Richard Raish: Touring Europe

By David Adams, Honor Flight Chicago Veteran Interview Volunteer

Richard C. (“Ricardo”) Raish’s condo in Park Ridge is replete with hunting and fishing trophies acquired from years of hunting.  He displays the mounted head of a 10-point buck, several wild turkey tails, a handsome mallard and pheasant pair, a coyote pelt, and chinook and rainbow trout heads, required by his sons to be mounted. Close by in his office are shelves of travel guides, mainly related to Europe. A Navy veteran, he would admit that he could host tours of several European capitals based on his vast experience during “Med cruises” on the carrier USS Intrepid (CVA-11).

Born in 1937 toward the end of the Depression, Ricardo grew up on two farms near Kimball, SD, with his older sister. He learned to hunt at an early age. The family moved to Mitchell, SD, when he was nine.  As an 11-year-old he served as a guide at the famous Corn Palace during the summer. He prides himself in earning $217 per summer.  He graduated from high school in 1955, age 18. He remarks that he was too young by one year to enter the Air Force: he wanted to be a pilot.  To occupy himself for a year he went to Seattle, WA, to work for Boeing Airplane Company.  During that year he worked as a messenger in aircraft production.  To begin fulfilling his dream to be a pilot he joined the Boeing flying club, soloed and logged about 10 more hours in pursuant of a private pilot certificate.  In anticipation of passing the Air Force pilot physical he took a vision test and learned that his vision would not meet pilot standards.  He took the NROTC program entrance exam.  Among the 25,000 students taking the exam that year he was among the fortunate 2,000 who qualified for a four-year, full-ride scholarship to a university NROTC program.

His acceptance of the scholarship and a prospective commission as an Ensign would require three years of active duty followed by reserve duty for a period of years. He enrolled in the University of Nebraska in 1956 where he completed his freshman and sophomore years. Because Nebraska did not offer Navy Supply Corps courses, his major academic interest, he transferred to Northwestern University which did.

A key component of the NROTC program included a variety of naval training opportunities during the summers between academic years. After his freshman year, the summer of 1957, he and other midshipmen were flown down to Chile. There they embarked on the cruiser USS Albany. Ricardo found Chile and the Albany “very interesting”.  Altogether he and the others were “treated like royalty”.  Social life which included dances and “pretty ladies” made for a profitable summer away from Northwestern. For his next summer the training was split in half.  He went to Corpus Christi, TX for naval aviation indoctrination.  He got a ride in the T-33 trainer—awesome! The second half of summer training was on a Marine base which he described as “brutal”. For his final summer he flew to Japan to join the USS Lexington (CV-16).  There he became familiar with carrier operations.   

Ricardo was commissioned as an Ensign upon graduation from Northwestern in 1960 with a bachelors in business administration.  He requested carrier duty and the Navy granted it, assigning him to the USS Intrepid (CVA-11).  First he attended Navy Supply Corps School at Athens, GA.  With the school complete in November he flew to Livorno, Italy and joined the Intrepid which was already in the Med having sailed from NS Norfolk in August. He joined the ship’s Supply Department. According to the Intrepid’s Mediterranean Cruise Book 1960-61, “The Supply Department has the monumental task of serving the enormous needs of INTREPID from the food necessary to sustain 3000 hardworking officers and men to the one cent fuse vitally essential to the operation of the sophisticated electronic machines. . . The multitude of offices, engines, aircraft, automotive equipment, pumps, electronic devices and numerous other items all need parts and replacements right away.” 

Ricardo’s duties included that of Paymaster. Prior to his 1961-62 Med cruise he withdrew bundles of cash, amounting to millions, to pay all officers and sailors twice monthly. He makes no mention of security escorts aboard ship! With a multitude of squadrons, he remembers that “I observed many flight ops….I remember in particular a nice LTJG making eight attempted landings with his F8U crusader before catching the arresting cable. He was very shook up as he got out of his aircraft!!!”  He survived.  However on that cruise, during routine night sorties and subsequent landings back aboard ship, three pilots hit the stern and were lost.  

While in the “Med”, he took every tour provided by the Intrepid.  He toured Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Florence, Athens, to mention a few.  He remembers a tour cost $27 for three days, all expenses paid.  Ricardo believed it was “good to mingle with the natives.”  On the 1961-62 cruise he had an audience with Pope John, a significant religious event for him as a devout Catholic.  The cruise ended at NS Norfolk in March 1962.  

Later in 1962 the Intrepid was tasked to recover Mercury Seven astronaut Scott Carpenter following his successful Mercury orbital space flight in Aurora 7.  Ricardo clearly remembers Carpenter’s May 24 landing by helicopter on Intrepid’s flight deck.  See copy of “Official Navy Photograph” entitled “Astro. Scott Carpenter Crossing Flight Deck of the USS Intrepid (CVS-11)”.  Later in October Ricardo was aboard the carrier as it sortied out of NS Norfolk in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis.  

With the 1961-62 cruise completed and the recovery of Carpenter and the Cuban Missile Crisis response fulfilled, the Navy assigned him to NAS Glenview as a supply officer. In June 1963 he completed his three-year active duty obligation. Thus he was honorably discharged from active service. Ricardo recalls that he was “out” for a year before the Navy called him back from the Naval Reserve in 1964.  He served at NAS Glenview as a reserve supply officer from 1964 to 1968 attaining the rank of Lieutenant (O-3).  With his active and reserve duty satisfied, he was transferred to the ready reserve until 1973. He holds the National Defense Service Medal.

Ricardo is proud to say that he was a shipmate of John S. McCain. McCain’s squadron, VA-65 flying the A-1 Skyraider, was aboard the Intrepid during Ricardo’s two Med cruises.  Later when McCain was a Senator, Picardo and his wife visited Washington and sought a meeting with the Senator.  His secretary said he was just leaving for a meeting himself, but if they went to the other exit from his office, they had a chance.  The “intercept” worked.  Ricardo introduced his wife to the Senator and remarked that he had “paid and fed” the Senator on board the carrier. Senator McCain graciously agreed.  

With the assistance of the NU alumni placement office Ricardo secured marketing positions, first with Alberto Culver, then Quaker Oats.  His last 20 working years, he proudly states, was in candy.  “I made the world a sweeter place.”  Notably he worked for Brach’s Candy (candy corn) and finally Nabisco (Oreos).  He retired in 2000 as a director marketing Nabisco’s seasonal candies. 

Ricardo met his wife Lois in 1963 while serving at NAS Glenview. They were married in 1964 and were together for 52 years until 2017.  They had three children, one son and two daughters, with each of then having two children, thus six grandchildren.  Over the years he returned with Lois to many of the places in Europe he had visited while on the Intrepid.  For example, Italy, France, Switzerland, Greece, Spain.  In 2025 he plans to travel to the Czech Republic, Croatia and the Scandinavian countries. Oh, he will continue hunting with his buddies.

He was the first from his family to serve in the military.  Ricardo says his father was very proud of his service.  Ricardo’s overall assessment: “The Navy was very, very good to me!”

Ricardo, you have more than earned your Honor Flight to Washington, D.C.  Enjoy every moment!