Page 56 - Lubbock Senior Link Magazine Fall 2019- Online Magazine

Claude Mack A Career in the Navy,
ad, Claude Allen Mack,
was born on January
D31, 1932 to Claude Ray
and Millie Lucille Mack in
Loop, Texas. He has an older
sister, Joveeda Thorton and two
younger brothers, Darvin and
Winn Mack. Grandpa Mack
did various jobs while Dad was
growing up, including driving
the school bus, being the school
janitor, and picking cotton. Dad
went to 1 grade in Alto near
st
Ruidoso, New Mexico. He and
his sister walked to school and
sometimes rode a horse. While
the family lived in Alto, Grandpa
Mack learned the dry-cleaning
business. One of Dad’s jobs
during this time was to catch the
cow and milk it before and after
school.
Eventually, the Mack family
moved to Seminole, Texas where
Grandad and Grandmother
opened up “Keep You Neat”
Dry Cleaners. Grandmother did
alterations and took in sewing,
56 Lubbock Senior Link
A Lifetime of Service
by Lois Mack
and Grandad did decided to join the US Navy.
the dry cleaning. They signed up and boarded a
Dad remembers bus to Amarillo; from there, they
watching the were put on a train to Monterey,
military planes CA for boot camp. When the US
practice take-offs Navy recruiter found out Dad
and landings into had worked for Bell Telephone
the West Texas in Seminole, they recommended
winds. In high him to Internal Communications
school, he was on Electrician training. It was a
the track team and good fit.
could run a mile
in just under five After Special Weapon’s training
minutes. (Chasing in Albuquerque, he was sent
that cow had on special assignment to
helped him become Honolulu, Hawaii. He met
a fast runner.) He our mother at a church youth
also played the rally. Mom, Roberta Miller, had
baritone in the come to Honolulu, Hawaii after
marching band. graduating from Glad Tidings
Bible School near San Francisco
Dad had an after-school job at to work at a small church. They
Bell Telephone. At first, he was married June 8, 1956, and when
just the janitor. Eventually, he Dad’s time was up in Hawaii,
learned how to refill batteries and they sailed back to San Francisco.
re-solder the telephone cables Dad re-enlisted since he didn’t
that broke as the ladies pushed have another job prospect at the
them in and pulled them out time. He was then stationed in
of the plugs while connecting Long Beach, CA. One month after
calls. In Dad’s senior year, he I was born, Dad was shipped out
and three high school buddies on the USS Rochester to Hawaii,