Rosella Scott and Abigail Schneier

[00:02] ROSELLA SCOTT: Okay, my name is Rosella Scott, junior. I am 84 years old. The date is April 18, 2022. And, well, can you read it?

[00:21] ABIGAIL: Okay, I'm in the story.

[00:27] ROSELLA SCOTT: I'm here with my friend.

[00:32] ABIGAIL: I'm in the story corps virtual recording booth.

[00:38] ROSELLA SCOTT: And. Okay, I'm in the story corded recording booth.

[00:47] ABIGAIL: My name is Abigail I'm 17 years old. The date is April 18, 2022. I am in the StoryCorps virtual recording booth, and I'm here with my friend, Mister Scott. Okay, I guess we start. No. How did you join the military?

[01:11] ROSELLA SCOTT: I was drafted in 1957. When I was drafted into the military, the military then was draft. Everyone had to report, regardless of your status or education or whatever. Doctors, lawyers, and all was drafted. So I was drafted. Therefore, they give you a time and a place to be tested for, also for your military tests and your physical. And in order to. To pick the branch of service that I did behind the tests, you have to score. Your score would count what branch of the service you could join. So I joined the alpha. You had to score a little bit higher on your aptitude test than any other branch. And so I joined our force because it was a basically schooling. And so you had to join the Air Force for four years, which I spent four years air Force, and I was going into basic training. I was sending basic training on my birthday, believe it or not. July 2, I was on a troop train head to Lackland Air Force Base for basic training. After basic training, they assigned me as to radar, so I had to go to radar school. And after completing radar school, they assigned you to your permanent place, which I was assigned to 792nd Squadron in Charleston, South Carolina. That's why I did my basics. And then from there, the military kind of send you what they call TD Whitehead all over the country to other sites, other other places and where you need to go in. In 1959, I was sent to Hickam Field, Hawaii, to do elbow and radar, which, and I wasn't there that long. I signed in the squadron. Then they shipped me out, and I shipped out to the far east, where I was. First place I attended was Tachikawa, Japan. From Tachikawa, Japan, I went to Irozuki, Japan. From Irazuki, Japan, they sent me to Okinawa. And from Okinawa I was shipped to radar site, which is out in the middle of the Pacific called Kumashima. Kumashima was island, 7 miles long, 4 miles wide, and a 1080ft up in the air. Well, that's what a radar needed to be clear of everything in order to do the job you needed to do. So in going to that little island, they told me that I would be a donation to, in case of war, that they wouldn't try to bring us in or help us in any way, that this was just a donation to indicate that we were at war. One of the hardest things I had to deal with, and I don't know whether anyone is familiar with, is when Gary Powell got shot down over Russia, and he was flying a U two plane, which was a spy plane, in which, at that time, when he got shot down, that's when we felt that we were going to war, which we didn't, but we kind of worked around it. And that was one of the hardest time. One of the hardest time is being separated from family and friends and communication, which you didn't get too much of in the military. It's a. It's an odd thing that maybe you need to have to do and have to deal with, and that was a situation where all of us had to deal with it at that time. Okay. The hardest thing for me to accept and deal with at that time is that Afro American Seal wasn't considered as citizens of the United States. So it was kind of hard to do your job and to recognize who are you representing. And as if you remember, we didn't get an opportunity to speak about until 1965. I was in the military from 1957 until 1961, and so I still didn't have the opportunity to participate in the manner that we felt that we should. The hard thing of adjustment is we were integrating the military at that time. The military before then was separated, and the Air Force at that time, World War two, was part of the army. It was called the Army Air Corps. 1957, the Air Force broke away from the army and become its own unit, and that's when they was asked to integrate. The integration was hard because it was hard for. I felt that we should have did something just a little different to warn both Afro Americans and. And whites that you were going to be together, and you had to kind of work together in order for it to be successful in what you were trying to do. Once you got together, it was, you found out that you finally adapted to each other and was able to work with each other and was able to accomplish the things that you was expected to accomplish. Well, if the military gave you a little help, it would have been a little easier. So they didn't do a whole lot to break up the segregation, because even when I got overseas, there were still units and things that were segregated.

[07:52] ABIGAIL: So, Scott.

[07:53] ROSELLA SCOTT: Yes.

[07:53] ABIGAIL: You think you could talk about your friend?

[07:56] ROSELLA SCOTT: Yeah. Oh, Solis. Solas was, well, quite nice. At the unit that I went into, the blacks weren't there. So being a radar operator, we had four crews. Four crews. And we worked shift work. And being on a crew, there were two people to a room. So quite naturally, me being Afro American, some white guy had to be in a room with me and a young man called Solis from a very rich family. And for the first two or three days when he come in, he didn't even speak. He didn't know how to speak to a Afro American for the simple reason that he didn't have contact with them. And after getting there, he found out. Now he's on the crew with Afro American. Your roommate is Afro American? And I'm the one that's supposed to have been helping to train him in our field. And once he got kind of over the shock and got used to it, I come in, I would speak every day, but he wouldn't. And finally, I come in one day, and Solis spoke, and it kind of surprised me. I said, oh, you can talk, can't you? And. And Solas told me, he said, well, I'm getting used to things that I didn't know anything about. And you do stuff that you're not supposed to be able to do. And I didn't understand it at that time, but from that time, he said that there were the ability for Afro Americans to do certain jobs that they weren't capable of doing them. And he was wondering, why can I do stuff I'm not supposed to be able to do? But Solas and I become very, very good friends. But that was just by accident, just by us associating and dealing with each other. And as of today, I keep telling anyone, the main thing that was a problem to me. When I got a chance to get out, I just left. I didn't get any names. I didn't get any addresses, and I wish I had her, because Solas was a very, very close friend. And to deal with some of the stories that goes behind it, think that maybe you would want to hear it. But nevertheless, in order to deal with hard friendships, it's kind of hard at times. He had to go through a whole lot of more stuff I did, and quite naturally, there were fights and what so that occurred behind integration and what so. And I'm pretty sure we aware of that. And. But I often wish, just like I said, that I could have gotten in contact with Solas. So he's one of. One of my best friends. It's, uh, hard to explain to you exactly or anyone how you feel, because as of the present time, I honestly feel that I have, have had medical conditions behind being in the military and having to go through what you had to go through with in order to accomplish what you needed to accomplish it. It is one of the things that I find with this country now that we find that we need to do. And for some strange reason, I can't understand it, that we can't put hate aside and do what we need to do in order to accomplish what we need to accomplish. And as you probably look at it now, at my age, it doesn't matter that much anymore. But I'm wondering when we gonna kind of put it together and do what we need to do.

[12:07] ABIGAIL: Where do you think you serve the most time?

[12:12] ROSELLA SCOTT: Like the longest in Charleston, South Carolina. Really? I was there from 57 to 59, and that's when they shipped me out overseas. And part of that I enjoyed and part of it was, you never know what's gonna happen, right? Dealing with the other world.

[12:37] ABIGAIL: Where did you meet Solis?

[12:39] ROSELLA SCOTT: Where did I went?

[12:40] ABIGAIL: Where do you meet Solas?

[12:42] ROSELLA SCOTT: Oh, in Charleston, South Carolina. That is where your, he was sent there also, just like me when you drafted, you didn't have a choice. So they. And that was something else. I found out that recruiters kind of lied to you, right? Because my recruiter informed me that I could kind of choose the job that I wanted to do. And in high school, believe it or not, I took business. And they said, well, you work as good as a clerk or something in the air force. And when they told me they were selling me to radar school, I was saying, well, I signed up to be able. They said, well, and I can understand it, the services needs compressed and they'll see where they need people. And then from that point, that's where they were sending. So that's why I would put in radar. It was very few lax in radar at that time.

[13:39] ABIGAIL: What did you do in radar?

[13:42] ROSELLA SCOTT: Radar is, believe it or not, you do a surveillance of every aircraft airborne have to have what they call, they have to call in a flight plan. You record that flight plan in radar, you have a section that you are responsible for every aircraft that come into that section either have you either help to have a flight plan on them, and if you don't have one, then that, then it becomes as what you call unknown. And believe it or not, that's when we scramble flighters on them to see exactly what it is. Someone's not trying to sneak in or something, but radar itself was to cover the country to make sure that no enemy aircraft sneaks in to boom or whatsoever. So every aircraft had to be, had to be logged. You had to know what it was. And the way we work with that, it. You have what you call scopes, radar scopes. And it was four people that had four areas of the United States that you were responsible for, any area you, you were responsible for, and in the area that you were responsible for, you had to display that area on what they call a plotting board. So every aircraft I would have in my section would be on that plotting board so people could look at it. And I. I would have to. They would have to tell us with each one of those aircraft where. Where they were going, what they were to do and what type. And if we couldn't get that information, then quite naturally, we, again, we might not pay attention. But to us that are living here in DC, there are, I guarantee you, two fighters sitting on the Runway over there now, ready to be kicked off in case, and that's what we call it, kick them off in case you get on track or get a track coming in that you figure that would harm the United States. They need to kick it off, check it off and see what it is. And if it's not what you figured to be, they are to, believe it or not, shoot it down. And it's. It's a couple of fighters sitting on a Runway right at every major location that they can kick them off and nothing flat to do that. It's, uh. I found it to be very interesting, whether you believe it or not. It's one of the times I enjoyed going to work every day because I was playing video games with actual aircraft. So every day I would go to work to play a video game, right. So I didn't mind going to work at all. I looked forward to going to work. So I was playing video games in 1959 before all of us got to it. But I did enjoy what I was doing. It was, it was very, far as I'm concerned, settle, kind of settle your mind and what so into something that you enjoy doing. So that is no problem. I enjoyed the trade within itself. And right today, I still pay a whole lot of attention to aircraft, fighters and whatso I know, just with everything, their speeds and how they can fly and with type, armament, they care that there's something that, that I took in when I was doing the job, and I still look forward to dealing with it and hoping at the present time that we don't have to get into a mess with it.

[17:42] ABIGAIL: Was there any time where you did something you really weren't supposed to while you were in service?

[17:51] ROSELLA SCOTT: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fight. Because, white master, we sitting there talking about integration. You'll get called some of these names and what. So that you didn't like too well. So, yes, you would get into it. And it, uh. Some of it was kind of funny after it happened. And I'll say one thing. In both areas that I was in, I had very good commanders, and they kind of understood what was happening, but. And they would try to do everything that they could do at that point for it not to happen. But every now and then, quite naturally, it was gone. It was gonna happen. And that part of it, yes, I got into a few little fisticuffs there. And, well, the commander, just like I said, he straightened that up on Jump street. And believe it or not, my last commander, I thought a lot of him too, was a colonel called Colonel White. He was very understanding, and he kind of would help you put stuff together of what you had to do, shouldn't do, could do. And that was for the whole unit. And it worked out very well. I must say, though, when I left Kumachima, I left on a good note. We, everybody, we kind of got along and. But I was glad to leave.

[19:25] ABIGAIL: What did you miss most about home?

[19:29] ROSELLA SCOTT: You just hit it home. I tell anybody when you away from home, it's nothing like home. I don't care where home is. And I was asked that question one time. Why was I so eager to come back home? Because I'm from the south. And they figured that, well, blacks from the south have a hard time. And why was I so eager to go back home? Because home is still where you feel comfortable. Home is still where you want to be. And so, yes, I wanted to get it through it and come back home. So. And to be honest with you, I have no hard feelings or nothing against anything, really. And the one thing that you ask that I tell everybody that I wish we could get rid of, it's one word I wish we could get rid of. And the word we call hate, I can't figure out why anyone would hate anyone. Dislike. Yes, hate. I don't understand why we have to carry the hate around with us. It's okay to dislike because that's human nature, but we have no need to really hate.

[20:59] ABIGAIL: Were there times where you thought you hated someone? How long was it till you came to that conclusion?

[21:05] ROSELLA SCOTT: It. It's a funny thing. I never hated, uh, because, uh. And what I was telling you, I disliked. There were certain things I disliked, but hate would bring in when you want to harm somebody, really hurt them. And I never got to the point where I hated or wanted to really harm somebody. I wanted to defend myself and express my feelings, but I never wanted to hate or do something against somebody. It just never relished it, because you really didn't have to go that way. You know, why? Why you gonna have to go that way? So, no, I never, never really hated. And because I grew up in a situation where, believe it or not, even in the south, I grew up with a white family. We got long gray, so I never, never had to go through this thing that we call hate. We accepted segregation. And that was one of the things. If you didn't know anything but that, what else was you going to accept? And that's what you did. So we kind of accepted that. But to break away from it is where we used to find hate sometime. And that's what I meant to. We need to get rid of the thing of hate. And, no, I've never, never. I've disliked, but I've never hated.

[22:50] ABIGAIL: Would you say that the opposite of hate is love?

[22:56] ROSELLA SCOTT: To a degree. And the. Well, just like I say, I've never hated. I don't really know what. What hate would be. There are certain situations that I've had to happen that would cause you to hate. But how do you separate hate from people? And that's what we have a look like a problem with. We in, again, we talk about when we in the military, you look at. You just look at somebody, and because you see them, they look a certain way, a certain color, you hate them. And I don't understand. I couldn't understand how you could do that. Cause you really didn't know that person, so. And you gonna be hating them just by looking at them. But I've seen that happen to the degree that you had to separate people couldn't put them together, they couldn't communicate with each other, any of that. And that's not only in the military, that's even now. So that's why I said, we need to kind of crush it. Where to call hate. Dislike. Yes, hate. I don't see any need for it.

[24:17] ABIGAIL: Were you married when you were drafted?

[24:20] ROSELLA SCOTT: No, I got married when I got back. And I married the girl that I was in high school with. My wife of the day, she was the president of the class, our vice president of the class. And so we kind of were quite natural we knew each other for some time before we got married. And so the person that I married to today is the young lady that I married back to the end. And believe it or not, we got an anniversary coming up, April 27. I got married April 27, 1967. So got an anniversary coming up this April that we have still been fighting with each other all these times, and I must say, have been a good fight. It has. So it's nothing like my wife.

[25:38] ABIGAIL: Happy anniversary.

[25:39] ROSELLA SCOTT: Yeah. And we have four children, three daughters and a son. And the son is rain. So. Couldn't ask for a better young man. But he's ruined. He's as spoiled as I don't know what. His sister spoiling his niece is spoiling, his mother spoil him, and I guess I do to a degree. But we have the four children, and we are really happy with all of them.

[26:14] ABIGAIL: And what did you name your son?

[26:17] ROSELLA SCOTT: My son had the same name I have. And since you asked, the name, my name is, believe it or not, is that pronounced Rose Ella, which people say is a female name. Right. My father, when they saying that in his family that every time a boy was born, he didn't live too long. And it was a superstition then. Maybe you call it a superstition that if you give him a girl's name that he would live. They gave my father girl's name, which is Rose album. And it's something about the name because guess what, my son's name. And guess what my oldest grandson is named the fourth. He's Rosella Gregory. My son is Rosella. My oldest grandson is Rosella. My oldest grandson, believe it or not, is in the military. And he is a sergeant major and the first sergeant of in Kentucky base now. But yes. Look, like all the firstborn males in my family come up with the name of Rose Ella. And believe it or not, you might not believe it, we, none of us have had a problem with the name, like people teasing you whatsoever. I don't know why, but in the military, I didn't have the problem, and I'm in construction, and I never had the problem with that, so. And neither does my son or grandson. And people would think that maybe you would have a problem, but no, we don't. And the joke of it is, is, uh, who rules the roofs at my house? My wife and my son. So that's. That's where that is.

[28:28] ABIGAIL: What's your wife's name?

[28:30] ROSELLA SCOTT: Ruth. Ruth? Yes. Ruthie Scott. Yes.

[28:37] ABIGAIL: And what was your first impression of her when you first met her in high school?

[28:41] ROSELLA SCOTT: It was hard to say. I come from a very. I come from a very close class. Believe it or not. They are good and bad. Even. There's something good about the bad and the good about being segregated. You had an opportunity to know everybody in your neighborhood. Everybody went to the same school. And I was telling people, people look at, and I had to ride 22 miles one way to go to school. And in the five years, I only missed five days. And two of those days, believe it or not, was volunteer. And one of the days I missed was my mother was kind of upset about it till she found out the reason why. And he was just celebrated a couple of days ago that Jackie Robinson. I live in a little area in Virginia called Lynchburg, and the baseball players used to do what they called bondstorm after they left basic training. What they do, what they did then, would go from city to city and play exhibition games. So when they come to Lynchburg to play exhibition game, I hooked school to see Jackie Robinson. So that was. My mother was upset to find out that I hooked school until she found out why. But that was why just about every, just about every afro american boy in that area at that time hooked school to go see Jackie Robinson. So it's one of those. One of those things, like I tell you, and like he was telling me, telling you. But my wife, we in the area, all families knew. All families. And it was almost like a vacation. We'd take a vacation in the summer, but we were happy to go back to school to meet our classmates again. And I can guarantee you every family knew every family. And, like, at the present time, that's one of the things that, that we. We don't do. It wasn't. It was only 30 some of us in the class. And I look now, and I keep close count on that. Our classmates and about two thirds of the class have passed. It's. It's not that many of us that still hanging on.

[31:29] ABIGAIL: Are you still in contact?

[31:31] ROSELLA SCOTT: Yeah, I try to. We try to stay in contact with everybody that I know that is still. And, yeah, we do that. We try to stay in contact, and that's how I say, I know what that is. And we found. I found a pleasure to date. The only time I got a break, I grew up on a farm, so the only break I would get would be going to school, because you work seven days a week and you. And you work from sun up to sundown, and it's. So the only break I would get was when I would go to school. So I was happy to go to school, just like I said, in the five years I missed five days of school, that was it. And look forward to going to school every day. My wife was Val Victoria. To class, I was saluted to them. I was a half a point behind her in school.

[32:41] ABIGAIL: Did you have a favorite subject? Did I have a favorite subject in school? Your favorite thing to learn about?

[32:48] ROSELLA SCOTT: Yeah. Well, believe it or not, my favorite. And back then with biology, when you could do a few experiments and see head would work out or come out or what. So it was kind of, I guess because it was kind of mysterious. You didn't know head was going to come out, so you tried to do it anyway. Just curiosity. Right, right. So that's, that's one of those things that I would love to go to experiment with stuff from time to time. And I still like it, believe it or not. Cause with what I do from time to time now, like in the union, when new products and stuff come out, I want to work it to see how it's gonna work, you know, to make sure that's gonna come out. So I find myself still kind of experimenting. Right. It's, uh, it's something good for the mind, really.

[33:57] ABIGAIL: It looks like we only have a little time left. Do you want to talk about working in the union and what you.

[34:04] ROSELLA SCOTT: Well, yes, because I've only had two jobs, one military, and won the union. Just like to say I've been in the union that I'm in for 57 years, so. And I still, from time to time, they still would call me to help them on certain things, although I retired. So it's a funny thing. I was a apprentice teacher, and two thirds of the people that's in my union, I taught. So at least two thirds of the people that's in the union, I know them and they know me. And I've taught some of the students that I've taught, I end up teaching their children. And now some of those people that I taught, they are also retiring. They've been in the union long enough to retire. It was. Again, here we go again. It was tough for me to get in the union, because when I come in the union, Afro Americans wasn't, was hard for them to get any unions, so.

[35:25] ABIGAIL: And what union?

[35:26] ROSELLA SCOTT: Yeah, cement Mason local union 891. I'm, I'm what you call the CMIT. Finish it. And anything to do with concrete and whatso I can do it. And from time to time, I still go to down to my union hall and work with some of the kids that's in there. From time to time, even today, I enjoy what I do. And again, you'll find yourself in a craft, you kind of to yourself doing what you want to do the way you want to do it, with nobody bothered. So it kind of give you a little comfort sometime to go and do your trade.

[36:13] ABIGAIL: Yeah. You are still going and teaching and that's how.

[36:20] ROSELLA SCOTT: Yeah, I'm doing part time. Part time teaching. Yes. Even at, uh, even at the age I am, I still is able to do the craft from time to time.

[36:31] ABIGAIL: Go get on the ground and do the cement.

[36:33] ROSELLA SCOTT: Yeah, yeah.

[36:37] ABIGAIL: Can you tell me a little bit more about that? So, Abigail you said Mister Scott met one of your parents through the union?

[36:44] ROSELLA SCOTT: Yeah, with my mom. Her mother runs a class for kids of the District of Columbia to help them get into the union and get started, the ones that would have a hard time doing it. So that's what she do. And I was hired by her to help with the training of some of those students. And I. I find it halfway easy for me to do it. I don't have a problem dealing with the young people at all, not, not one bit. And so from time to time, they still ask me to come down and give them a happy name.

[37:37] ABIGAIL: Is there anything about your military service or your work in the union that you really hope your children and grandchildren will know in the future?

[37:50] ROSELLA SCOTT: The. The one thing about the military that you try to keep to yourself, and that's even the trade, too, is the hardship. You don't want to. I find it that if you don't have to, you don't want to deal with it but once, and that's when you get it. When you. When you run into that hard point and you survive it, get through it, you don't want to go back to it anymore. So I don't. I don't even think about it. I. I spent a lot of time, believe it or not, talking to my children about just what we were talking about. If you survive something and it is a hardship, then why bring it? Keep bringing it back. And that's one of the things. No, you'll always remember it, but you need to lay it aside and try to move forward from it. And that's what I try to do, because regardless of, I'm sitting here today halfway successful, I don't care how hard it have been, but I made it. And it means that if you keep working at it, don't let it pull you down, keep working at it, and if you want to succeed at it, you will. But you just got to have that urge to do it, and that's what I try to tell my children, is to don't look at the negative. Look at what you need to do, can do, and if you can do that, do it. It might be a little harder, it might take you a little longer, but at least you can get what you. I have no hard feelings or hate against anyone or anything at the present time. I don't. I. I kind of look at it. The average person is not too much more successful than me. So if you have succeeded in it, then why bring up the bad part of it? Because if it's a thing that enabled you to halfway be what you want to be and should be, then it's not a failure. And that's what you got to kind of look at. Just. Just stay at it. And don't you be the reason that you fail, because if the opportunity is there, I don't care how hard it is. Just keep batting at it. You'll get it. Yeah.

[40:24] ABIGAIL: We have about a minute left. Abigail Is there anything else you want to ask? I don't know. Is there anything else you want to say?

[40:33] ROSELLA SCOTT: Well, you know, to tell you, I'm glad to say this, Abigail I really enjoy being with her, because when she first met me, I'd be sitting there talking to her mother, and she would say, that's a hard story. And I thought she was just joking. I thought, no, she ain't paying no attention. And then she asked me one day, said, miss Scott, do you mind if I interview one day? I said, no, I don't mind it at all. So, believe it or not, I think a whole lot of Abigail I really do. She's one of these people that I look forward to. Maybe if the good Lord let me live a little longer to see her in the government or something, going through some of these things that. That she had the ability and what so to do. So I've actually enjoyed, to tell you the truth, working with Abigail I really have. And Lord knows I've enjoyed working with her mother and father.

[41:39] ABIGAIL: That's fantastic.

[41:40] ROSELLA SCOTT: Yeah. So we look forward to it, and. And that's why I'm here today.

[41:49] ABIGAIL: That's fantastic. And just so I know, Mister Scott, did you say you're from Lynchburg?

[41:54] ROSELLA SCOTT: Yes.

[41:55] ABIGAIL: So how did it feel to go back there after you finished serving in Japan? To go back to the south before the Voting Rights act and before the civil rights?

[42:07] ROSELLA SCOTT: I didn't want to, but my family were there. Everybody that I loved and knew anything about was there. So it's one of these things that, that, that power within itself draws you to the area. I. I tell anybody one of the worst things to this country now that I feel is not enough family participation, not enough mother and father. It takes mother and father to raise a family and to raise them properly. And I had that. That's what got me where I am so to go. My thought was to go back to Lynchburg because my father passed when I was young to kind of help my mother out. Believe it or not, my mother was the one that told me to leave. My mother told me, I said, no, go and get yourself together. Get your family together, and then if you have some time, think about me. So I was able to. To be successful enough, because, believe it or not, you look in the eye as a semen furniture. I put in the first section at a metro in Washington, DC. The first section of metro. I was one of the ones that worked on the first section of it. And being a cement finisher, you end up being a little bit of everything. The supervisor, I end up being supervisors to work the performance, all of this. So I can't gripe about my opportunities. I can't. My opportunities have been very well. And the reason I went back to Lynchburg was to help mama. And when Mama told me to leave to get myself squared up, I was able to get myself squared up and still go back to Lynchburg and help her. So that's why you find me not griping about anything. I've been able to accomplish what the average person need to accomplish. I still have a place in Lynchburg, and I still have a place here.

[44:21] ABIGAIL: Well, thank you both so much for joining us today. Thank you.