U.S. Navy Vietnam Naperville, IL Flight date: June, 2019
By Charlie Souhrada, Honor Flight Chicago Veteran Interviews Volunteer
Salvatore (Sam) DiPrima was born January 6, 1943, in Chicago. He enjoyed a typical, meat and potatoes, all-American life thanks to his hard-working parents, Sam and Josephine. They made sure he and his younger brother, Thomas, had the basics they needed for a happy life.
Sam’s father spent his entire career at the Wilson Jones company in Chicago, where he worked as a bookbinder.
He invented a mechanism that allowed three-ring binders to pop open and snap shut that is still in use today. “I think he got $100 for the idea, he probably felt like a king!” Sam says with a laugh. Meanwhile, his mother ran a home beauty shop and worked as a key punch operator for Montgomery Ward, Sears and Motorola.
For the first few years of his life, the family lived in a two-flat in West Garfield Park that was owned by his grandfather. When Sam was 13, his parents bought a house on Karlov Avenue; he felt like he was moving out to the suburbs. He remembers playing baseball in the summer from sunup to sundown. “We’d go home, eat dinner and go back out and play again,” he says. “We were the movie ‘Sandlot’ – that’s what we did.”
In summer, 1960, Sam graduated from high school early and earned a scholarship to the University of Illinois, starting classes on Chicago’s Navy Pier in September. After his freshman year, he determined he wasn’t yet ready for college, so he went to work as a teller at American National Bank while dreaming about fulfilling a passion for music.
One day, a friend suggested he investigate the American Conservatory of Music, a private school in Chicago. In the interest of fueling his passion, Sam auditioned for the percussion director, passed, and started school there in 1964. In his senior year, close to graduation, Sam grew tired of school, dropped out and decided to join the Navy where a recruiter suggested he could audition for a spot in the Navy music program. That was it! Sam enlisted in May, 1966, and entered boot camp in June.
At Great Lakes Naval Station, Sam’s skills as a percussionist earned him a spot in the recruit band, which offered the luxuries of practicing indoors, playing for graduations on Fridays and getting off the base for parade performances in Chicago. In addition, his commander named him the education petty officer for his company, where he was responsible for making sure members of his team were ready for exams. “We got two ‘E’ flags for our grades,” he remembers proudly.
After Thanksgiving, Sam got his orders to report to the U.S. Armed Forces School of Music near Little Creek, Virginia, just outside of Norfolk. Thanks to his college experience, he entered as an E3 MU – a seaman musician in December, 1966. “Things went downhill from there because there were so many drummers!” Sam soon learned his percussion skills weren’t up to the level of his peers and he submitted his drop request so that he could go to sea.
In August, 1967, Sam was assigned to the Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Randolph (CV-15). There, he was assigned to an Indoctrination Company where he performed a variety of odd jobs while waiting for assignment. One day, while swabbing a “head,” a chance encounter with a first-class petty officer set the course for the rest of his years in the Navy and his career afterward.
“I’m mopping and an E6 comes in to wash his hands and he says, ‘Are you assigned to a division?’ I said no, I’m not, and he says, ‘how’d you like to work in the print shop?’ So, I said, sure! why not?” Sam packed his sea bag and found a new locker, bunk and home in the ship’s print shop. There, he began as an apprentice lithographer. Sam had found his calling.
Soon after, he took the E4 test and earned “PNA” – Passed Not Advanced – status due to a limit on the number of seamen who could advance at that time. This allowed him to wear the patch as a LISN – Lithographer Seaman and meant he couldn’t be pulled out of the print shop and put into another division. As a lithographer, Sam printed anything the ship needed to communicate, including manuals, certificates and newsletters. According to Sam, the designation is now equivalent to Mass Communication Specialist.
Aboard the Randolph, Sam traveled the Atlantic, enjoyed a variety of port calls, became a ‘Blue Nose’ when he crossed the Arctic and transformed from slimy ‘Pollywog’ to trusty ‘Shellback’ when he crossed the equator. He took the E4 exam again and this time, advanced to Petty Officer 3rd Class.
One month later, Sam received orders to report to the USS Yorktown (CV-10), reporting there after Christmas and served there until June, 1970. In October 1968, the Navy announced plans to decommission the Randolph https://www.ussrandolphcv15.com/.
While serving on the Randolph, Sam married Joan, and welcomed two daughters, Tina and Michele. When his active service ended in 1970, Sam joined the printer’s union, starting as a general worker at Sleepeck Printing Company in Bellwood. He built a 34-year career at the company, retiring as a foreman in 2003 after his 60th birthday. In the early 2000s, he leveraged his GI benefits to take emergency medical technician (EMT) courses at Triton College and earned his EMT license in 2001. This opened his second career as an EMT until a series of health issues sapped his strength and he retired in 2017.
Sam met his current wife, Sharon, through a Revolutionary War reenactment group. The couple married in 1994 and recently celebrated their 25th anniversary. Today, Sam and Sharon live in Naperville, enjoy shooting, sports and playing with the family cats, Angus and Zeke.