dad's wwii naval story.pdf

8/14/2019 Dad's WWII Naval Story.pdf

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Teds Story

INTRODUCTION

After my kids read my book, "A Story Of Three Boys And How They Lived", they asked ifI would write my World War II story. I told them that my war experiences were as dull aswatching grass grow. Then I got to thinking that my story need not be a story of bloodand glory but a story of our common day experiences and personalities which represented

a cross section of the nation. The trick now is to remember what happened in that time somany years ago. At the time, three years and two months seemed like an eternity.

Prior to "Pearl Harbor", I graduated from Ford High School in 1940 and was equipped fornothing but "grunt labor. I worked as farm laborer for relatives and neighbors. My onetalent was art, which in those days was indulged only by little old ladies. The comics weremy passion. I did comic strips. One was titled "Barney Co Bill" which was patterned

after "Popeye the Sailor." There was no art training in any of the public schools at thattime.

I spent one year with no goal for the future. Then, one Sunday afternoon, my whole familywas sitting in front of our True Tone radio listing to the New York symphony, when, out ofthe clear blue, an announcer broke in and said that "the Japanese just bombed PearlHarbor". I realized then that I was the right age with no farm deferment and I was in goodhealth, My future had come into focus.

I, like all young men, had registered for the draft, but I did not want to enlist. How glad Iwas I hadnt because I could havebeen involved in some of the early battles where we

suffered defeat because we were unprepared. I could have been killed or become aprisoner of war. In early November of 1942, I received my draft notice to report to FortLeavenworth for a physical.

THE DRAFT AND ENLISTMENT

That draft notice sort of put me into a panic. I really wanted to join the navy. Here iswhere I relied on my good old dad. Telephones were not as common as they are today soDad went to Minneola to call the draft board to get permission for me to join the navy.They said that they didn't care as long as I went somewhere, so Dad and I went right up to

the Navy recruiting office in the Dodge City Post Office. There we met the Navy Chiefwho gave me a short physical. He had to take my blood pressure twice since my bloodpressure was so high (I still have problems with anxiety-induced high blood pressure).Once my blood pressure came down, he then had me sign some papers. He then announcedthat he had a group going to Kansas City the next day. I want to give that Chief credit forbeing a kind man. His kindness put me at ease that made it easier to go into the unknown.

Now that I had enlisted, the problem now was to get to Kansas City. That problem was to


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get on the train to Kansas City. Dad saw the anxiety I had about getting on the train as Ihad not been on a train since I was five years old, so good old Dad volunteered toaccompany me to Kansas City. When we arrived to our destination and got off the train,all of the recruits that got on the train in Dodge City followed Dad to the recruiting stationlike the pied piper, probably some to their doom.

The recruiting station was in a building not too far from the Union Station. As we arrivedthere, Dad left for a return trip to Dodge City. The day I was sworn in to the United StatesNavy. I was supposed to be sworn into the United States Army at Fort Leavenworth. This isa decision I have never regretted.

THE GREAT LAKES BOOT CAMP

The Great Lakes Boot Camp was north of Chicago. This is the place where militarytraining began. This is where you became not much more than a number. The first order

was to strip buck naked and run through a shower. One corpsman would yell, "Wet down,soap down, and wash the cheese off. Next, you were in line, still naked with one recruitnot three inches in front of you and one "recruit" not more than three inches behind. Youare checked from stem to stern.. Some of the terms used were: Bend over and spread yourcheeks" or "Skin it back and milk it down". My friend Ray Pearce related to me that whenhe was taking a physical in the army, he noticed a recruit had some markings on hisbuttocks. Being a printer, Ray could read backwards. It read, "Home Comfort," The recruittold Ray that once he had fallen on the oven door of his kitchen range and was branded.After the physical exams, next came the shots. I cannot remember how many shots wereceived, but it reminded me of giving shots to cattle down on the farm. As we progresseddown the line, we had all kinds of numbers and marks in iodine, just like branding cattle.Of course, we all got the traditional haircut. The haircuts were not as short as the Army,but you could see the barbers salivate when he had a recruit with long, black curly hair.

CLOTHING ISSUE

The next procedure was our clothing issue. This is when you realize how the Navy issteeped in tradition that dates back to the Eighteenth Century. The number of issues Ihave forgotten, but I will guess how many per item:

Two pairs of dungarees, now known as jeans

Two Chambray shirts One middy blouse One bell bottom trouser-very lightly belled Two pairs of black shoes-one high tops, one oxford Several pairs of black socks Several pairs of white shorts-known as skivvies Several pairs of white T shirts- also known as skivvies One knit watch cap, two white hats, and one flat hat complete with a black ribbon


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with a gold inscription reading, The United States Navy.

One pair of boots, which were leggings in civilian terms, fit with a strap under theshoe and laced up the outside of the leg

Several clothes stops which were short cotton cords to tie up rolled up clothes One pea coat and one black rain coat

We were also issued:

One safety razor and blades and shaving cream One comb and a sewing kit One toothbrush & toothpaste One bottle of Aqua Velva shaving lotion A shoe shine kit One "ditty bag, to hold the items listed above One sea bag which was our luggage for the duration One Hammock, which I never used in my entire Naval career

After we were secured with our new clothes, our civilian clothes were packed in theluggage we came with and were shipped home. I suspect we had a short psychological test.I remember going in to a small room where I was asked if I liked girls. At the time I thoughtthat was a dumb question, but later I understood why.

As I stated earlier, the traditional uniform was not very practical for the 20th Century. Forinstance, the middy blouse collar would have been used to keep the tar that was used tosmear on their pigtails. The bell bottoms, as well as the white hat, were used to catch air fora flotation device. The thirteen buttons on the trousers were to celebrate the thirteenoriginal states. For dress, to go on liberty, the middy blouse breast pocket was to remain

empty, the black neckerchief was to be tied in a square knot at the base of the V neck. Theneckerchief was to be used as a sling in case of an arm or a shoulder injury in combat.Your comb would be carried in the lace up in the back of the trousers, your billfold hungover the waist band of the trousers, and if you smoked, the cigarettes would be carried inyour sock. If you had to go to the bathroom, you had to unbutton and then button thirteendumb buttons. The uniforms were wool and were a magnet for lint, but they were ruggedenough to be scrubbed in soap and water. If you were slim and young, you could look"cute" in that uniform, but a person who was balding and portly could look ridiculous.There was one thing the uniform did very well, and that was to separate the enlisted menfrom the officers. This uniform must be enduring as it still is in use and has been for over100 years.

One thing we had to adapt to was Naval terminology. For instance, the floor is a deck,

a wall is a bulkhead, the front of the ship is the bow , and the rear is the stern. If asailor goes fore and aft, he will go front and back. Up and down the steps on the ladder

(the stairway) takes you top side or below. If you need supplies, you go to ship stores, andone thing as important as anything is the toilet, which is called the head. The kitchen iscalled a galley, and the call to food is chow down.


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Living with over one hundred men was a new experience for a country kid like me. Therewere recruits from all corners of the country and all nationalities, all white. Each floor wasassigned to a Chief Petty Officer . Our Chiefs name was Grenfeld. Chief Grenfeld was avery kind man with a great deal of patience. As our company assembled in our newquarters, the Chief would stand up before us and would say, I am your mother and your

father. If you have problems, call me.The Chief did not stay in our quarters. Instead, oneof the older recruits was put in charge of our barracks.

November in the Great Lakes is cold, and the day we got there it snowed. The snowstayed on the ground for nine weeks, the entire time we were there. Of course, any part ofa new military routine involves marching. We were also assigned to watch duty, anotherbasic military routine. The watches were four hours on and eight hours off. With so manymen standing watch, your turn didnt come around very often. When it was my turn atstanding watch, the officer of the day approached, and I was to give the spiel by myself.Something like, Seaman Carlson, Company 1742 is secureSir! But instead Im

sure I stumbled all over myself.

Of course there was coffee at every meal. I think the Navy fought the war on coffee. Infact, before every battle the ships cook would boil pots of coffee to have on hand. EverySunday we marched to the hall for breakfast, and every Sunday we had a cake-like roll andBoston baked beans for breakfast, a new experience for me.

The uniform of the day was work blues, high top shoes, and boots. The boot consisted ofa canvas cover and laced up on the outside of the leg. The uniform also included a watch, acap made of black wool, and a pea coat. After breakfast, we marched by twos to a drillhall. The drill halls were huge half rounds which probably would cover most of a footballfield. The floors were made of asphalt, and the roof supports were laminatedtwo-by-twelve boards at least a foot-and-a-half thick. Even in the Great Lakes frigid air,the halls were quite comfortable.

Our first visit to the drill hall was for exercise and gymnastics. One day they announcedthere would be a photographer present and asked us to pick out someone to have our phototaken with. I didnt know anyone, but it happened someone else was in the same situation,so we had our picture taken together. To this day, I do not know this persons name orwhere he was from. I still have that sixty-eight-year-old picture.

One drill hall had a swimming pool. The instructor announced that All you men who canswim meet me at the deep end of the pool, and the rest of you go to the shallow side. Anet stretched high over the center of the pool. The deep-water guys climbed to the topof the net, dived off, and performed other antics to help them to swim away from a sinkingship. We shallow water guys hung on the side and splashed water. In the end, it

wouldnt have matter anyway in the big, wide full-of-sharks Pacific.

Every recruit in the Navy was destined for the dentists office, and Im sure that a lot ofpoor guys from down south needed it very badly. It was soon my turn to go to the dentistoffice. Dentists were not a new experience for me because I had been to the ones at home.


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When I entered the dentist office, there were two young men there, ensigns by rank, andGod knows how much training they had had. As I sat in the chair, the first thing theydecided was to remove my fillings and refill my teeth. My brother Rolands experiencewith Ensign dentists was unique. They were so fascinated with his stringy saliva, they keptplaying with it. Unfortunately, my condition wasnt so entertaining. I had to have a tooth

pulled, and my previous experiences with that hadnt been so great. My teeth had hookedroots, and I had never had one pulled that didnt break, so I wasnt surprised when they hadto dig for the root. We had Novocain, but it didnt help much. Inthat chair was a youngrecruit, a thousand miles from home, sitting in a chair at the mercy of two young Ensigns.Of course, when they pulled the tooth, it took an hour to dig out the root. Finally they let meout of the chair. As I went out the door in a lot of pain, a Bosun Mate said, Mop this floorbefore you go. Being a stupid kid from Western Kansas and a lowly 2ndclass seaman, Idid what I was told. I cleaned up the room, sat in my barracks, and ultimately healed prettyfast.

I probably saw entertainment at the Great Lakes I would have never otherwise seen in my

life. Everywhere we went, we would march. One day, we marched to a huge arena witha stage in the center. It was a lot like a football field, and there were a 1000 sailors there.The first performance was by Phil Spinaldi and His All-Girl Orchestra, which was first-class entertainment. The only other one I saw was Eddie Peabody, supposedly the worldsbest banjo player. He sat on a little stool with his banjo on his lap. His back was to me, butI could see him bounce on his butt and play the darnedest music you ever heard. He was aLt. Commander, so he had rank. The other entertainment I saw came later, but it wasnt at

boot camp.

We spent a lot of time at the barracks. There must have been 100 men on each floor ondouble bunks. I had an upper bunk. The light was two feet from my face, and in themorning that light would come on, and theyd yell, Drop your cocks and grab yoursocks!

A young man like me experienced smoking for the first time in the Navy. When it was timeto smoke, someone would say the old phrase, the smoking lap is on and all the smokers

would rush to the head. This phrase came from the old days when people used whale oillaps to light their pipes. Of course, we had lighters. The bathroom where everyonesmoked had a row of stools and on the other side there were tubs for washing up our clotheswhere we would scrub our clothes with a ki-eye brush. There was also a sitting place wherethe smokers parked. Pretty soon youd borrow a cigarette from someone, then another,and pretty soon youd buy a pack for a nickel. Before you knew it, you had started yoursmoking career in the head. Conversations were held there about all types of things, andthere were all kinds of men. One guy who was kind of a leader, bald-headed , portly, and alittle older, but he was a very kind fella. There were a lot of hillbillies from Kentucky andTennessee. Some of those boys were very ignorant and young. Sometimes I questioned ifthey were old enough to be in the Navy. I remember two boys in particular. One older andone quite a bit younger both from the hills. Anything the older guy would do, the youngerguy would imitate, like snuffing his nose.


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Because we wore high top black shoes with carbon black shoes, there were all kinds ofmarks on the hardwood, varnished floor. So, right before bedtime, we were each issued twoballs of steel wool that we placed under each foot. Before we would go to bed, we wouldslide around until we rubbed the marks out of the floor.

At bedtime (I suppose it was around 8:00), Id undress and roll up my clothes. Our clotheswere always stored in a roll. Id put aside my sea bag, and crawl up to the top bunk. Thelights went out, and youd hear a voice say Grab your cocks and drop your socks.

We rested well until the next days routine which was approximately the same as the day

before.

Boot camp was traditionally three months, but, during the war, it was nine weeks. Welearned how not to swim, how to march, and how to tie knots, something I never used my

entire navy career. We were broke into being service men in the US Navy, which wasntreally a bad thing. Toward the end of our tenure there, Chief Granfield broke the newsthat there were no dress blues available. Of course, there were a lot of complaints because

thats what the guys looked forward to going home in, but they just werent available. Allof us recruits, on our own, had tickets to go home for nine days leave, plus travel time. Wewent to the loop in Chicago to take the train, and had some time to kill. There were a lot ofJewish merchants there with all kinds of things, and one of them had a dress blue midiblouse. I realized now that it was probably tailor made and not regulation (maybe evenWorld War I vintage), but I bought it and wore it home. I was dressed in my dress bluemidi blouse, my basic training trousers, my black socks, black oxfords, and my navy flathat with a US Navy ribbon sewn on the band, and, of course, I had my sea bag which wenteverywhere I went. Soon I was on my way home.

I had gone into boot camp a 2ndclass seaman and had come out a 1stclass seaman. Beforewe left, we were issued a test to choose our service profession. I decided I would chooseto be a carpenter or a navy ordinance man, the guy who cleans guns and loads bombs onaircraft. Finally, when the test came back, I found out that I had been chosen go toordinance school at a base outside of Memphis called Millington. In January of 1943, inthe dead of winter, I headed home.

LEAVE

Once I was home my cousin, Bud Esplund, and my brother, Harold, were still little boys.By the time I returned from the Navy, they were grown men. During this visit, my AuntOral, threw a big party for me down on the farm where her daughter and husband still live.Every relative that I had was there, along with friends of relatives, all in all, about 30people.XXXXX(list here?_ Mildred Mrs. Weddle. John Larson, Grandma Larson, and even littlekids.

BOOT CAMP


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While at boot camp, I visited with Jack Randall from Minneola who was stationed at GreatLakes as well. My brother Roland was also at Great Lakes, but I didnt know where he was.I didnt see him again until after the war.

LEAVE

It was time to go back to the Navy. They had to take me to the train in Minneola. . As I leftto go and get in the car with dad. Mom started to cry. I said, Please dont.,and shedidnt. That was the last time I ever saw her.

MILLINGTON

I arrived at the naval air base at Millington naval air base in the later part of January. I

remember how nice and balmy it was in Tennessee after being at Great Lakes. There wasred soil and rain, and there were black men with mules and fresnos, a scoop the mule wouldpull. They were working at Millington which was still under construction.

At Millington, I met a whole new body of men. I felt very lucky to have passed the test andbeen accepted into ordinance school. Some recruits were gun operators on merchant shopsand many did all kinds of grunt work. I spent six months in Millington at ordinance school.I learned how to hang bombs, and I learned how a fuse works. I learned how to tear downa machine gun, clean it, and put it back together. I remember one instructor who discusseda sear, the part of a gun that releases the hammer . He said, This chere is a sear. He was

a Southern boy. That was my first experience with kids from the South, or New York, orother parts of the country. All pretty decent guys. We had a barracks with double bunks,and, as I remember, I was still on the upper bunk. We had different classes as part of ourtraining. One class was about radar. Radar was brand new, and they warned us, You donot mention this word outside this room. At that time the British already had radar thatinformed them when the Germans were coming. We had a round scope attached to anantenna. Youd watch that arm go around, and, every once in awhile youd see a blipwhich told you something was there. We also had lessons in mathematics, which was notmy best suit, and our classes were small. Our school was just like going to college. For oneclass, a big guy name Holcomb was our instructor. One day he asked our class, Did youget any last night? He was fired, but later, I think he ended up overseas where I was.

MEMPHIS

Later, we got shore leave to go into Memphis. The first place most guys would go was abeer joint. I had no appetite for beer. My first experience with beer was in 1932 whenDad picked up a schooner of beer in Wichita. I tasted it, and I thought it stunk. On shoreleave, I usually got a chocolate milk shake instead. Of course there were always girlswherever we boys went. At one bar, one girl said, He dont like beer. Dont make himdrink it. I eventually acquired a taste for beer since it was everywhere. It was usually


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called Jacks beer, and it probably wasnt fully cured. There was also an amusement parkin Memphis we attended many times. I never was a womanizer, but one time there was agirl who wanted to go into a tunnel with me. I put my hands on her hips and followed herthrough the tunnel, but then she put my hands on her breasts. I thought, Now what do Ido? I got a taxi and took her home. I think she expected more than she was going to get.

After all, I had to be back to the base on time! Thats about it for romance during myNavy career.

Just like in boot camp, we poor country boys were exposed to first class talent. Two Iremember in Memphis were Jack Teagarden and his Orchestra and Clyde McCoy.Teagarden was a well-known big band director and he gave us an outdoor concert. We hadweekly concerts by Clyde McCoy because he was part of the personnel. He was a trumpetplayer and Sugar Blues was his signature song. McCoy was the director of entertainmentat the Memphis base. He was slightly gray-headed and was an enlisted man like we were.

When I was in Memphis, we continued to learn more about ordinance. We studied things

about fuses, explosives, and all kinds of things that went on airplanes. At the end of termin Millington, we were all lucky enough to get a 3rdclass rating, a rank basically equivalentto a Sergeant, which paid $78 a month. At one point, somebody got wind that I was acartoonist, so I did a cartoon for the company paper. One exercise was swinging on a ropeover a pool of water, so I drew one sailor swinging over the pool seeing all the white hats inthe water. I turned the cartoon in, and I thought theyd print the caption, but they sent it

back saying I needed to provide it. I cant remember what it was.

After six months of study in Millington (March through September of 1943), I wentstraight to San Francisco on a troop train. One thing I noticed were the cranky conductors.They were absolutely asinine to the troops. Theyd yank them around, saying things like

Get out of my seat. Here were kids going to fight a war for them, and they were simplyrude. Of course, with hundreds of guys from all over the country, some of them managedto bring a bottle on board. The guys would learn how to get crushed ice and put in thebathroom sink for their whiskey.

Our destination was Treasure Island, an area that had once been part of the 1939 Worlds

Fair, a fair that occurred at the same time as the New York Worlds Fair. The symbol forthat fair was a pylon and a sphere, and the old Treasure Island barracks had those markings.It was right on the bay, so I could see the Golden Gate bridge, all kinds of ships, and, for thefirst time in my life, I saw the ocean. The phrase ocean blue is a bunch of crap becauseall I saw was green-gray dirty looking water. Also, right off shore I could see Alcatraz,which in those days was occupied. In San Francisco, we. were pretty lax because, eventhough we had no idea where we were going, we were about to go overseas. A smallgroup of us who had been in the school at Memphis were assigned to the same ship. Oneguys name was Howard Dreggers. Howard was a little short guy, pretty masculine, and,according to him, quite a womanizer in spite of his short stature. Howard and I cruiseddowntown San Francisco together. One time we thought we saw a Prostitutes house andthought Why not? Were going overseas. Howard, being the conversationalist, asked,Do you have something here to relieve a stiff? The woman said, I dont have any girls


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here. I went back to base a virgin. According to Howard, who was a Florida boy, healways had sex without protection, but he assured the girl it was okay. He told her that ifshed lay on her side and press on her left side, she wouldnt get pregnant. Now I wonderhow many little Howard Dreggers there are in the world! He told me one time that I hadjust never had a big bite out of life. With sailors like Howard, it was easy to see why

movies about how to avoid venereal disease were shown at Boot Camp. One movieshowed a fairly unattractive girl at a bar. As the sailor in the movie got more and drunk,the girl become more and more beautiful, until she looked just like Ava Gardner.

USS BORES XXX check spelling for Nomia ?

Finally, our time was up on Treasure Island and on the 16th of June, 1943, we boarded anold 11 Knot Refrigerator Food Ship called the USS Bores (a ship probably built duringWW I), and headed for Nomia (sp)xxx. There were only about eight of us from Memphisthat took that ship. The trip took 21 days because the ship had to zig zigzag to avoid

enemy submarines, but we had good chow to make up for it. We were on a food ship, so weworked right along with the crew. We ate all kinds of meat and other great food. We missedthe pollywog initiation because of the war. In peace that was a hell of an initiation whenyou crossed the Equator.

Each one of was assigned duty, and mine was four hours on and eight hours off. Weoccupied a round tub-like structure with a 20mm rapid firing gun at the front of the ship.The ammunition was about 6 inches long. In all my training in Memphis I had never hadany training on this weapon. I didnt know how to fire one. You learned fast. If it cameto shooting there were two big half round yokes that would fit on your shoulders. To firethe thing, you cocked it to charge by pulling a line, which is a Navy term for rope.Fortunately, I never had to fire the thing.

I was issued binoculars and a pair of goggles with a knob where I could twist them and getpolarized light. Being a Western boy who had only seen in the stock tank, I realized thatthe Pacific Ocean really is blue. There were flying fish in schools, hundreds of them thatlooped in and out of the water. I think I saw porpoises and I saw one passing ship, a Dutchship with a curved bow heading the other way.

During my 8 hours off, we had our discussions about everything. In the US Navy inWW II, the two major discussions were women and The Civil War. I remember the nighttime drill when everyone stood on deck ready for action. The skipper would pace backand forth on the bridge on the evening watch when the ship was alerted. One time, wewere arguing about something on our watch, and the skipper yelled that, if we didnt shutup, hed put us below. They had a 6 inch cannon on the front deck that they would fire atnight into the ocean to check it out. I realized what a splitting noise that was on your headwhen it fired.

For recreation, on the fantail of the ship, theyd tie a glass jug and toss it over board.Theyd let it trail several hundred yards behind the ship. Then, wed each take turns


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shooting at it with a 30 caliber rifle. When I took my turn, I picked up the rifle, aimed it,and I broke the bottle! We were feed well, treated well, and became a small group offriends. It could have been a lot worse. Finally, after 21 days, we arrived at an island, butit wasnt Nomia. It was New Hebrides. The orders had been changed. I was in areceiving base on New Hebrides for two days. Then, boarded a DC transport for

Guadalcanal. We left at dark and got there in the morning. Im assuming it wasapproximately a 4 or 5 hour flight.

XXXSee discharge info on official documents.

As we approached the island, I was in my tower, and I could almost touch the wings of aB24 that was checking us out. The island was jungle, but I didnt see much of it since wewere only there in two days. Early in the morning, we boarded a DC3 for Guadalcanal.

GUADALCANAL (a Spanish) look up miles from NH to GC

The DC 3 had bucket seats lining each wall. We had to strap ourselves in and then weflew all night. I cant remember if we had a fighter escort, but Guadalcanal Canal was stillconsidered a war zone. My memory of Guadalcanal had been from Life Magazine. I hadremembered seeing Henderson Field, the main airfield of Guadalcanal. I saw the coconutgrove trees and the jungle in the magazine. When we arrived, I realized XXXHF look justlike the magazine.

XXXX insert here

When we landed in July of 1943, we took our gear and grouped together at a place calledAir Center. There, we were issued square tents composed of a tent, ropes, stakes, andscreens for around the tent to keep out the mosquitoes. We had no training on how to doit, but we raised the tent anyway. It was composed of a pole in the middle and was helddown by four stakes on four sides. It housed four bunks for four guys. We had noassignments yet, so, for awhile anyway, we lived in leisure.

The island had only been secured for about two years. We all found scrap lumber and madea made a deck for the tent. There Howard Dreggars from Tampa, Chris Christianson fromIowa, Lloyd Coal from Upstate New York, and me. We had arguments, but we werefriends. Coal was touchy about things, and he wanted to fight, but Christianson told himto sit down and shut up. Cole had a girlfriend named Gennie, and of course HowardDreggars had a bundle of girls. Christianson and I were single men.

While on the island, we learned about a dive bomber called a SBD, also called a DouglasDauntless. It had a bomb carriage rack below that carried a 1000 lb. bomb. It was hookedto a forked swing brace with hinges so when the plane went into a dive, it swung the bombdown below so it wouldnt hit the propeller. There was a perforated brace on the rear partof the wing that opened up to catch air to slow the airplane down. When they released thebomb, they pulled the stick to disengage the brace and would pull up after they dropped thebomb. It had a pilot and a rear gunner who had twin 30 caliber machine guns. That was


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the main plane we worked on. It helped win the war, but it wasnt a new plane. Weeventually worked on the F6F fighters made by Grumman. It had just replaced the F4Ffighter. It had three machine guns on each wing and was a hot, new plane. We alsoworked on the F4U built by Chance Vought. It had six machine guns and was very fast andagile due to the gull wing that raised the front of the plane up to accommodate a large

propeller. Although not as much, I also worked on the largest engine plane built at thattime, the TBF, also made by Grumman. It was designed to carry torpedoes or bombs inthe bay. It had a pilot, a radio man, a rear gunner, and a tail gunner. All these planes hadwings that folded up so they could be stored on the ship. The first thing you saw beforethey flew were their wings being unfolded.

Basically, our job was to load ammunition and clean the guns on these planes. Ironically,we 3rdclass ordinance men were being shown how to load these planes by seamen, kidswith lower rank, but with more experience. They were the old-timers in this case.

All squadrons were assigned a chief. Most of the US Chiefs I ever met were alcoholics.

Our chief was a short, but nice guy, named Robbie. He was gentle but authoritative. TheChiefs were a unit of their own, not officers, not enlisted. They were the equivalent ofMaster Sergeants in the Army. They had their own clubs, khaki uniforms, and dressblues, just like an officer.

I was on Guadalcanal from the fall of 1943 to January of 1944. When I got there we wereat AirCenter, but then we moved to CASU 14. Every island in the Pacific was consideredan aircraft carrier. CASU stood for Carrier Aircraft Service Unit. Near every tent wasa foxhole. Foxholes were covered with palm tree logs which were heavy and solid. Everyfoxhole, because of all the rain, always had about a foot of water in them. Air-raidsusually occurred on a certain date each month to harass us because Tojos son had been

killed on that date. When we heard the sirens, we ran to the foxholes. The air-raids wereusually at night and youd hear the drone of an airplane from way above. Then, thesearchlights would come on and the plane would look like a little bug in the sky.

Usually our days werent that exciting. Wed go to the ordinance shack and we wouldwork on airplanes. We had to clean guns after each air-raid. Each time the planes thereturned, wed clean the guns with wire brushes and would set the ammunition in the 50caliber machine gun. Each gun had a lid youd raise up and lay the built cartridge in thereand wait for it to be charged. Each gun porthole had to be covered with masking tapesbecause of the moisture so when the gun would fire, it would fire right through the maskingtape. Each airplane had a plane captain who was mechanic. In the morning the planeswould be running, lined up side by side, ready to go out on a mission. They would go theairstrip one behind the other with wings folded. Wings were folded so they could bestored on the ship. When they got to the strip, theyd unfold, and one by one theyd takeoff, pulling the landing gears up as cleared the ground, carrying 6 loaded machine guns and1000 pound bombs.

The SBD had twin machine guns in the back on a pivot. One gun on the front was on oneside of the cowel. The plane was synchronized so that when the propeller blade was dead


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center of the gun, it would fire. As the bullet would proceed the propeller would be out ofthe way. One day, I was working on the gun. There was still a round in the chamber ofthe gun. As a guy was turning the propeller, it fired and blew a hole in the propeller. It wasaimed toward the tower, but missed. I thought, Oh boy, Im in trouble., but nothinghappened. At least the gun was synchronized.

To keep these guns aligned, we would boresight them which meant they would have toconverge on a target in the distance. We had to raise up the airplane so the tail was level,and youd open up each chamber and had aperiscope device youd put in the barrel of thegun. You made adjustments on the gun that would set the sight on the target.

Toward evening the planes would come back. If they had shot a Japanese plane theydtake a barrel roll for every plane they shot down. The ones that did the most barrel rollswere P38s. Theyd make all kinds of barrel rolls. One night after dark some bomberscame in. Our planes were equipped with a device called IFF which identified the planesas our planes when they came in from a raid. One night a Japanese plane followed a

bomber in so he could get past the IFF and dropped a bomb on a merchant ship out in thebay. We could see it in flames since it wasnt that far off the coast.

Amongst us on Guadalcanal were the natives. They were short with kinky hair. They putsomething on their hair to make it red. Their feet spread out like ducks and their legs werescaly. The women were topless with long hanging breasts and they carried their babies ina sling made out of burlap. They were very docile and were smart enough to sell knickknacks to us. They lived in hills, but frequently came to the base. After all, it was theirland.

Guadalcanal was a volcanic island, and the sands were black-gray, made up of volcanicash. The Australians and New Zealanders had set up plantations of coconut groves there.Rarely was there a tree without a shrapnel mark on it. We lived among coconut trees.Any time you wanted, you could pick up a coconut. You had to figure out how to break itopen, and some guys got diarrhea from eating too much coconut. They could fall on youtoo. There was a mountain ridge all through the island, but I only saw one part ofGuadalcanal and that was on Lunga Beach. You could see a little volcanic island acrossthe bay called Salvo. The ocean was calm and very blue, very different than my SanFrancisco view of the ocean. In Guadalcanal, you might see a small white cap, but the baywas very smooth. Guadalcanal had two seasons, rainy and dry. In the rainy season itrained all day; in the dry season it rained in the afternoons. Youd see a little squallcoming in across the ocean.

When I first got to casu 14, every man had a beard. The dress code was atrocious. Jeanswere cut shorts, shirts sleeves were cut off, and shirts were worn open. Most men worewhite caps, and the shoes were leather work shoes. Some of the men cut up the shoes andmade sandals out of them.

The United States Navy was very autocratic. Thats probably why the enlisted men gotaway with whatever they did. Thats why we called it officers country. We got the


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beer and the Pepsis, and they got the whiskey. We got nothing, and they got the nurses.Because we served in such close quarters on a ship, they felt like they had to maintain theirplace of authority. It was not unusual for an officer to have an enlisted man to take all ofthe ammo out of a fighter plane and put their beer in the canister. Then, theyd have thepilot fly several thousand feet to cool it.

After several weeks, the order came out that all beards had to be shaved off because themen couldnt wear the gas masks. I woke up one morning and was among strangers! I

didnt recognize any of those guys.

The only black men on the island were Navy Stewards. They tended to the officers. Theywere very few though. However, there was a black company that managed a PX wherewe bought our cigarettes, candy bars (called pogybait), and basic toiletries. Cigaretteswere 5 cents a pack, and everybody smoked. We had name-brands like Lucky Strikes,Camels, and Old Golds. The only problem with Old Golds was they had added moistureand that caused them to get moldy. If you didnt want to buy a pack of cigarettes, outside

of my tent there was a crate of vacuum packed Chelsey cigarettes for free. Thats whyeverybody smoked. We were bored and cigarettes were free.

We had outside showers that were heated by the sun, just like back on the farm. A fewplaces in the camp had hanging canvas Lister bags for drinking water. They weresupposed to help cool the water but didnt do much. Next to them were salt tablets for usto take.

Chow was good. The mess was a huge screened-in tent with netting. The Navy alwayshad pretty good food. However, the scourge of the South Portland Islands was Malariausually treated with quinine. When Japanese took over islands that produced quinine, wewere given a substitute called adabrine. Adabrine had a tendency to turn you yellow.Some idiots didnt take it, so at the beginning of chow line they would make us open our

mouths and take it.

My Air Center tent-mates and I bunked together at CASU 14 as well. One corner of ourtent starting leaking water, and then I happened to think about the butter they used that wasdesigned not to melt in the tropics. I dont even if it was really butter, but it stopped theleak.

Every sailor had his own duty when it came to laundry. It was a little hazardous. On theislands there was a lot of high grade gasoline for the airplanes. It was easy to get ahold of.Sometimes youd fill your lighter from gasoline dripping off the wing. One of thehandiest pieces of equipment we had was the box that was used to carry ship ammunition.The boxes were about 1 x 2 x 10 inches and were lined with metal liners. Those boxescould be used for cupboards or chairswhatever you needed. We also utilized the metalinserts for laundry. We took one can and filled it with 6 inches of gasoline. We droppeda match in and started the fire. Wed take the other can and put it on top until it boiled.Wed stir the clothes in the water with a stick and they out pretty clean. It was a littledangerous though. My brother, Roland, got burned doing this. He was lucky it wasnt


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serious.

The miracle of World War II was bringing all of these young kids from all over the US todo a job on an island. All kind of guys with all kinds of personalities. One guy I knewwas named Hutchinson. He was a little fat and dumpy and always quietly said his prayers

before he ate.

Dreggars was a nice guy with his own philosophy. There was Lloyd Cole from upstateNY. He was dark -complexioned guy with a little bit of a temper. Christianson (Chris)was a regular guy from Iowa. He had a little trouble with arthritis in his foot and gotshipped back a little early.

There was Tom Carnes from Ohio. He had been an ace basketball player at his highschool. One young man was name John DeBaun. John was from Brooklyn and healways tried to sing like Frank Sinatrabadly.

XXX

The enlisted men improvised for refreshments. Torpedoes ran on around 110 proofalcoholpretty powerful stuff. Youre not going to stop young men from having a drink.

The men would go to the torpedo circus and buy alcohol. Theyd get lemon extract as achaser and would drink. Some guys were known to have gone blind drinking it.

One guy, Otto Hate, went on a three day drunk. You could hide in your tent and no onewould know. I drank a little bit of it, but not much. I bet there was more alcohol thatwent through sailors than ever went through a torpedo.

XXX We would load bombs whenever there was mission going out. Guadalcanal wasvital to US interest since we were still trying to take the Solomon Islands, island by island.

XX When we first arrived, the Marines were still cleaning out the back jungles. I saw afew Japanese prisoners on Guadalcanal. A few had been hiding in the hills and weresubsequently captured.

The orders finally came down that casu 14 was to go to New Georgia on Munda Air Stripwhich was about 500 m North. It was the opposite of GC, no palm trees and all jungle.Instead of sandy beaches it was coral. As a matter of fact, the air strip there was a big widepiece of coral air strip.a long white shiny air strip, esp. shiny at night. The Japaneseliked to bomb it because they could see it so well. Here we had to start over and findmaterial to build our own tent.

New Georgia had land crabs and they had a tendency to migrate to the sea via the airstrip.The planes would smash them and they would stink there lying on the field. I had a metalfuse box and when I reached for something I immediately pulled my hand back becausethere was a crab in there. They werent small and had big pinchers.


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Life on Munda was about like that on Guadalcanal, with a fair amount of time off. Onetime, I was walking in the coral hills and one guy asked if I wanted my picture taken. I gotup on a high spot on the coral, and its one of the best portraits Ive ever had taken. (Seephoto)

On NG we had large foxholes like those on GC, but instead of palm logs they were anotherkindand they too were full of water. Just like on GC, every moonlit night there was anair raid. Once there were two Japanese planes. A Marine pilot went up, shot down oneand then the other. You could hear the airplane whine as it went down and crashed. Thepilot got grounded because he went up without orders.

Our bombing raids were island stepping. Wed bomb one island, then take the next one inthe Solomon Islands chain. The scariest island was Raboul. It had the Japanese fleetthere.

XX Wed load three different bullets on a belt clip. Several bullets were followed by a

tracer so the pilots could see where they were shooting. If we had ever seen a shiparmor-piercing bullet, we would have known there was going to be a Japanese Navalinvasion, but we never did. The same thing would have applied to ship armor-piercingbombs.


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Dear Rol,

Well, after damn near two years I finally made it home. I am writing thisby the oil stove. Dad has gone to Dodge to see Dr. Jannie about some sinustrouble.

I have developed a heck of a cold. I hope I get rid of it but quick.

It seems that Dad was calling and sending telegrams to you and I so that wecould get together out on the coast.

When I wrote him a litter from Frisco I put my old CASU 41 return on it. So,he sends me the telegram with my old return.

Ill probably get the telegram, alright, in about two years. Should I have

known for sure your address I could have easily taken the Santa Fe south anddropped off to see you.

I suppose you would like to know where Ive been?

Heres a brief description (the straight dope.)


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I left Treasure Island on the 16th

of June aboard an old eleven knotrefrigeration food ship. The trip took us 21 days, however, we had good chow.We worked right along with the crew. We also missed the pollywog initiation.

The ship put in at port at New Hebrides. We stayed there for two days in areceiving ship. We were then boarded on a DC-3 (transport) and sent toGuadalcanal.

I was on the canal for about four months. We experienced air raids everymoonlit night. I did see a ship in the harbor get torpedoed and a jap plane shotdown.

Next we flew (DC-3) again up to Munda Point. The air raids were a bit thickerthere for awhile. I was at Munda for 3 months. Munda is where I left

archenteron and joined CASU 14.

Casu 14 went back to the canal and I was there until I came home.

I missed the draft with CASU 14 by one day so, I was transferred into Casu41.

I received my orders for state side November 15th, however, I stayed over untilthe 20thso that I could have my rate go into effect the 15thin Casu 41.

I came back on an Army troop transport (made it 16 days) and docked in theFrisco Bay.

From there we went to Alameda for two weeks to receive our next orders. Ireceived a 30 day leave plus 5 days traveling time.

From here I will go to Jacksonville. I dont knowjust what kind of duty,nevertheless, it says for duty. I ought to get at least six months out of it

anyhow.

Two years sure makes a difference. I could hardly recognize Harold or Bud.As yet, I have only seen Clarences and Ottos, Tuts and Sis leftthe night

before I got there so I missed them. Oh, yes, I got into Minneola about 2 oclock New YearsDay.

Incidentally, I got in on the family secret about you and Betty Gene. As for


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me, there is no one on earth I would rather have for a sister in law than her.The house seems awfully lonely and dreary now. Ill probably get used to it. Well, Rol, Ill close until next time then.

As for my overseas experiences, I havent seen too much action yet. It was

enough.

As soon as you get this please write.

Love,Ted

PS. I wish you would explain your address a little. I thought you were in a

Patsu?

dad's wwii naval story.pdf

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