Through the periscope

The period from the end of World War II in 1945 to the fall of Soviet Russia in 1991 was known as The Cold War. One movie that was made during this time was Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb in 1964 starring Peter Sellars.
The first line of the movie summed up the time period: “For more than a year, ominous rumors had been privately circulating among high-level Western leaders that the Soviet Union had been at work on what was darkly hinted to be the ultimate weapon: a doomsday device.”
While the movie was satirical in nature, The Cold War was a turbulent time in history for both the United States and the Soviet Union as both countries stared at each other waiting to see who would launch nuclear weapons first.
One Mamou native had a first-hand view of this turbulence through a periscope lens while serving as a Yeoman on a U.S. Naval submarine. His time in the Navy included tours to the Mediterranean Sea and to Australia.
“Navy runs in my family,” said Robert Reed. “My grandmother had a picture of four of my uncles who were all in their Navy uniforms. They were all in the Navy at the same time. One of my uncles Roland Reed had lost his eye in boxing when they used to have high school boxing, so he went be a Merchant Marine. Another uncle Revon Reed was an officer, and my dad Floyd was a regular enlisted sailor.”
Reed, because of this, knew he was joining the Navy before graduating high school. “I told my ag teacher and a couple of other people that I didn’t want any scholarships because I was going in the Navy,” he said. “My brother Mike was on the USS Nautilus out of the submarine in Groton, Conn. He said that I would make $90.00 a month extra just by being on submarines.”
Four days after graduating high school in 1972, Reed and Thad Fontenot joined the Navy under the buddy program. “He went on one submarine, and I went on another submarine,” Reed said. “But, we were all in Groton. There was another fella named Wayne Manuel from Mamou who was good friends with my brother Mike, so there were four people from Mamou on four different submarines all in the same town at the same time.”
While in port, Reed was in charge of administrative duties such as being the mail man, doing reenlistments and transfers, typing award recommendations, and doing paperwork for sailors to be discharged. However, his duties shifted to driving the submarine while under water.
As Reed described it, “It was fun because I was in the middle of control. There was the captain with us whenever he wanted to come up to periscope depth. He’d say, ‘Helmsmen, come up to 100-feet at a five degree angle.’ I was right there in the middle of the wasp’s nest.”
Reed’s submarine unit was charged with patrolling along the East Coast and down to the Caribbean Sea. “We were watching mostly for Russian activity and for spook boats disguised as trollers that were monitoring submarines and other ships leaving out of the East Coast ports,” he explained. “A lot of times, these trollers were supposed to be 12 miles out in international waters, but they would identify themselves as a commercial fishing vessel where they could get closer.”
The longest mission was four to five months in the Mediterranean Sea after crossing the Atlantic Ocean and through the Strait of Gibraltar. “We would monitor Russian boat activity going in and out of the Strait,” Reed said. “We noticed there wasn’t much Russian submarine activity. We then discovered they had a floating dry dock in the Mediterranean that was disguised as a merchant ship on the surface, but at night they would flood it down, drive a submarine into it, and would float it back up.”
He continued, “We discovered it and had to monitor how many boats were going in and out without us being detected. We got a big unit citation out of the deal because we answered a lot of the questions of why weren’t these boats going in and out of the Strait.”
Reed reenlisted in the Navy after his first three years and, as an incentive, spent the next several years at the United States Embassy in Australia working for Foreign Military Sales. “The Australians have always fought side by side with the Americans,” he stated. “They bought everything from wool insulated socks to fighting aircraft and tanks from us. At the time I was there, they had just bought a fleet of a new class of small fighting ships. My job was to get schools for the Australian sailors that were like the ones the American sailors would have to go to.”
With his time completed down under, Reed still had three more years to go on submarines. He was eventually discharged from the Navy and spent eight years working off shore before going to work at the post office in Mamou from 1989-2013.
“I worked as a clerk an a carrier in Mamou, and, then later on, I worked as acting post master in Turkey Creek and Chataignier,” Reed said. “I really loved those last three years at the post office.”
Since his retirement from the post office, Reed is still involved in the community by supporting the St. Ann’s youth group and Keep Evangeline Beautiful. His most enjoyable past time is playing Uncle Sam.
“I just got on Amazon one year and was looking to update my Santa Claus outfit, and there was an Uncle Sam outfit,” he stated. “I said that I could use that because we have the big Veterans Day parade here every year, and I said I could wear it for Memorial Day and for the Fourth of July at the beach because we used to go to Orange Beach every year for the Fourth.”
He continued, “The first year that I wore it at the beach was crazy. It was hot, but the people were lining up to take a picture with Uncle Sam.”
Since then, dressing up as Uncle Sam has caught on as he plays the part at different public and private functions around the area. “Everybody just stops what they’re doing,” expressed Reed. “The kids just want to touch Uncle Sam and take a picture with Uncle Sam and point their finger like Uncle Sam wants you. It’s just a trip, and it’s fun.”
Dressing up as Uncle Sam on the Fourth of July for Reed is, as he said, “a little sign of patriotism for the Fourth and what the Fourth is besides a day off.”
He concluded, “It means something to me. It really does. Since I can’t wear my Navy uniform anymore, Uncle Sam is my favorite.”