Feature Story

In 1943, Max Glazner, a graduate of Breckenridge High School in San Antonio, was sure he was to be drafted into World War II. So he went to a military recruit depot with the intention of joining the Navy - or so he hoped. 

“The first guy that got a crack at you was a Marine,” said Glazner. “He said, ‘How about joining the Marines, son?’ I said, 'No, I want to join the Navy!' The recruiter replied, ‘Go on up, the Army will take you.’”

Glazner remembers that there were 250 people drafted at that location that day.

“I did my physical, and then we stood in a line. Sure enough, they wouldn't take me in the Navy,” he said. “They said, ‘We're overloaded in the Navy.’”

“I said, ‘You gotta have room for at least one!’” said Glazner.

The Navy recruiter told him that he might be able to join the Coast Guard.

“And I asked, ‘What's the Coast Guard?’” said Glazner.

Glazner was steered towards the Coast Guard recruiter, and he was accepted into the Service.  He received a ticket to St. Augustine, Fla., to attend the Coast Guard training center at the Ponce De Leon Hotel.

“I was sitting with this guy and I asked him if he knew where the Coast Guard base was at” recalls Glazner. “He said, ‘Yeah, I'm going right by it, I'll walk with ya.’ So we got off the train and walked into the hotel.”

The converted hotel was in the center of town, making Glazner and his company’s training very public.

“We marched down the streets with all the kids, and all the women and all,” he said.

After completing training in St. Augustine, Glazner was assigned to the Coast Guard Cutter Orchid, a 190-foot buoy tender that was re-purposed for war. The Orchid was one of 8 Manzanita-class buoy tenders constructed for the Lighthouse Service.

“From the training center, I could see the Orchid,” said Glazner. “It was in dry dock.”

“We were tasked with setting the buoys,” recalled Glazner. “On the fantail we had depth charges. But the skipper said, ‘If we drop one of them depth charges, we're not fast enough to get off of it.’”

After his 3-year tour on the Orchid, Glazner was assigned to a 45-foot patrol boat in New York harbor. There, Glazner was part of a 16-man crew, and they had one primary function – to keep the harbor clear for the ships bringing home U.S. troops. 

“We were making sure the boats weren't in the way,” said Glazner. “They hit this coal ship and sunk it, but it was sticking out in the way. It didn't slow the ship down; it was just their loss.” 

Glazner does recall one instance where the boat crew had to perform a search and rescue operation.

“The interesting thing was I got in a New York newspaper,” he said. “We got a call and a bunch of kids had picked up a raft, and went to sea. So our job was to go catch them and bring them back, and we did. They were having a ball. Except that when we got back to the harbor, there was everybody in New York waiting for us: all the police, all the papers, everybody. So I got in the paper for helping them.”

Glazner completed his time in the Coast Guard and was given a ticket back to San Antonio, where he attended college and became a chemist.

After 30 years of working as a chemist, Glazner retired and went to work at NASA, from which he also retired. He now volunteers at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center as a tour guide. Additionally, he and his wife, Elaine, volunteer at the Grand 1894 Opera House in Galveston as ushers.