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Veteran remembers tours on Navy vessel

T-R PHOTO BY ADAM SODDERS State Center native and Korean War veteran Bob Mitge was stationed aboard the USS Hooper Island, a ship charged with repairing minesweepers and destroyer escorts during the conflict.

Editor’s note: This is the latest in an ongoing series of articles profiling those who have ever served in the U.S. military, be it overseas or stateside. Every Thursday, a new profile will be published in the T-R.

“Back then, they had the draft … I just went and enlisted in the Navy.”

It was a choice that would change Bob Mitge’s life. The Altoona resident, born and raised in State Center, said he decided to join the U.S. Navy in the early 1950s to have more of a choice in his military role.

“I went through San Diego boot camp, and then I was stationed at Coronado,” Mitge said. “When I was at Coronado, I went over to the destroyer base in San Diego and went through pre-commissioning school.”

Eventually ending up at a station in Long Beach, Calif., it wasn’t long before Mitge found himself preparing to board the USS Hooper Island, a ship with a unique but pivotal job.

“We were a repair ship, we repaired minesweepers and DEs (destroyer escorts),” he said. “Minesweepers had wooden hulls back then.”

The Hooper Island had an important job, as did the ships it attended to. Minesweepers, as the name suggests, combed harbors and other areas on the sea for underwater mines.

If a Navy ship were to come into contact with a mine, the device would detonate and potentially rip a hole in the ship and kill several aboard.

Destroyer escorts also had an important job. They helped ensure the safe passage of convoys as they crossed the ocean, keeping an eye out for enemy ships, aircraft and submarines.

As such, both DEs and minesweepers were put in harm’s way often, meaning Mitge’s ship and others like it were kept busy with repairs and maintenance.

“In 1952, we first went over there,” Mitge said. The convoy departed from California and stationed in Japan, just across the Sea of Japan from the war zone in Korea.

“There were destroyers and cruisers and battle wagons and everything.”

As a storekeeper aboard the ship, Mitge’s job was to make sure everything ran smoothly. He kept inventory, looked after ship supplies and generally kept everything aboard the vessel running smoothly.

While on the tour, Mitge’s ship spent a lot of time repairing minesweepers that had dropped behind enemy lines to clear out harbors of explosives.

While on board, he wrote his mother back in State Center, and she, the mother of friend Don Switzer, and Switzer’s sister came out to meet him when he returned to California. That visit would change Mitge’s life, as Switzer’s sister, Pat, would eventually become his wife.

Mitge would go on a second tour of duty 1954, this time accompanied by Switzer on the Hooper Island. The two weren’t there long, though, as they got early release and returned to their families in the States.

Together, Mitge and Pat completed school at the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa, respectively, and spent much of their time living in eastern Iowa after marrying in 1956.

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Do you know a military veteran who should be profiled? Send your suggestions to Editor Jeff Hutton at: jhutton@timesrepublican.com or contact American Legion Post 46 Commander Randy Kessler at: iapost46commander@gmail.com

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