of equipment did you use? Was it in good shape? Was it used or? Bedard: Meaning what? Holder: The materials that you had to use when you were working? Bedard: Like I said, I was in a ship's company and I worked along with electricians doing odds and ends and the tools we had were spare pliers and what not and that was about all. Holder: Very basic. Bedard: That's right. Holder: How were you treated by the officers? How did they treat you? Bedard: Okay, I never had no trouble. Holder: They never gave any problems to the enlisted men? Bedard: No. Holder: What were your feelings towards the Germans? Bedard: Huh? Holder: What were your feelings towards the Germans? Bedard: Well, no more than what I read, I wasn't over so I really couldn't tell you. But, all I could say is that I knew we were having trouble with the Germans and that was it. Who was going to tell us that things were going the way they were going, right? Holder: True. The propaganda campaigns that they had at the time, you know, the war bonds and the posters and everything did they affect you very much? Bedard: Well, as far as war bonds at the time I had gotten some. The company I was working for, New England Telephone and Telegraph Company, they used to issue, what did they call em'? United States saving bonds or something like that I guess. Oh I held those for around, I dunno 15 or 20 years, then I turned em' over to E bonds1 to make em' all alike, see? Holder: Did you meet any uh, French officers or English officers? Bedard: Yeah. Holder (surprised): You did? Bedard: When I was in Chelsea. 1 Series E Bond: war bonds marketed during World War II, Bedard probably turned in his old World War I bonds for the newer E Bond. Holder: How did they strike you? Bedard: Eh, alright. Course I could speak some French, I'm French anyway, if you can call it that. And uhh, you had to listen to em' to understand em'. Especially if they were Canadian French, which are not the same at all. But, we worked it through some way or another. Holder: What uh, did you really believe in what you had to do, that you had to go? Did you want to go? Or would you have been more happy if you had stayed? Bedard: Well it's said "oh if you didn't want to go then you didn't have to!" So I waited, but, suppose someone said "if you don't enlist in the next day or so you'll be called up for the draft." In fact, my number came up after I enlisted in the navy. Holder: Were they using a lottery system there, then? Bedard: Hmmm, I don't think so. Well I don't know. I don't know how it worked, the navy didn't draft anyway, but as far as the army I don't know if they used it then. That didn't interest me at all, I wanted to go in the navy which I did. Holder: How did the Americans you got into contact with in Newport or Boston or Chelsea treat you? Bedard: You mean overseas people? Holder No, people who lived in the area. Bedard: Oh no I never had any trouble. Holder: When you returned back to Fitchburg what was the attitude of people in the town? Bedard: Well I don't know if they had too much to say, I was glad to come back. Anybody was glad, I suppose everyone was glad to see me, they were glad to see me naturally (laughs). Holder: Were you helped out in getting another job instead of the telephone company. Bedard: No, like I said I took up automobiling. I worked out of it for about 3 years on an apprenticeship. Then I figured I was full-fledged and I worked with different companies. Holder: What was your general feeling toward the service? Bedard: Toward the service? Holder: Yeah. Bedard: Well it's like when I joined a while ago, I had no trouble I was satisfied. I only had one thing in mind: "do what he says." I mean the officers, ya know? If he gave you an order, you carry it out! Because if you didn't, they'd give you the gun!2 (Laughs). Holder: I see. Bedard: Were you in the service? Let me ask you that. Holder: No, I'm still a student. (Holder and Bedard have a side conversation, interview cuts to next section) Holder: What uhh, what type of benefits did you receive in the service? Any bonuses of that nature? Bedard: No. 2 Not sure if Bedard is joking here, perhaps means that there would be strict disciplinary action. Holder: You never got a bonus for serving in the First World War? Bedard: No, the only bonus they gave us was 60 dollars when we got out. Holder: That was your bonus? Bedard: That was our bonus. Holder: Not even a ticket to go home on the train? Bedard: They paid the fares. Holder: Did you see any service in World War II? Bedard: No. Holder No? Just World War I. You joined the Legion [American Legion] when? Bedard: Oh well I joined a post in downtown, when I first came out of the service. Oh I stayed in there for a number of years in somewhere or other, it all slid away from me. Then when the 4293 started, I transferred here. Now I'm with the 429 in Cleghorn4. But, I belonged to WW1 vets. It's like a uhh, you can't call it an association, uhh, what would you call it? Holder: Just a group I guess. Bedard: That's right. And I belonged to these too. Holder: Why did you join the American Legion? Bedard: Why? 3 Another chapter of the American Legion most likely. 4 Neighborhood in Fitchburg. Holder: Yeah. Bedard: Well, it seemed to be a pretty good outfit to join. Holder: What uh, what do you see as the role of the American Legion? What do you think of its purpose? Bedard: Well it's a pretty good idea isn't it? You have well uh, Ed! (calling to person in background.) Ed: Yeah? Bedard: What would you call the American Legion? Ed: Well ummm, I'd call it an American program. Uhhhhh, I'd say they serve as kind of watchdogs for veterans. From World War II onward they've become more active than before (unintelligible). Civic programs (unintelligible) youth activities (unintelligible) they're very very active in these areas along with uhh, also you might say that the uhh veterans programs they're distributed on a state basis and a national basis (unintelligible). And of course they're very active for the disabled veterans (unintelligible) (much of this man's comments are unintelligible as the audio quality gets steadily worse over the course of his monologue). Ed: So that basically, (unintelligible). Bedard: When you think of that whole WW1, I belong to that also. It's similar to the American Legion. I dunno if you call em' benefits in a way, in WW1 (support group) we have our rituals, we have flowers and what not in case one member dies. That man's wife and family would come and meet, and they'd talk to her and what not. Holder: Did you ever lose any friends in the First World War? Any friends or anybody you knew of personally? Bedard: Well, of the two that left there was three of us. That worked at the company at the time. We left together, and we got as far as Boston. I went one way, they went their way depending what they were rolled up for. I don't know what they enlisted as, I knew what I had but I was sent to Newport Rhode Island. And I don't know where they went. Holder: Did you have any friends that died in the war? Bedard: You mean from here? Holder: Yeah, soldiers, aircorps that sort of thing. Bedard: No I don't think so. Holder: If you had one last thing to think about, thinking back to the time of the First World War. You know, what was happening or going on while you were working in Boston or Newport or whatever, what would it be if you had one thing you would think back on. Bedard: Well the last place I was before discharge was Chelsea navy yard. And for things that I heard about from what was happening over there, I never heard of anything interesting. You'd hear things like "oh I wouldn't go over there if I didn't have to" and things like that. Course' war was war! And of course what happens over there nobody over here would hear or read right? Holder: A couple of people I talked to mentioned they hadn't gone overseas and they wanted to, would you have rather served overseas or stayed here in the United States? Bedard: Well listen, I haven't heard of anybody asking to go overseas. You know? But, if I was destined to go, I would have gone, naturally. You would have yourself. Holder: Yeah I suppose. Bedard: Yeah, sure! It's as I said before, whatever they say goes ya know. Holder: Well thank you very much. (Interview Ends)