Bruce in the Army

As mentioned previously, Lloyd Bruce Merrill was born November 3, 1929, while Malcolm was still in medical school in St. Louis. Like his older brother (Malcolm) Don, his younger sister (Thelma) Jean and eventually his favorite nephew the author (David) Randall, he went by his middle name.

Bruce said that one day in St. Louis, he and Don were playing and Don got hurt on a metal rod, so they got him into the red wagon and Bruce pulled him home. That was all he could remember about St. Louis, as he was about 3 years old when they left there.

Bruce Merrill

In 1933, Malcolm, Thelma, Don and Bruce moved to Princeton, New Jersey, where Malcolm worked at the Rockefeller Institute. Bruce later recalled that he thought their house was so big! But when he entered the military and drove from California to New York, he and visited there again, and it wasn't nearly so big as he remembered from when he was just 3.

House in Princeton, New Jersey. (Looks kind of big to me...)

They were in Princeton for about 3 years.

Buce and Don in the snow, in Princeton, New Jersey

Bruce, Malcolm and Don.

Thelma and Bruce.

Don, Thelma, Bruce and Malcolm; Christmas 1935; Princeton, New Jersey.

In 1936, the family moved to San Francisco so Malcolm could do his internship before his medical degree expired. He had fallen in love with the Bay Area when he visited there one February when he was attending school in frozen Logan, so this was his chance to finally get there.

Don and Bruce in front of the Bay Bridge (built in 1933).

When they first arrived in San Francisco, they lived in the top apartment on the corner of Third and Hugo. Malcolm worked at the 8 O'clock clinic, so Bruce remembered that sometimes when Malcolm got dressed, he would jump around and say "Cleight O'Clock Clinic!"

Apartments on the corner of Third Avenue and Huge St., San Francisco.

Later the family moved to 814 Cragmont in Berkeley, to the house with the "$10,000 view" of the San Francisco Bay. (See the earliest episodes in this series for more on this house).

814 Cragmont, Berkeley, California

Bruce attended Cragmont Elementary School, and was a traffic boy there in the Junior Traffic Patrol.

Junior Traffic Patrol, Cragmont Elementary School

Bruce said that he had the only music education of his life in 6th grade at Cragmont Elementary. He also said he didn't do much extracurricular activity. Jean said that he was in one play, "The Man Who Came to Dinner", and had one line: "Yes, sir." I imagine it was an outstanding performance. :)

Bruce said that his classmate Don Melvin "was a fine fellow" and was interested in electricity and telephones all through Cragmont Elementary, Garfield Jr. High and Berkeley High. Don Melvin went on to CalTech and worked for Bell Labs, ending up with over 100 patents and a mansion in Silicon Valley. Jean remembered that when Bruce and Don Melvin would drive by each others' houses they would honk out "CQ" (-.-. --.-).

Thelma, Bruce, Jeanie, Malcolm and Don Merrill, about 1944.

Bruce graduated in January 1952 from the University of California with a degree in Public Health.

University of California at Berkeley

Bruce learned from his classmate that the medical field service core would give a direct commission as an officer in the Army to someone with a degree in public health. This was during the Korean War, and you were either in the army or in school. Bruce applied for the commission and got it, but it wasn't good until June or July of that year, so he got drafted and spent 8 weeks of basic training in Fort Ord, California.

Bruce in uniform, May, 1953.

Bruce Merrill in the army

Bruce had an old car (a “Willys”) that he drove from Ford Ord to Berkeley when he got a weekend off—until the head gasket blew.

One time there was a big march, but Bruce had K.P. so he got out of it. But he was going to get grief from them when they got back because he didn't have to go. So he put a little candy bar on everyone's pillow, and when they came back, they all thought that was great.

Bruce "almost enjoyed" his training. One time he got to shoot a bazooka (which cost $50 per round), but he said he missed! So that was awkward.

About the seventh week of his training course, his commission became active, so he “went to bed one night as an E1 infantry recruit, and woke up in the morning as a second lieutenant in the medical service core.”

When Bruce’s commission was activated, his first assignment was at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, in the medical field service core school there. Instead of bunk beds, they had individual beds, and someone would come make their beds every morning, so he thought that was pretty cushy.

Bachelor Officer Quarters (BOQ), Fort Sam Houston. 

While there, they had a USO bus trip to Monterrey, Mexico. He didn’t know anything about bargaining with the sellers, so if he wanted something he’d ask how much it was and then just pay it.

After that he got orders to go to Ft. Lewis, Washington, and he was sure that if he would have gone there, that he would have ended up in the war in Korea. But they changed his orders to Kaiserslautern, Germany, in the western area command surgeon’s office, where they did sanitary inspections of mess halls and clubs.

Bruce traveled to New York and from there by boat to Germany aboard the General J. H. McRae.

Aboard the General J. H. McRae, in New York City

Once in Germany, Bruce bought a Volkswagen. Later he visited the Volkswagen factory and ended up buying a brand new one and having it shipped to the United States.

Bruce and his new Volkswagen

Inside the Volkswagen plant in Germany.

He met some guys over there who he traveled around Europe with.

Evan, Phay, Dean and Bruce, at the Four Seasons Annex, Frankfurt, Germany.

They would all save up 10 days of leave and then drive all around together. They went around Germany, and to Belgium, France, England, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Italy and more.

Below are a few dozen pictures he took while touring around the area, with captions telling what each is, if you're interested.

Luxemburg

Bridge in Luxemburg

Netherlands

Town Hall in Delft, Holland, Netherlands

Keukenhof Gardens, Holland, The Netherlands

Church of St. Bravo, Haarlem, Holland, Netherlands

Windmill in Holland, Netherlands

Children in costumes, Volendam, Holland, Netherlands

Peace Palace at Madurodam, near The Hague, Netherlands.

France

Arch de Triumph, Paris, France

Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

Bruce on top of the Eiffel Tower

Sacré-Cœur Basilica (Sacred Heart), Paris, France

Bruce said he was naive enough that when he took a picture of the famous Notre Dame cathedral from the outside, it didn’t occur to him to go in.

Norte Dame Cathedral from across the Seine, Paris, France; April 30, 1954.

Germany

Dom Cathedral in Cologne, Germany (tallest building in the world until Eiffel Tower was built).

Bruce on Die Lorelei, over the Rhine River, Germany, June 1952.

Castle Katz on the Rhine, Germany

House in Trier, Germany

Heidelburg Castle on a hill across Necar River. Germany, Fall 1953.

Die Phaltz, a castle on the Rhine River, Germany.

Frankenstein Castle, Darmstadt, Germany, Fall 1954.

Neuschwanstein Castle, Bavaria, Germany (said to be the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's castle)

German Alps outside of Berchtesgaden, Germany.

Bruce, Bev and Bert on slide in salt mines at Berchtesgaden, Germany.

Evan, Bev, Bert and Bruce on Dredigstuhl

Chiemsee Castle, Bavaria, Germany.

Golden Hall in Chiemsee Castle, Bavaria, Germany.

City walls of Dinkelsbühl, Germany

Street scene, Germany.

Passau Dom, Passau, Germany.

Inside Passau Dom

England and Scotland

In England, Bruce and his group asked a guy named Mr. Miller if they could camp on his land if they cleaned up after themselves, and the guy agreed. They also drove up into Scotland and camped on the Firth of Forth and then came down through middle England, going through Shakespeare's area.

Roman Baths, England

White Cliffs of Dover, England, July 3, 1954.

Canterbury Chapel, England, July 1954.

Campsite in Queen's Forest by Kings-Lynn, Norfolk, England, July 5, 1954.

City Hall in Nottingham, England, July 6, 1954

Sherwood Forest, north of Nottingham, England

Scotland

Campsite on Firth of Forth, Scotland

Edinburgh Castle, Scotland

Mons Meg cannon, Edinburgh Castle, Scotland 

Dean and Evan on bank of Loch Lamond, Scotland, July 8, 1954

Camp site on banks of Loch Lomond, Scotland.

Children on the banks of Avon, England.

Shakespeare's birthplace in Stratford, England.

Burt, Dean, Bruce and Evan by the cottage of Ann Hathaway (Shakespeare's wife)

Oxford University, Oxford, England, July 10, 1954.

Changing of the guard, Buckingham Palace, London, England.

Piccadilly Circus at night, London, England, July 13, 1954.

Parliament and Big Ben, London, England, July 12, 1954.

Entrance to the Tower of London, London, England.

Tower Bridge across the Thames River, London, England.

Italy

Milan Cathedral, Milan, Italy.

Narrow streets of Genoa, Italy.

Bruce at the Tower of Pisa, Italy.

Pompeii, Italy (buried in ash in 79 A.D. when Mount Vesuvius erupted)

St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, within Rome, Italy.

Victor Emanuel monument, Rome, Italy.

Arch of Triumph, next to the Colosseum, Rome, Italy.

Colosseum, Rome, Italy.

Trevi Fountain, Rome, Italy

Ponte Vecchio ("old bridge"), Florence, Italy.

Ferraris in shop, Italy.

Rialto Bridge, Venice, Italy.

Bruce and friends at St. Mark's Square, Venice, Italy.

Northern Africa

Later on Bruce and his group took a flight to north Africa and went to Rabat (the capital of Morocco), and saw the Kasbah of the Udayas. They also went within about 30,000 feet of the Rock of Gibraltar.

Lamont Hendrickson, Bruce Merrill, Bill Conant

Troops flying to North Africa.

Horse and cart in front of 1791 Air Force Headquarters in Rabat, Morocco.

Waterfront at Tripoli, Libya.

Flying over the Rock of Gibraltar.

Denmark, Sweden and Norway

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Randers, Denmark.

Fjord between Sweden and Norway.

Entrance to castle at Kalmar, Sweden.

The Little Mermaid, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Switzerland

Swiss Temple, Bern, Switzerland (dedicated in 1955 by David O. McKay)

Returning Home

Bruce was in the service for about 2 1/2 years. He said he had his own BOQ (Bachelor Officer Quarters), had a driver to drive him anywhere he wanted to go, never spent a day in the field, and then (with a laugh), Bruce said he got released on a “hardship discharge” [not to be confused with a 2-year all-expense paid vacation to Europe], because of the “hardship” of not being able to go dental school. The service was actually looking to decrease the number of people they had, so they released him, and then he was able to go to dental school.

Here is his room and office.

Bruce's BOQ (Bachelor Officer's Quarters)

Bruce's office building at Panzerkaserne, Germany

Bruce's office (desk on right)

So with that, Bruce returned home. Jean recalled that Bruce sent some interesting things home, including the Santa Maria ship that was on their mantel ever since then.

Bruce back home at 814 Cragmont, Berkeley, California

Bruce did his dental school in the College of Physicians and Surgery Dental School in San Francisco in an old building “held together by bailing wire and chewing gum” (and dental floss). He had thought about getting a degree that would allow him to run a hospital, but Thelma said, “No, get a profession,” and dentistry sounded good, so he went into that, and it fit him just fine. If he wanted a vacation, he would just say, “Don’t book me any patients, because I won’t be here.” That allowed him to go on river trips or to girl’s camp.

In the next episode, Bruce has some adventures closer to home before finding Beth.