PROFILE OF A MUSEUM VOLUNTEER:  EDGAR SVETLIK

Edgar F. Svetlik was born August 16, 1927 in Weimar Texas.  He enlisted in the US Naval Reserve on February 19, 1945 in Houston, Texas at the tender age of seventeen. He received orders to report for duty at the Naval Training Center at San Diego, California. In the first week in Boot Camp, he came down with tonsillitis and spent the following three weeks in a hospital.  After returning to duty, Ed finished six more weeks of  basic training and then reported for schooling on small diesel engines and Amphibious Training at Coronado, California.  After his  training he reported to Roosevelt Base Terminal Island in San Pedro, California and was assigned to the Boat Engineering Division Landing Craft #63 for servicing and maintaining diesel engines on landing craft LCVP and LCM.  He worked in the boat pool on some of the following ships for repair duty: U.S.S. South Dakota, U.S.S. Texas, U.S.S. Vicksburg, and U.S.S. Yorktown. He was discharged from the Navy after World War II on May 17, 1946.

His second Navy tour of duty began on May 17,1948 with an enlistment of three years. He was sent to Treasure Island, San Francisco, California where he shipped overseas aboard the U.S.S. Buttner where his duty aboard ship was standing throttle watch in the engine room while enroute to the Far East.  Ed arrived in Tsingtao, China where he received orders to report aboard the LST 846, which was in dry dock for repairs in Subic Bay, Philippines and assigned to the engine room.  The LST’s mission was to evacuate people from Tsingtao, China to Shanghai, China and Formosa, Taiwan and to their bases in Japan hauling ammunition to the Chinese Nationalists fighting the Communists. 
 

Their last trip was on the famed Yangtse River helping evacuate the U.S. Army out of Nanking, China.  When his ship was ready to depart, it became stranded high and dry on the bottom of the river by a receding tide.  After four hours, with the help of tugs and the high tide, the ship was refloated but was left without heat or lighting for hours as it headed to its next port of call Shanghai, China where they loaded the U.S. Fleet Post Office. The ship departed for Naha, Okinawa only hours after hearing that the Communists had taken over the area.

Ed’s assigned LST returned to the United States to be decommissioned in Bremerton, Washington.  There he received orders to report for duty at the Naval Shipyard.  He then requested a rating change from Engineman to Metal Smith.  Ed was then stationed on a Yard Repair Ship, but slept and ate aboard the U.S.S. Indiana.  His duty involved recommissioning ships for the Korean conflict.  He was to be discharged in May of 1951 but the Korean conflict extended his enlistment for one additional year. In February 1951, he was transferred to San Francisco Naval Shipyard at Hunters Point.  Some of the ships he helped recommission at Bremerton and Hunters Point were the U.S.S. Iowa, U.S.S. Princeton, U.S.S. Bon Homme Richard, U.S.S. Hornet, U.S.S. Lexington, U.S.S. Ticonderoga, U.S.S. Los Angeles, LST’s 898, 735 and 887 and the U.S.S. L.S.U. 1398 among others.

Ed was discharged on April 28,1952, while stationed at Treasure Island. In 1948 he had met his future wife, Rosemarie Helweg, a native of San Francisco. They where married on April 15, 1950. They have seven children, two girls and five boys.

Ed worked for 35 years with John Deere with the last 30 at Fresno Equipment Company in Fresno, California. He retired as their Service Manager on June 7, 1998.  Ed became a volunteer at the Legion of Valor Museum in August 1998 and continues to serve as a docent and director assistant.  A position he enjoys very much.