Charles
J.
Getz
Charlie
(Charles
J. Getz,
Chief
Storekeeper)
was
supply
officer
for the
US Navy
on
Trinidad
during
WWII.
They had
problems
unloading
petroleum
before
the
U-boats
blew up
the
supply
ships.
Charlie
came up
with the
idea
that the
supply
ships
could
roll oil
barrels
(drums)
overboard
very
quickly
and
escape
before
the
submarines
spotted
them.
Then
Charlie
sent out
skiffs
to net
the
floating
drums
and
bring
them
into
port.
This
worked
well, he
received
a medal,
and the
practice
was
embraced
elsewhere
because
of the
lives it
saved.
However,
this
left a
lot of
empty
drums,
since
the ship
didn't
pick
them up
as it
did
under
the
former
practices.
Charlie
traded
the
empty
steel
drums to
the
locals
for rum
for the
officers
(and
most
likely
for
himself),
and they
made
steel
drums
from
them. It
was his
understanding
that the
British
had
previously
outlawed
the
playing
of
drums,
but the
American
Navy had
no such
concerns.
Charlie
then
hired
locals
to play
the
drums on
the base
-
everyone
seemed
so much
happier
in their
work
with the
music in
the
background.
I once attended an Andy Narell concert in California where he thanked the US Navy for steel drums, but I was too shy to come back stage and tell him this family story. Too bad--at that time Charlie was still alive and could have given an oral history.
Charlie loved steel drum music all his life.