Just before Don Snider went to Ohio a few weeks ago, he went through the LKS roster to
get the names and phone numbers of shipmates that live in the Cincinnati
area. He planned to call them to see if the data in the roster were correct.
He ran across an address in Goshen, Ohio which is next to the little town his
Mother lives in. It was the address of Ivan Bixler Seaman second, 1946. Don
called Ivan and they met for the first time at Ivan's house.
While visiting him Dom learned that while Ivan was in the Navy he wanted to be a
carpenter, but since he was regular Navy and the war was just over, all of
the regular Navy personnel were sent to ships to relieve the Navy Reserves
so they could go home. So Ivan was assigned to the Lyman K Swenson as a
seaman second working in the deck force.
Ivan showed Don his two story home and
on the hallway wall upstairs Ivan had about 80% of it dedicated to the
Swenson. He had 3-4 pictures of the ship plus numerous other pictures of
when the ship was in China and other WESTPAC ports. Really neat! Then
outside his home Ivan has a flower bed that is about 15 feet X 25 feet that
has a model train track complete with bridges, buildings, tresses, etc all
of which he built himself. Ivan invited Don to his workshop where he had seven
different train engines as well as about 20 train cars, some of which he
built too.
Ivan went to carpenter's school when he was discharged from the Navy in 1949
and started his life long profession as a carpenter. His home from the last
35 years was the home he built himself and has raised his family and lived
there all of that time. He has a ballcap that says NAVY on it and also a
Lyman K Swenson Ballcap that he bought through the VFW and American Legion magazines.
