'We made it to shore without firing a shot' - #lakewoodnews

Although Lakewood resident Harry Riddle saw a lot of the world during his Navy service from 1943 to 1946, he doesn't look back at the time with any particular fondness.

"The only thing I really learned at that time was how to fight," Riddle, now 89, said. "I don't really have any favorite memories from those years. But I did visit so many ports."

When World War II broke out, Riddle was living in Columbia, South Carolina, and at the age of 15, he joined the Navy.

"I was two years ahead in school, so I guess going into the service was a way for me to make up for that," he said. "My father was in the Army, but the Navy seemed a better fit for me."

Riddle completed his training in Bainbridge, Maryland, and then went to Little Creek, Virginia, for gunnery school.

"I'd eventually make it to Gunner's Mate, Third Class, which is the highest rank you can get on an armed guard ship," he said. "My specialty was the five-inch, 38-caliber gun."

During his years on the sea, Riddle was mostly on merchant ships, and stuck to the Atlantic Ocean. He said it was policy that the crew didn't know what cargo they were guarding, but the ships made stops at ports on several continents, including London; Oban, Scotland; Marseilles, France; Algiers in Africa; and Guant namo Bay in Cuba.

Riddle received a Bronze Star for his participation in the D-Day landings in Normandy, France, in June 1944.

"There were so many ships in the area, you could have walked across them to the shore," he remembered. "We were in the fifth wave, so we made it to shore without firing a shot."

After his discharge, Riddle married hislate wife Glora and worked at a federal prison in Virginia before moving to Colorado to work in the trucking industry. His small home in Lakewood is warm and bright, and there's no evidence of his military service in the living room. Mementos are mostly devoted to photos and items collected during 54 years of marriage.

Evidence of a life well lived.

from Lakewood Sentinel - Latest Stories http://lakewoodsentinel.comhttp://lakewoodsentinel.com/stories/We-made-it-to-shore-without-firing-a-shot,238918?branding=15