In 1969 the Coast Guard started a minority recruiting program and SD1 Bobby Elliott was transferred to our 3-man recruiting office in Tampa. He had been a steward at Air Station Miami and had about 18 years of service at the time of transfer. Sam was a new Ensign assigned to the Seventh District's Personnel recruitment section in Miami and he came up to Tampa to go on a recruiting trip around Central Florida with Bobby.

One of our tasks monthly was to visit every post office in our recruiting area which was all of Central Florida from the Gulf to the Atlantic and from Ocala south to the northern tip of Lake Okeechobee. We had to refill the literature racks at every post office and change out the A-frame sign inserts whenever new ones came out. I also visited radio stations to make radio spot announcements, attended high school career days, visited applicants, etc. The trips usually took two or three days on the road with overnight stays at motels wherever we ended up by 4pm.

The two senior recruiters wouldn't take Bobby on the road to show him how to make the trips so the task was given to me and I took him on a road trip in the latter part of 1969. I figured that Ocala was a large enough town to stay overnight without any problems and reserved a room with a national chain (Howard Johnson's) so they wouldn't refuse to let us stay there.

We didn't have any problems with getting our room and we checked in, showered and changed into civilian clothes. We then decided to go to a restaurant/lounge for dinner and a couple of drinks. We picked a place on US 441 which was the main drag through town and seemed to have a lot of cars around it. When we walked in the entire crowded bar went silent and everyone stared at us with dirty looks as we took a table at a nearby booth. We looked at the menu with everyone glaring at us and finally a waitress came over and said in words to this effect: "I can't say we won't serve you because that is against the law but the last negro who was served in here was shot by someone in the parking lot when he left!" Bobby and I decided we lost our appetite, at least at this place, and we left and found a decent restaurant further down the road. From then on we stayed overnight in Orlando at a Hilton on the north side of town where we never encountered any problems and Bobby introduced me to some very interesting black restaurants and bars.

I left active duty in July 1970 and didn't see Bobby again until one night in the terminal at Miami International Airport in the mid-1980's. He had retired from the Coast Guard and was working as a steward on Amtrak trains. We chatted for quite a while about old times, our families, and one crazy night in Ocala when we thought we were going to get shot for daring to enter an all-white restaurant lounge. Time flew by quickly while we talked and then he had to leave to catch his flight. I imagine by now he has retired from Amtrak.