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8/1/26

Don’t Tell Daddy

In our family, Grandpa Mindte was known as “The Commander.” He was a Navy man through and through, joining up in 1926 at the age of twenty-two and working his way up to the rank of commander. The Commander was at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, but that’s another story. This is about my dad, Vance Mindte.

The Commander expected his four sons to follow in his footsteps and become Navy men. Dick, the eldest was a free spirit who would not have endured military discipline, so there was a lot of pressure on Dad to join up. His draft notice arrived in May 1953, and that cinched it. A few weeks later, Dad reported to the Bainbridge Naval Training Center to be inducted into the United States Navy in the footsteps of The Commander, who made the trip to the boot camp to swear-in his son.

The first day, the recruits were given a multiple-choice test that helped the Navy determine the strengths and weaknesses of the newbies and where they should be assigned after boot camp. Filling in a circle with a number two pencil next to your choice was new technology then, so none the men had seen it before. Dad started his test and after he had completed about ten answers out of a hundred, he noticed that the fellow in front of him was filling in every circle – selecting all the answers. Dad thought “Oh yeah, the machine only looks for the right answer!” He left the first ten as they were, as the first questions were easy, and started filling in all the circles, rapidly going down the page. When he was a good way along with his scheme, he noticed that an officer was standing next to him.

The officer had the MPs remove both men (Dad and the fellow in front) to his office. The first fellow’s grade was a zero, so his first day in the Navy was his last, earning him a dishonorable discharge, I suppose. Dad got credit for the first ten that he answered correctly, giving him a grade of ten percent. The officer said, “You can stay in the Navy, but you’ll be painting ships for four years.” Dad’s only reply was “Don’t tell Daddy.”

But The Commander had to be told. It turned out for the better, as strings were pulled and Dad was retested and assigned to Naval aviation.

Tom Mindte
July 2026

Daddy's graduation photo from Bainbridge Naval Training Center - 1953

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