1 50 1 https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/290cdeb884a2a5a281731752df0a2603.pdf a47c16c347f26de98030f9a53405c208 PDF Text Text Samantha Lane 3-14-11 HIS 3823-101 · Dr. Browning Interview Transcription Lane: I am Samantha Lane, a History Secondary Education major at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. The date is February sixth, 2011. And we are currently in Sanford, North Carolina. And I'm interviewing former E4 specialist, Stel Dubbiosi, and we will begin the interview now. So Stel, when and where were you born? Dubbiosi: Brooklyn New York. In 1961. May 19th. Lane: Ok. Can you describe your family, what was your family like? Dubbiosi: typical Italian family. Raised catholic. Had two brothers, no sisters. Stay at home mom. And a college professor for a dad. Lane: What subject did your father teach? Dubbiosi: He had several MBAs, masters ... He was a lawyer, and accountant, and a music professor, and he chose music out of all, so ... well educated man, didn't start working ... didn't graduate all.. .finish all his college degrees until he was in his thirties. Lane: Wow. Was there any kind of military history in your family? Dubbiosi: Just an uncle that was .. .in Normandy, in the U.S. Army. He was a paratrooper. He ... died in Normandy, he died exactly July 24th 1944 in Normandy. Lane: So you didn't grow up hearing any stories, about any kind of adventures ... Dubbiosi: Oh, I heard all kinds of adventures, about jeeps running over his foot, (laughter) getting drunk and stuff, but those were from mom ... it was her brother so she talked about him often. Lane: Alright, so ... did you ... How old were you when you decided to enlist? Dubbiosi: I was sixteen years old, and I kept pushing my parents to let me join the Air Force ... took all the ASVAP tests and physicals and all that for it so I could get in when I was seventeen ... and my father was against it. My mother was for almost anything that I wanted so she signed me in when it was time. I didn't get to go in the air force, cuz all they wanted ... all �they had opening was for security police, and the navy offered me every career field there was, I just chose ... Radar Air Control Operation Specialist ... in the navy... lane: Is there a reason you chose to do that in particular or just ... Dubbiosi: I'd grown up watching all them fighter jock movies. And all that. I guess I like that more than anything. The ... l knew I couldn't fly a plane, but if I was involve in aircraft, it was a better field in the navy. You got a lot more shore bases ... lane: ... Where did you ... do your basic training? Dubbiosi: Orlando Florida. Lane: What was that like? Dubbiosi: ... Wasn't like anything that I'd imagined ... was you know ... a lot of marching, a lot of living in a dorm with a bunch a guys. Everybody was real young. Folding clothes. They were trying to teach you attention to detail. Didn't have a lot of work with ... you know weapons or military history or anything I thought basic training was supposed to be. There weren't obstacle courses ... they weren't really testing your physical ability except ... you know ... beating you up on what they called the Grinder. You'd go out there and run 2 or 3 miles a day... that was about it but, there were no obstacle courses you had to go through, no water swim tests or anything like that for the navy. It was ...just pretty much folding clothes, marching, just trying to teach you attention to detail...follow direct orders. lane: What's your best memories of basic training? Dubbiosi: My parents coming down to see me when I graduated. lane: What about your worst memory? Dubbiosi: ... It was standing guard over all the crazies that were getting shipped out of the military. We had a dorm specifically set up for them ... where they ... have 'urn until they were processed out. And you' d ... have to stand over 'urn at night and a lot of them would wear their uniforms inside-out ... walk around with a helmet on backwards, beating garbage cans ... you know at 3 o'clock in the morning trying to wake people up ... just acting completely crazy so they could get away with their process out of the military. lane: And ... once you were finished with your basic training, where were you assigned? Dubbiosi: I was ... I went to school in Great Lakes Illinois, which was very, very cold ... it was 1978, and it was a horrible winter ... and I went to Radar Operations School. �Lane: And how was that? What was that like? Dubbiosi: ...It was ... it was a whole lot more interesting that any school that I'd been to ... it was taught differently than normal high school or college ... You know you actually got to participate ... in class ... it was more like on the job training than anything else. It was, you know, you were rewarded, you know for your achievement ... you had an actual goal that you had to achieve and it was short enough not to be boring. It was about sixteen weeks, which is a whole lot better than a year in school. (laughter). Lane: Now you said ... this was in 1978 so were you ... once you were done with your ...job school...( nodded assent) were you ever deployed into any combat situation or anything like that? Dubbiosi: No. The Cold War was out ... we were in a Cold War. .. a lot of it was engaging... the enemy submarines, aircraft .. .it was an electronic war. You ... everything was done by locking on to them, locking on to you, you have observation .. .funny story ... the ... we ... we always took pictures of aircraft, and ships and submarines ... and ... these ... pictures were declassified years later, and actually sent to my home address, where my parents were. And my parents were very impressed, you know by all of the beautiful ships, and there was this one ... it was Soviet aircraft called Bear Foxtrot. And ... an F4 .. and we were a P3 Charlie-Orion ... taking photos of all this ... and ... the F4 was ... engaging the Bear Foxtrot electronically ... and there's a huge circular dome window on the side of the Bear Foxtrot ... and there's an operator... a Soviet operator who is in there. And he's taking photographs of us, just like we're taking photographs of him. And he was giving us the finger ... (laughter) ... and we took a photograph of it. Well, my parents had got these pictures, and they were a little elderly at the time so I don't think they noticed it ... but they put ... they had the picture blown up and put on their mantle above the fireplace. When I came home, I saw the picture and there's this picture of that aircraft and the guy giving the finger. .. (laughter) ... and my parent's never even figured that out so ... that was interesting. But no there was never any combat ... that was ... the closest combat it came to was like an electronic video game ... now there was engagement and no actual shooting of bullets. Lane: Now you told me before that you were first stationed in Iceland ... (assent). Obviously you'd never been to Iceland before, what was that like? Dubbiosi: Keflavik, Iceland was very, very desolate looking place ... it was a scary looking place. I got there during the winter, and it was six months ... you could call it dusk... never got really dark it never got really light. During the summertime it was really light. But you had six months dusk and six months daylight. And ... it was ... a very gloomy place. Very gloomy place, mostly volcanic rock. Keflavik, Iceland since closed, it was a NATO air base ... and it was ... very, very cold. And we used to have Charlie condition ...which was a complete whiteout. And you couldn't go outside, �couldn't see anything. It was ... a scary place, but after a while it became home, and we felt safe there, and after a while you just didn't want to leave. That was two years. lane: Two years. Where were you stationed after that? Dubbiosi: Stationed after that, I had less than two years, about 18 months left in the service, so the military decided instead of putting me in one particular duty station, they would ... since they were short-handed on radar operators and air controllers, that they would ... put me in ... different places as needed so .. .for three months I got to spend on a ship called the U.S.S. Briscoe which was anti-submarine warfare springe-class destroyer ... and it was a sub-hunter put in ... the Persian Gulf, which ... you don't get too many subs out there. But they were there pretty ·much for their tactical data ... and we had something called NTDS, Naval tactical Data System, which was a highly advanced computer system. It could track multiple targets, aircraft missiles, things like that, and that's why it was there. So we used to get overflown by Iranian F4's every once in a while ...and we'd lock on them and they'd lock on us and we'd play our little game until you know someone got tired and decided to go home. It was ... that was that. The rest of the time I got to go to ... Fasfaps, the Capes, and ... Virginia Beach, Virginia ... ! got stationed in different places all over the United States for short periods of time. And all over the world ... Korea ... Lagis and the Azores ... Rhoda, Spain .. .ltaly, places like that. Diego Garcia, lot of fun, all the hot spots in the world. (laughter). lane: ... Now you said at this point ... you only had 18 months left ...was there a reason you decided not to continue your service? Dubbiosi: I got married very young and had a baby girl. .. and ... she had decided to ... that I shouldn't stay in the military so I decided to get out. lane: And ... once you first got out of the service what did you do immediately afterwards? Dubbiosi: Immediately afterwards, I went out and got a job as a security guard, and I watched furs .. .fur coats and night and made sure nobody stole anything. And ... l had a day shift, and during that day shift, somebody approached me ... and ...handed me his business card and said would you like to sell cars? And ... it was hard not to ... when I found out I could be paid ... you know after making $900,000 a month in the Navy, l...looked into it and ... it was $1,000 a week and a free company car and I got to get dressed up in a fancy suit so ... hard to turn down. So I took the job, and been doing it ever since. lane: Great. Well...thanks for ...just want to say thank you for ... the interview today, it's a bright sunny day. And this concludes the interview for Appalachian State University. Dubbiosi: Thank you. �Lane: Thank you. End tape. � https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/d20f618e0fc76650525911db6db92e7a.mp3 d8b1a811815e0aa7663cc6a651df8bdf Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Appalachian State University American Military History Course Veterans Oral History Project Description An account of the resource Each semester, the students of the American Military History Course at Appalachian State University conduct interviews with military veterans and record their military experiences in order to create an archive of oral history interviews that are publicly accessible to researchers. The oral histories are permanently available in the Appalachian State University Special Collections. The project is supervised by Dr. Judkin Browning, Associate Professor of History at Appalachian State University and all interviews are transcribed by the student interviewers. Copyright Notice: Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project’s audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Veterans Oral History Project, University Archives and Records, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC). Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Dubbiosi, Stel Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. Lane, Samantha Interview Date 2/6/11 Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 0:12:33 File name 2013_063_Dubbiosi_Stel_interview 2013_063_Dubbiosi_Stel_transcript Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Stel Dubbiosi, 6 February 2011 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Lane, Samantha Dubbiosi, Stel Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a title="UA.5018. American Military History Course Records" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/167" target="_blank">UA.5018. American Military History Course Records</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project's audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used. Extent The size or duration of the resource. 5 pages Language A language of the resource English English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Subject The topic of the resource Dubbiosi, Stel Veterans Cold War United States Interviews Description An account of the resource Stel Dubbiosi originally wanted to go into the Air Force, but became a Radar Air Control Operation Specialist in the Navy. He never saw combat and served during the Cold War. He was stationed in Keflavik Iceland for a year. Keflavik Iceland Orlando Radar Air Control Operation Specialist Stel Dubbiosi