Husband: Joe Neff, Employee of JPG for 27 years. 

Mr. Ron Harsin Interviewer, Mr. And Mrs. Leroy Harsin in background. August 2005

There was a bunch of men one time, he was working second shift, they found a nest of turtle eggs and they brought in turtle eggs and cooked them up and the men began to fight over them they were so good, (laughter).  They really enjoyed them.  And then one time Joe put a turtle in his friend’s lunch box.   And when they went to eat dinner, the turtle had eaten right down through the man’s sandwiches right thru the middle of all them and he had nothing to eat.  Joe had to give him his own sandwich.  Another time they had a can of beans and put it on the stove in a bombproof and they did not poke a hole in the can, now Joe did not do this.  The can exploded and there was beans all over the bomb shelter. 

They had a woman to work with them, one time.  A newspaperman came out to interview them and take pictures.  They wanted to put her picture on the front page, you know how a woman could do this. Well, she couldn’t even lift a shell and put it in there.  The men would not help her, because she was going to get all the publicity and she really was not capable. They had to back off from that.

Joe had a woman ride with him from Kent, I work at the hospital with her now. She was never ready, never.  He waited and waited and waited. He told he was not going to wait anymore, you had to stop right in the middle of Kent, you know how narrow it is right there in Kent.  Well one day she was late and Joe just went on to work.  She got awful mad at him.  She had call a taxi to take her to work at JPG.  She told Joe he had to pay for the taxi and of course, Joe paid for it.

He worked there 30 years, well he worked there 27, because he had three years in service counted as government, so he could retire after 30 years.  His dad worked at JPG and one night about 9:00, he came over and told Joe if you go to the proving ground in the morning you can get hired as a Radar operator.  The minute he stepped in the door they started paying him, that was the first radar equipment that they used.  He had to go Charleston to get his physical and get processed in, but was paid from the time he went in to ask about the job. He was the first radar man that JPG had.

He was an observer for a long time too.  After they did away with the radar.  He was out in the bunker. They shot at him.

(Ron) Was he nervous at anytime? 

He got shook up a lot of times.  They had explosions right outside of the bomb shelter.  This was right after he served in the Marines.

 (Ron mentions) Bob said one time they fired a shell that they had to recover.  The round came in went under ground came up spun around twisted and came up out of the ground at the door.  He said now there is your round that you want to recover.  He had to work, I believe it was as an observer, they flooded the ground, really flooded.  He had to have boots, he was in the mud it was some kind of test in the mud.  They had to test them a lot of times when it was really, really cold.  He had a coat where the fur came out passed his face, it was so cold.   A lot of it he could not tell me what he did. 

(Ron) Did you ever live on Post?

No.

(Ron) did the Roles of women change:?

I don’t know when or how only the one that they wanted to put in the paper. They had to have a certain percentage of women out there working with them.

When Joe retired, he would have to go to school, because radar was getting more complicated.  I don’t know what they was called, bosses or something on second shift.  He was over 16 men observers, and I know he had to wear a white shirt.  He got his radar training in the service.

(Ron) Out there in those bunkers with the shells flying in, I have heard about these famous Euchre games.

Oh Yeah!  All government employees play Euchre (laughter).  There would be time lags and they would have to leave the bunker and go out and see what happened to the shells.  They had a lot of waiting time things had to be just right when they fired.

When they closed the proving ground Joe said that there was no way they could ever clean that mess up out there.

(Ron) How did Joe feel about the closing of JPG?

  Well he did not think much about it.  You would not want to hear what he had to say.  I think he hated to hear of the closure, because he worked there many years.  It was a good place to work, He enjoyed it.

(Ron) What were some of the best memories,

He loved to go out there hunting and fishing.  I went hunting with him when I was 40 years old.   It was my first time to hunt. We went with our son and Joe’s brother.  It was raining so hard they told me to stay in the truck.  After they left, a buck came out the trail.  I got out of the truck and shot him.  I left him laying right there.  When the men came back, I asked them if they got anything, they said no. I told them that my buck was laying over there.  They did not have anything and I had shot a buck. That was the first time I went hunting. That was 35 years ago.  We had an old station wagon one time and they brought 8, no seven deer back.  There were about 4 or 5 of them hunting.

(Ron) Was he close to any commanders?

Oh I can’t remember their names.  He liked two or three.

One time a commander was out there and said “well any monkey could do that”.  Joe replied back, “well you are watching it”. That was about the only time I can remember anything about the commanders.

We went camping up there at Old Timbers a lot.  You had to protect your fish while you were cleaning them or the raccoons would fight for them.

Joe retired on the 30^th of August 1980.

Butch worked out there too.  When he was in the navy, he worked 21 years in the Navy.  He worked as a boiler technician.  When the proving ground closed, they hired him to close down the boilers.  He hated to see the proving ground close also, He liked to hunt and fish.

After the Tornado in 1974, JPG employees were sent to Hanover to work on the school out there, Joe ruptured himself.  The doctor came out of Surgery and told me that they took Joe’s Bellybutton and hung it on the courthouse door. So he never had a belly button after that.