The story goes that Henry Hopkins (White Swan Point) wrote to Robert. Hopkins was a friend of Burton Poore. It is said that Robert expressed the desire to own a piece of Montana before anything happened to him in the war. Henry sent him a hand drawn map with White Swan Point and Bootlegger Island with a tree on it. Burton Poore bought it for him in 1942. 10 years later you could have purchased the whole bay behind the island for $12,000. One thing that was fun for me was talking with Robert about a lot of subjects. The chances of his boat getting sunk was real. He related the story about the Japanese Cruiser Maru Agakazi firing on them. The shells had color in the explosive so the spotters on the ship could judge range. (When you are getting shot at with a 16 inch gun (16 inch bore of the barrel) and your boat is built from 3/8 inch steel one hit would obliterate the boat in one second.) They had shots land on each side of the ship, so military power (full throttle) and they escaped getting blown up. The armament of Robert’s boat were 5 inch 38’s (5X38 navy vernacular). The Agakazi could shoot 26 miles, Robert’s would shoot, I would guess one mile. He loved the 5X38 for its accuracy but no match for a cruiser  Lots of Destroyer Escorts were lost. They were crewed by very brave men.   As the destroyer escort was running along somewhere in the south pacific (Roberts) and they came across a mine (a high explosive device with contact deonators) which had broken its anchor, and was adrift. Both sides would destroy a mine floating free since it was a hazard day and night to any ship. Robert said that the captain would not shoot it with a 5X38’s because the shells were too expensive (Robert was the ships gunnery officer). He climbed the mast to the crows nest (a stand on the mast for a look out who saw the mine) with a 30-06 on a shoulder strap (basically a hunting rifle). The crew were betting weather he would hit the mine first, second, or third time. I knew Robert was a trap shooting champion (Nationaly) when in high school, so the first shot boom. An aside to this was in 1934 Burton and family went to Canada for a trap shooting meet.  Back then the border guards would ask if you had anything to declare when entering Canada and Burton would start his litany,  2 Browing super-posed shot guns, 2 Remington 22wmr rifles, one 30-06 Manlicker rifle, act.ect. The intresting part was they were driving a 1934 Ford V-8 four door, which was the car of choice of gangsters at that time because they were fast, compared to other makes. Another aside is Roberts duck hunting friend Bob Fletcher said that on over head shots the fall alone would have killed the duck. Bob Fletcher during the depression wrote and sold the song Don’t Fence Me In to Gerome Curn. At some point Robert sued and got royalties for Bob.
I can’t remember the year, but Skeede and Butch were bringing a friend from Butte to the lake for the week. The car was a Ford 2 door hardtop and stopped running at Rock Creek. Robert and I jumped into the Beechcraft Bonanza and flew to the airport at Rock Creek and walked to the car 1/2 mile from the runway. It needed a fuel pump so we had to hitchhike to Missoula to get parts and tools and my car. The man that gave us a ride was a scrapper (scrounged metal, mostly copper). We rode in the back of the truck with lumps of metal to North Ave. to get my car. One regret I have is that I didn’t give the truck driver a couple of bucks for gas. He probably is still telling his grandchildren about the day he gave these rich sob’s with an airplane a ride to Missoula. We fixed the car, I drove to the airport, Robert picked me up then off to the lake. Monday morning Robert and I flew to Missoula at 6:00 in the morning and I went work right on time.
Carroll Hemgren
I think it was in the 1970’s Robert defended Ruger Fire Arms in a case with Mike Milodrugovitch who claimed products liability against Ruger. I drove to Butte to hear Robert argue the case in federal court. The upshot was that Robert won. At one point Ruger printed on the side of the guns barrel to read the instructions as to how to operate the firearm. Robert advised Bill Ruger to not to do this, but he did any way. What the plaintive claimed was that the firearm was defective. He threw the gun with a stack of towels on his front stoop, it fell off and landed on the hammer discharged and shot through his hand. (At trial he had regained use of his hand) The design of the revolver is the same as the Colt that won the west. Old time gunslingers would put a $10.00 bill in the cylinder where the hammer would rest so if they dropped the gun it would not discharge. Bill Ruger was very happy with the results of the trial and sent Robert a new Ruger 30 carbine revolver. That fall I had to run to the lake to put the bluecoat away for the winter. I went to the little cabin to get a flashlight and the Ruger was tucked in the towels. My thought was that it was intentionally left there, otherwise I would have brought it home. The next spring Robert asked if I had seen the gun and I told him that it was there in the fall. I told him to report it stolen. The result was Bill Ruger sent Robert another revolver.
In 1956 Socialist Russia invaded Hungary with tanks and fighting men. The parents of young men sent them out of country for safety concerns. In 1957 Flathead Lake froze over and Robert and family and Carroll and 3 Hungarian young men drove to the lake for an outing. There was Bala and 2 other teens. I can’t remember the other names, but one kid had a scar the length of his fore arm which looked like a welded seam. He had stuck his arm through the window of the Communist Party headquarters, which was plate glass and thus the cut down his arm. When we arrived it was a weird experience because the wind was the only sound….no noise coming from the water and the shore. The first thing the Hungarians wanted to do was to walk to Wild Horse Island, which is about 3/4 of a mile away. Robert told them that a fresh water lake when frozen over, had the chance of forming a dome (thin in the center top, even with 1 foot ice) because of springs which occur in the bottom of the lake. No matter, the teens walked to a point about half way to the island and back, with no incident. The little sheep wagon stove burning presto logs kept us warn the entire weekend.
Carroll Hemgren