U.S. Navy shipmates reunite after 54 years

Even though it had been 54 years since he'd last seen him, it didn't take Gus Gutman but a minute after he walked off a plane at Glacier Park International Airport a few weeks ago to recognize Ferndale's Phil Reed.

"The only thing that's changed is your hair," Gutman told Reed.

The two had been shipmates and buddies in the U.S. Navy back in the 1950s, most notably on USS Curtiss on an expedition to Antarctica. After regaining contact a few years ago, this summer was the first time they'd seen each other since their Navy days as Gutman came out from Austin, Texas, on a trip to Montana.

When they met and still to this day, the two are quite different — Reed, a tall and lanky outdoorsman who signed up for the service, was used to rural living, while Gutman, an immigrant who escaped Nazi Germany with his family at age 5 right before World War II and was later drafted into the U.S. Navy, has been a city boy.

But, it was a love of music, particularly the harmonica that brought the two together.

NAVY DAYS

Reed and Gutman both ended up in the supply division on the USS Curtiss for Operation Deepfreeze in 1956. The mission was to take men and supplies to Little America and McMurdo Sound in Antarctica and to pick up those who allegedly were the first to winter in the region. They were joined on the trip by reporters sent to cover the Antarctic for the first time, including representatives from Life Magazine and the Walt Disney Corporation.

"It was the best cruise I went on while in the Navy," Reed said.

The first leg of the journey took them from their base in San Diego, Calif., to Port Lyttleton, New Zealand, and it took 21 days. This early part of the voyage was marked by an unforgettable and somewhat scarring initiation ceremony involving King Neptune and his Royal Court of Shellbacks when crossing the equator for the first time that Gutman especially still remembers vividly.

When they got to New Zealand, Gutman was walking around downtown and spotted a big chord harmonica. He rushed back to Reed who he convinced to purchase it. That harmonica cost Reed $35 then. Today it's worth more than $2,600. He still has it.

The two then played, chord harmonic and lead, in ship talent shows to entertain their fellow shipmates, including tunes like the popular "Peg O' My Heart."

After the stop off in New Zealand, it took another five to seven days to reach their destination, where they spent a month. Coming into the ice shelf, they experienced a near tragedy as the ship rose up and hit a helicopter that was ferrying supplies over to a Coast Guard icebreaker stationed in the area.

The helicopter crashed into the ocean, but the pilots escaped, and luckily, in the end, were saved.

Gutman photographed the event, but the film was ruined during production by the ship's photo office. To make up for it, he was offered a 8-by-10-inch picture of him and Reed playing for the next ship talent show, a photo he still has today.

Reed on the other hand hung on to his photos and today he has color pictures of the crash.

"I wasn't taking no chances," he said.

The month in the Antarctic is remembered by recreation and the animals.

They couldn't drink aboard the ship, but they hauled beer to the ice shelf. Timing was key — 20 minutes to chill the beer to the right temperature, but another 20 would freeze it solid. They spent time watching penguins, seals and killer whales.

"We waited 15 minutes and then drank the beer ice cold while we watched the funny penguins pop in and out of the water and a young sailor pull a sleepy seal by its tail," Gutman wrote in a 2002 article for the newspaper the Aufbau.

GOING THEIR

SEPARATE WAYS

The two were together aboard the USS Curtiss for a year of their time in the service.

"We were best friends," Gutman said. "We lived together, worked together. It was special."

After their service ended, they did see each other one more time. Gutman went to visit Reed in Northern Michigan.

"I didn't know he was such an outdoorsman," Gutman said.

Reed took him fishing and they caught a dozen brook trout. They took them back to Reed's home where his mother cooked them for dinner.

"To this day, it's the best meal I've ever had in my life in all honesty," Gutman said.

The two then went their separate ways. Reed went to college in Michigan and then came further west to teach fifth through eighth graders in Swan Lake. He also taught for a time in Nevada, but later settled in Ferndale. He married his wife, Betty, and they had three children.

Gutman's father wanted him to inherit his dry cleaning plant in Chicago, but he wasn't convinced. Instead, he went to school and ended up as an organic chemist, working in development for the 3M Company. His crowning achievement has been writing a play, "Guests of the City," about his return to Germany 57 years later that was produced in his home town. He also married, a woman named Greta, and the couple had three children.

REUNITING

Reed started thinking about Gutman again a few years ago. He had his son do some research on the Internet to see if anything about him would turn up. Low and behold, Gutman had written an article about the Antarctica experience for the Aufbau.

Through information with that article, Reed was able to make contact.

Reed said that when he made the call, it didn't take Gutman very long to recognize him.

"He said, 'Phil, is that you?'" Reed said.

That first contact took place three years ago. Since then, the two have kept in contact, but not seen each other. During a hunting trip last year, Reed got lonely and reflected on the fact that he was at the stage in life when people he knew were starting to pass away. He was overcome with a desire to see Gutman again.

"He told me, 'I'd like to see you before I die,'" Gutman said. "I'm older than him, so I'm not sure what that means for me."

During Gutman's visit to the Flathead, they spent time catching up on their lives and going to Glacier National Park.

They tried to play their harmonicas together again during the visit. Reed admitted that he was a little out of practice.

"We played a little, but after 40, 50 years, I was a little out of breath," he said.

They also tried to relive their North Michigan fishing trip down at Holland Lake.

"I could see his mother smiling in heaven," Gutman said.

Gutman said it was a joy to see his friend again after so many years have gone by.

"It's been wonderful," Gutman said.