Floyd Farrar:
CLASS OF 1958
Rim of the World High SchoolClass of 1958
Lake arrowhead, CA
Glendale High SchoolClass of 1958
Glendale, CA
Clark Junior High SchoolClass of 1955
Glendale, CA
Montrose Elementary SchoolClass of 1952
Montrose, CA
John C. Fremont Elementary SchoolClass of 1951
Glendale, CA
Floyd's Story
My Life in a nut shell--
I spent my formative years kindergarden thru tenth grade in Montrose CA. In the spring of 1956 my old man got the wanderlust and we moved to Crestline CA and I attended Rim of the World High school in Blue Jay near Lake Arrowhead. After graduating Rim O The World High school in summer of 1958, I spent four years on active duty as a US Navy Electrician's mate, aboard a wooden hulled, non magnetic minesweeper based at Long Beach CA. I made two Western Pacific trips aboard my very small ship 700 ton ship. I was honorably discharged in September of 1962. I was then employed with Westinghouse Electric Corporation working on Polaris missile project for two years at LBNSYD and at San Clemente Island off the coast of Long Beach CA. I then worked for So Calif Edison Co in Power Plant Operations for thirty two years in east Long Beach, CA. I lived in Belmont Shore, Long Beach CA from 1962-1972, then Garden Grove, Orange County and then back to Long Beach in late 1979.
I met wife Sherry at a summer in park band concert at Recreation Park, Long Beach. We were married in June of 1982. We moved to a mobile home park in Hawaiian Gardens above Los Alamitos, near Cypress and continue to live there today. I was fortunate to early retire from SCE Oct of 1996, after many years of shift work, and love every second of being retired!
I am active in various US Civil War history themed groups and the Long Beach & Crescenta Valley historical societies, the Civil War Roundtable of Orange County CA, Civil War re-enacting, and various living history events. I used to docent at the Drum Barracks Civil War museum in Wilmington CA. I like rifle and pistol target shooting, digital photography, genealogy, and Apple/Mac computers. My wife and we volunteer each year at the Annual Southern California Ukulele Festival in Cerritos. We also play ukes each Monday at Oasis Senior Center in Corona Del Mar CA.
I enjoy old WW 2 aircraft, old trolleys, older cars, and old trains. I keep very aware of current events nationally and locally. I write many letters to politicians and newspaper editors regularly voicing my strong opinion on all matters.
I am the Senior Vice CMDR, historian and newsletter associate editor of the Sedgwick-Granger Camp 17, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Santa Ana-Tustin CA. Plus I am First Lt. of Capt. Cameron E. Thom, Camp 2007, Sons of Confederate Veterans of the Civil War, Long Beach CA. I had relatives who fought in the Civil War on both sides.
I volunteer for Find-A-Grave and take photo requests from people so they can have pictures of their relative's grave markers at the various cemeteries I have adopted.
Then when we have the time and finances we travel a lot. But my aging parents care is keeping us close by their board and care home in Anaheim.
I am totally into retirement and lead a very active life. I hardly have enough time in the day for all things I like to do.
School Daze:
I attended Fremont Elementary school in Montrose (Glendale, CA) kindergarden-1st grade. Then Montrose Elementary School 2nd grade to 6th grade. Jr. High was at Anderson W. Clark Jr. Hi in La Crescenta 1952 thru 1955. Glendale Hi for part of the tenth grade and then moved to Crestline CA . I attended Rim Of World Hi till graduation in June of 1958. I was on the first football team the school ever had and loved every minute of growing up at a not so large school. The friends I made there I still keep today.
Workplace Daze:
I went to work directly out of the Navy in September 1962, for Westinghouse Electric on the Polaris Missile launch system test facility on San Clemente Island (1962-1964). Contract ended and I became employed by So California Edison Company as an operator at steam-electric power generation stations in the So Calif area, mainly around Long Beach CA. I worked rotating shifts in hot, noisy, and labor intensive environments for thirty two years before retiring in late 1996. I ...Expand for more
have been retired ever since and am LOVING every day of NOT being gainfully employed!
Military Life:
I was born in Glendale, CA, 2nd generation native Southern Californian. I enlisted in USNR May 1957 on 17th birthday. A high school friend's father induced me into applying for submarines. He was on a WW II submarine and had made many war patrols. He was in the Naval Reserves and said he drove down to Long Beach Navy Sta. one weekend a month and said would be happy to have me on-board. I was inducted at Long Beach, CA Naval Reserve base located at the old NAS Reeves Field on Terminal Island. I was then assigned to SubDiv 11-7 on a reserve fleet sub, the USS Sawfish (SS-276), for one weekend a month for controlled dockside training.
I was a radioman striker then. I was privileged to train aboard many famous, still then operating, WW II era subs for weekend duty. Once in a while one would come up from San Diego. We would spend the weekend training with other reserve groups manning hunter killer group destroyers, going out beyond the Catalina channel for exercises.
After graduating high school in June of 1958. I decided to go to active duty Navy on Sept. 5, 1958. Alas, the active duty physical said I had bad eyesight, this prevented submarine duty. I was offered a choice of schools. I chose a rate that I could use in civilian life for a job. I attended Electrician's Mate Class "A" School & 16mm Motion Picture Operator school at NTC San Diego from the fall 1958 thru late Jan. of 1959. I transferred to the surface fleet on Feb. 9, 1959, and was assigned to USS Inflict (MSO 456) at Pier 9, Long Beach, CA. We were in Mine Squadron 7, Divison 71, consisting of USS Fortify (flagship), USS Engage, USS Loyalty, USS Impervious, and USS Inflict. I served the entire time on the same ship until my discharge on September 8, 1962. I made one WesPac cruise aboard her, from May 3, 1960 thru November of 1960. We used 55-gallon drums of diesel fuel tied on the fantail deck to make it to Pearl Harbor, (ten days at 10 knots). When our fuel tanks got low we just manually pumped from them into the fuel tanks, we all helped doing this! Then it was on to Midway Island (four days), and another ten days to Yokosuka. What a trip that was for a young starry-eyed kid! On our subsequent trip to Pearl during the last atmospheric A-bomb tests in summer of 1962, we used the rubber "fuel cell" on fantail to get to Pear Harbor, a little easier on the manual fills.
I was a "Cold war era" vet and didn't see hostile action, unless you classify the Long Beach Police and the Shore Patrol who roamed the old Pike and Ocean Blvd. Never the less we kept very busy aboard ship. There were many times we would get underway each and every day for weeks at 7AM, train all day off Huntington Beach, Catalina, or San Clemente Island, then back to Pier 9 at around 4-5PM. You really got to know how to get underway and return to port! We spent endless hours on fantail streaming (and repairing) the influence mines and magnetic minesweep gear, then helping the deck crews stream the contact mine equipment.
My rate of Electrician's Mate 2nd class didn't mean much, as all hands helped during minesweeping operations, "snipes" always helped deck force and vice-versa. We never had enough qualified people, in any of the rates, except maybe the lower rated deck force guys. I spent many long hours on watch working in the loud, hot forward engine room, and on the open-air fan tail fixing a balky mag tail, or a non-operational acoustical "hammer box." Sometimes you had to have the agility of a circus acrobat just to hang on and dodge all the wires and sweep gear in rough seas! It was a must for the crew to be young, resilient, and not prone to accidents or bumps and bruises. Astoundingly not many were ever injured doing our jobs. We wore no helmets, or used earplugs, nor wore any gloves. Safety was stressed occasionally but I think mostly we were just plain lucky. Ahh youth-
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