Days of scooters and scooting

As the Great Depression was winding down, I received my first great toy, a scooter with a foot brake. I never received a bike, which was No. 1 on my wish list.

The nickname scooter reminds me of my World War II combat experience as a U.S. Navy sailor aboard USS LST 582 in the Asiatic Pacific theater of action. Under general-quarters combat conditions, my shipmates and I scooted to our gun stations, or work areas.

I was generally on a 20 mm anti-aircraft gun or had to go down to a main or auxiliary engine room, which had steel rung ladders about half the height of a telephone pole. I had to remember to grab the sides of the ladder and not the rungs of it for fear of my hands being stepped on by my shipmates as they scooted down after me.

Today at 88, I don’t get on a stepladder.

Keeping slim

During my WWII scooter days, I was 20 and 21. This exercise and sea sickness was a weight-loss program at its finest. The Great Depression also provided a “free of charge” weight reduction program. Today there are weight-loss regimen plans galore on TV.

I entered the U.S. Navy on May 17, 1943, weighing 170 pounds and was honorably discharged on February 20, 1946, at 160 pounds. I actually started to lose the weight after a tough six-week boot camp training session at Great Lakes Naval Training Station in May and June of 1943.

Compared to the Army and Marine troops we carried, our food was good. They would give me a can of their K rations once in a while.

Mission log

We had the 37th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army for about a month on the way to the Jan. 9, 1945, D-Day invasion of Luzon (Lingayen Gulf) in the Philippine Islands. The First Marine Division was aboard for about a month on the way to the April 1, 1945, D-Day invasion of Okinawa.

The U.S. Navy, Army and Marines got along just fine. And the word “obese” was unheard of.

Michael J. Lacivita is a Youngstown retiree and a member of the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame and Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame.