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Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project
Oral History Interview
Veteran: Chet Trybus
Interview Length: (46.19)
Interviewed by Michael McGregor
Transcribed by Chloe Dingens
Interviewer: Today we’re interviewing Chet Trybus of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The
interviewer is Michael McGregor with the Grand Valley State University's Veteran Oral
History Project. To begin Chet, when and where were you born?
I was born March 16th, 1945. During World War II actually, in Highland Park, Michigan just
outside Detroit.
Interviewer: Okay and what did your parents do?
Well my dad was a TV service repair manager For the Good Housekeeping shops in Detroit. Sort
of like the equivalent to like the ABC Warehouses of today but he did the radios and TV repairs.
Interviewer: Okay and did your mother work outside of the home?
Nope, she never worked outside of the house. She raised five boys and lived in Detroit my whole
life. I was born and raised within eyesight of the old Tiger Stadium, which is now a vacant piece
of property.
Interviewer: Yeah, okay where did you go to school then in Detroit?
Detroit, I went to grade school at a place called St. Luke's, grade school in West Side Detroit.
And then to Detroit Catholic Central. Graduated right from there in 1963.
(1.10)
Interviewer: Was that when Detroit Catholic Center was in Detroit?
Actually, it was, yeah. Now it's in Wixom, Michigan.
Interviewer: Yeah.
�Yeah.
Interviewer: Okay, what do you recall about growing up in Highland Park.
Well actually it was West Side Detroit where I grew up. Well, I, since the age of eight I had a
newspaper route. Routes plural, from The Shopping Daily News, to Detroit news, Detroit Free
Press and I drove a truck for the Free Press. Basically, it was a real nice neighborhood type of
atmosphere. A lot of kids play together, very different than from today, you could walk to
school. You could not worry about being on the outside at night and so forth. It was a good time,
I had a good time going up there.
Interviewer: Okay and then after high school what did you do?
(1.53)
Well after high school I went to Henry Ford Community College and that was a full-time, and I
also drove a truck at night for The Detroit Free Press and delivered all over metropolitan area
newspapers to stations at night. I actually, when I was at Henry Ford Community College there, I
had a full credit load, which was more than 12 hours in 1964. In 1965 I dropped to part-time
because I had more hours at the Free Press driving the truck and then I was reclassified because
that was during that time when the military would- you'd be reclassified if- you could stay in
college if you had 12 hours or more and then after graduation going active duty. Well I fell
below twelve hours and so I was reclassified immediately and- and so I got a notice from the
draft board and I says, “oh no I'm below 12 hours what am I gonna do?” So, I went to the draft
board downtown Detroit and I talked to the guy in charge of it and I says, you know trying to
validate is this correct and so forth. He says, “well yeah.” And I says, “well I really can't serve
on active duty,” and he said, “why not?” I says, “I got a bad case of acne.” And this guy did a
double take, he kind of chuckled and he said, “no I'm sorry, you’re- you can serve in the
�military.” And so, what happened was, there was four buddies of mine down the street. I lived on
Ohio Street on the west side Detroit that we all got our notice to report for our armed forces
physical exam, examination on July 16th, 1965 at a place called Fort Wayne. Which was an old
fort, during I guess colonial times, but it was at the foot of Livernois and Fort Street in Detroit.
So, we went down there for our physicals and I'll never forget during that time, what sticks in my
mind, you know how things stick in your mind; I was going through with a hernia check. There
was a line of about 300 of us being examined for hernias, there was a glass plate in front of us
and then the doctor would examine us. The guy in front of me, when the doctor said “cough,” he
would not cough, and he asked him two more times to cough and he didn't. He said look, “if you
don't cough the next time to examine you for a hernia,” he says, “you're going to the Brig.” So,
he coughed, and the things moved on. So, I was kind of concerned about, because everybody that
I knew of went to Vietnam immediately. And I was kind of like in that stage in my life where I
wanted a complete college, but how do I do that? So, I talked to someone else and he said, “you
know why don’t you try the Naval Reserve?” So, there was a Naval Reserve station on Jefferson
Avenue in Detroit. So, the week following my army physical I went down there and signed up
for the Naval Reserve. And it was back in- to August of 65 and of course, when the Naval
Reserve you get yourself the proverbial Blue Jackets manual. The how-to, everything to know
about the military, how to dress, and so forth, and ships that you might be on, and so forth. So, I
got that and that was kind of fun and so what happened there was, afterwards I was still in
college because I was deferred through college now, they told me for the Naval Reserve you
could, even though it was in 1965 my targeted graduation day was December of 68. So, I could
say in The Naval Reserve with the understanding that you would spend two weeks of active duty
for training every year prior to going on active duty. So, my first boot camp was actually in
�December of the- of 1965. So in between my college break I went to Great Lakes, Illinois for my
boot- boot camp and it was quite interesting, we're like a dorm style boot camp. Probably I think
it was, I don't know probably close to maybe 100 guys here. And this happens to be me… wait
where am I located here? (Holding up photo) Right here, right close to the chief petty officer
there. And I was the storekeeper there, so I had some extra duties, but extra privileges because of
that. And after that I went back to school of course at Western Michigan University where I got
my undergraduate degree in 68. And then the next summer, which was the summer of 66, I did
my first 2-week active duty for training at Great Lakes, Illinois and we were required to be on a
ship for a while. So right on Lake Michigan they had a ship called The Porridge, it was a patrol
craft escort ship. And so, all of us recruits went out there to training to get on the ship and of
course they got me on the, they sat me in the tort of a- a 2...
Interviewer: 40 millimeter?
(6.35)
Well it could have been. These the- the shells were about this round (showing hand motion).
They had- they had a cartridge of them, about 16 of them, and so the- the guy who was the
gunners mate said, “okay you're gonna aim for this 55-gallon barrel out there in Lake Michigan.”
So, I was the pointer, the pointer and a trainer and I was pointing the gun and my foot was on the
trigger basically to start shooting the rounds and I was getting close to the barrel in terms of
trying to hit it direct, and you know and make a score. But it I just couldn't get there, so I stopped
shooting and all of a sudden, the gunner's mate yelled, “clear the deck.” And I said, “what is
going on?” He says, “wasn't that a jam and you're in your gun?” I says, “no I just wanted to point
a little bit better.” And he says, “you could have got us all killed.” So, they never kept me on the-
�the pointer round for the turret anymore. So, I just went back, for the day, we were just out there
for the day. And do that little round there it was kind of interesting. The...
(7.37)
Interviewer: If I can interject then you- you joined the Navy Reserve.
Yes.
Interviewer: You- you went to the reserve center; they gave you the Blue Jackets Manual.
Yeah, yeah.
Interviewer: And equipment … between then and one you had to go to Great Lakes the
first time, did you have to go to meetings once a month?
Oh, absolutely. Yeah absolutely.
Interviewer: What did those consist of?
Well they basically take you through the- the regiment of the military. Understand the rules of
the Navy and so forth and the processes procedures if you will. The formal things on saluting and
standing at ease and all that stuff. And essentially understanding the process of the Navy and
how it kind of works from the enlisted guy on up so, you'd understand that. There’d be various
fastest of the training month-to-month that you'd go to, so throughout the entire year I'd be going
to 12 meetings. Plus, I would be going to two weeks of active duty for training and usually the
summertime.
(8.33)
Interviewer: Now in, in- in your Reserve Component where there are other people had
already served and are staying in the Navy or was it just all individuals like yourself?
Who…
�Yeah it was fellows try to get out of the active duty to go to Vietnam per se. But we knew we
had to serve but we’re by and large everybody I was with was in college of some degree yeah.
Interviewer: Okay so when you were at Western you were still going to the meetings and
that and did you have to go back to the Detroit area?
Nope, we had a… fortunately we had a reserve location in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Interviewer: Okay so you did that there.
And one of my commanding officers there was actually, taught at Western Michigan University.
Interviewer: Okay.
So, we did that. It was quite easy for me to do it because the meetings I think lasted about two or
three hours each night.
Interviewer: Okay so you- you went there for basically two years then?
(9.29)
I was there, let’s see, I started Western Michigan in 65 and then 68. Oh, one more thing I want to
mention to you. During this time of course, I mentioned the Free Press. Kind of the highlight of
my working there was in 1967 the riots in Detroit. My particular route that evening of the riots
which was a Saturday night before Sunday morning started was 12 Street where the riots started.
And during the next three or four days, we'd go out on caravans in these yellow trucks delivering
newspapers at night. And to our newspaper stations and the trucks were being fired upon by
snipers. One guy got on the back of my truck and at 45 miles an hour he fell off because I- he
was gonna try and hijack my truck when I was driving it. So, that was in 67. So, between the
Naval Reserve working and so forth, quite interesting. Then in 68, July of 68 I married my high
school sweetheart I met at Western Michigan and that was getting near the time of graduation at
Western. Which was then what would have been active duty shortly thereafter in April of 69.
�And my wife became pregnant shortly thereafter and we- I graduated in 68. December of 68 and
then in February of 68 just before active duty we lost our baby she was born, lived 27 hours. And
we had a barrier her in an unmarked grave in Kalamazoo which was quite a blow for the entire
family, including myself. So, about that time I got notice from the Navy that you, I had a choice
of serving two years of active duty in Vietnam or through your stateside. Well given the fact we
went through this major trauma in our lives, I elected to do three years of active duty. Starting in
April of 69 and they gave me a choice of Omaha, someplace in North Carolina, or Great Lakes,
Illinois and I says, “Great Lakes.” So, that was north of Chicago. And I says, “well you know it's
not too far from the family from Detroit basically, versus Omaha. So, let's go there.” So, lo and
behold we packed up our bags from Western Michigan University and lived in married housing
and took my car down on the interstate and of course it overheated, and we had to trying to limp
our way to Great Lakes, Illinois. In advance of that we were given some notifications of where
do you stay? Because we're husband and wife together. So, we had to rent a third-floor apartment
in Waukegan, Illinois not too far from Great Lakes. And then till my application cleared to get
base housing. We got the base housing three months later it was pre-World War II officer
housing. And it was a, something you would not live in today because it has the asbestos
sighting. It had compliments of mice and roaches and dirty walls and… but it was our place. We
live across the street from some barracks and in the summertime, we'd hear revelry going on
across the street for the recruits, but this was actually married housing. So, we live there for the
entire time and interestingly enough the high cost of that to me, it was fifty-four dollars and
thirty-five cents a month which included all utilities; heat, light, and all that good stuff. And we
had a good time there. In fact, I can remember one of our parties of the seven other families that
lived in our housing unit. We had a summertime party and we went through 47 ears of corn, had
�of course roast the corn, and 18 bottles of wine. So, the next morning was kind of a highlight of
our day, is waking up to corn.
(13.06)
Interviewer: Now before you want an act of duty, while you're still doing the reserves how
much of the time of your meetings were spent on physical training and physical fitness?
Actually, virtually nothing. We did do, I remember in boot camp we had to go through
swimming exercise and that sort of thing but we, unlike the military, the army and so forth, or
Marines, we never had, you know to the degree of physical stuff that you guys went through. I
know, we never had that.
Interviewer: Okay.
So, we're all sizes of people that were in the Navy at that time. From the slim to the big.
Interviewer: And at the time that you got your draft notice what, which prompted you to
join The Naval Reserve. How aware were you of Vietnam?
Oh very.
Interviewer: Because it was 1965, our involvement was just escalating at that point.
(13.59)
We had friends, neighbors that had died there prior to me going on active duty or being drafted.
So, I had an awareness of that, you know it was something that was looking ugly out there, and I
was trying to hopefully out live it by going through college, but it never happened that way
because it didn’t end until the seventies so.
Interviewer: So now you, you're at Great Lakes, so you’re out of college, you’re what an
E3?
�I was an E4. I had an E4 over four years, so I had some stripes on my arms that showed every,
you know every four years you get a stripe and so forth, so I was an E4 over four. And I went
directly to my first assignment and only assignment in the Navy was at the Commandant ninth
Naval District building at Great Lakes the building one they call it. Where they- they have all the
graduation ceremonies in front of it and I was assigned to a job called a fiscal liaison accountant.
Basically, in our group, active duty for training that was the assign two-week training duty for
officers enlisted in which we'd process about 20,000 orders per year. And I was involved with
literally just pricing out pay. Travel per diem for each one of those and then at the end of the year
do an accounting of all, basically a six-million-dollar budget that I was kind of responsible for
tracking. And we did that we had an office of about 35 people there. Had enlisted people, had an
officer, commanding officer, and we had civilians that worked along with us. And of course, the
old style we had ditto machines and all that good stuff to crank out the orders and so forth. Kind
of an interesting highlight of that particular stay, we made a lot of good friends. Friends that
were from Alaska, from the south, from the Midwest, we stay close to today. It was a very nice
environment, collegial environment. I had one of my several commanding officers complimented
me on my abilities to speak and write and so forth and do my job, but he said regarding, how’d
he put it? Let's see he said something regarding my future and the Navy he said (reading,) “his
potential as a storekeeper is excellent.” Which I was a storekeeper. “However, his military
capabilities are lacking.” What he was- had a problem with, he had brush haircut. One of my
several commanding officers and at that time there was a Chief of Naval Operations called
Admiral Zumwalt and Admiral Zumwalt used to call what they call the Z Grams on what- how
he felt about that- how people should work and- and participate in the Navy. And he said that
basically, “enlisted people were allowed to have sideburns down to the bottom of their earlobes.”
�Well, my commanding officer having a brush haircut, being a very-very military guy, he had a
real problem with that. So, we would always give him a little bit of jive by, you know one day I
said to my commanding officer I said, “you know what, basically you’re a radical sir.” And he
says, “what do you mean?” I said, “you’ve got a brush haircut, we don't have a brush haircut.”
So, I think that stuck with him, but I had a good time. I had good commanding officers there. We
had- we got along well we could speak person-to-person without having the enlisted versus an
officer thing. Even though I respected that position, we still had that opportunity to work with
them. One of the funny things about that office I'll never forget; Bertha, one of the gals that work
there. An elderly lady, she went to the bathroom one day and so she came back, and everybody
was looking at her because when she walked by us, she had her dress tucked in her panties and
she didn't know that until she sat down on her cold chair. And then everybody looked around.
We had some good times there. It was a good, we'd get together at night and so forth, but I did
also work during that time, in the Navy. At- at Citizen Lobank,I was in the credit department and
an experience... I'd do that, I would be going to school... by the way I was working on my
master's degree on active duty. Just one block from my house, Roosevelt University, had a
program for public administration and so I wanted, I attended that to work on it. But the other
nights I’d work at the credit department because I think- when I got out of the service my net, my
gross pay was four thousand bucks a year. Yeah, so, I need it every penny I could get my hands
around. We even bought a Volkswagen back then for sixteen hundred and fifty bucks and I
needed every penny to pay for that thing. But one day in the credit department, I used to whistle
like a bird and so I had seven crowns’ put in my mouth. I could do a real great sound for a
songbird. So, I was in the credit department and I started whistling like a bird. My buddies knew
I could whistle, and it sounded realistic and my credit manager had a big vented grate above on a
�wall above him, and he thought there was a bird caught on this grate. So, what does he do? He
calls maintenance and they unscrew this 50-year-old grate which falls to the floor. And he's
standing there with a fish net trying to catch this bird and nothing comes out, so word got around.
So, the next time I went to work the next day he said to me, “do you whistle like a bird by
chance?” I says, “oh no sir.” He says, “but if you did,” he says, “never do this again.” [Laughter]
(19.09)
Interviewer: So, he knew. Now at Great Lakes you were- you were processing the...
Orders.
Interviewer: The orders for what? It was recruits that finished training there, or people
who were getting out of the service, or what?
No, people who had served on active duty or had the requirement of serving two-week active
duty for training per year. Those were officers and enlisted people so I we- we would then create
the destination, put them on a ship someplace, or a naval district someplace, and then I’d price
them out from where they're coming from and to, and give them the pay for that, and the travel,
and the per diem, the cost of that two-week training duty. And as I mentioned over 20,000 orders
we processed per year, high turnaround of paper.
Interviewer: What was the average workday like for you there?
Well it- you'd get there at eight o'clock and you'd leave at five quite frankly. And then you'd have
your staff watch duties. I had a couple of duties; I'd have to staff, I'd have to stand in or, it was an
office, staff watch office at building one commodious office usually on the weekends like a
Saturday over Sunday. One night, I'll never forget this, it was 2:30 on a Sunday morning and the
base red phone rings next- on my desk.
�Interviewer: What was the red phone?
(20.29)
That was that was the Admiral’s phone. If he called you immediately picked that up and he lived
just behind our building, so I got a 2:30 in the morning got a call from the Admiral’s wife this is
Admiral Renken, R-e-n-k-e-n his wife said, “there’s an intruder in our kitchen please get help.”
Well my chief petty officer was on the couch, you know we had a couch, office had a couch and
recliner and so forth and I says, “chief there’s an intruder in the Admiral’s quarters what do I
do?” He started stuttering, he couldn't get himself together. So, he says, “talk to the Jag officer
Judge Advocate,” our Attorney officer was in the next room sleeping which was the protocol.
Woke him up he says, “pick up the black bass phone and call security.” Well I did that, as soon
as I did that the colonel, the marine colonel who was next to the Admiral’s quarters was notified
that there was an intruder. So, he automatically picked up his phone had called the Marine
barracks kitty-corner to our building and- and it was like 2:30 in the morning so the Marines
were just coming in off of a… a good soda pop evening. And those guys had just come in from
rotation from Vietnam, and he says to these guys, “find this intruder and do not go to sleep until
you find them.” Well that was 2:30 on a Sunday morning. They found this guy at 4:00 p.m. on a
Monday afternoon on the ravine next to Lake Michigan. It turns out that there was a marine on
the beach he was heavily drinking, and he was hungry around 2:30 in the morning and he looked
up the ravine and saw this light and a- a house like. And so, he says, “I’m gonna go up there and
get some food.” So, he walked up in his skivvies, was in the kitchen of the Admiral’s quarters,
and Admiral’s wife came down and get him a glass of milk because he had a hard time sleeping
that evening. She walks in, here's a guy in his skivvies who’s going through her refrigerator
looking for food. She screamed, he bolted down the ravine and hid in the ravine for about a day
�and a half. Well when the guys found them, they were upset because they were not allowed to go
to sleep, they just come back from Vietnam, so they were really kind of gung-ho to do this stuff.
They found the guy, worked him over a little bit, threw him in the brig, and because of his
opportunity to be in the Admiral’s quarters, he had an opportunity to go back and do another
round in Vietnam, because of that. Well that was my involvement with the Marines on the base.
It was, we had a good relationship actually.
Interviewer: How big was the Marine’s Contingent on the…
(22.43)
Well let's see there's probably 300 there, yeah. And I'll never forget one time during May of 1970
of all things, during, they called it ‘Mayday.’ And- and our base had a fencing around it and
hippies were going to try and invade our property to quote, “show the anti-war thing.” Well I can
tell you that the Marines protect us very well and that the hippies never really made it over the
fence. Hippies were kind of an interesting group because I had run across them as well when I
was at, I had a run the Admiral and his commanding officers and so forth to O'Hare Airport, and
one day I was there and standing outside our car, waiting for the Admiral to come out to get in
his car to go back to the base. One hippy came up to me and spit on the ground in front of me
and started cursing me because of the Vietnam thing and anti-military talk and so forth. So, I saw
that more than one time though from the hippies of that era. You know the 60s and early 70s so
quite-quite fascinating. My wife had our first baby, our second baby at Great Lakes Naval
Hospital, cost us five bucks. It was… and where we were in the base, we'd hear helicopters
coming in from medevac, from Vietnam, guys come in for… It was a major hospital, the ninth
naval district hospital. And this, so they'd fly and land on the roof of the house, we'd hear them
every day, day and night, coming in from Vietnam you know injured people. One day I was
�doing staff watch office call, and I got a casualty assistance call from Vietnam. A chief petty
officer had died while entertaining a call girl from Vietnam and so I asked my jag officer the,
Attorney, Judge Advocate General Officer what should I do? And writing up this report he says
well we would just put down he died on, on active duty because then he will get benefits for his
family. Because...
Interviewer: He was on active duty.
(24.40)
Yeah. Well he was he died was smile on his face I'm sure. Let's see, what else do I have here?
We had inspections the first time I was there, we had a stand in order, ranks in order. I had my
dress whites on, my white jumper and so forth and my wife was not really up to speed on how to
press and iron the uniforms. Even though I did that she said, “no I'll take care of that for you.”
So, during the inspection the commanding officers looked at me and he said, “you've got stains
on your collar, not good.” And then she did... the Navy is dressed the- the dress whites. Pants
the- the creases are on the side of the pants, not like the front like very good business people
would. And so, the crease is wrong and a scorch for my collar and so from that point on she said,
“that's it. I'm not doing any more of your stuff, you got to take it to Mary's cleaners across the
base at- in North Chicago.” So, from that point on all my inspections were very good for that
from that point on, but I learned a lot during the service. Had good relationships with all the
people. Understood the value of how we supported the troops over Vietnam through our active
duty for training office, our segment of the business. It was quite gratifying for us quite frankly.
(25.58)
Interviewer: How often did you have to stand inspection?
�Once a month, I would have to be usually a Saturday night over Sunday and that was a long
shift, but it was in an office. I had a chief petty officer next to me and a lieutenant that would
always serve along with me. So, we were just basically doing paperwork from some other
contingent within that building because the building actually housed about 300 military and
civilian people that actually were the headquarters for the ninth naval district. Basically, covering
most of the United States quite frankly. And let's see, what else…
Interviewer: Did your office function just on one shift? Or were people processing orders
and that kind, on a night shift?
No, we're basically a one shift operation. Rare occasion where we had the opportunity to process
more paperwork, but it was very rare. You know because we had employees that had to punch in
on their timecards, for these were non-military types, and then us we just show up for work on
time.
(27.03)
Interviewer: Well in your office what was a ratio between service people and civiliancivilian employs?
I would say out of 35 I think we had about 10 military, and the rest were civilians. It was- back
then it was a lot of paper-pushing we did not have computers per se although that we had the first
onset of the first internet through the military, but I never worked with that. I worked just
basically things with ditto copies and correcting things like that and moving paper from this desk
to that desk and then I would get them, and then process the pricing on that, and send it over to
the building across the way from us. Which would then actually physically set up the airline
tickets and so forth and get the people on their two-week active duty for training.
�Interviewer: Would you disperse the cash? Or was that done in another office?
We never handled any cash at all, no. It was just strictly a paperwork thing. Get the orders and
get him down there and so forth.
Interviewer: And that was basically your duties for the…
My job.
Interviewer: The years and…
(28.07)
Yeah, I would price it up and I would run a tally of what was being spent and then give that to
the commanding officer so that he could provide it to the Admiral on an as-needed basis. One of
things I've got to talk about too is the fact that I mentioned that I worked on my master's degree
for Roosevelt University of Chicago. I graduated there in January of 72 and during the
graduation, Secretary General of the United Nations U. Thant, U period-T-H-A-N-T, was theour guest speaker. And so, I was walking across the stage to get my diploma and I stood a little
bit longer with U. Thant and some, afterwards my buddies in the audience said, “why did you
take longer than the other people to get your degree?” I said, “well I asked him what the letter ‘u’
meant in his name.” All kidding aside, I had a little fun with that.
Interviewer: So, you were able to get your master’s while you were on active duty?
(29.03)
I did, that was my… and as my mother said, “I never thought you could get a master's degree.”
She didn't have that confidence, but I guess when you… you're married and so forth and you're
getting into next phase of life. I wanted to go well beyond what I… you know I… Oh one thing,
I try to get in the officer corps in the Navy back in 66, just a year after I was joining a reserve,
but I found out I was colorblind. I could not tell the difference between red and green and of
�course on a ship it’s, you see the buoy red, right, and returning or green. Or if I was on the
aircraft carrier it could cause a real calamity if I didn't know the difference between red and
green which I did not. So, unfortunately, I had to stay an enlisted guy and that's why I figured if I
could not be an officer, which my wife wanted me to stay in the military for 20 years. Then I
should do something else and I thought at one time I was going to be a city manager, that's why I
took public administration. Only to find out I ended up at Xerox Corporation right after the
service. So much for public administration.
Interviewer: Now when you were in graduate school, did the Navy provide tuition
assistance? How did it work?
(30.10)
They did they, it was interesting it was $64 a credit hour which I thought was outrageous back
then, but they provided 75% of the- the funding for that. And I had to croft out the other 25
which meant I did work at Sears, like I mentioned at night in order to help with that, so I didn't
have to leave with a loan at all. And back then there were really no student loans, back then.
Interviewer: So, you were a pretty busy guy, your full-time shift at The Great Lakes,
working at Sears at night, and I presume your classes were at night.
I gotta tell you one thing about the classes, I was the only enlisted guy there. The rest were
commanding officers and captains and lieutenants and so forth. Well during my class, I got to
know the professor pretty well and what I could expect on the exams. Well one time we took an
exam and I aced the exam; I got a hundred percent on it. Well because the rest of them are did so
poorly he you set a curve and a bunch of the higher-ranking officers flunked the- the quiz. So,
the very next class they looked at me with kind of like this sting in their eyes like how could this
�little enlisted guy beat us out of our grade. You know, they'd gone to all these different schools,
but I thought I was pretty proud of that, that I could smoke out the officers.
Interviewer: How… going to school obviously, did you go in civilian clothes?
(31.27)
I had the choice, I could go in civilian but usually I walked I, I just came out of work at five
o'clock and my classes started at six, so I just stayed in uniform.
Interviewer: So, they knew you were a…?
Oh yeah, they knew I was one of the kids.
Interviewer: Yeah, and that gave you a good sense of satisfaction.
It did, I said you know what, I may not be able to be a lifelong officer here, but I can sure beat
them in the quizzes.
Interviewer: Why did you wife want you to stay in the service?
She loved it! She absolutely loved going to commissary and all the things provided for her and
so forth. And- and she had no clue about the future you know per se, but she did like…
everybody was congenial and- and was good, it was good toward us. And she felt really warm
with the friendships we made and that this is really the kind of life she wanted…
Interviewer: Okay.
And I says, “I'm not gonna be full-time enlisted guy for my entire life.” But she said afterwards,
“you should have joined the Naval Reserves.” In retrospect that might have been a good thing
because I could have been- been getting some- some retirement benefits from that so… That's
water over the dam though, turned out to be just fine afterwards.
Interviewer: Okay so your tours winding down, so what ideas did you have? You said you
wanted to be a city manager; did you pursue?
�I did, I looked at that. There was a city manager from Glencoe, Illinois that was one of my
instructors buddy, but he also was a good friend, and we were talking about getting into that kind
of job but at that time city manager was making about eight thousand bucks a year, which was
twice what I was making in the military and I figured well that’s not a whole lot of money. Until
you got into your ten year as a city manager. So, my brother at the time worked at Xerox and he
said, “why don’t you interview at Xerox?” So, while I’m on active duty one of my leaves I came
to Detroit to interview for a job as a sales rep for Xerox. And eventually got into Xerox, I was
told I could start a week after I got out of the military and moved to Lansing, Michigan. They
had a spot for me starting the very next week after I got out of the military. So, I stayed with
them for 24 years and retired from there.
Interviewer: So, you left when you got out of the service that was the end of your service
obligation or did you have to stay in the inactive duty for a while?
(33.45)
No, I hadn't fulfilled all that time from the 2 August 65 until the April 9th of 72. I had enough
years. Seven years.
Interviewer: Yeah you had you six years.
Yeah it was good to stay, good memories about them, I’ll never forget; one time my wife was
just about ready to deliver on December 27, 1970. We went to the commissary there was about
400 recruits that are in line and here she was walking down toward the commissary and the chief
petty officer says, “gangway let this pregnant lady through.” And so, we had a great meal two
days before the baby came. Yeah it was good, oh one other thing about the Navy; officers got a
little bit better medical care than we did. In that I had a cavity in my front tooth so when I'm on
�base and he says, “well your enlisted guy, so we’ll have to put a silver filling right here in the
front tooth.” I said, “what do you give officers?” He says, “well we do porcelain.” So, I had to go
off base and spend an extra 20- 30 bucks to get a porcelain filling put in my front tooth because
enlisted guys did not get porcelain fillings.
Interviewer: Oh really?
I thought that was hilarious and now what other things come to mind, I can remember seeing all
the graduation ceremonies in front of my office in the summertime, through my window of the
recruits that are coming through. And then going on active duty from Great Lakes. It was quitequite nice quite formal. I enjoyed that part of it. Military I had no problem with actually.
(35.17)
Interviewer: Well now you’re at Great Lakes during the 68 on?
Well technically, technically 69 through 72.
Interviewer: 69-72 so Vietnam was kind of... I think we made the decision by then to kind
of disengage. What was the- what was the feeling on the base about Vietnam and the...?
Well we were participants in supporting that and we did not have any quote “disgruntled folks”
that would show their faces. Back then that was I was a no- no you never did that even if you
felt, I knew a couple guys I worked with that were kind of bent that way. Toward, you know, we
shouldn't be in Vietnam, but they never voiced it in front of the commanding officers or anything
else, but they never did show any kind of disdain for that at all, because we were full fullblooded military people.
Interviewer: Was, was there anything like hey, if you screw up, I’m going to send you to
Vietnam kind of mindset there among some of the senior petty officers?
(36.21)
�No not really, well let's see. In my group because we had to claim a contract for an extra year
you stay there- there was never that discussion, because they knew what my contract was.
Basically my- my from and to dates on my order to serve there. So, there was no talk about if
you don't do this I mean.
Interview: Really? Did they, did- I know in the army state side bases would get a levy if
they didn’t have, you know they needed so many people in Vietnam with so many MOS’s.
Sure.
Interview: And if they couldn’t fill that with people finishing training and volunteering to
go over or whatever then each base got a- a levy.
Oh really.
Interviewer: And said, “okay we need X, you know with these MOS’s.” That ever take
place there?
Never ever, not in those three years I was there, and there was no talk about that either.
Interviewer: Of course, yeah, I think being in the Navy as well, and being in an
administrative position, I don't think too much, too many administrative things happen in
Vietnam in the Navy anyway they…
Not that I'm aware of, other than being on ship or yeah, yeah.
Interview: So, after Xerox what did you do? Did you stay in the Lansing area the whole
time where you were with Xerox?
(37.41)
No, we moved from Lansing to Jackson, Michigan and I was there until I moved to Rochester,
New York in 1980 to go at work at corporate in marketing, and then Xerox being like most big
companies, we got rid of 2,000 people one Christmas eve in 1981. And I came to Grand Rapids,
�Michigan for the first time and managed the office here at Xerox for several years but remain
with them for a total of 24 years.
Interview: And then you retired?
Now one of my several retirements, yes, from Xerox immediately went to work for a company
called Sun Garcon the IT disaster recovery. Going on five years, and then they were sold out to a
private hedge fund and then I went to another company as a sales manager there and they werewent out of business after 138 years. So, it seems like every business I started working for and
started going out of business. So right now, I teach full-time at Ferris State University in Big
Rapids, Michigan. I teach business courses there.
Interview: How long have you been teaching?
(38.43)
I started teaching in 1974 at Jackson Community College my boss at Xerox said, “do you want to
teach at college?” I says, “well I've got a master's degree, where at?” He said, “four thousand
Cooper Street.” I said, “that's the state prison,” so I taught for five years for the community
college but three years at the prison until one day… I oh I gotta rewind the tape a little bit, my
first day at the prison I walked into the guard.
Interviewer: When was this?
It was in 1974.
Interviewer: 1974.
And I still have my prison ID badge, which cause a little havoc because I had to walk in front of
200 new residents to the prison to get my photo shot before they did. But anyway, the first day I
walked to, got on campus in the prison to teach for Jackson Community College. They said,
“take all your jewelry and everything off. Just I want your driver's license and your prison ID
�badge.” So, I walked in there and the prison said, a guard said to me he said, “well before you go
in, I'm gonna have to put this fluorescent dye in your, on your, on your hands,” so he did a letter
A here. I said, “what’s that?” “Letter A, look underneath the fluorescent light it shows a letter
A.” He said, “well why would you do that?” He says, “well sir” he says, “assume that you're in
here and your clothing was acquired.” I'm thinking one and one is two, clothing’s acquired, they
found my hand in the hallway. Well I used to teach here, I stopped teaching at the prison after
my work hours at Xerox when I had a major fight in my class one day where knives were pulled,
blood was drawn, 30 guys were fighting and I called the Dean the next day says “get me off this
campus, I do not want to die here.” From that point forward all my colleges, I've taught now at
five colleges I never had a problem like at Jackson Community College, it was always better.
Interview: Other than the riot in your classroom, how did- how did you feel the students
received what you were trying to do?
(40.29)
It was fascinating, that for them was the cream of the crop to go to college while being as a
resident, you're not a prisoner, you're a resident. Because here's the deal back then in 74, state of
Michigan with all the fully loaded cost for each of those students, cost us fifteen thousand bucks,
the state fifteen thousand bucks per student and I felt that because, here's how I saw if you were
going to college in prison you would get up, have breakfast, go work out a little bit, go to the
library, study, and go to class. You did not do the laundry, do license plates, or any of the menial
stuff. So, this was like the creme de la creme of the population, but you could tell some people
were absorbing my business courses and others weren't. I had one guy who's quote “roommate”
if you will, this guy was about six foot six his roommate is about five three and he used to cheat
on him during the exams and I’d look at this guy he's looking right down in his answers to the
�exam. So, this big guy did not want to have a confrontation, so I figured at the end of semester
the big guy got a D- and the little guy got an A. To shame for that guy, I never confronted him,
although I had the power within the class like a guard to say you go here, you go there. I had a
couple guys who were holding hands walking in one day and I said, “look you sit here and you
there and don't say a word.” So, I had that power but with regard to having homemade knives in
class and that, I was I could, I could have been a victim quite frankly.
Interview: Well was there a guard in the classroom when you…
No, actually when I fight started, I had a guest speaker in the classroom that was going to take
over for me when I went on vacation the next week. We went right out in the hallway when the
fight started and there was a guy looked like, like Leave It to Beaver type, no not Leave It to
Beaver, Barney Bucks. 90 pounds I says, “we're having a fight in our class.” He started
stuttering, “what are you doing.” We went back their classroom, I pointed out that people started
and all of a sudden about 12 cops show up and clean out the two guys who were involved in the
fight, but that wasn't, he was nearby but not to jump in on the fracas.
Interview: Okay so was that your last term teaching there then?
There, absolutely yeah and I went back to campus, I kissed the cement on the campus, main
campuses thank you lord I’m gonna be alive. Oh, during that time I taught at the prison
everybody was framed, they thought I was an attorney walking with a briefcase. You know they
wanted to get sprung because they were framed. They got in prison on the wrong circumstances.
They were, you know, so I- and he always wanted my phone number and my address at home so
they could contact me which they never got, in today's world they could have got it on the
internet but back then they couldn't.
Interview: Yeah, I don't well, I, they have access to the Internet in prison now?
�I have no clue.
Interview: I don't think they do.
I asked one dumb question the first class I went to, I was trying to find out how long your
sentence would be. I says, “on average what does it take to, you know,” I meant to say time, but I
didn’t I said, “what does it take to get out of this prison?” A guy said well, “I'll tell you what you
jump that fence is about 100 yards to I-94 and you're gone.” It's a dumb question to ask in class.
(43.47)
Interview: Yeah. Okay so if you could summarize your service time, what- what do you
think where your, the- the best part of the experience?
I think we had people of the same or equal values that were with us. My colleagues my
associates they're my commanding officers. We all had a purpose in mind we knew what our
goals had to be. We achieved those goals with no problems in terms of serving our particular
assignment within the military, and that was to produce 20,000 orders for people on a yearly
basis to get them to train in order to be more effective in support of our, of the United States. So,
I think we had a good focus is it- it was actually like a family environment, because when you
were there for three years you were not going to be there for two weeks and then take off.
Everybody got to know you. In fact, I was looking at my farewell cards for my party, goingaway party that the civilians and the officers gave, and I had like a couple hundred people sign
this thing, it was like amazing that they knew me, and I knew them. It was a, it was a nice family
environment, very different than my buddies who went on active duty in Vietnam and so forth.
Very, very different.
(44.59)
Interview: Okay and flip the coin over, what was the worst part of the experience?
�Well the worst part honestly, it was unrelated to the military. Is the fact that I was not in the
workplace working, well as my quote “buddies” who did who got out because they had maybe
knee surgery or something and they're making money, and I was making maybe four thousand
bucks a year, at the end of three years and they were making twelve thousand dollars and I told
my wife I said, “you know I don't know what it ever be like to make twenty five thousand dollars
a year.” You know and say, “yeah well twenty, we could live in a mansion.” You know so I had
that in the front of my mind all the time. Yeah.
Interviewer: Okay well I'd like to thank you for spending time with us and sharing your
story. It was very, very interesting.
(45.40)
It's a bit of pleasure to be with you today. And I’d like to say hello to all my military buddies out
there, ex-military buddies.
Interviewer: Let's hope they watch it.
I hope so too.
Interviewer: Thank you.
Thank you.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
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RHC-27
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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RHC-27_TrybusC1471V
Title
A name given to the resource
Trybus, Chester (Interview transcript and video), 2013
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2013-01-03
Description
An account of the resource
Chet Trybus was born on March 16, 1945 in Highland Park, Michigan. Trybus was attending Henry Ford Community College in 1965 when he received a draft notice. Wanting to continue his education, he opted to join the Navy Reserves and was sent to Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois, for Boot Camp. While in the Naval Reserves, Trybus was able to continue his education at Western Michigan University since there was a Reserve station in Kalamazoo. After completing his degree, he was stationed at Great Lakes processing recruitment orders as part of his active duty. Since he was stationed in the U.S, Trybus was able to pursue his master's degree while on active duty. He eventually left the service in 1972 and took up work for the Xerox Corporation in Michigan.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Trybus, Chester Joseph
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
McGregor, Michael (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American
United States. Navy. Naval Reserve
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
Format
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video/mp4
application/pdf
Type
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Moving Image
Text
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Veterans History Project collection, RHC-27
Rights
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<a href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401.
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Language
A language of the resource
eng