Paul Wainscott MM3 (1952-1954)

My childhood years were spent on farms in rural Indiana where my dad worked as a field hand. We lived in tenant houses with no indoor plumbing, water had to be carried from the pump outside. Baths were taken in a galvanized tub in the kitchen.  Hot water was heated on a wood-burning stove. Toilet facilities were outside in the outhouse, which was used during the day, chamber pots were used during the nighttime. Most of our staples were provided from a large garden spot and small farm animals, which my brother Gene and I were responsible.

We moved to California in the summer of 1943.  We lived in a garage apartment behind my grand parents home in Bellflower.  This was the first time we had indoor plumbing, but we had to go into my grand parents to take our baths. I went to Los Flores Grammar School and Washington Middle School in Bellflower, and was graduated from Excelsior High School in Norwalk in 1950.

I joined the Navy Reserves while still in my senior year of high school and attended boot camp that summer.  I requested active duty in January 1952 and served on the USS Spangler, a destroyer escort, training students from the SONAR training school in San Diego.

After my discharge I started dating Shirley Jump who lived across the street and whom I had known since 1944 when our families socialized together.  We would go to Seal Beach for a picnic and swimming almost every weekend.  As we enjoyed our day we would watch Navy fighters fly overhead on their way to patrol the coast.  We dated steadily until I finally got up my nerve to ask for her hand in marriage on her front porch one evening making it the happiest moment of my life.  We got married on July 10, 1954 in a small wedding in the chapel at Bellflower Presbyterian Church followed by a reception in her parents’ backyard.  We enjoyed our honeymoon at Lake Gregory in Crestline, California for a week before returning to our apartment on Palm Avenue in Bellflower.  We started on family with our first son, Jerry, in August 1955. Then came Judy in 1958 followed by John in 1960.

I started employment with Douglas Aircraft in January 1951 as a General Utility Worker cleaning up A26 Fighter Bombers for the Korean Conflict.  I advanced thru various hourly and salaried classifications including lead man and supervisor in Assembly and Inspection.  In 1978 I joined salaried Source Inspection and was assigned various duties including writing inspection procedures and inspection of products at source facilities.  Traveled to facilities in England at British Aerospace, Brazil at Embraer and Canada at Fleet Industries.  While at Douglas Aircraft I worked on commercial projects such as the DC-8, DC-9, DC-10, MD-11, and MD-80. I also worked on the following military projects: A-26, A-4, C-124, C-133, C-17, RB-66, T-45, and the ACES II ejection seats.  I Retired on September 30, 1988 after nearly 38 years.

Following retirement I worked as a Quality Engineer writing procedures and inspecting hardware for General Electric, Boeing, SPS, Douglas Aircraft and McDonnell Aircraft until final retirement in May 1993.