Al and I became friends due to a common interest in printing and printing equipment. I owned my own print shop and he lived just a few blocks away. No matter how busy I may have been, I always took time to help him with any questions, or just listen to what he had to say. He always wore the USS Indianapolis cap, but I never thought much about it. One day I saw a TV special on the USS Indianapolis. The next time I saw him, I ask "How long were you in the water?" His only reply was "6 days." I asked what he though about Captain McVay. I can't post his exact words, but the though was that the Captain had gotten a raw deal and he supported him 150%. That was all he ever said, and we never spoke of it again. I want to thank this forum for its efforts. History, and the lessons they teach have a way of being forgotten. Regardless, the men who served should never be forgotten and I just wanted to say that I was privileged to have known Al Ferguson!
DAHLIASBLOOD said
Jul 9, 2008
That's my dad. You described him perfectly. I am glad you got to know him and thanks for posting it here.
Heather Ferguson
Indymaru said
May 25, 2009
Dad boarded the Indy before the War started...they were at sea when the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor. He stayed aboard and was a CMM 1st when she was sunk in July 1945....several days after his birthday. Of course...he was in the engine room... after all, he was of Scottish ancestry. Somehow Scot's and their descendants have been associated with engine rooms for a long time.
Throughout his life he had a particular talent that seems closer to being lost in this day and age of computers. He was a CMM after all.... he could make ANY part out of a block of metal you could imagine.... using a lathe and other tools.... you show him a picture or drawing, and he would produce that piece. People, these days, who can actually mill something from scratch....are few and far between. It is getting to be a lost art, lost skill, lost talent.
Sure...lots of software engineers can CAD a part and have a laser slice it out in a factory. But if all the circuits get zapped by an EMP? Nobody's left to make the gear.
Indymaru said
May 25, 2009
This is an older post, but I'm replying now... sort of to continue this web history, sort of today's generation version of the oral history.
Dad originally worked in a printshop in Couer 'd Alene, Idaho. Yep, waaaay before there were resorts and beachfront. They had sawmills and steam ferries on the lake in those days. And he worked there as a kid.
Later, long after he retired from the Navy, and then retired again from private industry, he fired up a garage print shop as a hobby. He like Davidson presses for some reason, and had about three or four for many years. He handbuilt his own darkroom and litho camera....and plate burner. All built by hand, including the vacuum backs. He drilled dozens of evenly spaced holes into the aluminum rectangles for both the camera back and burner base.
Jeff
DAHLIASBLOOD said
Sep 7, 2011
Yeah, that is so true about Dad...he could create anything!!! I remember when the steel balls that pulled the paper through the printers would get pitted and worn, Dad would go up into my old bedroom and use my marbles!!! Good I won so many....lol.
Dad originally worked in a printshop in Couer 'd Alene, Idaho. Yep, waaaay before there were resorts and beachfront. They had sawmills and steam ferries on the lake in those days. And he worked there as a kid.
Later, long after he retired from the Navy, and then retired again from private industry, he fired up a garage print shop as a hobby. He like Davidson presses for some reason, and had about three or four for many years. He handbuilt his own darkroom and litho camera....and plate burner. All built by hand, including the vacuum backs. He drilled dozens of evenly spaced holes into the aluminum rectangles for both the camera back and burner base.
Jeff