Hugh McMillan
Jane Olive (JO): TESTING
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JO: Introduction: January 31st, 2019. interview of Hugh McMillan by Jane Olive at her home, 3801 75th Ave Ct NW; Gig Harbor, WA 98335. Interview is conducted for information on Hugh’s life and on the origins of the Peninsula Emergency Preparedness-Coalition (PEP-C).
HM: I was born 17 June, 1926 in New West Minister, BC, Canada.
JO: And you were married?
HM: Not when I was born, I wasn’t married.
JO: Your wife’s name?
HM: My wife’s name is Janice and we have been together, married, for 66 years. This is after she chased me around the campus for two years before that. You believe that, don’t you?
JO: Oh, she hog-tide you to get you to marry her! Tough woman!
HM: I almost didn’t marry her because I knew I was going into the caldron of power, Washington, D.C., and I kind of figured the marriage would last maybe six months when somebody from Vogue magazine would spot her and say, “I don’t care what your husband is making, we’ll pay you five times as much to be a cover girl on Vogue. She was striking. Still is.
JO: And you have two kids:
HM: Lance was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1956, 8th of October at the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital. Same day I went into the US Navy, many years prior to that. And Marshall was born on the 28th of November, 1959. They were both born in Tokyo.
A Little vignette on that. You can erase it if you want. I came home from Langley, that’s headquarters for the CIA. Jan met me at the door and said, “Wait until you hear this one.” I said, “What’s up?” Janice said, "I answered the phone.” A woman said, “Mrs. McMillan, I am (whatever her name was. I don’t remember) Marshall’s third grade teacher and this is very difficult for me because I am his teacher and feel responsible as his third grade teacher to let his parents know that Marshall is having some serious troubles.” "Really, like what?” “Well, he’s either hallucinating or he’s fabricating, or he’s lying.” “Explain that, would you?” “Well, we were talking about the Far East and Marshall said, ‘My brother and I were born in Tokyo, Japan.’” “Yes.?” “That doesn’t trouble you?” “No.” "Sometime later we were talking about India and he said, ‘That’s where my Dad rented an elephant and we went on a tiger shoot.’ Are you there, Mrs. McMillan?” “Yes, I’m listening.” “And a little while later we were talking about the Middle East and he said, ‘That’s where my brother and I walked around the Great Pyramid at Giza.’ Doesn’t this trouble you, Mrs. McMillan?” “No, because this is the life we led!” And I couldn’t believe that a teacher in the Washington, DC, area hadn’t been confronted with this sort of thing because it’s full of people with similar lives.
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JO: Hugh, could you briefly tell us about your occupations? What were your major occupations, like CIA?
HM: My major occupation was as an Operations Officer with the CIA, but I had all kinds of other jobs. My dad died when I had just turned fifteen, and this was the Depression time. This was 1940-41. I got my first paying job for the princely salary of thirty-seven and a half cents an hour as a box-out boy for Safeway. I was with the CIA just short of twenty-seven years. Then I retired and got involved with everything in the community.
JO: That’s what I would like you to speak to. I’ve seen you taking photographs at Altrusa, taking photographs for PEP-C. You were with the Gateway?
HM: "I was with the Key Peninsula News and with the Gateway. Right now, I’m not really with the Key Peninsula News anymore because they have a new policy that says if I put it in the Gateway I can’t put it in the Key Peninsula news; which I think is unfortunate because I do a lot of stuff that pertains only to the Key and people will never read it. The Key Peninsula News is free. It goes out to every household on the Key Peninsula. Which is wonderful, but it comes out twelve times a year and I think the stories that I put out need to be read, should be read 52 times a year, and not by one audience but by two audiences. And that’s why I stick with the Gateway.
When we first moved here, I often heard, 'Oh, you’re one of those 8-8-4 people.' I didn’t understand what they meant. It was practically a condemnation; you know, you’re from the lower class. And I thought, this is not good. We are one community. OK? We have different villages within our one community and each village has a right to its own identity. But we better respond to the planet as one community. So, I worked pretty hard bringing our communities together, and I think I’ve had a bit of an impact, because I don’t hear, 'You’re an 8-8-4 person' anymore."
JO: What does that mean?
HM: “It’s the telephone number for most of the 253-884 area or whatever and the comment was derogatory. It isn’t heard anymore."
JO: How many years have you been working for the Gateway and this other newspaper?
HM: Oddly enough, well, let’s go back a bit. I retired in 1978 and we moved into the house we’re now in (which I tore apart and redid) on the second of July, 1978. On the 9th of April, 1979, we lost Marshall. That made me a very angry person … you wouldn’t want to be around me. I was not a nice guy because Marshall and I were quite close; not that I’m not close to Lance, we’re a tight family.
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"Somehow, in 1980, bless the fire department, the Key Peninsula Fire Department, in that year, was almost totally volunteer. We had a paid chief and a paid mechanic and that was it. They wanted me to become a fire-fighter. I thought, This is ridiculous. But, I joined the fire department as a volunteer fire-fighter with a bunch of what I mistakenly believed to be country people whose identity was to chase around after a big, red wagon. I didn’t think it’s going to last very long, so I signed up in May of 1980 as a fire-fighter. I had had fire-fighting experience prior to that because, before I went into the agency (CIA) waiting for my clearance, I had a job at Mt. Rainier Ordinance Depot as a fulltime fire-fighter. I thought, 'What a deal this is! Twenty-four on and twenty-four off! The twenty-four off you’re in bed, exhausted. But I had the experience. I really like fire-fighters and what they do. Not too long after joining KPFD I became president of its Firefighters' association. Then, they put the screws to me and said, “You have to run for Fire Commissioner and, I’m fighting it. Long story short, I became a fire commissioner. And then I became Vice-President of the Pierce County Fire Commissioners, and then I was elected to the Washington Fire Commissioners Association Board of Directors and served on that for four of my fourteen years as a fire commissioner before retiring.
"All of that exposed me to things that are emergencies. I was dealing with Bill Lokey who in those days was Chief of the Pierce County Emergency Preparedness (PC-Net), but it had a different name. Bill was brilliant. He took a job later that paid him three/four times what he was making here. It was back in Minnesota or something. He had a wonderful saying, “You have your choice, you mitigate now or you litigate later.” That pertains to just about anything and everything. It pertains to our school district right now. We better pass that bond. This is a digression, but an important one … did you vote?”
JO: Not yet, I have it open.
HM: I’m not going to say another word!
JO: So this work in emergency preparation, did it start when you worked with Bill?
HM: I can’t remember how I fell in with him. I know that early on, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department – Peninsula Detachment - had an office in Pierce County Fire Protection District 5, which is the Gig Harbor Fire Department, in their Kimball Drive station. That was the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department representation here; a sergeant in charge and two deputies for 114 square miles and 78,000 people. That was unacceptable. I stuck my nose in here and there and the next place, and, in addition to scores of Sheriff’s Deputies, became acquainted with all the Pierce County Sheriffs, the current one being Paul Pastor who by the way has a doctorate. Paul is just a brilliant guy, wonderful person, very human. He’s the guy who was chief of operations and was behind us in creating Citizen’s Against Crime on the Key, and that’s a whole other story. It’s a part of the whole thing, of just getting into fire, law enforcement, the whole shmeer of community protection.
We lived in Japan. That’s a quake zone. I was astonished after being in Japan just short of six years, Janice and I were on the fantail of the President Cleveland on our way home; it was one of those rare days when you could see Mt. Fuji clear as a bell. We stood and watched her fade in the horizon, and as soon as she went out of sight, I felt the whole world’s weight lifted off my back. I didn’t realize it, but for six years I’d been worrying about what the Japanese say, “’Jishin’ is coming; the big quake is coming.” We lived through several quakes in Tokyo, not bad ones, but enough to give you a little sense of what’s coming.
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JO: So that made you very aware of the dangers of earthquake events.
HM: Oh, yeah. What a quake can do. Some of the things that I’ve learned…for example, the San Francisco quake creamed the city, but what really took the city out were the fires after. And where did the fires come from? Candles. Unattended candles. That’s one of my holy points. Anybody who stands still for more than twenty minutes is going to hear me tell them, “Never leave a room with a lit candle. Just don’t do it, or kiss your house goodbye.” And that’s the same thing that happened in Tokyo. It burned Tokyo to the ground. Candles.
JO: Well, moving on, we have Bill Lokey and Paul Pastor.
HM: Paul came into the scene much later. The first one on the scene was Sgt. Bill Seeward. Wonderful guy. Viet Nam vet. Tough as nails. Smart as a whip. He was very concerned about the welfare of the people on this side of the Narrows.
Oh, a little secret, I’m also one of the very few people permitted into the Washington Correction Center for Women with a camera in hand. I’ve done several stories on that. I don’t think that very many people understand that the WCCW is the second largest employer this side of the Narrows in Pierce County. It’s a huge operation. It feeds a lot of people. Part of it is because of the stupid marijuana laws; a lot of those women are in there for no crime; they had marijuana, and it’s just terrible. I’ve done a number of articles on women in there. This is digressing, but I’m going to digress anyway.
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With the women, I was surprised…I’d come in with a camera and I’d look at them and say, “Is it OK and they’d say, “Certainly.” So I’d take pictures of them doing something. Horticulture, working with the Prison Pet Partnership Program, working with pottery, working with ‘you name it.’ It’s not a punitive institution. It is a correctional institution. It takes women who know they are no good, who know they are losers, and turns them into people who realize, “I made a mistake, but I’m a human being and I’m going to correct it.”
One of my ways with journalism is to submit to the person I’m interviewing. They do all the work and I get all the credit. But nobody ever calls and says, “McMillan, you misinterpreted me,” or “You misquoted me.” “No, I don’t think so. Is this your email? Show me where I misquoted you.” So that’s what I do. I have people write. I’ve had a number of women in the prison write whatever it was that they were doing. This is what we were doing over a period of years beginning in 1984. And that’s a whole other story. At least a dozen women who have submitted a four-and-a-half-page copy to me said, “This prison saved my life.” That’s pretty heavy stuff.
JO: Have you kept any of those articles?
HM: Oh, I’m sure I have. I’ve got them.
JO: Moving on, we’ve talked about your work with the fire department, the police, the prison, the Gateway and the newspaper on the Key, anything else you want to add about your career and community activities; and then we’ll go into how PEP-C got organized.
HM: OK. In 1983 we formed the Key Peninsula Lions Club. Janice and I were in the restaurant when I heard all this roar and laughter behind the wall and I wondered what was going on. The door burst open and a whole bunch of males came out of the room. I grabbed a couple of them and said, “What’s going on?” “We’re forming a club.” “What club?” “A Lions Club.” “What’s that? Would I be interested? Should I participate?” “Oh, yeah, maybe.” I had to recruit myself to my own Lions Club. But I’m a charter member and we formed with forty-eight members in 1983. We had our installation on the 18th of August of 1983. We had forty-eight members, that’s a big charter. Two years later, we were up to sixty-four members. Today, we are down to twenty members of whom maybe a dozen are active. This is happening to all kinds of service organizations. People just aren’t volunteering. I don’t know if it’s because families need two incomes or what. But it’s very difficult.
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Part of my job with the CIA was to recruit people, to tell our government what their government was up to. And I’m not going to be modest; I was pretty good at my trade. I can’t speak about that, but I can say that I have a pin with a diamond in it from Lions International for recruiting a minimum of seventy-five new Lions who have spent at least a year and a day as active Lions.
I have people say, “How do you do it, Hugh?” And I say, “It’s really simple! Two words: Ask ‘em.” If you don’t ask them don’t expect them to ask you to let them. It’s not going to happen. I’ve recruited people who dialed me a wrong number and I got a wrong number once and recruited a guy over the phone. He said, “I don’t think the Lions would have me.” I said, “Why?” “I’m blind.” “You mean you’re sight impaired?” “No. I’m blind.” “Who told you the Lions wouldn’t have you?” “Oh, would they?” “Yeah, I’m recruiting you right now. I’ll pick you up.” He became our ‘tail-twister.’ He was a very active Lion. Don’t stand still long because I’m going to put a Lions pin on you. I’ve actually recruited a Lion for the Mazatlán, Mexico, Lions. Somebody made the mistake of sitting beside me on an airplane flying back from Mexico and he became a member of the Olympia Central Lions Club.
JO: Anything else you want to mention?
HM: I’m involved in lots of things.
JO: Well, your writing, journalism, and photography work takes you all over. But I want to get back to Pep-C. Who else worked with you when you guys started Pep-C?
HM: Well, the first guy was Dave Watson. Dave was the principle of Artondale Elementary. Dave got it into his head that the schools are going to be in real big trouble when we have a calamity, like an earthquake or whatever.
JO: When was this? Do you recall about what time was this?
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HM: Oh, God! It would have to be at least twenty-five years ago. At least. But Dave then went to the Board and the Board said, “Sure.” So he made sure that every single one of our fifteen schools was equipped with food and water to take care of the kids for three days. He was way ahead of the curve. I’m sorry that he’s stepped out, but Dave and I go way back.
And then, Don Lee came on the scene, and Don is just solid gold. Don, and we had a lady, Joanne Gray, she was our secretary and part of our team that went into churches, schools, whatever, to tell people to get ready. We didn’t come up with the term, “YOYO” until recently. That’s about two years, maybe three or four years old.
Where did Curt Scott come from?
JO: Let me turn the page.
HM: Curt is our president.
JO: Yes. Now Don was president before?
HM: Don was president and a good one, Dave Watson was president. I have never held an office because I just don’t have that much time. But I’m there, and I try to keep our image before people and let them know there is a way to save your life and your family’s life no matter what the nature of the calamity might be. Talk to us. I’ve tried to keep our name in front of the public as much as I could because I think it is so important. Lots of people are going to die if they don’t pay attention.
JO: Who else was involved? There was another woman who was secretary for a while. I don’t know her name. I do understand that Joanne Gray has passed away?
HM: She’s gone.
JO: How long was she active? Do you remember?
HM: Oh, I’m only guessing. I’d say about ten years.
JO: And how many people came to your early meetings?
HM: Early meetings…? Maybe a dozen.
JO: When did you get in touch with the HAM radio folks?
HM: You know, I’m not sure. I’m guessing about twenty years ago. Not everyone took the HAMs seriously because it’s a fun thing. Ok? It’s not a fun thing. It’s survival. Oh, another part of this, which is ancillary, is KGHP.
JO: That’s the local radio station.
HM: It’s the local radio station, 89.9, almost 90 is our code for it. That was put together by Max Byce, Milt Boyd, Stan Rippon, and Key Styles; all of whom are passed, they’re gone. Wonderful, wonderful people who understood radio. Keith and Stan were members of the Key Peninsula Lions Club. Max, I can’t remember if it was Max Byce or Milt Boyd were Kiwanians, so the service clubs were involved in putting that together. Both the Gig Harbor Lions and Key Peninsula Lions were at the front going out knocking on doors saying, “Hey! We need some money!” And we raised enough money to get it off the ground.
JO: How much, do you remember?
HM: “The figure $26,000 seems to ring a bell - but I’m not at all sure. At first, radio KGHP was on about eight hours a day, roughly. Until the 26 December, 1996, when we had that horrendous ice storm which cut everything off. That’s when KGHP went twenty-four hours, twenty-four seven. It was our emergency radio. KIRO Radio is or was in those days, the emergency radio for the whole Puget Sound area. They’re located in Seattle. There isn’t a chance at all of KIRO Radio knowing that the Key Peninsula and the Gig Harbor Peninsula are in trouble. They’re going to be very lucky if they are still standing or if their antennas are still standing.
[Jane, The following is one of the things I knew I’d kick myself for not remembering to bring up during our interview:
“As part of our activities with PEP-C, many of us held neighborhood sessions in which we invited those living near us to attend briefings on how to be prepared. These were close and personal. With the help of a couple other PEP-C members like Joanne who’d bring lots of props and demo material to drive home the message of Be Prepared, Janice and I held at least three such sessions in our home over several months. When the 26 December, 1996, ice storm which cut everything off clobbered our area, our home became the place most of our neighbors came for hot food, showers, warm room, etc. because NONE of them were prepared. ALL of them are now prepared."
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JO: I’m going to stop this now because we’re at the end of the tape.
Side II
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JO: A little leader in there. OK. This is the second side. We’re interviewing Hugh McMillan on his experiences with emergency preparation. We’re getting down to local radio stations and building the Pep-C organization.
HM: Anyway, 26th December, one-nine-nine-six, we went twenty-four hours. I say we, I am no part of KGHP except being on the periphery and working whatever I can to make it happen; collecting money, getting people excited about it. It is our voice. During the, I think about nineteen days we were without power in some areas of that post-Christmas Day horror, it was KGHP that would tell us, “Do not go down such-and-such a road; it’s hot.” What do you mean by “hot road?” I mean it’s got live wires lying on the ground sparking. You go near them and you’re dead.
JO: And that was very helpful.
HM: Oh, yeah.
JO: Of course, people had to have battery operated radios, that’s another thing everyone needs.
HM: Yeah. That’s one thing we try to point out to people. I think I have in my car a wind-up radio, with a flash light. I don’t remember where I got it. I have three of them, two don’t work. I’m going to take them to the battery place and see if I can get them up.
JO: Just to retract a little, when did you guys start thinking about, let’s see, who I have. Dave Watson, Artondale Elementary School principal, and you think about twenty-five years ago is when you guys got started.
HM: I’m guessing. It might have been thirty years ago. See I keep forgetting that I’ve been retired for forty years. Can’t believe it! I’m not that old!
Chuckles.
JO: So what was the reception? Did people cooperate? Were they interested? Or did they just not want to hear?
HM: They were almost universally very interested. Don Lee and Joanne Gray and Dave Watson - and I would be there mainly with the camera so everybody knew what we were up to. We went into churches, we went into schools, we had props to go with it and handouts. We were infantile. We really didn’t know a whole bunch about how to make this thing happen. But we were determined it was going to happen. It was the determination of the core group that made us what we are today.
Let me tell you about Curt (Scott) while it’s on my mind. Curt and I have been friends for years. His wife, Patricia, was principal at the Peninsula High School. I remember one time she called, and said, “You’re the president of Citizens Against Crime?” I said, “Yes.” She said, “I need your help. In the park and ride near the high school, they’re passing drugs. So we put our people in the cars that had a little sign on it that said, “Citizen’s Patrol” and the drug passing terminated. It just took one week. Anyway, that goes way, way back.
Curt and I became friends. Curt was teaching aviation at Green River College. He’s a superb pilot by the way, and a retired Air Force Light Colonel, 130 pilot. This was about four years ago, roughly, maybe only three years ago. For some reason, I started talking about Pep-C to Curt. He may have said, “Let’s do so-and-so” and I probably said, “No, I have to go to Pep-C” and he said, “What’s that?” I explained to him what Pep-C is and that we are getting our population ready to handle themselves in the big one. He said, “I bet your people don’t know the importance of small airports. Do you?” I said, “No, but you’re going to be our speaker. OK?” He said, “Sure, I’ll be happy to.” He’s a teacher so he knows how to speak and he does it very well. So I had him come to our meeting and Dave or Don, I don’t know who was president at the time, had me introduce him and Curt gave a performance on the importance of small airports. He caught our attention and four months later he became our president or chair or whatever we call them. He’s been very effective getting us more in motion. But right now, I want to see us back in the churches.
JO: I was going to ask you about that. What was the response of them, for example, LDS people? Mormon people are pretty good on this stuff aren’t they?
HM: They are way ahead of everybody. They have supplies on hand; they have orientation groups. They take care of themselves, and I think they would probably help people who are not Mormons. They are well organized.
JO: Were they able to give you suggestions? Ideas?
HM: Yes, we’ve had them…I think some of them are members of Pep-C, probably in an advisory capacity.
JO: I noticed when I joined Pep-C there were about four pages that listed all sorts of organizations from Pen Light to individuals who represented various clubs many churches…so when your information goes out, does it go out to all those people? And who compiled all that list?
HM: I wish I could tell you, but I really don’t know.
JO: Somebody did a lot of work to do that!
HM: Oh, you bet your life.
JO: How often did you guys meet?
HM: We were meeting at least once a month, and we’re still doing that. And, we have added programs. Our biggie has been for some years the Emergency Preparedness Fair which initially we held at Chapel Hill Church of which Don is a member that’s why we were able to use it; very helpful. They have huge parking lots. And then, somehow, we moved into Gig Harbor High School; I can’t remember what put us there. Curt would have a better handle on that. That’s where the last two were held, maybe the last three.
JO: Do you get support from the local police and firemen?
HM: Oh, yeah! Absolutely. We love them and they love us.
JO: They encourage your efforts?
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HM: Well, we meet as you know at the Gig Harbor Fire Department headquarters, and, once a year, we have a meeting at the headquarters of the Key Peninsula Fire Department. But the Gig Harbor Fire Department has a whole lot more money than the Key Peninsula and a bigger facility. But we want to think of us as ‘family,’ not as the Key, not as Gig Harbor, not as “5,” not as “16,” but as family. The fire people have, for years, been family, because we have mutual aid agreements. Key Peninsula has mutual aid agreements with Gig Harbor, with Port Orchard's Kitsap 7. We also have a relationship with Mason 5 which is the Allyn fire department. We support one another. If we have a need for manpower or equipment, the call goes out and they’re here for us. We’re here for them and they’re here for us. It’s just wonderful.
JO: How do you feel it’s going with the community? Do you feel people listen? Do you feel people are setting up their households and neighborhoods? Or, is that a struggle?
HM: It’s a struggle, but it’s happening. Very slowly. Curt arranged to have TV Station Five (KING) come out here. We had a long interview at the Home Port restaurant in Home. Curt, myself, and a photographer, and two reporters from KING. After we had a discussion, we went out in the field and KING made videos of several bridges, the Home Bridge was one, the Purdy Bridge and the Fox Island Bridge, with a pretty heavy duty explanation of the fact that these bridges will be out. If we have a quake anywhere near eight, it’ll take them. We took the KING team around to different areas where the road is not going to exist. It’ll be in the sea or in the valley; not something to drive on. We try so desperately to impress upon people that they’ve got to be able to take care of themselves for a minimum of three days, and, in our case, it’s three weeks; three days for people in Tacoma where they have access to all kinds of stuff. Three weeks for us because we are going to become an island, both of our peninsulas. One of the things we did with KING was go out to Fox Island which is way ahead of any other community in preparation. They have radio, they have a supply system, they have a communications system where there isn’t any radio or telephone with people whether they’re on bicycles or horseback. They’re well organized. They don’t think so, we look upon them as the paragon of all virtues and they don’t think they’re ready. They’re much bettrer prepared than anyone else.
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JO: Now Loa Anderson lives out there. She does a lot of teaching on food storage and preparation. Have you met Loa?
HM: I have not.
JO: OK. She had weekly articles in one of the local newspapers for some time.
HM: That would be the Gateway newspaper, or the Gig Harbor Life paper, and it’s gone.
JO: Yes. She used to publish articles every weekend with stories on preparation.
HM: I never got that paper. It was always circulated in Gig Harbor proper. I saw two or three copies. It was a good paper. Rick Halleck was the editor and I hope he’s not still looking for a job. He was my editor at the Peninsula Gateway at one time.
JO: Oh, Cascadia Rising was held in 2016. What were your feelings about Cascadia Rising? Remember, they had this…I remember because it was held shortly after I moved here. They had all the military, police, sheriffs, radio people, for a whole day acting as if there was this catastrophe happening. They were practicing for it and they called it “Cascadia Rising.”
HM: Oh, yeah! I forgot about that! I don’t think it touched a whole bunch of us. Not that it wasn’t a wonderful thing, particularly that it involved the military, I don’t think it was well enough published because I had trouble remembering it when you mentioned it; which means I probably was not involved. That probably means I was out of the country because this is something I don’t talk about.
JO: How do you feel about your life efforts with the community? Meaning you guys with Pep-C.
HM: I think we have done as good a job as is possible to do in these times with the assets we have. And with the ingrained attitude of some people, “There is nothing I can do.” That’s something we have to work on, and we’re pretty dedicated to that. That’s what we’ve been dedicated to for as long as I’ve been around.
JO: Do you also get the impression that people don’t even want to hear about it?
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HM: Some people…and we won’t use this…but the recorder will pick it up anyway. I was on the board of the Washington Fire Commissioners Association until 1996 and I was talking about a quake and our need as Washington Fire commissioners to get the word out that we better be prepared to handle it or to at least get our populations ready to handle it. The guy who was the secretary…. said, “Hugh, if we have a quake of 8.5 and above, just grab your ass and say goodbye to it.” That was his answer to being prepared for a quake. This is at the top level of the Washington Fire Commissioners Association.
JO: So people are skeptical about it; but I have heard, particularly here on the peninsula, most of our homes are wood, stick houses, so they won’t have the same problem as the multistory buildings, concrete buildings will have. So, in that sense, we are better off. But our doors may be jammed, our windows scewed.
HM: That’s correctable. But when a building is down because it’s made of mortar and brick, that’s not correctable. You have to start from scratch.
JO: Is there anything else you think we should touch on?
HM: I don’t really…off of the top of my head, Jane. But I’m sure as I’m driving home I’m going to say, “Why didn’t you tell Jane about ….!”
JO: Well, we have a little tape left and we now know how to use the machine. We can always do it again. I can haul the machine out after a meeting and we can …
HM: Huge step forward!
JO: And we did this! I’m going to sign us off now.
HM: Are you going to talk to Curt and Don and Dave?
JO: Yes. All four of you if I can. Dave is next on my list because Don’s been out of town.
HM: Dave’s probably at Black Diamond.
JO: I don’t know where that is.
HM: It’s a coal mining town on a lake, and he and Sue have had a house there for summers for years. I think they have moved there permanently. He’s a loss. He, more than anyone else, was the glue that put this thing together. I like to think that I helped him, but he is one that got it on. And, stepping right in behind him, Don. They are both Fire District 5 people.
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JO: Well, I’m planning to interview Don and Dave, I just have to get to them and have this machine working.
HM: Yes. That’s helpful. I’m trying to think of some of the people prior to them. Oh, God, yes. Is it 4:30 PM? At five o’clock, I’ve got to shoot kids at Vaughn Elementary.
JO: We’ll stop right now. Thank you, Hugh, for sharing your stories. Have you given me permission to put this on the website if I can condense this and make a little history if you like?
HM: You can do anything you like with it.
JO: You have to sign the release.
HM: I’ll sign it if you want.
JO: We’re doing paper work now. I’ll turn this off.
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JO: When KING was here…
HM: One of the things we did, Curt as you know, has his own four seat airplane, pilot and three. When we got to Fox Island and gave people a chance to get photographs with their various equipment, etc. We went to the airport. KING Video photographer, the reporter and I got in Curt’s plane and we flew all over this area. “That’s the bridge we were talking about. That will not exist. That whole hillside will not exist. It will be in Puget Sound.” The roads will be gone. We did this with KING and KING put it on their broadcast that night and it was fabulous. I don’t know if we have a copy of the KING broadcast. We should. Maybe Curt has. Curt’s the one to ask on that one.
JO: OK. We should gather things like that together. It’s a shame to let it get lost.
HM: I don’t know why, but all the organizations I belong to, and there’s a bzillion of them, nobody has made an effort to have a scrapbook history. I don’t know why. Citizens Against Crime; there’s nothing. There was, but it’s gone. All of them, and it’s a damn shame because a lot of people put a lot of themselves into these things to make them happen.
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JO: Maybe they don’t feel their lives are important. They’re out here in the boondocks and what does it matter.
HM: Look at what I do. There’s nothing important in that until you have this happen. I’m at a Christmas party. I see this really quite handsome fellow and he’s with a lady I happen to serve on another board with; that’s the Peninsula Schools Education Foundation. I think, “Maybe he’s her husband” because she and I get along famously. So I walked up to him and I said, “Have we met?” He said, “Well, sort of.” He’s a forty-two-year-old command pilot with United Air Lines on a 747. “You took my picture and put my story in the paper when I was a freshman at Peninsula High School”. That’s what keeps me breathing.
JO: OK. What we need to do is have you sign this consent and have you do what you need to do. Thank you so much, Hugh. The End – 324
POSTSCRIPT: On March 30, 2019 Hugh McMillan received a Plaque of Thanks recognizing his good deeds from a grateful community. It was presented at the Lions Club Banquet which was held at the Key Peninsula Civic Center. The award was commemorated with a bronze plaque at an installation ceremony held on June 11, 2019. The plaque lists many of McMillan’s accomplishments as well as his decades of service to the community. It has been placed on a post in front of the Key Center Fire Station. Frank Brubaugh, Chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners, notes that Sheila Niven and Stan Moffett spearheaded this tribute to McMillan, and that members of the community joined with local firefighters to make this award and plaque possible.
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JO: Introduction: January 31st, 2019. interview of Hugh McMillan by Jane Olive at her home, 3801 75th Ave Ct NW; Gig Harbor, WA 98335. Interview is conducted for information on Hugh’s life and on the origins of the Peninsula Emergency Preparedness-Coalition (PEP-C).
HM: I was born 17 June, 1926 in New West Minister, BC, Canada.
JO: And you were married?
HM: Not when I was born, I wasn’t married.
JO: Your wife’s name?
HM: My wife’s name is Janice and we have been together, married, for 66 years. This is after she chased me around the campus for two years before that. You believe that, don’t you?
JO: Oh, she hog-tide you to get you to marry her! Tough woman!
HM: I almost didn’t marry her because I knew I was going into the caldron of power, Washington, D.C., and I kind of figured the marriage would last maybe six months when somebody from Vogue magazine would spot her and say, “I don’t care what your husband is making, we’ll pay you five times as much to be a cover girl on Vogue. She was striking. Still is.
JO: And you have two kids:
HM: Lance was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1956, 8th of October at the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital. Same day I went into the US Navy, many years prior to that. And Marshall was born on the 28th of November, 1959. They were both born in Tokyo.
A Little vignette on that. You can erase it if you want. I came home from Langley, that’s headquarters for the CIA. Jan met me at the door and said, “Wait until you hear this one.” I said, “What’s up?” Janice said, "I answered the phone.” A woman said, “Mrs. McMillan, I am (whatever her name was. I don’t remember) Marshall’s third grade teacher and this is very difficult for me because I am his teacher and feel responsible as his third grade teacher to let his parents know that Marshall is having some serious troubles.” "Really, like what?” “Well, he’s either hallucinating or he’s fabricating, or he’s lying.” “Explain that, would you?” “Well, we were talking about the Far East and Marshall said, ‘My brother and I were born in Tokyo, Japan.’” “Yes.?” “That doesn’t trouble you?” “No.” "Sometime later we were talking about India and he said, ‘That’s where my Dad rented an elephant and we went on a tiger shoot.’ Are you there, Mrs. McMillan?” “Yes, I’m listening.” “And a little while later we were talking about the Middle East and he said, ‘That’s where my brother and I walked around the Great Pyramid at Giza.’ Doesn’t this trouble you, Mrs. McMillan?” “No, because this is the life we led!” And I couldn’t believe that a teacher in the Washington, DC, area hadn’t been confronted with this sort of thing because it’s full of people with similar lives.
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JO: Hugh, could you briefly tell us about your occupations? What were your major occupations, like CIA?
HM: My major occupation was as an Operations Officer with the CIA, but I had all kinds of other jobs. My dad died when I had just turned fifteen, and this was the Depression time. This was 1940-41. I got my first paying job for the princely salary of thirty-seven and a half cents an hour as a box-out boy for Safeway. I was with the CIA just short of twenty-seven years. Then I retired and got involved with everything in the community.
JO: That’s what I would like you to speak to. I’ve seen you taking photographs at Altrusa, taking photographs for PEP-C. You were with the Gateway?
HM: "I was with the Key Peninsula News and with the Gateway. Right now, I’m not really with the Key Peninsula News anymore because they have a new policy that says if I put it in the Gateway I can’t put it in the Key Peninsula news; which I think is unfortunate because I do a lot of stuff that pertains only to the Key and people will never read it. The Key Peninsula News is free. It goes out to every household on the Key Peninsula. Which is wonderful, but it comes out twelve times a year and I think the stories that I put out need to be read, should be read 52 times a year, and not by one audience but by two audiences. And that’s why I stick with the Gateway.
When we first moved here, I often heard, 'Oh, you’re one of those 8-8-4 people.' I didn’t understand what they meant. It was practically a condemnation; you know, you’re from the lower class. And I thought, this is not good. We are one community. OK? We have different villages within our one community and each village has a right to its own identity. But we better respond to the planet as one community. So, I worked pretty hard bringing our communities together, and I think I’ve had a bit of an impact, because I don’t hear, 'You’re an 8-8-4 person' anymore."
JO: What does that mean?
HM: “It’s the telephone number for most of the 253-884 area or whatever and the comment was derogatory. It isn’t heard anymore."
JO: How many years have you been working for the Gateway and this other newspaper?
HM: Oddly enough, well, let’s go back a bit. I retired in 1978 and we moved into the house we’re now in (which I tore apart and redid) on the second of July, 1978. On the 9th of April, 1979, we lost Marshall. That made me a very angry person … you wouldn’t want to be around me. I was not a nice guy because Marshall and I were quite close; not that I’m not close to Lance, we’re a tight family.
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"Somehow, in 1980, bless the fire department, the Key Peninsula Fire Department, in that year, was almost totally volunteer. We had a paid chief and a paid mechanic and that was it. They wanted me to become a fire-fighter. I thought, This is ridiculous. But, I joined the fire department as a volunteer fire-fighter with a bunch of what I mistakenly believed to be country people whose identity was to chase around after a big, red wagon. I didn’t think it’s going to last very long, so I signed up in May of 1980 as a fire-fighter. I had had fire-fighting experience prior to that because, before I went into the agency (CIA) waiting for my clearance, I had a job at Mt. Rainier Ordinance Depot as a fulltime fire-fighter. I thought, 'What a deal this is! Twenty-four on and twenty-four off! The twenty-four off you’re in bed, exhausted. But I had the experience. I really like fire-fighters and what they do. Not too long after joining KPFD I became president of its Firefighters' association. Then, they put the screws to me and said, “You have to run for Fire Commissioner and, I’m fighting it. Long story short, I became a fire commissioner. And then I became Vice-President of the Pierce County Fire Commissioners, and then I was elected to the Washington Fire Commissioners Association Board of Directors and served on that for four of my fourteen years as a fire commissioner before retiring.
"All of that exposed me to things that are emergencies. I was dealing with Bill Lokey who in those days was Chief of the Pierce County Emergency Preparedness (PC-Net), but it had a different name. Bill was brilliant. He took a job later that paid him three/four times what he was making here. It was back in Minnesota or something. He had a wonderful saying, “You have your choice, you mitigate now or you litigate later.” That pertains to just about anything and everything. It pertains to our school district right now. We better pass that bond. This is a digression, but an important one … did you vote?”
JO: Not yet, I have it open.
HM: I’m not going to say another word!
JO: So this work in emergency preparation, did it start when you worked with Bill?
HM: I can’t remember how I fell in with him. I know that early on, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department – Peninsula Detachment - had an office in Pierce County Fire Protection District 5, which is the Gig Harbor Fire Department, in their Kimball Drive station. That was the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department representation here; a sergeant in charge and two deputies for 114 square miles and 78,000 people. That was unacceptable. I stuck my nose in here and there and the next place, and, in addition to scores of Sheriff’s Deputies, became acquainted with all the Pierce County Sheriffs, the current one being Paul Pastor who by the way has a doctorate. Paul is just a brilliant guy, wonderful person, very human. He’s the guy who was chief of operations and was behind us in creating Citizen’s Against Crime on the Key, and that’s a whole other story. It’s a part of the whole thing, of just getting into fire, law enforcement, the whole shmeer of community protection.
We lived in Japan. That’s a quake zone. I was astonished after being in Japan just short of six years, Janice and I were on the fantail of the President Cleveland on our way home; it was one of those rare days when you could see Mt. Fuji clear as a bell. We stood and watched her fade in the horizon, and as soon as she went out of sight, I felt the whole world’s weight lifted off my back. I didn’t realize it, but for six years I’d been worrying about what the Japanese say, “’Jishin’ is coming; the big quake is coming.” We lived through several quakes in Tokyo, not bad ones, but enough to give you a little sense of what’s coming.
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JO: So that made you very aware of the dangers of earthquake events.
HM: Oh, yeah. What a quake can do. Some of the things that I’ve learned…for example, the San Francisco quake creamed the city, but what really took the city out were the fires after. And where did the fires come from? Candles. Unattended candles. That’s one of my holy points. Anybody who stands still for more than twenty minutes is going to hear me tell them, “Never leave a room with a lit candle. Just don’t do it, or kiss your house goodbye.” And that’s the same thing that happened in Tokyo. It burned Tokyo to the ground. Candles.
JO: Well, moving on, we have Bill Lokey and Paul Pastor.
HM: Paul came into the scene much later. The first one on the scene was Sgt. Bill Seeward. Wonderful guy. Viet Nam vet. Tough as nails. Smart as a whip. He was very concerned about the welfare of the people on this side of the Narrows.
Oh, a little secret, I’m also one of the very few people permitted into the Washington Correction Center for Women with a camera in hand. I’ve done several stories on that. I don’t think that very many people understand that the WCCW is the second largest employer this side of the Narrows in Pierce County. It’s a huge operation. It feeds a lot of people. Part of it is because of the stupid marijuana laws; a lot of those women are in there for no crime; they had marijuana, and it’s just terrible. I’ve done a number of articles on women in there. This is digressing, but I’m going to digress anyway.
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With the women, I was surprised…I’d come in with a camera and I’d look at them and say, “Is it OK and they’d say, “Certainly.” So I’d take pictures of them doing something. Horticulture, working with the Prison Pet Partnership Program, working with pottery, working with ‘you name it.’ It’s not a punitive institution. It is a correctional institution. It takes women who know they are no good, who know they are losers, and turns them into people who realize, “I made a mistake, but I’m a human being and I’m going to correct it.”
One of my ways with journalism is to submit to the person I’m interviewing. They do all the work and I get all the credit. But nobody ever calls and says, “McMillan, you misinterpreted me,” or “You misquoted me.” “No, I don’t think so. Is this your email? Show me where I misquoted you.” So that’s what I do. I have people write. I’ve had a number of women in the prison write whatever it was that they were doing. This is what we were doing over a period of years beginning in 1984. And that’s a whole other story. At least a dozen women who have submitted a four-and-a-half-page copy to me said, “This prison saved my life.” That’s pretty heavy stuff.
JO: Have you kept any of those articles?
HM: Oh, I’m sure I have. I’ve got them.
JO: Moving on, we’ve talked about your work with the fire department, the police, the prison, the Gateway and the newspaper on the Key, anything else you want to add about your career and community activities; and then we’ll go into how PEP-C got organized.
HM: OK. In 1983 we formed the Key Peninsula Lions Club. Janice and I were in the restaurant when I heard all this roar and laughter behind the wall and I wondered what was going on. The door burst open and a whole bunch of males came out of the room. I grabbed a couple of them and said, “What’s going on?” “We’re forming a club.” “What club?” “A Lions Club.” “What’s that? Would I be interested? Should I participate?” “Oh, yeah, maybe.” I had to recruit myself to my own Lions Club. But I’m a charter member and we formed with forty-eight members in 1983. We had our installation on the 18th of August of 1983. We had forty-eight members, that’s a big charter. Two years later, we were up to sixty-four members. Today, we are down to twenty members of whom maybe a dozen are active. This is happening to all kinds of service organizations. People just aren’t volunteering. I don’t know if it’s because families need two incomes or what. But it’s very difficult.
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Part of my job with the CIA was to recruit people, to tell our government what their government was up to. And I’m not going to be modest; I was pretty good at my trade. I can’t speak about that, but I can say that I have a pin with a diamond in it from Lions International for recruiting a minimum of seventy-five new Lions who have spent at least a year and a day as active Lions.
I have people say, “How do you do it, Hugh?” And I say, “It’s really simple! Two words: Ask ‘em.” If you don’t ask them don’t expect them to ask you to let them. It’s not going to happen. I’ve recruited people who dialed me a wrong number and I got a wrong number once and recruited a guy over the phone. He said, “I don’t think the Lions would have me.” I said, “Why?” “I’m blind.” “You mean you’re sight impaired?” “No. I’m blind.” “Who told you the Lions wouldn’t have you?” “Oh, would they?” “Yeah, I’m recruiting you right now. I’ll pick you up.” He became our ‘tail-twister.’ He was a very active Lion. Don’t stand still long because I’m going to put a Lions pin on you. I’ve actually recruited a Lion for the Mazatlán, Mexico, Lions. Somebody made the mistake of sitting beside me on an airplane flying back from Mexico and he became a member of the Olympia Central Lions Club.
JO: Anything else you want to mention?
HM: I’m involved in lots of things.
JO: Well, your writing, journalism, and photography work takes you all over. But I want to get back to Pep-C. Who else worked with you when you guys started Pep-C?
HM: Well, the first guy was Dave Watson. Dave was the principle of Artondale Elementary. Dave got it into his head that the schools are going to be in real big trouble when we have a calamity, like an earthquake or whatever.
JO: When was this? Do you recall about what time was this?
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HM: Oh, God! It would have to be at least twenty-five years ago. At least. But Dave then went to the Board and the Board said, “Sure.” So he made sure that every single one of our fifteen schools was equipped with food and water to take care of the kids for three days. He was way ahead of the curve. I’m sorry that he’s stepped out, but Dave and I go way back.
And then, Don Lee came on the scene, and Don is just solid gold. Don, and we had a lady, Joanne Gray, she was our secretary and part of our team that went into churches, schools, whatever, to tell people to get ready. We didn’t come up with the term, “YOYO” until recently. That’s about two years, maybe three or four years old.
Where did Curt Scott come from?
JO: Let me turn the page.
HM: Curt is our president.
JO: Yes. Now Don was president before?
HM: Don was president and a good one, Dave Watson was president. I have never held an office because I just don’t have that much time. But I’m there, and I try to keep our image before people and let them know there is a way to save your life and your family’s life no matter what the nature of the calamity might be. Talk to us. I’ve tried to keep our name in front of the public as much as I could because I think it is so important. Lots of people are going to die if they don’t pay attention.
JO: Who else was involved? There was another woman who was secretary for a while. I don’t know her name. I do understand that Joanne Gray has passed away?
HM: She’s gone.
JO: How long was she active? Do you remember?
HM: Oh, I’m only guessing. I’d say about ten years.
JO: And how many people came to your early meetings?
HM: Early meetings…? Maybe a dozen.
JO: When did you get in touch with the HAM radio folks?
HM: You know, I’m not sure. I’m guessing about twenty years ago. Not everyone took the HAMs seriously because it’s a fun thing. Ok? It’s not a fun thing. It’s survival. Oh, another part of this, which is ancillary, is KGHP.
JO: That’s the local radio station.
HM: It’s the local radio station, 89.9, almost 90 is our code for it. That was put together by Max Byce, Milt Boyd, Stan Rippon, and Key Styles; all of whom are passed, they’re gone. Wonderful, wonderful people who understood radio. Keith and Stan were members of the Key Peninsula Lions Club. Max, I can’t remember if it was Max Byce or Milt Boyd were Kiwanians, so the service clubs were involved in putting that together. Both the Gig Harbor Lions and Key Peninsula Lions were at the front going out knocking on doors saying, “Hey! We need some money!” And we raised enough money to get it off the ground.
JO: How much, do you remember?
HM: “The figure $26,000 seems to ring a bell - but I’m not at all sure. At first, radio KGHP was on about eight hours a day, roughly. Until the 26 December, 1996, when we had that horrendous ice storm which cut everything off. That’s when KGHP went twenty-four hours, twenty-four seven. It was our emergency radio. KIRO Radio is or was in those days, the emergency radio for the whole Puget Sound area. They’re located in Seattle. There isn’t a chance at all of KIRO Radio knowing that the Key Peninsula and the Gig Harbor Peninsula are in trouble. They’re going to be very lucky if they are still standing or if their antennas are still standing.
[Jane, The following is one of the things I knew I’d kick myself for not remembering to bring up during our interview:
“As part of our activities with PEP-C, many of us held neighborhood sessions in which we invited those living near us to attend briefings on how to be prepared. These were close and personal. With the help of a couple other PEP-C members like Joanne who’d bring lots of props and demo material to drive home the message of Be Prepared, Janice and I held at least three such sessions in our home over several months. When the 26 December, 1996, ice storm which cut everything off clobbered our area, our home became the place most of our neighbors came for hot food, showers, warm room, etc. because NONE of them were prepared. ALL of them are now prepared."
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JO: I’m going to stop this now because we’re at the end of the tape.
Side II
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JO: A little leader in there. OK. This is the second side. We’re interviewing Hugh McMillan on his experiences with emergency preparation. We’re getting down to local radio stations and building the Pep-C organization.
HM: Anyway, 26th December, one-nine-nine-six, we went twenty-four hours. I say we, I am no part of KGHP except being on the periphery and working whatever I can to make it happen; collecting money, getting people excited about it. It is our voice. During the, I think about nineteen days we were without power in some areas of that post-Christmas Day horror, it was KGHP that would tell us, “Do not go down such-and-such a road; it’s hot.” What do you mean by “hot road?” I mean it’s got live wires lying on the ground sparking. You go near them and you’re dead.
JO: And that was very helpful.
HM: Oh, yeah.
JO: Of course, people had to have battery operated radios, that’s another thing everyone needs.
HM: Yeah. That’s one thing we try to point out to people. I think I have in my car a wind-up radio, with a flash light. I don’t remember where I got it. I have three of them, two don’t work. I’m going to take them to the battery place and see if I can get them up.
JO: Just to retract a little, when did you guys start thinking about, let’s see, who I have. Dave Watson, Artondale Elementary School principal, and you think about twenty-five years ago is when you guys got started.
HM: I’m guessing. It might have been thirty years ago. See I keep forgetting that I’ve been retired for forty years. Can’t believe it! I’m not that old!
Chuckles.
JO: So what was the reception? Did people cooperate? Were they interested? Or did they just not want to hear?
HM: They were almost universally very interested. Don Lee and Joanne Gray and Dave Watson - and I would be there mainly with the camera so everybody knew what we were up to. We went into churches, we went into schools, we had props to go with it and handouts. We were infantile. We really didn’t know a whole bunch about how to make this thing happen. But we were determined it was going to happen. It was the determination of the core group that made us what we are today.
Let me tell you about Curt (Scott) while it’s on my mind. Curt and I have been friends for years. His wife, Patricia, was principal at the Peninsula High School. I remember one time she called, and said, “You’re the president of Citizens Against Crime?” I said, “Yes.” She said, “I need your help. In the park and ride near the high school, they’re passing drugs. So we put our people in the cars that had a little sign on it that said, “Citizen’s Patrol” and the drug passing terminated. It just took one week. Anyway, that goes way, way back.
Curt and I became friends. Curt was teaching aviation at Green River College. He’s a superb pilot by the way, and a retired Air Force Light Colonel, 130 pilot. This was about four years ago, roughly, maybe only three years ago. For some reason, I started talking about Pep-C to Curt. He may have said, “Let’s do so-and-so” and I probably said, “No, I have to go to Pep-C” and he said, “What’s that?” I explained to him what Pep-C is and that we are getting our population ready to handle themselves in the big one. He said, “I bet your people don’t know the importance of small airports. Do you?” I said, “No, but you’re going to be our speaker. OK?” He said, “Sure, I’ll be happy to.” He’s a teacher so he knows how to speak and he does it very well. So I had him come to our meeting and Dave or Don, I don’t know who was president at the time, had me introduce him and Curt gave a performance on the importance of small airports. He caught our attention and four months later he became our president or chair or whatever we call them. He’s been very effective getting us more in motion. But right now, I want to see us back in the churches.
JO: I was going to ask you about that. What was the response of them, for example, LDS people? Mormon people are pretty good on this stuff aren’t they?
HM: They are way ahead of everybody. They have supplies on hand; they have orientation groups. They take care of themselves, and I think they would probably help people who are not Mormons. They are well organized.
JO: Were they able to give you suggestions? Ideas?
HM: Yes, we’ve had them…I think some of them are members of Pep-C, probably in an advisory capacity.
JO: I noticed when I joined Pep-C there were about four pages that listed all sorts of organizations from Pen Light to individuals who represented various clubs many churches…so when your information goes out, does it go out to all those people? And who compiled all that list?
HM: I wish I could tell you, but I really don’t know.
JO: Somebody did a lot of work to do that!
HM: Oh, you bet your life.
JO: How often did you guys meet?
HM: We were meeting at least once a month, and we’re still doing that. And, we have added programs. Our biggie has been for some years the Emergency Preparedness Fair which initially we held at Chapel Hill Church of which Don is a member that’s why we were able to use it; very helpful. They have huge parking lots. And then, somehow, we moved into Gig Harbor High School; I can’t remember what put us there. Curt would have a better handle on that. That’s where the last two were held, maybe the last three.
JO: Do you get support from the local police and firemen?
HM: Oh, yeah! Absolutely. We love them and they love us.
JO: They encourage your efforts?
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HM: Well, we meet as you know at the Gig Harbor Fire Department headquarters, and, once a year, we have a meeting at the headquarters of the Key Peninsula Fire Department. But the Gig Harbor Fire Department has a whole lot more money than the Key Peninsula and a bigger facility. But we want to think of us as ‘family,’ not as the Key, not as Gig Harbor, not as “5,” not as “16,” but as family. The fire people have, for years, been family, because we have mutual aid agreements. Key Peninsula has mutual aid agreements with Gig Harbor, with Port Orchard's Kitsap 7. We also have a relationship with Mason 5 which is the Allyn fire department. We support one another. If we have a need for manpower or equipment, the call goes out and they’re here for us. We’re here for them and they’re here for us. It’s just wonderful.
JO: How do you feel it’s going with the community? Do you feel people listen? Do you feel people are setting up their households and neighborhoods? Or, is that a struggle?
HM: It’s a struggle, but it’s happening. Very slowly. Curt arranged to have TV Station Five (KING) come out here. We had a long interview at the Home Port restaurant in Home. Curt, myself, and a photographer, and two reporters from KING. After we had a discussion, we went out in the field and KING made videos of several bridges, the Home Bridge was one, the Purdy Bridge and the Fox Island Bridge, with a pretty heavy duty explanation of the fact that these bridges will be out. If we have a quake anywhere near eight, it’ll take them. We took the KING team around to different areas where the road is not going to exist. It’ll be in the sea or in the valley; not something to drive on. We try so desperately to impress upon people that they’ve got to be able to take care of themselves for a minimum of three days, and, in our case, it’s three weeks; three days for people in Tacoma where they have access to all kinds of stuff. Three weeks for us because we are going to become an island, both of our peninsulas. One of the things we did with KING was go out to Fox Island which is way ahead of any other community in preparation. They have radio, they have a supply system, they have a communications system where there isn’t any radio or telephone with people whether they’re on bicycles or horseback. They’re well organized. They don’t think so, we look upon them as the paragon of all virtues and they don’t think they’re ready. They’re much bettrer prepared than anyone else.
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JO: Now Loa Anderson lives out there. She does a lot of teaching on food storage and preparation. Have you met Loa?
HM: I have not.
JO: OK. She had weekly articles in one of the local newspapers for some time.
HM: That would be the Gateway newspaper, or the Gig Harbor Life paper, and it’s gone.
JO: Yes. She used to publish articles every weekend with stories on preparation.
HM: I never got that paper. It was always circulated in Gig Harbor proper. I saw two or three copies. It was a good paper. Rick Halleck was the editor and I hope he’s not still looking for a job. He was my editor at the Peninsula Gateway at one time.
JO: Oh, Cascadia Rising was held in 2016. What were your feelings about Cascadia Rising? Remember, they had this…I remember because it was held shortly after I moved here. They had all the military, police, sheriffs, radio people, for a whole day acting as if there was this catastrophe happening. They were practicing for it and they called it “Cascadia Rising.”
HM: Oh, yeah! I forgot about that! I don’t think it touched a whole bunch of us. Not that it wasn’t a wonderful thing, particularly that it involved the military, I don’t think it was well enough published because I had trouble remembering it when you mentioned it; which means I probably was not involved. That probably means I was out of the country because this is something I don’t talk about.
JO: How do you feel about your life efforts with the community? Meaning you guys with Pep-C.
HM: I think we have done as good a job as is possible to do in these times with the assets we have. And with the ingrained attitude of some people, “There is nothing I can do.” That’s something we have to work on, and we’re pretty dedicated to that. That’s what we’ve been dedicated to for as long as I’ve been around.
JO: Do you also get the impression that people don’t even want to hear about it?
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HM: Some people…and we won’t use this…but the recorder will pick it up anyway. I was on the board of the Washington Fire Commissioners Association until 1996 and I was talking about a quake and our need as Washington Fire commissioners to get the word out that we better be prepared to handle it or to at least get our populations ready to handle it. The guy who was the secretary…. said, “Hugh, if we have a quake of 8.5 and above, just grab your ass and say goodbye to it.” That was his answer to being prepared for a quake. This is at the top level of the Washington Fire Commissioners Association.
JO: So people are skeptical about it; but I have heard, particularly here on the peninsula, most of our homes are wood, stick houses, so they won’t have the same problem as the multistory buildings, concrete buildings will have. So, in that sense, we are better off. But our doors may be jammed, our windows scewed.
HM: That’s correctable. But when a building is down because it’s made of mortar and brick, that’s not correctable. You have to start from scratch.
JO: Is there anything else you think we should touch on?
HM: I don’t really…off of the top of my head, Jane. But I’m sure as I’m driving home I’m going to say, “Why didn’t you tell Jane about ….!”
JO: Well, we have a little tape left and we now know how to use the machine. We can always do it again. I can haul the machine out after a meeting and we can …
HM: Huge step forward!
JO: And we did this! I’m going to sign us off now.
HM: Are you going to talk to Curt and Don and Dave?
JO: Yes. All four of you if I can. Dave is next on my list because Don’s been out of town.
HM: Dave’s probably at Black Diamond.
JO: I don’t know where that is.
HM: It’s a coal mining town on a lake, and he and Sue have had a house there for summers for years. I think they have moved there permanently. He’s a loss. He, more than anyone else, was the glue that put this thing together. I like to think that I helped him, but he is one that got it on. And, stepping right in behind him, Don. They are both Fire District 5 people.
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JO: Well, I’m planning to interview Don and Dave, I just have to get to them and have this machine working.
HM: Yes. That’s helpful. I’m trying to think of some of the people prior to them. Oh, God, yes. Is it 4:30 PM? At five o’clock, I’ve got to shoot kids at Vaughn Elementary.
JO: We’ll stop right now. Thank you, Hugh, for sharing your stories. Have you given me permission to put this on the website if I can condense this and make a little history if you like?
HM: You can do anything you like with it.
JO: You have to sign the release.
HM: I’ll sign it if you want.
JO: We’re doing paper work now. I’ll turn this off.
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JO: When KING was here…
HM: One of the things we did, Curt as you know, has his own four seat airplane, pilot and three. When we got to Fox Island and gave people a chance to get photographs with their various equipment, etc. We went to the airport. KING Video photographer, the reporter and I got in Curt’s plane and we flew all over this area. “That’s the bridge we were talking about. That will not exist. That whole hillside will not exist. It will be in Puget Sound.” The roads will be gone. We did this with KING and KING put it on their broadcast that night and it was fabulous. I don’t know if we have a copy of the KING broadcast. We should. Maybe Curt has. Curt’s the one to ask on that one.
JO: OK. We should gather things like that together. It’s a shame to let it get lost.
HM: I don’t know why, but all the organizations I belong to, and there’s a bzillion of them, nobody has made an effort to have a scrapbook history. I don’t know why. Citizens Against Crime; there’s nothing. There was, but it’s gone. All of them, and it’s a damn shame because a lot of people put a lot of themselves into these things to make them happen.
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JO: Maybe they don’t feel their lives are important. They’re out here in the boondocks and what does it matter.
HM: Look at what I do. There’s nothing important in that until you have this happen. I’m at a Christmas party. I see this really quite handsome fellow and he’s with a lady I happen to serve on another board with; that’s the Peninsula Schools Education Foundation. I think, “Maybe he’s her husband” because she and I get along famously. So I walked up to him and I said, “Have we met?” He said, “Well, sort of.” He’s a forty-two-year-old command pilot with United Air Lines on a 747. “You took my picture and put my story in the paper when I was a freshman at Peninsula High School”. That’s what keeps me breathing.
JO: OK. What we need to do is have you sign this consent and have you do what you need to do. Thank you so much, Hugh. The End – 324
POSTSCRIPT: On March 30, 2019 Hugh McMillan received a Plaque of Thanks recognizing his good deeds from a grateful community. It was presented at the Lions Club Banquet which was held at the Key Peninsula Civic Center. The award was commemorated with a bronze plaque at an installation ceremony held on June 11, 2019. The plaque lists many of McMillan’s accomplishments as well as his decades of service to the community. It has been placed on a post in front of the Key Center Fire Station. Frank Brubaugh, Chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners, notes that Sheila Niven and Stan Moffett spearheaded this tribute to McMillan, and that members of the community joined with local firefighters to make this award and plaque possible.
Hugh McMillan Award
On March 30, 2019 Hugh McMillan received a Plaque of Thanks recognizing his good deeds from a grateful community. It was presented at the Lions Club Banquet which was held at the Key Peninsula Civic Center. The award was commemorated with a bronze plaque at an installation ceremony held on June 11, 2019. The plaque lists many of McMillan’s accomplishments as well as his decades of service to the community. It has been placed on a post in front of the Key Center Fire Station. Frank Brubaugh, Chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners, notes that Sheila Niven and Stan Moffett spearheaded this tribute to McMillan, and that members of the community joined with local firefighters to make this award and plaque possible.
On March 30, 2019 Hugh McMillan received a Plaque of Thanks recognizing his good deeds from a grateful community. It was presented at the Lions Club Banquet which was held at the Key Peninsula Civic Center. The award was commemorated with a bronze plaque at an installation ceremony held on June 11, 2019. The plaque lists many of McMillan’s accomplishments as well as his decades of service to the community. It has been placed on a post in front of the Key Center Fire Station. Frank Brubaugh, Chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners, notes that Sheila Niven and Stan Moffett spearheaded this tribute to McMillan, and that members of the community joined with local firefighters to make this award and plaque possible.