Clint Quirk was born in December 1923 in Butte, Montana and grew up in Anaconda, Montana. He had one sister. His father owned a bakery. His mother worked in the bakery. His father served in World War One [Annotator's Note: World War 1, a global war originating in Europe; 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918]. His father was born on the Isle of Mann in the Irish Sea. His father went from Great Britain to Canada and then to Montana. It was a bad time during the Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s]. The mines continued to go during the depression. The smelter continued to work as well. Quirk walked to school or rode his bike. He worked in the bakery. His mother and his aunt worked in the bakery as well. Quirk started in the bakery when he was in the fourth grade. He washed pots and pans. He was a certified union baker when he was 17 years old. He had a membership card in Butte, Montana. He went to school and worked after school. He was going to the School of Mines when Pearl Harbor was attacked [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He was 17 years old when he went to college. He tried to enlist after the war broke out. He joined the Merchant Marines. His parents did not like it because his father was a combat infantryman in the British Army and the American Army during World War One. He left school and tried to get into the Marines, but could not pass the physical. He quit college and went to work in the bakery. He met some people from the West Coast and they said he could get into the Merchant Marines. He went to Seattle [Annotator’s Note: Seattle, Washington].

Clint Quirk tried to get into the Navy, but he needed seaman papers. The longshoremen told him to go to the Army Transport Division. He passed the physical. The first ship he was on was a wooden ship. He got the seaman papers from being on the wooden ship. Then he was able to sail all over. There was a troop ship that was short a baker. Quirk got his master baker when he was 17 years old. He got off the ship in Canada at an American port. Then he went back to Seattle [Annotator’s Note: Seattle, Washington]. Then he met a Merchant Seaman from Maine. They went out of Seattle to the South Pacific. They were discharged in San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California]. He shipped out of San Francisco until the war was over as a deckhand. At the Union hall, they needed a baker for the troop ship. Quirk told them he wanted to be the baker. He always carried his baker's union papers with him. In between ship jobs, he would work in bake shops.

Clint Quirk was not assigned to a ship. [Annotator’s Note: Quirk was in the Merchant Marines]. He went into the union hall, and they would say what they needed. The men who were there first usually got the job. Before they sailed, they signed the papers. When they got back, they got discharged. Then they would discharge from the ship. He went back to Anaconda [Annotator’s Note: Anaconda, Montana] and worked with his dad as a baker. He did not like baking. He went to the smelter to get a job as an ironworker. Quirk was the toughest kid in town. He wanted to be a baker on the troop ship. He showed his baker papers. The union sent him to the Navy to get on the ship as a chief baker. He worked at the smelter until he got his ironworkers certificate. Then he got a job busting rods. He liked structural work better. He was on a wall and tied to the wall. He liked being a professional iron worker. He worked on a dam in northern Montana. He was sent to Saudi Arabia as a superintendent. He has four children, three girls and a boy. They live in Phoenix, Arizona.

Clint Quirk thought the most enjoyable experience was coming into port and getting drunk. Then getting back on the ship and going into the Pacific. He did not see anything on the merchant ships. They were not fighters, they were runners. He was a gunner and a machine gunner. They had between 10 and 20 armed guards. When Quirk first started, he was a loader for the canons. Some merchant seaman got the ships blown out from under them. The ships he was on were on the inside passage [Annotator’s Note: referring to Alaska]. When they went out to sea on liberty ships [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship], they had to keep the portholes closed. The war had to be won or the United States would have been under Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler]. Quirk ended up as a chief baker when they were bringing men home. The Merchant Marines are not recognized. The other branches got something for their service. He spent his youth going from port to port dodging. They barely got thanked. He was born tough and he kept his toughness. He had a bad back for years. He made more money in other countries than staying home.