Page 38 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2018- Online Magazine

Marvin Platten An Artful Journey: The
arvin Platten, from St.
Paul, Minnesota, was
M17 years old in 1944
and “wanted to get in the war
somehow.” He saw a recruitment
ad in the paper that read, “Join
the Navy and serve on your city’s
namesake, the USS St. Paul.”
Marvin’s folks signed the papers,
and he joined the Navy on Dec. 27,
1944. He took his basic training
at the Great Lakes Naval Training
Station. As he
noted, “Boot camp
was challenging,
yes; demanding,
yes; enjoyable, no!”
The second to last
week of boot camp,
he fell ill and was
diagnosed with
pneumonia, with
104°+ temperature.
Marvin wistfully
recalled that he
“never did see
the USS St. Paul.”
38 Lubbock Senior Link
Story of Marvin Platten
by Larry A. Williams
He took signalmen’s During his early school days,
training at Camp Marvin discovered that he “had
Sampson in New York something – I could draw! I
State and ship’s training became pretty good at drawing
at the Naval Station in things like cars, airplanes and
Newport, Rhode Island. trains.” Thus began a long
and fruitful career as both an
After a train ride to accomplished artist and an art
Baltimore, he was teacher. Marvin had one problem;
assigned to the USS he stuttered and had to work hard
Alagash AO-97, which to remain calm and get his words
was a Cimarron class out. While listening to Jack Benny
oiler for use in WWII. on the radio, he learned to pause
The Alagash put out to before he spoke, and that helped
sea from Norfolk, bound him with difficult words. Thinking
for the West Indies. “We about the radio reminded Marvin
spent the next ten weeks that he had listened to the great
carrying fuel oil between horse race between Sea Biscuit and
ports, all the while we War Admiral in 1938.
had the distinct feeling
that we were still at Marvin was heading to learn a
war.” One of his most trade in carpentry when he got off
memorable voyages a streetcar in front of the University
was on “Operation of Minnesota, so he thought “Why
Frostbite”, which not?” He changed his degree from
“included an effort to Architecture to Art in the spring
test the fueling-at-sea of 1949. It was at the university
technique in extreme that he met his future wife, Marion
frigid conditions. The Middlestaedt, “virtually over an
destination was about 200 miles easel in Jones Hall.” They married
north of the Arctic Circle, between on September 8, 1951. After
Greenland and Baffin Island.” completing his Master’s degree in
After more months of carrying fuel 1956, Marvin and Marion and their
between ports on the Gulf Coast of four children “took some major
the U.S. to bases in the West Indies, driving trips” across the U.S.
Platten was discharged on July 14,
1946. He made it home safely, but Marvin taught art in several
felt it was important to add that schools, such as in Minneapolis,
two of his cousins were killed in Central High and Metropolitan
action in Europe. Junior College. Marvin began to
think about teaching overseas,
and in the fall of 1966, he and the
family packed up and moved to
Ramey AFB in Puerto Rico. Here,
he not only taught art but sold
some of his own artwork. He
met President Lyndon B. Johnson
on one of his visits to the base.
During the tumultuous year of
1968, Marvin moved the family to
Japan where he taught art at an
elementary school just north of
Yokota Air Base. Later, he became
the Art Director for all DOD
facilities in Japan and traveled