Vice President of R&D, Powell
Search every verified William Jr. interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. William Powell Jr., Vice President of R&D at Powell, participated in a 2018 veteran interview in which he discussed his service in the Merchant Marine during World War II. Powell stated that after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he attempted to enlist in the Navy but was told they were not taking recruits, so he joined the Merchant Marine to haul supplies. He described encountering floating mines in the Mediterranean, which his crew would shoot with guns to detonate. Powell noted that Merchant Marine pay was higher than that of Navy personnel, with additional hazard pay in mined waters, and that Congress later extended the G.I. Bill to Merchant Mariners. In the interview, Powell recounted several personal anecdotes from his service. He said he obtained a German captain's cap and boots, which he hid in a lifeboat to smuggle through customs, but lost them when the lifeboat was damaged in a hurricane. He also recalled an incident in which he took leftover ham and cake from the ship's cook and disposed of them overboard, and that the cook never discovered who took them. Powell mentioned that he was deferred from the draft due to an injury to his big toe, which he described as "the best news I ever heard." He also stated that he worked for the Rothschild coal company and later for Sunoco on the West Coast.
“I was in my front yard waiting on the man to come along in a car and he motioned for me to come to the car, said go turn your radio on — President Roosevelt speaking... we've been bombed... Pearl Harbor.”
“I wanted to enlist in the Navy... they wouldn't take anybody right now, so I decided to try the Merchant Marine — we haul supplies to different countries and I thought that sounds like a winner.”
“The mines that the Germans had planted in the Mediterranean — they're all breaking loose... we saw 11 mines and we'd go up in the gun turrets and turn our 20s and 40s on them and they would explode in the water.”
“We got paid a lot — we could make some $400 some dollars a month; that was a lot of money then, compared to the men aboard like $40 a month... and in Mediterranean waters the contract called for five dollars extra a day on account of mines.”
“Later on Congress gave us the Bill of Rights same as them so I lucked out there pretty good.”
“The German captain gave me his cap and the shiniest black boots you ever did see — I agreed to get them through customs, hid them in a lifeboat and offered a shipmate $20 to smuggle them, though later the lifeboat got hit in a hurricane and I lost them.”
“One man on our ship was missing from his post — we couldn't find him; he undoubtedly got washed overboard, probably wasn't holding on good and some of those waves are so big.”
“I took my chance on my big toe — I had dropped a weight on it — and when I went for my draft exam the doctors looked at it and I was deferred; that was the best news I ever heard.”
“The company that I worked for to take the coal over was Rothschild — that was the name of their company in the coal business — and on the West Coast I worked for Sunoco; they paid us that check.”
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