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Highway Recollections of Bob Grout
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Title
Highway Recollections of Bob Grout
Created Date
April 8th, 1982
Description
During a 33-year engineering career, Bob Grout became a specialist in highway equipment repair and management. He advanced from Assistant Highway Engineer in road construction maintenance to Supervising Equipment Engineer, and finally to Chief, Equipment Resources Branch. He retired from Caltrans in 1980. In this oral history for Caltrans, he mentions briefly his Air Force career—one year of fighter pilot training in Santa Ana, California, one year as an instructor in Bakersfield, and then to Pocatello, Idaho for gunnery training. After completion of gunnery training he was assigned to a fighter group—404 Squadron, 506 Group and was transported to England on the Columbia, a French luxury liner. Once arriving in Britain, his first assignment was flights patrolling the British Coastline. After the Beach was taken on “D” day, he took a transport to Omaha Beach, to fly missions with the 404 Squadron. He flew in the mission to liberate Paris, was court marshalled for flying underneath the Eiffel Tower, earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for bombing Nazi rail cars under fire. He also received a Purple Heart for injuries he sustained when his plane was shot down during the Battle of the Bulge. After his service with the Air Force, he worked for the Division of Highways as Street Inspector in Marysville. One of his first assignments included first sign crews when the Division of Highways took over signing from the Auto Club in 1947. As an Assistant Maintenance Engineer, he supervised the construction of Maintenance Stations of Pine Grove, Manteca, and Coulterville. Grout had to negotiate a strike/union problems, which was a major factor in eliminating maintenance forces from doing construction
and he was responsible first diesel truck bought.
and he was responsible first diesel truck bought.
Creators and Contributors
Genre
Language
Media Type
Format
Audio cassette
Extent
2
Tapes
Copyright Statement
Copyrighted. Rights are owned by Caltrans Library & History Center. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owner. In addition, the reproduction of some materials may be restricted by terms of gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Country of Creation
United States
Contributing Organization
Contributing Organization Contact Information
Email: library@dot.ca.gov
Phone: (916) 654-4601
Phone: (916) 654-4601
Organization Websites
Link to Internet Archive