American Years Revisited American Years Revisited

In this episode John Kelly talks to Audrey McDougall about the officers' wives club during the American Years in Dunoon.

Don was a diver at the American military base on the Holy Loch in Argyll Scotland. Don tells us about his life in Hawaii then travelling to Italy and finally settling in Scotland at the Holy Loch. His accounts of life above and below the waves paints a very clear picture of operations at the base and why so many servicemen came to choose Dunoon at home.

In this episode Gerry Pursley shares a first-hand account of active service on the Proteus at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. With no warning the Proteus left the Holy Loch and headed for the North Atlantic. The ship wasn’t quite sea ready as they left in such a hurry, this lead to all sorts of situations that you’ll hear Gerry describing in rich detail.

In this episode Kate Simpson talked with author and sailor Euan Ross of Kilmun. Euan talks about growing up on the Holy Loch and what it was like to live in the shadow of the ship.

In this episode we hear memories of the first years of the Americans being in Argyll, it features a chat with three local women Linda and Andrene, who both grew up in Dunoon itself, and Margaret grew up down the road in Innellan.Together they recall the early days of the American presence in the Holy Loch. Linda and her husband Gerry also talk about how they met for the first time. Gerry and Charlie talk about their accents and how they’ve kept a hold of them for so many years.

In this, the second introductory episode of the American Years Revisited podcast, local historian Margaret Hubbard takes us from the end of the second world war to the Americans arriving in the Holy Loch on the Cowal Peninsula in Argyll, from 1945 to 61.