Elephant Speak: A Devoted Keeper's Life Among the Herd Interior Layout

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Twenty-one-year-old Roger in the port of Argentia, Newfoundland. (Personalphoto, 1958)unsuccessful weeks of searching for work, he decided to headfor Portland, hopeful the city would be as good to him as ithad been to his family. Each morning, he left his parents’ homeand trod the streets in shoes damp from the day before. Everyevening, he returned with nothing to show for his efforts. Hewas giving serious consideration to farming again, no matterhow dismal the pay, when his cousin Ralph called from Iowa.He was in the same predicament as Roger, eager to work butunable to find employment, and had just discovered the CoastGuard offered training, adventure, and best of all, a paycheck.Within the week, the cousins were reunited and had takentheir oath of enlistment. A few days later, they arrived at bootcamp in Cape May, New Jersey, the farthest east either of themhad ever traveled.The first night in barracks proved to be a mind-alteringexperience for the rustic, somewhat dewy-eyed pair. Crammedtogether with street-wise, smart-mouthed, half-grown boys30 ◆ Elephant Speak: A Devoted Keeper’s Life Among the Herd
from metropolitan areas like New York City, Boston, andPhiladelphia (some of whom accepted enlistment over incarceration),they listened in wide-eyed wonder to lurid tales offamily fistfights, hard liquor, and fast women. Taunted for hisMidwestern accent and naive, squeaky-clean demeanor, Rogercountered by giving as good as he got. His gumption and quickwit made him an instant favorite despite his willingness tofollow orders and his ability to roust out of bed bright-eyed atthe first notes of “Reveille.”Eight weeks later, Roger departed for Mechanics School inGroton, Connecticut. In September 1957, the newly graduatedtwenty-year-old diesel mechanic left New England for his firstship, the USCGC Chincoteague, a converted 310-foot formerNavy aircraft fueling vessel homebased in Norfolk, Virginiaand headed to Ocean Station Bravo in the North Atlantic.The Iowa landlubber took to seafaring life surprisingly well.He enjoyed caring for the ship’s engines and recording pressureand temperature readings in the shaft alley, often whilebalanced on the bulkhead instead of the deck when the shiprolled in heavy seas.In 1959, he transferred to USCGC Balsam, a 180-footbuoy-tender out of Ketchikan, Alaska. To Roger’s great delight,he discovered a dog living on board. No one knew the originsof Turnbuckle the beagle, but he was treated as a member ofthe crew. Wearing a collar printed with his serial number andhome station, “Turnie” kept the men company while on dutyand even joined them for shore leave, where he enthusiasticallycourted the local female dogs. When his late-night trystskept him from catching the ship leaving pier, he’d stroll overto Base Affairs Quarters and bunk down with some kind souluntil the Balsam returned. The dog’s presence was a slice ofheaven for Roger, and he never passed up an opportunity togive Turnie a pat or a treat.Melissa Crandall ◆ 31
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Page 32 and 33: Roger aboard the USCGC Balsam, 1959

Elephant Speak: A Devoted Keeper's Life Among the Herd Interior Layout

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