“We’d load up by daylight, pay at the bridge and
then hurry like heck to get it delivered.”
Nice Ice still exists on Ivy Lane in Englewood
today.
September/October 2019 GASPARILLA MAGAZINE 5
Looking back
Dick is also a humble but highly decorated war
Veteran.
After graduating high school, where he served as
president of his senior class, Dick served in the U.S.
Navy from 1943 to 1946. “The army and marine
recruiters came to all the schools because we
were at war,” he said. “The Navy had a program
called V-5. It was for pilot training. I had to have
good grades and be in very good physical shape
to get accepted.”
The V-5 Naval Aviation Cadet program was
passed by Congress in 1935 to send civilian and
enlisted candidates to train as aviation cadets.
Dick served on The Intrepid aircraft carrier
during World War II, and was also a dive-bomber
pilot.
After serving his country, he attended college at
Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. He was a
business education major.
“I had already planned on being a teacher,” he
said. “I had a lot of time to think about that when I
was in the Navy.”
After he retired from teaching, Dick and Gerri
delivered buses around the east coast of the United
States for a company in Nokomis.
Dick had a special ice delivery for the opening of
one of the new condominium associations on the
north end of the island, and the manager invited
them to stay for a drink. The establishment was
not yet open to the public.
“I believe they were going to have a grand opening
that night,” Dick said.
As they were enjoying their beverages and
talking with the manager, two men wearing dark
sunglasses walked in and sat down next to them
at the bar. They ordered drinks and offered to
buy Dick and his friend a round. One man, who
seemed to be the speaker for the two, introduced
himself as Florida banker and businessman BeBe
Rebozo. The other one was a quiet man named
Richard Nixon, before he was president.
“Bebe owned a fl eet of boats and they were all
painted black,” Dick said. “They had come down to
Boca Grande in one of those boats. But why they
were here that day, I’ll never know.”
CASU-48 (Catalina
PBY-5a) Combat
Air Service Unit.
Dick and his crew
relaxing at Tanapag
Bay Saipan,
Marianna Islands,
1945.