Edward James Riley, Jr.
August 15, 1929 - June 21, 2004
Riley, Edward James Jr.
Birth: August 15, 1929, Joliet, IL.
Education: St. Thomas the Apostle Grammar School and St. Ignatius High School, 1941-42
Military Service:
Ed Riley (aka: Eddie or 'short story Riley') wanted to join the U.S. Marine Corps in WWII, but settled for serving in the United States Navy (Enlisted) reporting for duty on July 29, 1944 at the US Navy Recruiting Station in Chicago, Illinois. On August 11, 1944 he was transferred to Great Lakes, Illinois, where he completed boot camp, with coarses from basic drill and ceremony, basic sailoring and physical training to abandon ship, man overboard to his training as a mess cook. SA Riley did well in his training, though acknowledging later in life that some of the guys couldn't handle it. He said he saw guys who went AWOL and others who seemed crack from the stress.
In November, Ed Riley, seaman apprentice second class, V6, was assigned to ATB Camp Bradford NORVA from NTC Great Lakes, Illinois. He was authorized to wear the Amphibious Force shoulder insignia and on December 28, 1944 was transferred for duty CFO USS LST 872 (crew 4772), to be on board when the ship was commissioned.
LST-872 a 511 Class Tank Landing Ship, was laid down on 18 November 1944 at Jeffersonville, Ind., by the Jeffersonville Boat & Machinery Co.; launched on 28 December 1944; and commissioned on 22 January 1945 (see picture above). The LST-872 had a complement 8-10 officers, 89-100 enlisted, it had a speed of Speed 12 kts, and carried two LCVP boats with troop accommodations for about 130 officers and enlisted men.
Specifications:
Displacement 1,625 t.(fl), 3,640 t.(fl)
Length 328'
Beam 50'
Draft unloaded, bow 2' 4" stern 7' 6", loaded bow 8' 2" stern 14' 1"
Armament eight 40mm guns, twelve 20mm guns
Propulsion two General Motors 12-567 diesel engines, two shafts, twin rudders.
The LST and its crew travelled from Indiana to Virginia, down the east coast all the way down to the Panama Canal where Ed Riley and the sailors saw people living in such poverty they didn't have clothes. They witnessed brutal police, with people holding-on to lamp poles in desperation, trying to resist getting arrested. One day, Ed got lost and found himself somewhere in the Panamanian jungle where he wandered into a logging or banana camp. The men there fed the young sailor and eventually got him back to the LST.
Ed Riley worked in the galley where the men enjoyed their meals, eating fresh cut steaks and deserts of home made strawberry ice-cream as they were under way from the Panama Canal to California, the Philippines and other ports of call all over the Pacific. The crew found many diversions, from bars to museums and streets in places that they never could have imagined they'd have ever seen. The seaman apprentice had a little browning camera and took pictures everywhere he went to send home to his mom, dad, brother and seven sisters.
Like servicemen in all the branches, since the Roman Army, the crew found that sometimes, it was helpful to appropriate supplies, change lists and 'work' the the naval supply system to get what they needed. The LST's officers, including the captain found Ed and the galley crew were particularly skilled. When they needed something, they found calling Ed Riley usually was enough to get almost anything they either wated or needed.
Ed was also a practical joker, once...he got a case of chickletts chewing gum and another case of ex lax chewable laxatives. He looked over both cases, and saw that the boxes were about the same, the pieces were about the same and had an epiphany! The young sailor exchanged the contents of all the little boxes and walking around the LST, he offered everyone some gum...other saw and asked for some too, pretty soon, the whole crew was chewing gum! Eventually, the lines started forming at the heads until almost the entire crew was forced to line-up and go to the bathroom.
Practical jokes aside, it was war time and there was a time when the men were asea that someone spotted it. A Japanese submarine! Somewhere off the horizon a japanese crew was patroling the waters, but somehow missed the LST which admittedly would have been an easy target. Ed said that the crew took their battle stations, but realistically couldn't have done much, even if they caught the sub. An LST just wasn't equiped for such a mission. Tension filled the sea-air, but just as quickly as the submarine was spotted, it was lost.
Among Ed Riley's outstanding qualities were his sense of honesty and fair play. If Ed had something to say, he would and you always knew where you stood with him. He also was against nepostism and favoritism with his sense of right and wrong beinbg so absolute that even as a young sailor, when up for a promotion, someone offered to give him the answers to a test he had to take. Ed wouldn't take the 'favor,' and he just took the test without the help. According to Ed, an Admiral couldn't have passed the test! He stayed in-grade, with his honor and integrity in tact.
The crew was looking forward to their liberty in San Francisco, California as the 872 headed towards the west coast one early morning. The crew seemed really happy as Ed walked through the dining area. Everyone was smiling and a couple of the crew even complimented him on their breakfast. 'Finally got some class'; someone yelled out as another shouted: 'hey Ed, raisin toast, this is really good!' Ed froze in his tracks for a second and thought: 'Raisin toast?' He knew that the galley crew hadn't made any raisin toast and that the men thinking they did could mean only one thing, BUGS! The seaman turned around and ran back to the flour where his suspicions were confirmed, tiny bugs crawled around in the home they made in the flour. Ed called out to some of the guys and they dumped all the flour before reaching dock, otherwise leave would have been barred from liberty and the crew would have been, well, let's say a little angry.
Aside from their one, unoffical contact with and enemy sub, LST-872 performed no combat service with the United States Navy before being decommissioned on July 8, 1946 and struck from the Navy list on 15 August that same year. On 27 October 1947, she was sold to the Northwest Merchandising Service for operation. Resold to the government of Argentina in 1948, named Cabo San Gonzalo (BDT-4)
Final Disposition of LST-872 by the Argentine Navy in 1969, fate unknown. But the LST was awarded the American Campaign and World War II Victory medals. Ed Riley was authorized to wear the American Theater and Asiatic-Pacific Theater medals. The crew to a man went on with their lives...Ed Riley decided to drive back to Chicago after his release from active duty where he met everyone from native Americans on their reservations, to an old man who offered him the chance to buy half of what would one-day become half of downtown Phoenix, Arizona. Ed looked around and laughed: "it's just sand!" He then drove off to his future.
Occupations:
Railroad Red Cap (baggage handler), Steel Worker, Saloon Owner, Grain Elevator Weighmaster
Still the practical joker, Ed and his friends would sometimes go out to eat, finish and race out, last one would have to pay the bill! Or, another time, Ed and his friends were eating in a nice restaurant and one of the guys had to go to the bathroom. While he was away one pal stuffed his friend's inside coat pockets with silverware. Ed went to the restaurant manager and pretending to be very sincere, and in all confidence said: "Hey, I'd watch that guy when he's leaving...he's trying to steal your silverware." The manager did check, and found the stolen silverware! This was back in a day when people were easier to deal with on a one-to-one level and not as serious as it might be today. Ed and his other friend explained the joke and everyone had a relieved laugh.
Until about the early 1960's, Ed Riley worked at the LaSalle Street Station as a Red Cap for the Rock Island Railroad. Although nearing the end of the railroad travel hay-days, he still enjoyed meeting with and helping the traveling public which occassionally included movie stars like Kim Novak who was once traveling with a younger sister or relative who to Miss Novaks shagrin kept calling attention to her, by yelling out: "Hey look everybody, it's my sister, it's Kim Novak!" Miss Novak, sans make-up and hairdo seemed just a little upset.
In the movie 'North By Northwest' starring Cary Grant, the star used and can be seen wearing Ed Riley's Red Cap uniform.
For relaxation after a hard days work, sometimes Ed would join his buddies for a drink at a nearby bar owned by a really nice old Greek man named Lucas. When Ed's wife and son would sometimes stop by, it always seemed like the older, balding Lucas had a gift or toy for Jimmy, from hard boiled eggs to model greyhound busses.
In the early 1960's, Ed left the railroad and went to work for a short time at US Steel on the city's southside. Ed's father-in-law, Frank Swiatkowski worked there as a crane operator. Ed said that he didn't last long there, because it was one of the worst places he ever worked. 'It was like a prison with fences and barbed wire, towers and armed guards on the outside,' he'd say. US Steel had a reputation in the neighborhoods as a dangerous, hot and dirty place to work...and it seemed like every week you'd hear about someone getting crushed and killed or having an arm or leg crushed or cut off!
Ed Riley loved to go fishing, one of his favorite places being Lake Powderhorn near the Illinois/Indiana border. He'd wake his son up, sometimes as early as 2:00AM and they'd drive around Illinois or at 4:00AM and the two Riley men would head out to Powderhorn with their dog, 'Snoopy' who would guard and protect the Riley gear. After a morning of fishing and hiking around the lake, drinking hot cream of tomato soup out of a thermos, the guys would head over to "Geno's hot dog stand" on a nearby street. The guys would get a couple of hot dogs with everything on 'em and some soda, before heading home in the middle of the day.
Shortly after starting at the 'Mills,' Ed started looking for something else, from working with vending machines, to working at the Cargil and Continental grain elevators. After a brief start at Continental, Ed moved-on to General Mills, Rialto grain elevator. While he worked for General Mills, about once a month, Ed would bring home huge cases full of boxes of, cake mixes, cereal, snacks and things that employees could buy for two (2) dollars. But he knew he wanted more. Ed and his wife Dolores started looking at maybe starting a business.
Jimmy would ride the bus after school on Fridays and meet his dad at General Mills. The weekly trip turned into a routine, Jimmy going straight to the locker/ shower area, a bell going off...the guys filing in. From work, Jimmy and Ed drove to a grocery store or deli-like shop, pick-up some food, crackers and cream cheese, pints of ice-cream, sodas. Then, they'd head over to a movie theater in the Roseland area where they'd get inside with the bounty of junk food and snacks, settling-in for a double or triple feature of Vincent Price, horror movies. The guys would head home, sometimes as late as 2:00AM.
Ed rented a saloon and named it after their son Jimmy's dog, "Snoopy's Lounge." Dolores would run the bar during the day, Ed would join her after work and they started doing some pretty good business. The family connections with some local politicians kept the corruption down to a minimum, and local police frequented the family run business, keeping it a very safe place. Ed Riley thought about expanding and offering food as well, nothing fancy, maybe sandwiches.
BOOM! Tuesday, October 12th, 1971, at the General Mills grain elevator, a spark, at least they think it was a spark, from a conveyer belt ignited the explosive grain dust that hung in the air. In a fraction of a second, Anthony Michauka, just home on a hardship dischage from Viet Nam is in flames and jumps or was blown 200 feet into the Calumet River below! The building was engulfed in flames that shot out from the top and several feet from the sides! Leroy Siebert, a deputy weighmaster for the Chicago Board of Trade was dead, Robert Gonzalez, Jr., died, Estaban Chavez was dead. BOOM! Families were changed forever, lives detroyed...BOOM, Ed Riley was in a fire department helicopter, thrid degree burns on 40% of his body...still joking with the firemen and asking them to come to his bar. "Don't tell my wife"; he asked: "She get's nervous."
Nurses, doctors and hospital staff rushed around Ed Riley as the firemen touched down at the Cook County Burn Unit (reportedly one of the best in the country). "Tell my family not to worry"; he told the staff. Throughout this ordeal, Ed's concern was for his family more than himself.
Although they prepared his family for Ed to die, and/or be blind and crippled...Ed surprised most and pulled through. Although he could never work again, Ed and his wife got the opportunity to travel a little, living in California and Texas before returning to the midwest and calling Griffith, Indiana home.
ED was very concerned about his country and the loss of liberties and freedoms he saw as robbing future generations of the way of life he respected and loved. He remained an avid story teller and seemed never to have met a person he couldn't or wouldn't talk with. He was a very well-read, anti-Mason and anti-internationalist. Ed was a lover of freedom and the Roman Catholic Church, a traditionalist who preferred the Latin Mass and traditional Catholicism to Vatican II thinking. He was a loyal and devoted follower of Our Lady, the Virgin Mary.
Marriage: May 14, 1960, at Saint Thomas of Canterbury in Chicago, IL.
Spouse:Swiatkowski, Anna Dolores
Birth: August 31, 1833, Chicago, IL.
Baptism: September 17, 1933, at St. Michael the Archangel in Chicago, IL.
First Holy Communion: Jun 6, 1943, at St. Michael the Archangel in Chicago, IL.
Confirmation: April 25, 1945, at St. Michael the Archangel in Chicago, IL.
Elementary School: St. Michael the Archangel Elementary School
High School: St. Michael the Archangel High School
University: Purdue University (Calumet)
Occupations: Housewife, Bookkeeper, Waitress
Eddie and Dee Dee (Anna Dolores Swiatkowski) met around 1955-56 at a restaurant on Cermack Road near the massive Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Comapany where she worked as a bookkeeper. 'I love your little ears'; Ed Riley told the petite redhead when they met. On May 14, 1960, by Father J. P. Cunningham in Chicago, Illinois. He was 33 years old and she was 26, together they had one son, James Edward Riley.
Ed Riley passed away in the morning on: June 21, 2004, Munster, IN.
Back to the Main Riley Genealogical Page
~ Onlinetheater Lobby ~
©2005 by James E. F. Riley, Sr.