Art Remembers J.N. "Tiny"Boyce
Art Remembers J.N. "Tiny"Boyce
The following informationwas passed along to our family from a long time friend of JohnNathan "Tiny" Boyce,
Art Hull of Portland Oregon, in March of 2001, and Janury of 2003.
Special thanks to PatDarland, for providing the bulk of this information from an interviewwith Art Hull in March of 2001.
Their First Meeting
Art went up Union Street in Portland looking for a car to useat the destruction derby in Jantzen beach. He'd seen a Hudsonthat he liked and went in, to check it out. Tiny came out to helphim, he inquired about a car to use at the races said he didn'thave much money to spend. Tiny asked if he would be willing toput their name up as a sponsor and paint it on the car, Art hadagreed. Tiny went back in and brought the manager or owner backout and told him the story. They looked around the yard to seewhat to give to him as their sponsor and pointed towards the Hudsonand said how about that one. This was how they met, and was thebeginning of a very close friendship.
Their Friendship
Tiny and art were very good friends but both had the habit ofalways getting the best deal out of a situation. For example,one would sell the other on something or another and convinceeach other that they were getting a hell of a deal. It was thenorm as to how they treated people, so why be any different withone another. The only difference being that they would tell oneanother afterwards of what they had done and how much they haddone him for. They had bought a metal detector together and Tinyalways held on to it but Art was always welcome to it at any time.Art would use it but always returned it to Tiny's possession.After Tiny passed away, Art borrowed the metal detector from histhen wife Jeannie, and as always he returned it. She said no,"why don't you hold onto it?" Art said "nah, that'sok" and left it at that. That was the last time he'd eversee it for she had moved away unannounced. He felt Tiny lookeddown just then, pointed his finger and said "gothcha."
Art Remembers Tiny and Vietnam
Tiny then nicknamed "Tiny" was contracted out as a foremanfor the Alaska Barge and Transport Company, and was sent to Vietnamto oversee the unloading of freighters. He worked the entire 18months of his contract and managed to save enough money to starta towing business in NE Portland, Oregon when he returned. Whilethere he not only served as foreman of the operation, but at timeswas required to operate the heavy equipment that was used forthe operation. Tiny operated several cranes, one called the BigJohn, which was mainly operated by a man named Jerry Hodge. Tinyalso operated several other smaller cranes, bulldozers, cats,and other related equipment as required.
Theirjob with Alaska Barge and Transport
The ships that supplied the equipment for construction duringthe Vietnam War, could not come any further inland than the southchina sea for they were too large. Subsequently the loads hadto be transferred onto barges and brought in with tugboats. Tinyand Art ran one of these tug boats (sealed in such a way thatno water could come in except through the stacks high above theboat). This was a good thing for the South China Sea is roughand occasionally gets worse. They had run the first barge in thatheld large equipment for construction work, which included trucks,cats and what not. There were no ramps or equipment on standbyto off load the tugboat, so they decided to run it up onto thebeach. Every one figured more delays until a ramp could be built,but Tiny had a plan. He sent a young man onto the barge and toldhim to jump on a big cat with the blade, and jump it off and overthe side of the barge onto the shore. The young man started itthen put in high gear full throttle, and let her rip, jumpingthe large cat off of the barge and onto the sandy bank. The catcame over the side hit the soft sand and dug in some. Tiny thenjumped on the cat, took the controls, and started moving and bunchingthe sand with the cat and built a temporary ramp of sand so theycould drive the rest of the equipment straight off. The othermen were quite impressed with this and told him so. His responsewas " If I were a little younger I would have rode that catdown myself." Tiny also worked with a man by the name ofMel Falla, also employed by the Alaska Barge and Transport Company.Mel became one of Tiny's friends after they returned to the US.
Art relayed one important note that Tiny hada hernia, and had had it for most of his life. Art asked him,"How are you ever going to pass the physical?" Tinysimply replied, "You are going to take the physical assumingmy name." Art did, and when called in the following day forhis physical, the doctor hadn't remembered Art coming in and hepassed the physical for the second time!
Tiny and Art were "allegedly" offereda job by the CIA when it was discovered that drugs were beingsmuggled back into the United States from Vietnam. Art recallsthat they told CIA officials that the methods used for smugglingincluded hiding them among the cargo of large freighter boxes;also Tiny told them that they were being smuggled in the bodybags of fallen US servicemen. The CIA refused to believe Art andTiny's claims until they uncovered this fact in an investigation.Tiny and Art were then approached and offered a job to help themcatch the persons involved but they both declined knowing thatthey would be putting their lives at risk.
The Boat Ride
Late one evening a sailor showed up and asks Tiny if he couldgive him a ride out to the ship for he was to go on watch andwas due at 2am. Tiny saw that this sailor was quite drunk andtold him that the sea is stormy and rough as hell right now thatit would make him so sick to try and get out there. Sailor retortedthat he'd been out to sea for years and had never been seasick.He and Art said ok and off they went. The swells were so largeout on the South China sea that the tug once it crested a wavewould descend so hard that it dove into the next wave and sortof submarine its way back up in time to crest another wave. [Goodthing they were sealed.] Well they approached the ship on theleft side to let the sailor off, [who by the way lost his lunchduring the ride big time] he was so sick that it took three attemptsbefore he could ascend the ladder onto the ship.
The Corvette
Art found a Corvette in Saigon I believe. Told Tiny about it andoff they went to check it out and subsequently bought it. Theyhad to hurry and get back to their camp before dark for therewere a curfew there no ones to be out after dark. They were crossingthis long narrow bridge when a large bus came into view comingfrom the other end. Tiny squeezed to the side all he could butthere was no room for the bus to get thru. Art told the bus driverto back up. The bus driver refused and that was it. Art pulledhis 38 out and shot into the air above his head, Tiny wonderedwhat the Hell he was thinking but the bus driver had that busgoing backwards in no time. They made it back before dark.
Chicken for Lunch?
They had stopped at a road side stand to get something to drinkand Tiny said look Art, fried chicken, come lets get some. Artdeclined and said he'd only care for a soda pop. Tiny bought hischicken Art got his soda pop and off they drove, Tiny eating onthe chicken and raving about how good it tastes. At another roadsidestand Tiny thought He'd get another chicken meanwhile Art wentaround back of the stand to have along look around. He came backand looked at the chicken that Tiny had bought and asked him Howmany legs does a chicken have Tiny answered two. How many legsare in that chicken basket? Answer 4, Art decided to show Tinywhat he was eating. They went around the corner to the back andsaw the many cages that held the scrumptious snacks . . . it wasRat!
The Harley Davidson
Art and Tiny had purchased a Harley Davidson motorcycle, fromthen chief of police of Vung Tau. It had all the lights on itfor an official's motorbike. This motorcycle was just assembledfresh out of the box 3 years after Harley stopped making the gearshiftknob beside the gas tank, (foot pedal for a clutch). It was blackand had double sets of red lights mounted on the front and backof the bike. The motorcycle came in handy for they could be outafter dark and the locals mistook them for officials. Tiny hadthe Harley painted in Tiger stripes and it was eventually nicknamed"The Tiger Harley of Vaung Tao" by all the locals. Tinybrought the bike back to the US and kept it for a short whilebefore eventually selling it.
Pictured at right, an artisticrendering of the "Tiger Harley of Vung Tau"
Precious Gems and Jewelry
It has been a long running family rumor (never confirmed) thatTiny had something to do with some stones and jewelry that camefrom the Premier and Madam Nu estate. Something about that hehad to leave in a hurry for his life, before the Viet Cong gotthere. Allegedly, there were some items acquired at this time.Following this incident, Art was watching a jeweler from the streetfor a while and decided to go in and see if this jeweler coulddrill a whole into one of his stones. The Jeweler said no, thatthe stone would crack. Art said that it would not if he kept thegem cool and drill it slowly at a high rpm. The jeweler was successfuland Art had him set a diamond into the drilled stone. He wentback to base and showed Tiny his finished product and that wasit, Tiny wanted to do the same thing to some of the gems he had.Asked where he had it done, Art said I can't explain the directions,but if we go in I'll show you. This Jeweler had completed thehandy work on much of the jewelry that had "somehow"made its way back into the US.
Art reported that a writer named William J.S.Moorehead contacted Tiny regarding his experiences in Vietnamand what he had witnessed taking place while over there. Mr. Mooreheadwas asked to testify at a Senate Hearing Committee on behalf ofthe then book he was about to publish, which included the detailsof corruption that he had learned from talking with Tiny. Accordingto Art, Mr. Moorhead received quite a sizable amount of moneynot to publish his book and the whole thing was dropped. A reporterof The Oregonian later interviewed Tiny in 1971, a Portland Oregonbased newspaper, and he briefly profiled the corruption that hehad witnessed taking place while in Vietnam.
(Click here to read the article)
Art Remembers Tiny at Duncan Towing
When Tiny came back from Vietnam; he had bought and ran Duncantowing. Art also worked for Tiny here too. He told this storyof a particular incident, I hope you find amusing . . . One daythis fellow drove into Duncan Towing. On the trailer he was towingwere some car parts, and four wheels and tires. Asked Tiny ifhe would like to buy them. Tiny looked at the stuff and then toldthe man that there was nothing there that he was interested in.Just then a Tiny friend of his showed up [sheriff] and he walkedover to have a chat with him. Meanwhile the guy with the car partsdrove into the yard and off loaded all the parts and took off.Art came out and asked Tiny if he had bought those car parts fromthat guy and Tiny said what guy, the guy with the trailer andTiny said no. Well they looked them over decided they were probablyhot and called the police in. Two plain clothed officers showedup listened to what happened, then red tagged all the items withtheir signature to each tag. Problem was they didn't have anyplaceto take these Items and asked Tiny if it were possible that hestores the items somewhere in his shop. Art made room for theitems in the shop where all would remain locked up. Later on thatweek or so this kid comes in looking for a particular transmission,Tiny said yea there was one here but he couldn't sell it yet becauseit was red tagged. The kid asked if he could see it anyway andTiny said no problem and showed him. The kid claimed that thoseparts belonged to him, that they had been stolen from him. Therewas nothing Tiny could do for him so the kid left. Later on thatday an officer showed up at Duncan towing, found Tiny, and toldhim that he was under arrest. Tiny asked what for. The Officeranswered for buying and selling stolen goods, Tiny looked at theofficer and said I don't think I'll let you arrest me write upa slip on me to appear in court. Officer asked if he was resistingarrest? Tiny explained to the officer If you think that your goingto arrest me now, you had better go out to your car and call insome backup cause you by yourself will not be able to arrest mesingle handedly. Art speaks up and says go ahead go ahead andarrest us and we'll end up owning half this city. Officer turnedto Tiny and asked if I write you up for a court appearance you'llshow up? Yes. Tiny showed up for court the judge looked over thecase and said to the court I don't believe this case should haveentered into court and dismissed it.