MY TIME IN THE U.S. NAVY
Ed Dahlin
Newfane, Vt., 1995
A True Account of Adventures and Misadventures
(The Chronology of Events May Be Out of Order
but My Memory has Faded Somewhat in 50 Years)
IN THE BEGINNING
DECEMBER, 1943. By gosh, I had been waiting for two long years to join the Navy, and was finally seventeen years old and couldn't wait to go to Rutland to the Recruiting Office to enlist! Concerned that the war would end before I got there, the day after Christmas I jumped on a train in Middlebury, hoping to start my "new life." I was born in Florida, but had lived in Vermont for most of those seventeen years, and was quite naive as to the ways of the world. I had to take a physical and was really scared that maybe they wouldn't pass me, but at that stage of World War II, they seemed to be taking almost everybody. The more "cannon fodder" the better! Now to go back home (I didn't have a home, I was working at the Middlebury Inn and got my room and board there), and wait for a call. At Middlebury College there was a V-12 Unit and so there were a lot of "sailors" around. They came to be known as "90-day wonders" because it took them 90 days to become ensigns (the lowest commissioned officers). Later, when I had taken a year to become a member of a ship's company, I wondered how these guys became officers in such a short time! (More about this later.)
When I got called to report for swearing in, my brother, Ernie, was home on leave from the Marine Corps, so he went with me to witness the "ceremony." In a few weeks the call came to report to the Post Office in Springfield, Mass., I said good-bye to my Mom (who also worked at the Inn), got on another train and now was on my own. In those days, guys leaving for the service usually had a "send off," but mine was very low profile, one old friend, "Boo" Renner, came down to the train station and said, "so long."
In a few hours, I was in Springfield and got a hotel room for the night, learning later, of course, that the best thing to do was go to the YMCA where there would be no charge, But I found out real soon that there was a lot for me to learn!
Ordered to report at 0900 the next morning, I went to bed quite early, so as to be ready to go. Later I was told that I should have gone out "on the town" because it would be a long time before I would have a chance to "have a woman." Hell, I had never had a woman and wouldn't have known what to do if I got one!
After some indoctrination at the Post Office Recruiting Station the next day, a large contingent of recruits and draftees boarded a train headed for Sampson Naval Training Station near Geneva in upstate New York. I don't remember exactly what time the train left Springfield, but we slept (damn little) on it and arrived at Sampson early the next morning. After we were loaded onto trucks, we went to a Receiving Center where we were to be processed into the Navy. Like lambs to the slaughter, we blindly followed orders to fall in line and do what we were told. We had blood tests, had our teeth examined, walked through a gauntlet of needle-wielding "crazy" medics who played darts, throwing syringes at our arms, having ID pictures taken (all of this completely naked), getting dog tags and holding sea bags while those idiots threw clothes at it and mostly hitting us. Then, after finally putting on a pair of dungarees and a T-shirt, we got haircuts (totally shaved heads) and were assigned to a barracks. Now we were Company 577, G Section (later called Gestapo Section). There were about 48 guys in a Company, sleeping in 24 double-deck bunks.
All Hands on Deck
The next morning at 0400 there was a hell of a noise and "All hands on deck, drop your cocks and grab your socks, you skinhead bastards! We could hardly move our arms because of all the injections we had been given the day before, but slowly, very slowly, we got up and put on our dungarees. The Chief Petty Officer in charge of our Company said, "Cut those pants off about six inches from the bottom, and put on those laceup 'spats' over the dungarees and then under the shoes." It looked then like we were wearing boots, thus the name "Boot Camp."
For the next eight weeks, we were humiliated, ordered around like a herd of cattle, and turned into sailors (?). The camp was located on the shores of Seneca Lake, one of the beautiful "Finger Lakes" in Northern New York state, therefore it was only natural that the Navy teach us to row lifeboats on dry land! Who decided these things? Another headliner was discipline so we were taught to march in step and follow directional orders. We thought, yeah, right, we'll be doing a lot of marching on a ship! Oh well, our course was laid out for us and, as I said before, we followed blindly.
All the barracks in each Section at Sampson were laid out in a rectangular configuration with a Mess Hall and a Drill Hall at one end and a Drill Field in the center around which ran a tarmac oval track called a "grinder," which, we soon found out, was aptly named since after running and marching around it three or four times at 0600 we were "ground down." After running, we went to the Mess Hall and lined up on a large covered deck to get breakfast. It seemed great to have a good appetite in the morning, for a change. (I never ate much breakfast as a civilian.) They said, "Take all you want, eat all you take." and they meant it! If there was any food left on your tray at the end of any meal, the Petty Officer standing at the door of the scullery made you go back and eat it!
We washed our clothes on scrub boards, hung them on clotheslines outside, and we took "community" showers. If anyone in the Company didn't stay shaved and clean, we did it for them by using a scrub brush we called a "ki-yi" brush. It would make their skin red and raw, but it convinced them to stay clean from then on! There were only a few times a day when the "smoking lamp was lit" and one had to smoke fast.
We had physical training every day--calisthenics, running, or some other type of activity. We played basketball and sometimes climbed up and down ropes in the Drill Hall.
When I came to boot camp I was given a physical test; it consisted of chin ups, push ups, etc. Then, when I graduated, the same test was administered. What a difference! I was in so much better shape that it was hard to believe.
During our stay in boot camp, we had to go to a dentist. I had never taken care of my teeth due to lack of money during the Depression Years, so I was again scared and thought about "going over the hill" (AWOL). But reason prevailed, and I dutifully went into the dentist's office where an officer met me. He had me sit in a dentist's chair and he went to work, no Novocain, and drilled every tooth in my mouth. At lunch time, he said "Take a break and have a cigarette and I'll fill these teeth after lunch," So we did and by the middle of the afternoon, I was set free. Those fillings were great, and they stayed in until way after the war! Before I could leave, I had to swab the decks in the office
When the Company graduated, a two-week leave was granted so that we could go home, see our family and friends and "wind down" from the trauma of such a strict life style. A bus took us to Syracuse and some of the guys taunted the bus driver to "go faster. faster!" To me it was very scary (read "scared shitless") to go over the top of a hill and have the bus seemingly shoot straight out and then drop like a rock to the roadway, almost out of control! But we made it, and I caught a train to Albany. There were three other guys from Vermont with me, so when we arrived in Albany, we took a cab to Vermont; it cost about five bucks apiece. I arrived in Middlebury about three in the morning and went right to the Inn, said "Hi" to the desk clerk whom I knew, and lay down on a sofa in the lobby and slept 'til about 0630. The noise in the barracks, after lights out, was still ringing in my ears. It would take a few days to get used to the quiet at night. After surprising my Mom in the hotel kitchen, I went to visit my sister, Jane. I remember teaching her how to "swab a deck" by pouring a bucket of water on the floor and "swabbing" it up; then wringing the "swab" by hand.
Being in Middlebury again as a member of the Armed Forces was quite a "kick." A lot of courtesies were accorded to guys like me. People treated me differently, I was "somebody," not just a teen-ager hanging around the pool room playing eight ball for nickels and dimes. (One of the guys I played with a lot was later shot down and killed over Europe in a B-17 bomber.)
One night my sister-in-law fixed me up with a date to go to Burlington for a cruise on the side-wheeler steamboat Ticonderoga. She was a very nice girl who didn't exactly "turn me on," but I went anyway. When we went aboard, I was met by a beautiful girl wearing a "sailor" dress who immediately did turn me on, so together we got "lost" immediately and I left poor Lucille in the lurch (I've felt guilty about this ever since), bought six beers and this girl and I went up topside and sat on the deck right by the smoke stacks, drank beer and "made out." It was a great cruise! While going back to Middlebury I pretended to be asleep, not paying any attention to Lorraine and I heard Jessie say, "Try giving him a kiss!" but I just stayed "asleep" and that was the end of our "date." Looking back, I'm pretty sure that having sex could have been part of the evening, but there was none because I was too naive and still a virgin: imagine!
The remainder of the leave was very uneventful and forgettable. Ready to go back to Sampson to find out what the future held for me, I took a bus to Albany where, at the time, I could go in a - bar and get a few beers. One had to be at least 21 years old in Vermont and only 18 in New York (I was still only 17, but there was never any age check). Then, taking a train to Syracuse and a bus to Sampson, I thought my Naval career would now begin. I had to check in to a unit called O.G.U. "Outgoing Unit" where everyone waited and checked the bulletin board every day until their name and orders for an assignment were posted. The first order of business after returning from leave was a "short arm" inspection to make sure no one had a venereal disease. No problem as far as I was concerned. Nobody seemed to be in charge of this unit and it was a mass of guys going around with no direction, just eating and sleeping. I had visions of being assigned to a fleet ship such as a cruiser or aircraft carrier; when my name was finally posted, I was assigned to Signalman School right here at Sampson! What a letdown! Well, I knew where I'd be for the next six weeks, anyway.
School was a lot easier than Boot Camp, but we had to study almost every night besides doing our laundry and keeping the barracks cleaned up. On some weekends we could go up to a beer hall set up in the Drill Hall and get cups of beer for 10¢ each. We bought tickets and each ticket was good for one beer (3.2%, or near beer). One weekend there was a Pro Football game; the New York Giants and another team that I've forgotten the name of. Attendance was mandatory, but knowing nothing about the game at the time, I just bought some ice cream and sat there waiting for the game to end.
On weekends when we had liberty, most of us went to Rochester, a great liberty town! If we said we were going a certain number of miles away, we could leave on Friday night, so we would say we were going to stay at the YMCA in Cincinnati, Ohio. If we had said we were going to Rochester, we couldn't leave until Saturday morning, which would cut a lot of time off our liberty and we couldn't get started raising hell quite so quickly! Quite often we would take in a Burlesque Show on Saturday morning, then go to lunch and start cruising for babes. Actually, first, we would make a reservation at the dorm run by the USO so there would be a place to sleep if we didn't get lucky and find some girls who wanted company for the night (never happened to me, but did quite often with some of my more city-smart buddies.) I did manage to get a blind date one night, but she passed out and I had to practically carry her home and throw her on a hammock on her porch. As I was dragging her home, a car stopped with a bunch of girls in it and the driver said, "The Shore Patrol is up ahead! You'd better ditch her and c'mon and get in!" I would never do that even to someone I hardly knew; besides, there were no SP's anywhere around!
We quite often went to a roller rink to skate; there were almost always girls there who liked to be "picked up." I met one particular girl who was very nice and we spent a lot of time together. She lived at the YWCA and on one Sunday when I had the duty on the base, I was called to the Drill Hall where they said I had a visitor! Who would it be? I couldn't imagine, but when I got up there, it was that girl from Rochester! What a thrill! We went down by the Mess Hall where we could get some privacy, and "fooled around" for a couple of hours; it was great seeing her (years later I read her name on the dedication page of a book I was reading and I just knew it was her!). We would walk the length of Main Street in Rochester, stop in hotel lobbies and try to stay on a sofa, but we always got kicked out by hotel security (never had money to get a room, which was tricky in those days anyway, because they frowned on unmarried couples, and sailors in particular). I've been up Main Street in later years and wouldn't think of walking there even in daylight, say nothing about after dark!
Learning Semaphore
Anyway, back to school. We had to learn Semaphore (signaling by waving a flag in each hand), raising International Code flags on yardarms and Morse Code using lights. We used 12-inch searchlights sending messages to each other from towers about 100 yards apart. In the classroom an instructor would tap on a key which lit two lights up on the front of the room and we would take partners, one to face the light, read the message and whisper it to the other who would write it down; then we would change places. The partner I had couldn't read any of the letters so I just listened to the taps and he made believe he was whispering to me and I wrote them down. I don't know if he ever graduated but if he did, he must have had a very hard time trying to read messages. The whole concept of signaling came very easy to me and when I graduated I was raised to the rank of Signalman Third Class which meant I had an eagle (we called it a "crow") with one chevron to sew on my right sleeve. A right-arm rate was more prestigious than a left-arm rate; more like the "Regular Navy." (The other right-arms were Gunners' Mates, Boatswains, Quartermasters, and Torpedomen.)
We had one instructor who had been at the battle of Guadalcanal, and who we respected very much. He used to tell us stories about the Japs moving very close by his ship on barges at night and how they had to be very quiet so as not to alert the enemy that they were even in the area. They would then send messages to the Marines giving the locations and numbers of the enemy approaching them. At that time, in the classroom, shivers went up my back just thinking of the tense situations he had been in. He also had a funny way of talking. He would tell us something and then he'd say, "Are ye's wit' me ''tus far?" I never forgot him.
When I graduated from Signalman School, I entered the Last Part of this story.
I received two weeks of "delayed orders," which was two weeks to go home but which didn't count against my leave time. We got 30 days of leave a year, and so far I had only used two weeks (after boot camp). Before we left school, we were interviewed by a Petty Officer who acted as a guidance counselor and who reviewed our records kept while we were in school. His job was to recommend what jobs we were best suited to fill. Since I was very good at using Morse Code, he told me he thought I should be a radio/gunner on a TBF Avenger, a torpedo plane! At the Battle of Midway in 1942, there were many of these planes shot down because they had to come in low to drop their torpedoes aimed at enemy ships. Anyway, I didn't want any part of this and I think I turned white with instant fear. He just laughed and said, "No, I'm just kidding, you're going to Virginia for amphibious training for duty on an LST!" What a relief!
So, again I went to Middlebury for two weeks. I saw some old friends from high school who were also on leave or furlough before going overseas. Some of them never came home again.
The leave was fairly uneventful except for the fact that I lost my virginity! When I had been on boot leave, a friend of mine had told me about a girl he knew who would "put out," so before I left Sampson this time, I went up to the Base Pharmacy where we could get free condoms. The guy said, "OK, what's the girl's name and address?" And I started to tell him! Boy, I really was naive!
Anyway, I was scared to death again, and finally made love in the back seat of my mother's 1933 Ford. I didn't think it was all it was cracked up to be, but it was fun for me (I don't know about her). And by now I was anxious to get back to Navy routine. Once again, I took a train and after being assured by the station agent that I would get to Norfolk in plenty of time to report to the Camp Bradford, I left for New York City. The train stopped in Grand Central Station where I had to get off and somehow get to Penn Station. I got on a city bus and was almost immediately "hit on" by a "queer" as they were called in those days, who followed me all the way; when I transferred to another bus, he also transferred. I was getting kind of nervous, but finally got there and lost him by boarding another train almost as soon as I arrived. This train was going all the way to Norfolk, so I settled down after a while and fell asleep. When I woke up, the train wasn't moving and it seemed like we were in a tunnel! A lot of the people in the car were gone! Where was I? I got out of the coach and followed a couple of people to see where they were going. It was like a "B" movie, and I couldn't imagine what was going to happen next. After going up a flight of stairs, I looked around and saw that we were in the middle of the ocean! As it turned out, the train had been loaded onto a large ferry boat and we were way out on Chesapeake Bay! I can't remember that I've ever again been so surprised!
When the boat got to Norfolk, I retrieved my "ditty bag" from the train, asked directions to the bus station, and walked down Granby Street for about ten blocks to the station and started looking for a bus to Camp Bradford. It took quite a while to find the right bus so I was an hour late getting to camp. The Marines on the gate noted on my papers the time of arrival and subsequently I had to go before a "Captain's Mast" where I was told to forget any liberty for the next three weeks and to report twice a day to the Shore Patrol Quonset Hut. Then I was assigned to a ship's crew, and our training to learn how to man and operate a Landing Ship Tank began.
Every day was filled with training classes: fire fighting, damage control, gunnery, launching barrage balloons plus our regular signaling practice. We were also starting to make friends with the guys who were to be our shipmates, if we ever got to a ship, which was beginning to look doubtful! Autumn was here already and the weather was starting to get cold; being near the ocean made it a damp cold and we were now sleeping in 8-man tents with a soft coal stove. None of us knew how to keep a coal fire burning so we wore all the clothes we could get on, including Pea-coats. It was freezing in those tents!
We had liberty every other night and that's when the fun (?) began! We would take a bus to Norfolk where civilians hated sailors and dogs! One great thing I remember was the Planter's Peanut store. It was a BIG store with bins full of every kind of peanuts one could imagine; they were fresh roasted and delicious!
I went into one bar to get a beer and within ten minutes one of the swabbies was hitting on a barmaid and she didn't want anything to do with him. She took a bottle of beer, broke it off, climbed up on the bar and proceeded to swing it at him trying to cut him. I hate violence and my buddies and I got the hell out of there before the Shore Patrol came and would probably load up a bunch of guys and throw them in the brig.
It was getting towards late Fall by now so it was really cold! I had to work for a week on the chow line, which was outside under a tent. Anyway, one day I passed out while working on the grilles and they took me to Sick Bay where a doctor said I had pneumonia! Two weeks there, then back to duty. Soon it was Christmas time and I remember going to my first Midnight Mass in Norfolk. Also, we used to take a ferry boat over to Newport News. Looking back, I'm amazed at happenings to which we paid no attention; "Colored Only" waiting rooms and Rest Rooms (I would often go into them to show that I was not prejudice, but usually I just got dirty looks from the Negroes). One night on the ferry, a couple of us were talking to some WAVEs who had Gunner's Mate crows. I said, "Female Gunners' Mates? Have you shot down any Jap planes?" What a jerk! They were really pissed off and just walked away. My buddy was also pissed at me for ruining a chance to pick them up for a night of fun. Will I ever learn? (The girls were really instructors in gunnery at camp.)
One week our crew was loaded onto an LST in Chesapeake Bay. Back then, the Navy still issued hammocks and we rolled our blankets into the hammock and lashed that lengthwise around our seabag full of clothes. Carrying this on our left shoulder, we would walk up the gangplank, then salute the Quarterdeck and the OD (Officer of the Deck) and ask permission to come aboard. This was our introduction to a real LST. I learned all the protocol in Signalman School, so I was frantically trying to remember all of it.
However, remembering how to "read" a signaling searchlight under the watchful eye of a ship's Captain (in truth, a Lieutenant) who could read it, was too stressful for me. As we were leaving port, we were getting a message which I couldn't "read." He said, "For God's sake, where did you learn to read Morse Code?" So he said, "Forget it, I'll read it myself!" How humiliating! I could have crawled into the flagbag and died. (The "flagbag" was a large bag made of canvas where were stored all the International code flags, which could be hoisted onto the yardarm in certain sequences for signaling messages to many ships at once.)
We were out on the Bay for a few days and it was quite an experience: that is one big bay! We learned not only about the operation of the ship, but also how to work together as a crew. Being in close quarters like that gave us a chance to get acquainted with the other crew members.
I met a Radioman from a small town in West Tennessee. His name was "W." "D." Dugger (he would never tell anyone his real name; I believe his dog tags and ID Card had that name on them) and we were good friends until we were transferred to other ships about two years later! Other good friends were mostly in the communication gang like we were.
When we got back to Camp Bradford, it wasn't too long before we loaded onto buses and were transported to a train station in Norfolk where we boarded a train (I don't remember that we were even told where we were going!). We left on sleeper cars and shoved off. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, we would stop at a station somewhere and there would be a group of ladies giving out coffee, doughnuts and magazines free. They must have been from the Salvation Army or the USO, and they were very nice to us. I can't imagine anyone doing that today!
In a couple of days we arrived in Chicago. As we were coming in, one of the guys was drunk and put his fist through one of the train's windows; that glass was very thick and he was cut very badly. I suppose he got a Captain's Mast some time afterwards, or maybe he was discharged as a non-desirable. As we slowly came in towards Union Station, we saw a lot of girls in the Northside, waving and yelling welcomes; it looked as if we wouldn't have any trouble finding some "action." When we finally stopped we were taken to Navy Pier where we found bunks on which we placed our hammocks and seabags; I preferred top bunks when I could get them.
We stayed at the Pier for a few weeks; it was very easy duty and we didn't do much of anything. We were assigned to Port or Starboard watches and every morning had to muster to make sure everyone was present or accounted for. At first, we would answer "Yo" for a friend who was absent for one reason or another, but they soon changed that to answering by giving our service number, and it was enough to remember our own number, say nothing about someone else's! Mine was (and still is) 667-43-79.
When my watch was coming up, I would go down to the small store on a lower deck to buy cigarettes; they were 5¢ a pack! A two-pack limit made it necessary for me to go around the back of the store, get in another line and keep repeating until I had about a dozen packs. Then, when I went on liberty, I would come across a line of people about two blocks long waiting to buy cigarettes. I'd go toward the tail end of the line and say, "wanna buy some cigarettes? Only 50¢ pack!" They would always buy at least two packs. Then, I would keep a few for myself and a few to put on a table in a restaurant to let the waitress see that they would be left for a tip (this always got top priority service!)
Quite often, while in Chicago, a bunch of us would go to the USO and get free tickets to different theaters. I saw Spike Jones and His City Slickers, Carmen Cavallero (famous for his "Warsaw Concerto"), and a few others. Also, I went to the famous ballrooms, the Aragon and Trianon and danced a lot (if one knew how to dance good, it was easy to get and talk to girls) and I considered myself a good dancer!
There was one neighborhood bar that we used to go to quite a lot. People got to know us and often bought us drinks. There was a blind piano player there and we gave him a "flameless" cigarette lighter; it had fluid in it, but he could just stick the cigarette in one end and push a button on the other end and suck and somehow it would light. They were very popular in those days and he would go out into the windy street to light up. He was amazed
One night another guy and I (I forget who) went up to that bar and got quite inebriated. Early in the morning, we poured ourselves into a bus and rode back down to the Loop. We went into a YMCA hotel and got a room. At about five in the afternoon, we went out and got breakfast, then back to Navy Pier where we were checked in late, thus I got my second Captain's Mast. He gave me extra duty, to be served when we got on a ship. I hoped he would forget about it, but he didn't (I worked in the laundry quite a few hours when we finally did get our ship).
After a few weeks at the Pier, we had to tie up our seabags again and shove off for Great Lakes Naval Training Center in North Chicago where we were to spend two weeks studying aircraft and ship recognition and gunnery. Slides were flashed on a screen and we had to identify the class of ship or the type and name of aircraft. Then we would go down to the shore of Lake Michigan and fire quad 40s (40 millimeter antiaircraft guns) and 50 caliber machine guns at target sleeves being towed across in front of us, at altitudes well out of range, I'm sure. If we had relatives in Chicago, we could have a weekend liberty. I had a date there, and I tried every way I could think of to sneak off the base! No way! I followed a path down through the woods and thought I was home free, but I came upon a guard shack and the guy said, "Where do you think you're going?" I said I just arrived on the base and was lost. He said, "Climb up over that hill and you'll see the barracks!" So I gave up. I didn't know until we left Chicago that my Uncle John (whom I had never met) lived there! I could have gone on that date legally! Mom wrote me much later: "Did you go visit your Uncle John?" I was really pissed! (Never did have that date!).
After a couple of weeks at Great Lakes, we were taken back to Seneca where the Chicago Bridge & Iron Works was located. There we got the first look at our ship! The LST 1126; just launched probably a week before, it was 315 ft. long, about 40 ft. wide in the beam, it drew about 9 ft. at the stern and 6 ft. at the bow, and was flat bottomed. It was called an "ocean-going bathtub!". There were large doors in the bow which opened when we "hit" a beach and a ramp came down so the trucks and tanks and whatever,
could drive off onto the beach and into action (or to go get the mail in the case of a Jeep).
When we arrived it was raining. They had removed a hatch cover and we threw our seabags down onto the tank deck, water and all. There were quite a few women still cleaning up the compartments and I had understood that having a woman on a ship was bad luck. In this case, I would say (after we got overseas) that they were good luck! I think they built most of the ship, including the welding!
Of course, the ship wasn't commissioned yet and wouldn't be until she was fitted out with a mast (which was left off so that she could get under all the bridges we came to on the rivers) and other final details. Then, when we started down the Des Plaines River toward Joliet, we had to break the ice for a smaller LCI (Landing Craft Infantry). We took on a River Pilot to get us down to New Orleans and started off some time in February. It was very cold and plowing through the ice was a little noisy and bumpy. The first night, we tied up in the middle of Peoria right across from the Hiram Walker Distillery! I had the mid watch (midnight to 0400) and the smell was terrific! We had to get a fix on a landmark of some kind so that we could tell if we were drifting down stream any. Every night was the same; stop and tie up for the night either in a city or out in the boondocks someplace. When we got to a town called Grafton, at the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, we started down the "Big Muddy" and stopped for the night in St. Louis. It was getting warmer with every day, and it was a very interesting ride. Sometimes we went right through the main street of a small town and people waved and shouted encouragement to us.
When we got to Memphis, Tennessee, my friend, Dugger, wanted to jump ship and go home (It was only about 50 miles to his home). It was a great temptation, but he fought it off and stayed. The closer we got to New Orleans, the warmer the weather was. It was great after being in Norfolk and Chicago!
Back to Top
Finally, we reached New Orleans and tied up for a while, then headed down river to the Delta and the Gulf of Mexico. Our destination then was Mobile, Alabama where the shipyard workers would put up the mast and finish fitting us out. Mobile was a pretty "dry" town, so it was difficult to get a beer, but it was different and interesting. I remember seeing a lot of women shipyard workers going to work on the "swing shift." They were welders and riveters and "companions" to some of the guys. We were there only about a week and then headed back to New Orleans. Somewhere near the Delta, we picked up a Coast Guard pilot (they stayed in a big old building up on "stilts" and usually they were Commanders. One of our messengers, who happened to be from New York City, came up on the flying bridge; it was pouring rain, and we all had foul weather gear on so there was no rank showing, and this little guy said to the Commander, "Hi Pop, how's it going?" We all hid our heads to keep from laughing and I told him he shouldn't talk like that to a Commander. It didn't bother him in the least!
It's somewhere between 75 and 100 miles from the Delta up to New Orleans, and there were some interesting sights on the way: dead cows all bloated and rotting, towns built on stilts with wooden sidewalks and some places where we could look down from the ship to houses way down below the levees! There were also lots of oil derricks with natural gas burning off on the tops of them.
We tied up in New Orleans just about exactly at the foot of famous Canal Street, the widest street in the United States. All we had to do was jump down to the pier and go on liberty. We usually went up to Bourbon Street in the French Quarter where there were some very interesting places to visit! Bars and restaurants--we were in our element! One night Hershkowitz (Herky) and I went up to a bar where he said he knew the barmaid. As a matter of fact, he did! But she said she had a date, so Herky took her out into a courtyard and "fooled around" with her until he had her so horny she said "C'mon guys, lets go upstairs." Which we did immediately and next thing I knew Herky said, "Hey, Dahlin, you got $5?" I said, "Yeah," and gave it to him. So he gave it to her and they had sex while I sat and listened. I couldn't stand it long, so I left them to it.
At this time our ship was about three miles up the river at an ammunition dump, and I had a long walk, so I stopped at a shop for a half dozen doughnuts. While I was walking way up there in the dark, I came to a railroad track and a long freight was going by. I guess the engineer saw me because the train stopped, backed up so the steam engine was right in front of me! He said, "Hop up!" So I did, and we warmed the doughnuts by the fire box and had a good visit. He said he had a boy in the Navy overseas and said seeing me compelled him to stop and pick me up. Anyway, it saved me a lot of walking and I was thankful. We were up at the ammo dump to load ammo for our "shakedown cruise" in the Gulf of Mexico which was to be our next move.
So in a while, we went back down the river to the Gulf and over toward Panama City, Florida where we practiced going onto the beach When we went onto a beach, there was an anchor at the stern that was dropped some distance out so that when we wanted to get off, pulling on that anchor cable assisted the engines to back the ship off. We also had gunnery practice. At night there was a buoy out in the water with a light in it. Every fifth shell in the clips was a tracer and at night we could see them heading toward the buoy; I don't think there ever was a hit!
One morning I had the 0400-0800 watch and the fog was very thick. I got so sick! with that ten second roll of the ship that I wished I could die right there! It was the first of only two times that I got sick while at sea. Next, we took a course for the Panama Canal.
An LST at flank speed can only go about 13 knots an hour and we cruised about 10 going down the Caribbean. There were two guys who claimed to be seasick all the way to Panama. They laid out on the deck all day moaning and groaning. They were let off in Panama and we never saw them again.
We went down between Cuba and the Yucatan and arrived at the East end of the Canal at Colon during my watch. It was dark and I got a "call" by searchlight from a shore station. It said, "Do you have any c-o-m-m-u-n i-c-a-b-l-e" (please repeat), so they sent it again, and again for about five times until I got a messenger to write down the letters! Then I read it and it made sense. I was very embarrassed because he kept sending it slower and slower, and I could sense what he was thinking! "No, we don't have any communicable diseases." Then he told me where to steer to hit the end of the Canal.
Going through the Canal was very interesting. There was a bunch of black, really black, men who came board to handle lines and signal to the guys running the little locomotives that pulled the ship. These guys were speaking Portuguese which sounded funny to us. When I went down to the mess hall to eat, it was 120 degrees and the sweat ran down in rivulets on our bodies (how did the guys who built this thing stand the heat and mosquitoes). We saw women walking along a path beside the canal carrying big bunches of bananas on their heads; sometimes water buckets or jugs.
In a few days we reached Panama City on the West end of the canal; it's the capital of the country and quite a big city. We had a little shipmate named Quist whom we took to a brothel and when he went in, he said to the girls, "I only came in to take a leak!" They laughed and said, "That will be 25¢!" He was a funny little guy with a waistline of about 24 inches!
When we left Panama (that's the local name), we steered a course for going up the West coast of Mexico and all the way North to Seattle, Washington. It was April, 1945 and one day I saw a ship on the horizon; she was signaling to another ship somewhere out of my sight, and I read: "President Roosevelt died." I was the first one on the ship to know this and I excitedly told the OD.
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We got up to San Diego and tied up at a pier. I don't remember doing much "on the beach," but I remember The Andrews Sisters were singing there (I should have gone to see them, but didn't). I didn't do much because of a shortage of money! I don't even remember how much I got paid, but I know it wasn't much! Sending an allotment home to my mother every month and putting money toward Govt. War Bonds didn't leave much for going on liberty. A lot of the guys went to Tiajuana, Mexico, but not me; no money!
I do remember getting a message from the shore station right up in front of us. It started: "w-u-t-e-l-c-o" and I couldn't understand that! Finally, I got someone, probably Dusger, to write it down. Western Union Telegraph Company! Of course! Anyway, one of the Ensigns' father had died, and I had to go down into officers' country and wake him up to tell him. Then, according to protocol, I had to wait to see if there was an answer; of course, he was sobbing, and I felt really bad for him. No, no answer.
Our next move was to go toward Seattle, Washington. On the way up there, the scuttlebutt (rumor) was that there was a prisoner riot at Alcatraz, and we might have to stop there and train our guns on the prison. They wouldn't have had to worry, we couldn't hit that place if they told us to. It turned out to be just a rumor, anyway, so we kept on trucking' up the West Coast toward Peugeot Sound and Seattle.
It's very beautiful around Seattle with big snow-covered mountains in the background and a beautiful big bay. We tied up at Pier 91 and could walk off to liberty (in a lot of ports, we had to take a "small boat" to shore from an anchorage). We had two small boats (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel; LCVP's) one on each side of the ship used mostly for trading movies with other ships and getting mail ashore.
One Sunday Dugger and I took a ferry boat over to Bremerton where he had a friend who worked at the Boeing Aircraft Plant. It was a beautiful day and a great trip! We had lunch over there and came back in late afternoon. Then one day we went up to a city park where there were horses for rent; this was right down Dugger's alley! I never rode a horse and was scared shitless! The leader of the group said, "Don't gallop the horses, just ride like I do." Right! I hung onto the saddle horn and prayed as we went down what to me, was a steep hill. When we got back to the barn, Dugger "spurred" his horse and galloped like the wind down into what looked like an apple orchard to me. I marveled at that and immediately dismounted!
One other time, Dugger and I were on liberty and he said, "Let's get a tattoo! Of course I said "Sure," so we went in and naturally Dugger said, "You go ahead while I pick out a design." I got mine and he said, "I think I've changed my mind, maybe next time!" Sure! That guy always got the best of me!
Except one night, going back to the ship, we had bought a pint of whiskey, he was carrying it in his pants and it slipped down to the sidewalk and smashed! "You stupid bastard," I said, and he said, "Don't worry, I'll get another one!" But I don't remember that he ever did! We had more damn fun! One night we went into a big hotel and walked around the upstairs hallways listening for someone having a party. In a short time we found one and knocked at the door, hoping they wouldn't be mad! There were three sailors and two girls in the room; beds all messed up and alcoholic drinks all over the place. We had a good visit, a few drinks, and went back to the ship. I remember 817 8th Avenue! Six girls who worked at the aircraft plant lived in an apartment there and we used to visit them once in a while!
Soon, after loading up a big contingent of Negro Army troops (maybe 100, I guess they must have slept on the tank deck) and some trucks, Jeeps and other equipment, we headed out Puget Sound toward the Pacific and Hawaii. It was a beautiful and quite calm, voyage. Among our movies we had one starring Lena Horne and those black boys (Negroes, as they were called then) really whooped it up when they saw her! After sailing Southeast for a few weeks, we arrived at Pearl Harbor and unloaded the soldiers. Then we were ordered to tie up at the BIG Pier where the giant crane lifts BIG things. The old USS Saratoga (aircraft carrier) was tied up right across the pier from us. She had the distinctive square shaped conning tower covered with hundreds of miniature Japanese flags painted on it, representing Jap planes shot down by the ship itself or it's aircraft. Very impressive! There were three 16- or 18-inch rifles from a battleship on the dock and one day while playing catch with a softball, the ball rolled into one of the big guns. Well, we tied a line around "The Little Guy" and pushed and pulled him into the rifle to retrieve the ball. I'm sure if we had been caught there would have been hell to pay! That rifling takes a lot of work, and they wouldn't want it scratched and ruined!
We had an LCT (Landing Craft tank) loaded onto our top deck. It was loaded onto "ways" for launching later. Also, they loaded pontoons on either side of the ship. These were intended to be used for building a bridge or for driving vehicles from ship to shore. They were about 115 feet long and 10 feet wide and acted like giant "water wings" for the ship.
After getting everything loaded, we were ordered to move to a berth on the other side of Ford Island. We went past the battleship Arizona which was bottom side up, and started to round the end of the island. I was on the engine annunciators in the pilot house, and the wheel man and I both saw that we were going on the wrong side of a buoy. It's not up to us to tell the Captain where to steer! So consequently the ship soon ran aground in the mud. The Captain shouted. "All engines stop! Drop the stern anchor! All engines reverse!" And we wound up the anchor cable in the twin screws at the stern. We had to be pulled out of the mud, and shortly thereafter our esteemed Captain was relieved of duty.
When the new Captain, a Commander, came aboard, we knew there would be trouble! We had to "Man the Rail" in dress whites and see him being piped aboard. He was an Annapolis career officer and we knew he would be strict; which turned out for the better, because the ship would be run more efficiently, and we would be more efficient and safe! Also the ship was going to be much cleaner and we knew that this guy would know his business! There were "Friday Night Field Days" and white-glove inspections on Saturdays.
Liberty in Honolulu was a lot of fun, but all the brothels had been closed down by now (too bad). Anyway, sometimes we rented bicycles and rode up around Diamond Head and Schofield Barracks (seen in the movie "From Here to Eternity") and we went to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel which the Navy had taken over to house submariners back from a patrol. Ray McKinley and his Navy orchestra were playing there on the patio, and the Mills Brothers were singing in the lounge ( "Paper Doll" & "Glow Worm"). And again, "Let's go get a tattoo. There's a nice clean tattoo parlor." "Okay." "You go first." "OK." So I end up with three tattoos and Dugger has none!
We acquired a mascot puppy and named him Blinker (I never knew what happened to him), and I bought a case of pineapple juice to snack on when we were at sea. A group of B-24 Mitchell bombers went over one day looking as if they were about 30 feet in the air; beautiful women painted on their fuselages. After about a month, we left Pearl Harbor headed for the Marshall Islands. We stayed at Eniwetak Atoll for a short time. Cutting each other's hair was about the most exciting thing we could do there! Then to Guam, where some of the cargo was unloaded and where I got coral infection on the bottom of my feet while swimming in Apra Harbor. I had light duty for a week while the skin all fell off the bottoms of my feet. We headed for Saipan with me sitting in a gun tub holding my feet up toward the sun! We got into Saipan and sailed under the bow of one of the largest battleships in the US Navy! the USS Iowa. After we anchored, I went ashore to look for my brother, who was said to be in a hospital there. I went all over the island and there were still a lot of Jap soldiers hiding out there. Big loudspeakers were blaring telling them to surrender, but they really didn't want to. Anyway, I didn't find Ernie and later found out that he had been flown back to a hospital in the States. He had bronchitis from being in the mud and rain in Okinawa.
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On Sunday afternoons we would go swimming in the bay, jumping Off a line tied to the guns in the forward gun tub. With the bow doors open, we could run down the ramp and drop off into the water. We played music on the Beachmaster's loudspeaker which was to be used when coordinating landings and was very loud! The current rumor was that the Navy was looking for volunteers to serve on "picket boats," destroyers or destroyer escorts to cruise around Okinawa and shoot down Japanese Kamikaze planes. I don't think there were many takers even with extra hazardous duty pay! Soon we headed back down to Guam to load up equipment and set ready for the invasion of Japan. Of course this was all secret stuff, but we had a pretty good idea where we were going!
On August 14, 1945, the Japanese Radio Domain released a bulletin saying that Japan had accepted the Potsdam Ultimatum. This was enough for us to assume that the war was over! I was in the shower when the klaxon sounded "All hands man your battle stations!" I ran topside in my skivvies and a Mae West life jacket and found out that we were not being attacked! Every ship in the harbor was sounding horns and klaxons; it was a wonderful day!
After that, we were ordered to the Philippine Islands. We spent quite some time cruising around the islands, Samar, Leyte, past Mindanao and into the Sulu Sea and up past Corregidor, Bataan and into Manila Harbor. Then back out and into the South China Sea heading for Okinawa. At about 1600 one afternoon the seas started to get "heavy" and that night we found ourselves in a full-blown typhoon! Our destroyer escort left, saying that they had to go refuel. Yeah, right! They could move at about 30 knots and outrun the storm. We were left to ride it out. In three days and four nights of "hell" we ended up down by Formosa (now Taiwan), and then had to start back up to Okinawa again! We pulled into Naha Harbor one morning while the sea was still really heavy. There were some rusted out ships on the beaches, left there after the invasion. Some of our mail was found, all wet but readable, in one of the Quonset huts there.
After that, we went up to North China to Tsingtao, where the ship was steered onto rocks, ripping holes in the bottom. We had to go into dry-dock for about four months, October into January. There were many things that happened in Tsingtao, but one I'll never forget was the day "Frenchie" LeBlanc and I went on liberty together. The ship was on the beach, and we walked off the bow ramp and got a couple of rickshaws to go into the city. When we came back, the tide had come in and the ship was about 150 yards out in the water! "Frenchie" thought she was moving, and he ran out into the water shouting, "Wait! We're coming!" It was October and quite chilly! He fell down and all I could see was his little white hat floating on the surface! I got him calmed down and we went to another LST and got them to take us out in their small boat. God, that was funny!
Tsingtao was a Nationalist city surrounded by Communists. About two miles out of the city, one would be across the line and if caught, might never be heard from again! The city was controlled by AMGOT, American Government presided over by the Sixth Marine Division, the same division that my brother had been in. If he hadn't gone back to the states we might have gone on liberty together! Then our ship was ordered further North, up to Taku Bar where we unloaded the LSM and the pontoons. The railroad track ended here, and some of the guys took a train up to Peking. Luckily, I didn't go, because Dugger said it smelled so bad he had to get off and walk part of the way back to the harbor! Then the ship went over to Korea, where we saw the entire remainder of the Japanese fleet, about four or five ships.
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Back to Tsingtao, where my good buddies Dugger and Frenchie were transferred to other ships, and I was transferred to a Fleet Tug which had "blown" two of her four engines trying to pull a large tender out of the mud. The U.S.S. Arikara, ordered to Guam to pick up a floating dry-dock and tow it to Pearl Harbor. It took us a long time to get back to Hawaii (two weeks of which we had no fresh water for showers and shaving!) Then, it was back to San Diego where we "laid to" waiting for a berth assignment. The ground swells made the ship roll back and forth and again I was very seasick! It's very humiliating and embarrassing, after going halfway around the world! But I was so sick I didn't care, even about living! In a few days it was up to Long Beach, and get ready for discharge! We rode to Los Angeles many times on the PE (Pacific Electric) trains or trolleys. Went up to San Pedro and a lot of times to Pacific Ocean Park, where there were many amusements and ball rooms with well-known orchestras playing. Tommy Dorsey was at one place, but I went to a different one where I met Lawrence Welk (much different style then, when he was younger). The girl I was dancing with knew Harry James and Betty Grable; she said they were having a party, but when she called them, they didn't answer, so I guess they weren't home!
I was in charge of a "draft" of six other men which took a slow train back East. We ran out of food "chits" about halfway and I had to beg for some more from a porter! Then we lost one man out in Liberal, Kansas; he had gone to get soda and didn't get back to the train in time!
After about a week and a half, we finally got to New York City where we went to the YMCA to take a shower; the train had had an old steam engine, and we were filthy from the smoke. My skivvies were so dirty I threw them away! Then we went up to Boston for discharge. "Take off all your clothes except your skivvies, and stand in line." Of course, I was the only one with absolutely nothing on. Very embarrassing! I signed up for four years in the Reserve in case I wanted to re-enlist in that period but two weeks before the Korean War, I was discharged! A good thing, because I was married by then.
So in June of 1946 my Navy story ends!
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