The road trip we began in San Diego has been going well and we have seen incredibly beautiful scenery of the American Southwest along the way. On October 4th, Neal (camera) and I left San Diego and went to Yuma, Arizona and visited with an aunt and uncle of mine who live there.
On October 5th, we went to Phoenix and picked up Zach (sound mixer) at the airport along with the rented equipment, mainly lights and stands and sandbags. (The sandbags are for weighing down the light stands so they’re not easily knocked over during filming.) We packed the heavy boxes on the right and the light ones on top of the plaques on the left, with our suitcases and camera cases on the floor behind the front seat. Then we headed to Grants, New Mexico for our first interview.
On October 6th, we had a great interview with four of the children of Gerald Ahniwake Ray who enlisted in the Navy at the age of 17 and who was Fireman 1st class on the USS Franklin.and a member of the 704 Club. You may have met June Baca and her brother Jerry Ray when they attended their first Franklin reunion in Fredericksburg. (Side note, June and her brothers are cousins to Angel Barnes who is hosting the upcoming Franklin reunion in Corpus Christi.) In Grants, we interviewed June along with her brothers (left to right) Joseph, Pat and James.
The interview was held at the excellent Cibola County History Museum, which includes a display about their father and the USS Franklin. After the interview, June was the host with the most and took us to lunch and then to the very interesting New Mexico Mining Museum that has a simulated uranium mine. Did you know that Grants, NM, which is right on historic Route 66, was the Uranium Capital of the U.S.? You can see more here: https://grants.org/museums-galleries/
In my next update, I’ll tell you about two interviews we conducted in central Texas.
I hope you all are doing well,
Andy
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