This fellow named Logwood was lying about ten feet in front of me and he was
 groaning. I tried to get up to go help him and I said, "Shut up Logwood. I cannot
 help you, but somebody will be here pretty soon."

 Anyway, when I saw these spots of light I thought, "Oh, that is fire. I better get out
 of here!" I could not get up, but I would pull my legs up and I would push. I pushed
 myself about ten feet away. Pretty soon I saw those spots of light again. I said,
 "What in the world is that? Oh I remember; that is fire." So I pushed myself about
 another ten feet, and then I could hear people coming. They were shouting and I
 answered and they answered back and said, "Hey, somebody is still alive up there!"

 All of a sudden, there was this tremendous explosion. Logwood quit groaning,
 because he must have breathed in flames or something. Anyway, that twenty feet
 that I had managed to push myself probably saved my life. Of course, I got a flash
 burn out of it; it burned my whole face, both of my hands, my left leg and what have
 you. The rescue team came on in and they carried four of us out that were still
 alive. We did not count one little sailor named Barnett, because he was just cut a
 little bit. It was one of the most miraculous things you have ever seen in your life.

 Anyway, they got us out from the airstrip. And rather than bringing an ambulance
 the six miles, they had flown a plane down there that they could not get the
 stretchers in. They had to stand me up on my left foot to put me in the plane to fly
 me to the hospital. They had to do the same thing, even with all those broken bones,
 when I got to the hospital. They started working on one guy and he died--then on
 another one, and he died, and on another one, and he died [too]. I was all they had
 left and they had figured that I had the least chance of any of them. And I lived.
 I spent a year and a half in the hospital recuperating.

 I am in excellent physical condition except that my arms are bent out of shape pretty
 badly and I have a lot of difficulty with some things. It is difficult for me to type now
 with my left hand; I have to type with the sides of my fingers with my left hand. But
 I can still do pretty well. [So] I retired from the navy.

 While I was still a patient in the hospital, I started taking courses down at the
 University of Florida. I would go down there and stay four days, and then on Fridays
 I would come back and report in at the hospital and spend the weekend. I
 continued, and got my master's degree at the University of Florida.

CJ: When?

RJ: In 1954.

CJ: [In] what subject?


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