Sindelar enjoyed the perks of the job

SEELEY LAKE – Seeley Lake resident Norman Sindelar joined the U.S. Navy in 1962. Though he never actually served aboard a naval vessel, he sees his four years of service as a series of great opportunities.

When Sindelar reported to the Military Entrance Processing Station in Butte on Jan. 2, the temperature was minus 42 degrees, without factoring in windchill. During the next two days he passed beyond the Montana state line for the first time, took his first train ride and reported for boot camp in San Diego, Calif. The temperature was a balmy 82 degrees.

After basic training, Sindelar was stationed at Pt. Mugu Pacific Missile Range, which allowed him to stay in sunny southern California. By chance, a high school classmate from Miles City, Mont. saw his name on the incoming roster and managed to get Sindelar assigned with him to the Messenger Service. The job entailed delivering mail and messages around the base and gave Sindelar access to the base military vehicles. Eventually elevated to Secret Messenger, which involved an FBI background check, he also became a driver for the base captain. Sindelar said he delivered a lot of messages to the base captain and had a number of interesting conversations with him.

At the end of that two-year assignment, Sindelar was scheduled for transfer. The base captain said to him, "Would you prefer to stay here with us and go over to the aircraft division?"

Sindelar responded, "Oh, you bet I would." He was reassigned as the admiral's orderly.

His new position included flights on the admiral's plane where his primary duty was to feed the crew and passengers. He said this mainly involved heating up TV dinners, which were very popular at the time. He also learned enough about the plane to be classified as an Aviation Electrician.

Sindelar said he loved flying and probably logged over 1,000 hours. He estimated he spent two out of every five weeks in Hawaii, enjoying interludes of Rest and Relaxation on Honolulu, Oahu, Kauai and Maui. Although he wore his uniform on the airplane, he was told to wear civilian dress when he was ashore. He recalled one time when an elderly couple he and the crew were chatting with asked, "How can you afford a vacation in Hawaii at your age?"

Sindelar said, "We told them, 'Oh, we have a rich uncle.'"

Other places Sindelar made trips to included Panama City, Puerto Rico and Peru. He also had stopovers in several different states, including Washington, D.C. where he had the opportunity to visit the National Monuments and the Smithsonian Museums. He managed to take in the 1964 New York World's Fair, twice. The first time, he said he and a buddy didn't make it past the Bavarian Pavilion featuring pretzels, beer and Fräuleins. On the second trip he managed to see a good deal more of the fair.

Some trips were more sobering, like those to Enewetak Atoll, the site of extensive atomic bomb testing and Kwajalein Atoll where Sindelar was particularly impressed with a memorial plaque honoring the victims of a 1950 military plane crash.

The plane crashed into the sea within minutes of take-off after refueling at the atoll on its way to Korea. All 26 persons aboard were killed, including 11 navy nurses. The accident was declared the largest loss of military nurses in history and one of the greatest tragedies to befall the Navy Medical Department. According to Sindelar, the monument contained the information that screams could be heard on the island due to shark attacks. Only four of the 26 bodies were recovered.

Other opportunities that came Sindelar's way included the chance to see President John F. Kennedy when he was on a tour of military bases on the west coast.

Sindelar said, "It was kind of fun to see him. I was right there up close. That was June 7, 1963. He died in November of that year."

The admiral's plane sometimes carried cargo rather than passengers. Sindelar once had unusual cargo associated with "Flipper" the dolphin, star of two Hollywood films which subsequently spawned a TV show.

Sindelar said, "We transported Elsie, I think her name was, a dolphin who was to be [Flipper's] mate. She was in water, but not completely submerged. For ten hours we had to keep her skin wet."

Dolphin bathing was not the only unusual duty that fell to Sindelar. He said, "Once when we were preparing to land at Pt. Mugu, our nose wheel didn't lock. So, me being the junior person and not having specific flying duties, they strapped a cargo strap around me and lowered me down the hatch into the compartment where the nose wheel usually retracts to. They handed me a Johnson bar, which is used for loading and unloading cargo. I was to take that and ram this wheel assembly into a locked position. I wasn't scared particularly, because I couldn't blow out; the air was blowing in right on me. But it was blowing tears out of my eyes and the g-force was coming at me. But anyway, I managed to do it."

Another incident Sindelar told about involved the ocean retrieval of a space capsule. Unable to land near Cape Canaveral due to bad weather, the capsule was diverted to an indeterminate area off the coast of California. Sindelar's plane was sent to spot its location. Their job was to patrol a wide section, locate the capsule if it landed in their area, alert the naval carrier that would actually retrieve the astronauts and circle the capsule until retrieval was complete.

Sindelar said, "We're circling and waiting and the flight engineer onboard said to the pilot, 'We're at the point of no return.'"

Sindelar explained that meant if the plane didn't turn back, they wouldn't have enough fuel to make it back safely.

When they kept going, Sindelar asked the commander, "So are we going to turn back?"

The commander said, "No, we've got to stay out here until [the capsule is spotted]."

Sindelar replied, "You mean we're going to stay out here until we run out of fuel."

And he said, "Who do you think is more important, us or the astronauts?"

Sindelar said, "You know, that was enough said. That cleared it up for me."

He continued with the story, "The pilot said, 'Don't worry. If we get to that point, I can ditch this airplane. I looked at the ocean today and I can land it in the ocean.' I said to him, 'Have you ever done it?' He said, 'No. But these planes will float.' Then he said, 'By the way, do you know what your job is then?' I had to think a minute and then I said, 'Yeah, I've got to go to the emergency hatch over the wing, open it and go out on the wing. Then they'll release the life raft that pops out of the wing and inflates. Then it's up to me to control the raft until everybody gets out of the plane and into the raft.'"

As it turned out, plans changed again. The capsule dropped in the Atlantic and Sindelar's plane was cleared to return to base. Because they were low on fuel, the return was anything but routine.

Sindelar said the pilot "feathered" two engines, which means only one propeller on each side was running, while the other two propellers were set in a neutral position. A crash crew was alerted and waiting on the runway when they got to the base. The pilot landed without incident but Sindelar said the plane was completely out of fuel and unable to taxi to its parking bay.

When Sindelar mustered out of the Navy, he eventually got into the supermarket business. He worked for Buttrey Foods for 35 years, managing stores in Montana and Wyoming, including the Eastgate Mall Albertson store. After retirement from there he and his wife Kathy bought a home in Seeley Lake where he took a job at Rovero's and ended up working there for 18 years. "Which was good," he said. "I loved the job here."