1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,960 The interview was held telephonically with Mr. Bruce D. Armand on Sunday, February 15, 2 00:00:08,960 --> 00:00:13,000 1998 at 5 o'clock PM, Mountain Daylight Time. 3 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:18,400 Interviewer is W. A. Connors, a private researcher specializing in the history of Project S.I. 4 00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:22,000 This interview is copyrighted in 1998 by W. A. Connors. 5 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:24,800 All rights are reserved. 6 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:29,840 Albert B. D. Armand was a member of the Project S.I.N.E. team, which was located at Air Materials 7 00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:34,980 Command's Intelligence Division, Wright-Batterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, from late 8 00:00:34,980 --> 00:00:36,840 1947 until mid-1949. 9 00:00:36,840 --> 00:00:42,840 He was co-author with Mr. Lawrence Trudner of the team's technical report entitled, 10 00:00:42,840 --> 00:00:45,840 Unidentified Aerial Objects, Project S.I.N.E. 11 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:46,840 Hi, Bruce. 12 00:00:46,840 --> 00:00:49,840 Thank you very much for taking time to reflect on your father's life. 13 00:00:49,840 --> 00:00:51,840 Could you tell me a little about yourself? 14 00:00:51,840 --> 00:00:54,840 Well, my name is Albert Bruce D. Armand. 15 00:00:54,840 --> 00:01:01,840 I was born November 28, 1949, Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. 16 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:07,840 I was premature and stayed in the hospital for two weeks. 17 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:15,840 Then I was adopted by Albert Bonnell D. Armand and Christine Bruce D. Armand, who lived in Dayton, Ohio. 18 00:01:15,840 --> 00:01:17,840 They took me there. 19 00:01:18,840 --> 00:01:22,840 To my recollection, I stayed there until 1952. 20 00:01:22,840 --> 00:01:24,840 I could be off a little bit. 21 00:01:24,840 --> 00:01:28,840 Then we moved to Alcahone, California. 22 00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:32,840 We stayed there until I was in first grade. 23 00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:36,840 I think that was 1956 or 1957. 24 00:01:36,840 --> 00:01:40,840 We moved to Santa Barbara, California. 25 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:46,840 I stayed there until about 1970. 26 00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:51,840 I moved to Northern California. 27 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:53,840 What do you do for a living now, Bruce? 28 00:01:53,840 --> 00:01:58,840 Right now, I'm a drug and alcohol counselor at Bridge Counseling in Las Vegas, Nevada. 29 00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:01,840 Sounds like a very interesting job. 30 00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:04,840 It's pretty rewarding. 31 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:05,840 Sure it is. 32 00:02:05,840 --> 00:02:09,840 Could you give me some insight into your father, who he was? 33 00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:11,840 Any recollections about him? 34 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:13,840 What did he look like? 35 00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:16,840 My father was about six feet two. 36 00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:19,840 He weighed probably 240. 37 00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:22,840 A big tall guy, real happy. 38 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:26,840 He was bald, just like I'll be in a few years. 39 00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:30,840 He was extremely intelligent. 40 00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:35,840 A lot of the times, I felt like he had to talk down to me. 41 00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:41,840 He was a good guy, but he wasn't real touchy-feely. 42 00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:45,840 I think he was more intellectual than he was emotional. 43 00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:49,840 He was always regarded with his emotions. 44 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:54,840 He treated me very well, stood by me through lots of problems. 45 00:02:54,840 --> 00:02:56,840 I was a drug addict for years. 46 00:02:56,840 --> 00:03:02,840 He always hung right in there with me and tried his best to get me out of trouble. 47 00:03:02,840 --> 00:03:05,840 Could you tell me where he was born? 48 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:08,840 Was he an American citizen or was he naturalized? 49 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:10,840 He was naturalized. 50 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:17,840 He was born in Nova Scotia and I don't really know what city or what town or what farm he was born on. 51 00:03:17,840 --> 00:03:20,840 His father's name was George DeArmond. 52 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:24,840 His mother's name, I'm sorry, I don't remember it. 53 00:03:24,840 --> 00:03:27,840 I would have to look it up. 54 00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:40,840 They moved to Canton, Massachusetts where his father was a maintenance engineer or some kind of engineer for a factory, I believe. 55 00:03:40,840 --> 00:03:43,840 It's real sketchy. 56 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:46,840 He grew up there. 57 00:03:46,840 --> 00:03:55,840 I believe he was, and I'm guessing at this, in junior high or maybe high school. 58 00:03:55,840 --> 00:04:00,840 I know that he graduated from Canton High School in 1926. 59 00:04:00,840 --> 00:04:02,840 Did he attend college? 60 00:04:02,840 --> 00:04:10,840 He attended MIT and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Engineering in June of 1930. 61 00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:14,840 What did he like to do when he wasn't working? 62 00:04:14,840 --> 00:04:26,840 Well, he liked to fly actually and he has a commercial pilot's license, but I'm not sure whatever developed on that. 63 00:04:26,840 --> 00:04:29,840 Possibly my mother didn't like him flying, I'm not sure. 64 00:04:29,840 --> 00:04:35,840 He found his little card that said he had a commercial pilot's license today. 65 00:04:35,840 --> 00:04:37,840 Did you ever fly with him? 66 00:04:37,840 --> 00:04:47,840 I did, but I was very, very young and there may have been some sort of incident that I don't know about that stopped him from flying. 67 00:04:47,840 --> 00:04:49,840 Maybe it was, your mom. 68 00:04:49,840 --> 00:04:51,840 Yeah. 69 00:04:51,840 --> 00:04:54,840 What did he like to do besides flying? 70 00:04:54,840 --> 00:04:58,840 Well, he really liked working in the yard. 71 00:04:58,840 --> 00:05:06,840 When we lived in Alcajon, he put in a swimming pool and he pretty much did the whole thing. 72 00:05:06,840 --> 00:05:15,840 When we lived in Santa Barbara, he was always, every weekend he was out there working in the yard and planting trees and doing all kinds of stuff. 73 00:05:15,840 --> 00:05:19,840 He liked going to the beach, he liked swimming in the ocean. 74 00:05:19,840 --> 00:05:21,840 Oh, so he was an avid swimmer. 75 00:05:21,840 --> 00:05:23,840 Yes. 76 00:05:24,840 --> 00:05:27,840 He always took us on pretty nice vacations. 77 00:05:27,840 --> 00:05:37,840 I mean, we went to Mexico and Hawaii and all over the western United States, almost all the national parks. 78 00:05:37,840 --> 00:05:39,840 He was pretty active outdoors. 79 00:05:39,840 --> 00:05:52,840 However, he was pretty nine to five Monday through Friday and that would go on for months and then we'd have a two week vacation in the middle of summer. 80 00:05:52,840 --> 00:05:56,840 Your father, from what I had, you know, there was a question I wanted to ask. 81 00:05:56,840 --> 00:05:57,840 Okay. 82 00:05:57,840 --> 00:05:58,840 What color were his eyes? 83 00:05:58,840 --> 00:05:59,840 His eyes were blue. 84 00:05:59,840 --> 00:06:01,840 His hair was red. 85 00:06:01,840 --> 00:06:02,840 Red. 86 00:06:02,840 --> 00:06:09,840 When he was younger and I believe he had the nickname red. 87 00:06:09,840 --> 00:06:11,840 I was adopted when he was 40 years old. 88 00:06:11,840 --> 00:06:15,840 He was bald and had gray hair at that point. 89 00:06:15,840 --> 00:06:21,840 So I just know that he had red hair because I had heard stories and I think he told me that his name was red. 90 00:06:21,840 --> 00:06:25,840 Did he ever mention a person's name by the name of Red Honaker? 91 00:06:25,840 --> 00:06:27,840 Not to my knowledge. 92 00:06:27,840 --> 00:06:29,840 Not to your knowledge. 93 00:06:29,840 --> 00:06:34,840 Your father was in the Army Air Force during World War II, from what I understand. 94 00:06:34,840 --> 00:06:36,840 Could you tell me what his rank was? 95 00:06:36,840 --> 00:06:42,840 He was in the Army Air Corps and he would always tell me it was called the Army Air Corps back then. 96 00:06:42,840 --> 00:06:50,840 And he went in as an officer, I believe, in World War II. 97 00:06:50,840 --> 00:07:06,840 According to documentation I found recently he was a captain, I believe, at the end of the war and then he was promoted to a lieutenant colonel and his final rank was full colonel. 98 00:07:06,840 --> 00:07:15,840 I know from research that your father was involved with Colonel Howard McCoy during the project Paperclip. 99 00:07:15,840 --> 00:07:18,840 And did he ever talk to you about Paperclip? 100 00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:20,840 My father never talked to me about it. 101 00:07:20,840 --> 00:07:23,840 My mother did after he passed away. 102 00:07:23,840 --> 00:07:35,840 She indicated to me that he had with a group of other officers gotten Warner von Braun out of Germany at the end of World War II and some other rocket scientists. 103 00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:43,840 I don't have names on them but I know I was highly impressed when I heard that he had something to do with getting von Braun out. 104 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:45,840 Have you ever heard of the term Project Lusty? 105 00:07:45,840 --> 00:07:47,840 I never have heard of that. 106 00:07:47,840 --> 00:07:48,840 You never heard of that? 107 00:07:48,840 --> 00:07:49,840 No. 108 00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:55,840 When you were at Dayton, Ohio and that, did you ever go with your father to his workplace? 109 00:07:55,840 --> 00:07:59,840 I have no recollection of it. 110 00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:05,840 There's only one recollection of Dayton, Ohio that I remember and I fell down the stairs. 111 00:08:05,840 --> 00:08:12,840 And I'm not sure that I remember it or that it was told to me enough times that I created a memory of it. 112 00:08:12,840 --> 00:08:16,840 You fell down the stairs, could you elaborate on that a little bit? 113 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:24,840 I was really young and I pretty much walked in my sleep when for years I've since stopped. 114 00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:29,840 I got up and took the header down the stairs. 115 00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:35,840 Oh wow. I used to walk in my sleep and one time my father told me that I ended up a head first in a waste basket. 116 00:08:35,840 --> 00:08:39,840 All they could do was hear me but they could never find me for about an hour. 117 00:08:39,840 --> 00:08:45,840 So I guess maybe we both walked that same bath in the middle of the night on many occasions. 118 00:08:45,840 --> 00:08:49,840 Did your father ever talk to you about his work on Project Signed? 119 00:08:49,840 --> 00:08:51,840 He never brought it up. 120 00:08:51,840 --> 00:08:57,840 I had a cousin that was trying to think how much older than me. 121 00:08:57,840 --> 00:09:01,840 Probably 15 years older than me or somewhere in there. 122 00:09:01,840 --> 00:09:08,840 In the mid-60s, he said, let's ask your dad about the Air Force Blue Book. 123 00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:13,840 And I had some recollection of it but nothing really concrete. 124 00:09:13,840 --> 00:09:15,840 And I said, sure, I'll ask him. 125 00:09:15,840 --> 00:09:17,840 So I went up and asked him. 126 00:09:17,840 --> 00:09:23,840 I said, look, you're a scientist. You're an intellectual man. 127 00:09:23,840 --> 00:09:29,840 Tell me about Flying Saucers and tell me about this Blue Book project. 128 00:09:29,840 --> 00:09:31,840 Was it all a cover-up? 129 00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:36,840 And he turned to me and he said in the year 2025 that material will be declassified 130 00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:39,840 and I'll gladly tell you the whole story. 131 00:09:39,840 --> 00:09:42,840 Which I replied, I won't even be around in 2025. 132 00:09:42,840 --> 00:09:44,840 So tell me now. 133 00:09:44,840 --> 00:09:49,840 And he just kept saying it'll be declassified in the year 2025. 134 00:09:49,840 --> 00:09:56,840 So I take it your father was really kind of closed-lipped on what he did while he was in the Navy. 135 00:09:56,840 --> 00:09:57,840 Absolutely. 136 00:09:57,840 --> 00:10:05,840 Closed-lipped on what he did because he had top security clearance and he was really ethical. 137 00:10:05,840 --> 00:10:08,840 I mean, he wouldn't cross that line. 138 00:10:08,840 --> 00:10:12,840 So and to tell you the truth, I never saw my father drunk. 139 00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:17,840 I saw him drink wine occasionally at Thanksgiving and Christmas. 140 00:10:17,840 --> 00:10:22,840 He just was pretty close to the chest about top secret stuff. 141 00:10:22,840 --> 00:10:26,840 Did he ever have any of his coworkers over to the house that you can remember? 142 00:10:26,840 --> 00:10:28,840 No, it's a matter of fact. 143 00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:36,840 I don't remember anybody coming over that wasn't related to people from the church that he attended. 144 00:10:36,840 --> 00:10:42,840 But I never saw professional coworkers or anything like that. 145 00:10:42,840 --> 00:10:44,840 And what was your religion, was he? 146 00:10:44,840 --> 00:10:45,840 Presbyterian. 147 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:46,840 He was a Presbyterian. 148 00:10:46,840 --> 00:10:53,840 And he was a deacon and he was a religious man. 149 00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:55,840 He had high morals. 150 00:10:56,840 --> 00:10:59,840 And he got stuck with a real wild kid, let me tell you. 151 00:10:59,840 --> 00:11:06,840 What was your impressions when you were talking to your father about Project Sign and Project Blue Book? 152 00:11:06,840 --> 00:11:13,840 And did you ever get the feeling where he leaned as far as belief in unidentified fine objects? 153 00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:16,840 Well, this would just be my impressions. 154 00:11:16,840 --> 00:11:23,840 I would say that by his response that I believe that he believed in them. 155 00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:28,840 But again, he never told me anything other than it was classified. 156 00:11:28,840 --> 00:11:31,840 He would tell me the whole story in 2025. 157 00:11:33,840 --> 00:11:35,840 Certainly he was... 158 00:11:35,840 --> 00:11:39,840 It just seemed to me that he believed in them. 159 00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:50,840 Did he ever mention a book or actually a treatise that was called an Estimate of the Situation? 160 00:11:50,840 --> 00:11:53,840 Or did he ever use that term? 161 00:11:53,840 --> 00:11:55,840 I never heard that at all. 162 00:11:55,840 --> 00:12:01,840 The only conversation we ever had was the one that I've described on that whole thing. 163 00:12:01,840 --> 00:12:04,840 And I didn't even know that there was a project called Sign. 164 00:12:04,840 --> 00:12:06,840 All I knew about was the Blue Book. 165 00:12:06,840 --> 00:12:13,840 Well, I did send you a copy of Project Sign several days ago, so you should be getting it very soon. 166 00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:23,840 As far as your father obviously was very intelligent and probably very prolific as far as writing goes, did he ever write any books? 167 00:12:23,840 --> 00:12:30,840 I heard that he wrote two books on aeronautical engineering is what he told me. 168 00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:33,840 When I heard that he wrote them, I immediately went and asked him about, 169 00:12:33,840 --> 00:12:35,840 hey, where's these books? I want to see them. 170 00:12:35,840 --> 00:12:42,840 And he indicated that the publisher had, and I'll put this in modern terms, ripped them off. 171 00:12:42,840 --> 00:12:46,840 And I said, well, but don't you even have a copy of them? I'd like to see them. 172 00:12:46,840 --> 00:12:49,840 And he pretty much just downplayed the whole thing. 173 00:12:49,840 --> 00:12:52,840 He didn't want to talk about it, and he didn't. 174 00:12:52,840 --> 00:12:55,840 And when he didn't want to talk about something, he wouldn't. 175 00:12:55,840 --> 00:12:59,840 Again, the very closed-lipped individual. 176 00:12:59,840 --> 00:13:07,840 And after he left, right, Patterson, and after he left the service, did he have any other jobs? 177 00:13:07,840 --> 00:13:14,840 Well, he, according to some documents that I found recently, he worked for Ryan Aeronautical. 178 00:13:14,840 --> 00:13:20,840 Well, actually, first he worked for Volte, and that was in the 30s. 179 00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:22,840 You know what he did there? 180 00:13:22,840 --> 00:13:28,840 He was a structural engineer or something like that. 181 00:13:28,840 --> 00:13:35,840 Hold on, let me look in this book and I can give you the exact term. 182 00:13:35,840 --> 00:13:41,840 And I know that in the 30s, he was involved in the Lend-Lease program with Russia, 183 00:13:41,840 --> 00:13:46,840 and I'm not sure what aircraft designation Volte had, 184 00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:55,840 but apparently those planes were the ones that they lent least to Russia in the 30s. 185 00:13:55,840 --> 00:14:02,840 He worked for Taneer, Northrop, Volte aircraft companies, 1935 to 1941, 186 00:14:02,840 --> 00:14:07,840 stress analyst and structural engineer, chief of stress at Volte. 187 00:14:07,840 --> 00:14:13,840 Then he was outright Patterson Air Force base from 1948 to 1951, 188 00:14:13,840 --> 00:14:17,840 civilian capacity with Air Technical Intelligence Center. 189 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:24,840 Then, oops, I made a mistake here, Ryan Aeronautical from 46 to 48, 190 00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:27,840 and then he was called to write Patterson. 191 00:14:27,840 --> 00:14:30,840 Does it say who called him to write Patterson? 192 00:14:30,840 --> 00:14:33,840 I don't have that in this book at any rate. 193 00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:37,840 In the documents that I'm going to send you, I'm sure you can find that. 194 00:14:37,840 --> 00:14:43,840 Okay. You say that there's a lot of travel orders and things. 195 00:14:43,840 --> 00:14:50,840 There's telegrams and lots of stuff. 196 00:14:50,840 --> 00:14:57,840 It doesn't make a lot of sense to me because I don't understand military wording very well. 197 00:14:57,840 --> 00:14:59,840 You know, all the jargon. 198 00:14:59,840 --> 00:15:09,840 During the transition year from 1947 into 1948 when the Army Air Corps was changing over to the United States Air Force, 199 00:15:09,840 --> 00:15:16,840 a lot of documents in that took a little time to get all the jargon and things kind of standardized. 200 00:15:16,840 --> 00:15:22,840 That's why sometimes it's real difficult to understand basically what some of the jargon means. 201 00:15:22,840 --> 00:15:25,840 Well, what it says on this document I'm looking at right now. 202 00:15:25,840 --> 00:15:30,840 I am presently holding a Mobilization Assignment with the Air Materiel Command. 203 00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:42,840 It is Air Tech Intelligence Officer Intel Department, H-A-M-C-W-P-A-F-B, date 9 Ohio. 204 00:15:42,840 --> 00:15:51,840 My Mobilization Assignment number is Order Number 170 DTD 13 June 1949. 205 00:15:51,840 --> 00:15:55,840 Well, those documents will be pretty interesting to see. 206 00:15:55,840 --> 00:15:56,840 Yeah. 207 00:15:56,840 --> 00:16:01,840 After he left right Patterson, did he go anywhere else? 208 00:16:01,840 --> 00:16:09,840 He went back to Ryan Aeronautical in San Diego, California and he stayed with them until, 209 00:16:09,840 --> 00:16:13,840 I believe it was either 1956 or 57. 210 00:16:13,840 --> 00:16:21,840 And then we moved to Santa Barbara where he got a job at Tempo Technical Military Planning Operation 211 00:16:21,840 --> 00:16:23,840 as a division of General Electric. 212 00:16:23,840 --> 00:16:34,840 And from what I know of that time, he worked on stress analysis for and guidance for the Polaris missile, 213 00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:38,840 for he did a lot of work with the Apollo capsule. 214 00:16:38,840 --> 00:16:44,840 I assume he did some work with Mercury and Gemini, but I don't remember saying that. 215 00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:50,840 And he worked there until 1971 or two. 216 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:58,840 There was a dive in the aerospace industry and he didn't technically get laid off, 217 00:16:58,840 --> 00:17:06,840 but he sort of worked for Tempo and he also did consulting work where he went back to Southern California somewhere. 218 00:17:06,840 --> 00:17:10,840 I'm not sure where because at that point I wasn't living with him. 219 00:17:10,840 --> 00:17:19,840 I was living in Northern California, so I just know that he was pretty shattered that the aerospace industry took a dive like that. 220 00:17:19,840 --> 00:17:27,840 And he was close enough to retirement that he wanted to stay working, but he sort of did consulting work for a while. 221 00:17:27,840 --> 00:17:33,840 Basically he did a lot of temporary duty at various places like Cape Canaveral. 222 00:17:33,840 --> 00:17:35,840 He went there quite frequently. 223 00:17:35,840 --> 00:17:43,840 He used to fly to Albuquerque a lot and I'm not sure where he ended up. I would assume White Sands. 224 00:17:43,840 --> 00:17:52,840 I know that when I watched TV shows one time, we saw something on Albert Goddard. 225 00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:54,840 He was very interested in that. 226 00:17:55,840 --> 00:18:05,840 I know that when we saw things on Ryan had a vertical takeoff and landing vehicle that they made in the, I believe, mid-50s. 227 00:18:05,840 --> 00:18:13,840 And it was on the 20th century show and I watched that with him and he identified the people that were in the film. 228 00:18:13,840 --> 00:18:14,840 Oh wow. 229 00:18:14,840 --> 00:18:16,840 So he knew who they were. 230 00:18:16,840 --> 00:18:17,840 Again, I... 231 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:20,840 And obviously, he worked closely with them. 232 00:18:20,840 --> 00:18:21,840 Yeah. 233 00:18:21,840 --> 00:18:23,840 Was he ever on television? 234 00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:28,840 I know. He may have been who knows. I have no idea. 235 00:18:28,840 --> 00:18:31,840 I don't remember seeing him on television. 236 00:18:31,840 --> 00:18:40,840 Did you ever go with him when he went temporary duty to Cape Canaveral or out to California? 237 00:18:40,840 --> 00:18:47,840 Well, you know, when you say temporary duty, he was a civilian, but he was also the colonel in charge of the Air Force Reserve. 238 00:18:48,840 --> 00:18:52,840 So it was... I don't know if you'd really call it temporary duty. 239 00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:55,840 I think it was just business trips. 240 00:18:55,840 --> 00:18:58,840 He went there from Tempo. 241 00:18:58,840 --> 00:19:02,840 And, you know, maybe he was... 242 00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:05,840 Maybe Tempo was the cover for the military. 243 00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:08,840 I don't know. It's called a technical military planning operation. 244 00:19:08,840 --> 00:19:13,840 I assumed he was a civilian contractor for them. 245 00:19:13,840 --> 00:19:19,840 I never got to go with him. I wanted to go because I wanted to go to Florida, and he wouldn't take me. 246 00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:21,840 Did he ever give you a reason why? 247 00:19:21,840 --> 00:19:23,840 I was in school, he said. 248 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:24,840 Oh, you were in school. 249 00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:27,840 He really didn't want to be bothered with trying to watch me. 250 00:19:27,840 --> 00:19:31,840 I was pretty wild, and it would have just caused him a lot of grief, I'm sure. 251 00:19:31,840 --> 00:19:34,840 In hindsight, I can see that now. 252 00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:39,840 Could you tell me a little bit about how your father died or when he retired and how he died? 253 00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:44,840 He retired, I believe in 1971. It may have been 1972. 254 00:19:44,840 --> 00:19:49,840 He moved from Santa Barbara to California, which was... 255 00:19:49,840 --> 00:19:54,840 I lived a few miles up the hill from Sonora in a place called Cedar Ridge. 256 00:19:54,840 --> 00:20:00,840 And he moved there because my sister lived in Oakdale, which was about 35 miles from there. 257 00:20:00,840 --> 00:20:06,840 And my mother, or my adoptive parents, I call them my mother and father because they were. 258 00:20:06,840 --> 00:20:07,840 Well, I think that's... 259 00:20:07,840 --> 00:20:08,840 Right. 260 00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:13,840 They moved there and they bought a house. 261 00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:21,840 I didn't notice a lot of shift in his awareness and what was going on, 262 00:20:21,840 --> 00:20:30,840 but towards the end of the 70s, we thought that Sonilla was setting in, 263 00:20:30,840 --> 00:20:33,840 because he would forget stuff. 264 00:20:33,840 --> 00:20:37,840 And it was pretty gradual. 265 00:20:37,840 --> 00:20:42,840 And by 1980, when he died, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. 266 00:20:42,840 --> 00:20:49,840 So he may have been diagnosed, in fact, in the late 70s with it. 267 00:20:49,840 --> 00:20:52,840 He was pretty scattered at the end. 268 00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:57,840 He would put the wrong shoe on the wrong foot and he would wander off and just start walking. 269 00:20:57,840 --> 00:21:01,840 It was pretty frightening for my mother and pretty frightening for me, too. 270 00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:06,840 I didn't have a lot of contact, even though I lived close by. 271 00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:09,840 I was pretty wild and didn't... 272 00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:13,840 I would see him maybe once every month or so. 273 00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:21,840 And I was going to school in Merced, so I was driving 90 miles one way to school all the time. 274 00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:25,840 And I would just stop by occasionally. 275 00:21:25,840 --> 00:21:34,840 I did notice that his awareness level and his cognitive ability had diminished rapidly. 276 00:21:34,840 --> 00:21:38,840 And I have to admit, I was pretty scared of the whole thing. 277 00:21:38,840 --> 00:21:43,840 And I limited my contact, which is regrettable. 278 00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:46,840 Well, I'm very understandable also. 279 00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:57,840 I was wondering, we were going to get together sometime in June for a videotaped interview. 280 00:21:57,840 --> 00:21:59,840 I'm looking forward to it. 281 00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:01,840 And you're looking forward to it, and so am I. 282 00:22:01,840 --> 00:22:05,840 And I'm looking forward to the materials that you're going to be sending. 283 00:22:05,840 --> 00:22:08,840 You said that you had some 16mm film. 284 00:22:08,840 --> 00:22:13,840 16mm film, and it is... 285 00:22:13,840 --> 00:22:19,840 The reel that I will send is stuff from Dayton, Ohio. 286 00:22:19,840 --> 00:22:23,840 So you'll be able to see what he looked like during that time. 287 00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:27,840 I don't know that the other stuff that I have, it's home movies. 288 00:22:27,840 --> 00:22:33,840 And it goes from the time my sister was born until the mid-70s, I think, 289 00:22:33,840 --> 00:22:37,840 or maybe even further than that, I'm not sure. 290 00:22:37,840 --> 00:22:42,840 On the home movies, were there any parties with military people? 291 00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:45,840 Absolutely not. 292 00:22:45,840 --> 00:22:49,840 I don't ever remember seeing any military people in our home ever. 293 00:22:49,840 --> 00:22:55,840 It's almost as if when he was at home, he was at home. 294 00:22:55,840 --> 00:23:05,840 Every Thursday night, he went and did his Air Force Reserve thing for a couple hours in Santa Barbara. 295 00:23:05,840 --> 00:23:09,840 It was a reserve officer, so it was... 296 00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:12,840 I have no clue what they did. 297 00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:16,840 I doubt they sat around and drank and told war stories, but maybe, I don't know. 298 00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:22,840 I'm almost 100% positive my father didn't sit around and drink with anybody, 299 00:23:22,840 --> 00:23:25,840 because I just never saw him do that. 300 00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:27,840 Was he a member of any other organizations? 301 00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:30,840 Was he an elk or a mousse? 302 00:23:30,840 --> 00:23:32,840 No. 303 00:23:32,840 --> 00:23:38,840 He was a church in his work, and that pretty much covered it. 304 00:23:38,840 --> 00:23:44,840 Is there anything that you would like to ask me? 305 00:23:44,840 --> 00:23:51,840 Well, I'm just really very interested in all this, and I'm so gratified that somebody's doing this work, 306 00:23:51,840 --> 00:23:56,840 because I get to find out more about him, because he was pretty closed-lipped about stuff. 307 00:23:56,840 --> 00:24:05,840 And this will be an opportunity for me to find out about stuff that he couldn't talk about to me. 308 00:24:05,840 --> 00:24:10,840 And it's like the Operation Paperclip. 309 00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:16,840 I don't think that that was classified, but it's not something he would discuss with his family. 310 00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:24,840 He pretty much kept his professional life and military life away from us. 311 00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:32,840 You mentioned in an earlier phone call that there was a scrapbook that was kept on the Project Paperclip. 312 00:24:32,840 --> 00:24:35,840 And I'm looking for that even as we speak. 313 00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:38,840 Well, actually, I'm not actually looking through any boxes. 314 00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:40,840 I still have a couple more boxes to go through. 315 00:24:40,840 --> 00:24:48,840 My mother showed it to me when he died, and I gotta tell you, I put it in a box and never really looked at it. 316 00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:51,840 So I'd like to be able to say I know all about it, but I really don't. 317 00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:53,840 Not at this point anyway. 318 00:24:53,840 --> 00:24:57,840 I'm really hoping that I'll come across that because it had... 319 00:24:57,840 --> 00:25:02,840 Well, they were newspaper articles, so it'll... 320 00:25:02,840 --> 00:25:06,840 I don't know what it's gonna show me, but something I'm sure. 321 00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:14,840 Going back to your father being in the military, do you have any recollection of any medals or anything that he might have won? 322 00:25:14,840 --> 00:25:18,840 Yeah. As a matter of fact, I do. 323 00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:21,840 He had a bronze star. 324 00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:30,840 He had... gosh, I got this... this is digging way back because I used to play with him when I was a little kid. 325 00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:37,840 I think I still have some of the ribbons, so maybe you can identify them by what colors they are. 326 00:25:37,840 --> 00:25:42,840 There was a bronze star, I know, and then there was two or three other ones. 327 00:25:42,840 --> 00:25:46,840 And I don't really know. 328 00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:52,840 Did he ever talk to you about when he was in the service, where exactly he was stationed and at? 329 00:25:52,840 --> 00:25:55,840 Very minimal. 330 00:25:55,840 --> 00:26:05,840 He was with a group of guys that went around in a C-47, and I'm not sure what they did, but I imagine they were intelligence officers. 331 00:26:05,840 --> 00:26:08,840 He talked about being in India. 332 00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:18,840 I know he was in Burma. I know recently, by looking in a photo album of him and these guys, that they were in China. 333 00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:25,840 And I really haven't gotten deep into the photo album, but I'm gonna send that off to you and hopefully you can identify who these guys were. 334 00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:29,840 We're gonna sure give it a good dry. 335 00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:33,840 He told me little anecdotal stories about India and things. 336 00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:40,840 He told me one at any rate that you want me to go into that. 337 00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:41,840 Sure. 338 00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:50,840 Well, in the late 60s I had some desire to go to India and he thought that that was a pretty screwball idea. 339 00:26:50,840 --> 00:27:01,840 And he tried to dissuade me by telling me it was a third-world country that I didn't even have a clue about and that living conditions there were pretty tough. 340 00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:10,840 The story he told me was him and his officer friends were out for the evening and they returned to the space wherever it was. 341 00:27:10,840 --> 00:27:24,840 And they had a Sikh guard as a security person at the gate and this man was sitting on the ground and this was pretty uncharacteristic for a Sikh because they're pretty professional in their service. 342 00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:38,840 And they walked up to him and they asked him why he was sitting down and he said that he was waiting to die and that a snake called a creed had bitten him and apparently it's pretty rapid demise after you've been bitten. 343 00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:44,840 And the whole idea about telling me the story was how fatalistic people in India were. 344 00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:49,840 And I don't know, it just intrigued me all the more. 345 00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:51,840 Did he ever visit Russia? 346 00:27:51,840 --> 00:28:00,840 He was in Russia in the 30s with the LEM Lease Program and I assume it had something to do with being with Volte. 347 00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:03,840 He wrote in Russian. 348 00:28:03,840 --> 00:28:07,840 He spoke it, I believe, a little bit. 349 00:28:07,840 --> 00:28:12,840 I know that he flew when he was there. 350 00:28:12,840 --> 00:28:22,840 And I have some feeling that maybe there was an accident or something that wasn't severe but it may have frightened him enough not to fly anymore. 351 00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:26,840 Or my mother had some influence on him about flying. 352 00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:36,840 But I'm like grasping at struts, they're memories that don't really, they're not really firm concrete memories. 353 00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:43,840 Are there any papers among his boxes that are written in Russian? 354 00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:55,840 The photo album has some Russian in it and I have seen as a child notebooks, like little hand notebooks that were in Russian. 355 00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:57,840 And I thought like what is this? 356 00:28:57,840 --> 00:29:02,840 I mean I didn't even recognize the really alphabet. 357 00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:06,840 And he told me it was Russian and I said wow, you speak Russian? 358 00:29:06,840 --> 00:29:10,840 And he said well a little bit and he could write it and read it apparently. 359 00:29:10,840 --> 00:29:14,840 So he was a pretty interesting guy. 360 00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:18,840 I sure sound like it. 361 00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:20,840 Well, let's see. 362 00:29:20,840 --> 00:29:31,840 Let me go through my notes here real quick and see if there's anything that I want to pick up here on this initial phone interview. 363 00:29:31,840 --> 00:29:33,840 Can you spell his middle name for me? 364 00:29:33,840 --> 00:29:39,840 B-O-N-N-E-L-L which was his mother's maiden name. 365 00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:42,840 And he pronounces his name the Armand. 366 00:29:42,840 --> 00:29:51,840 A lot of people, we've only known him as A-B, Derrimand is the way everyone is pronouncing it. 367 00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:53,840 But he pronounces the Armand. 368 00:29:53,840 --> 00:29:57,840 Yes, and that's the way I always heard it pronounced. 369 00:29:57,840 --> 00:29:58,840 Is that a French extraction? 370 00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:00,840 It's French Canadian. 371 00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:04,840 That's interesting. 372 00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:16,840 In looking at this document that I have now which is called, I don't even know, Organization Copy Reserve, not on EAD, 373 00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:21,840 it says something about Brit Airway Ministry accident investigation. 374 00:30:21,840 --> 00:30:24,840 So, I think it's a little bit of a long story. 375 00:30:24,840 --> 00:30:27,840 I think it's a little bit of a long story. 376 00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:30,840 I think it's a little bit of a long story. 377 00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:32,840 I think it's a little bit of a long story. 378 00:30:32,840 --> 00:30:34,840 I think it's a little bit of a long story. 379 00:30:34,840 --> 00:30:36,840 I think it's a little bit of a long story. 380 00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:38,840 I think it's a little bit of a long story. 381 00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:40,840 I think it's a little bit of a long story. 382 00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:42,840 I think it's a little bit of a long story. 383 00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:44,840 I think it's a little bit of a long story. 384 00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:46,840 I think it's a little bit of a long story. 385 00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:48,840 I think it's a little bit of a long story. 386 00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:51,840 It's typed right on the line. 387 00:30:51,840 --> 00:30:53,840 It looks like 46. 388 00:30:53,840 --> 00:31:00,840 And then it says, Economic Mobile Course, two weeks completed, 1950. 389 00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:04,840 There is one listing here. 390 00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:12,840 It says, G-slash-S-S-T-A Hospital Fort MacArthur, California, October 1947. 391 00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:17,840 I don't know if that means anything, but that's what's written on this. 392 00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:21,840 I'm sure you're going to be able to make more sense of this than I am. 393 00:31:21,840 --> 00:31:23,840 We're going to sure try. 394 00:31:23,840 --> 00:31:27,840 I just want to let you know that we appreciate the initial phone interview. 395 00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:31,840 Like I say, I do look forward to meeting you in person in June. 396 00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:35,840 We'll go out and have a good time and have a good steak dinner and things. 397 00:31:35,840 --> 00:31:36,840 Sounds good to me. 398 00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:38,840 Sounds good to me too. 399 00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:41,840 I appreciate you sending the materials to us. 400 00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:46,840 We will get those duplicated and sent right back to you. 401 00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:53,840 And of course, we will keep you informed of everything that we discover and come up with. 402 00:31:53,840 --> 00:31:56,840 So you'll know everything that's going on step by step. 403 00:31:56,840 --> 00:31:57,840 Okay. 404 00:31:57,840 --> 00:31:58,840 And that. 405 00:31:58,840 --> 00:32:00,840 I really appreciate you talking with me tonight. 406 00:32:00,840 --> 00:32:01,840 No problem. 407 00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:02,840 Okay. 408 00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:05,840 I'm going to stop this now. 409 00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:07,840 And then we'll talk.