Albany (CA 123) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 107 text:

Our present Commanding Officer, Captain John S. McCain, Jr. came aboard in Suda Bay, Crete where he relieved Captain Sieglaff. From there, he carried on and added to the proud ALBANY tra- dition of being the top cruiser in the Mediterranean. Our operating schedule was rigorous and our tour of the Eastern Med kept much of the crew away from ports they had planned on seeing. Captain Mc- Cain somehow managed to keep pride and desire high on the part of ship ' s company while deployed in that area. Also a veteran of many years ' association with submarines, Captain McCain spent his first two years after graduation from the Naval Academy in 1 931 attached t o the USS Oklahoma after which he served on board three submarines and was Commanding Officer of three more up through 1945. Before his first command in the Surface Navy, the USS MONROVIA in July 1954, Captain McCain had various duties among which were, Commander Sub- marine Division SEVENTY-ONE, Head of Research and Development Branch of Un- dersea Warfare and Commander Subma- rine Squadron SIX. Captain McCain is one of the experts in the field of submarine habitability and has done a great amount of work on the subject. But we know him as an expert on cruiser habitability. He has made us so proud of our ship that living on her for ex- tended periods away from home has been no hardship. In fact, it has been a pleasure. CAPTAIN JOHN S. McCAIN, JR -yk

Page 106 text:

COMMANDING OFFICERS CAPTAIN W. B. SIEGLAFF Captain William Sieglaff came aboard in the Boston Yard Period, relieving Commander Merritt as Commanding Officer, and left us in Suda Bay, Crete one year later. The ship ' s high morale was due, no doubt, to his twenty-two years experience in submarines where he worked closely with his men and where he gained the ability to build incentive among them. After graduation from the Naval Aca- demy in 1931, Captain Sieglaff spent two years on the battleship OKLAHOMA. He also received a Master ' s Degree from MIT in Naval Engineering. On submarines during WW II, Captain Sieglaff served with the USS POMPANO and TAU- TOG becoming Commanding Officer of the latter and also CO of the USS TENCH. As duty officer on the TAUTOG on 7 December 1941 in Pearl Harbor, his submarine was credited with shooting down a Japanese plane. His record in the Pacific gained for him two Navy Crosses, three Silver Stars, two Legions of Merit. After the war, from 1947 to 1949, he served as Submarine Detail Officer at the Bureau of Naval Personnel and during the next four years at New London, Connecticut, he was successively, Commander Submarine Division EIGHTY-ONE, Commander Submarine Development Group TWO, Officer-in-Charge of the Submarine School and Commander Submarine Base. In October 1955, he made the big switch to the Surface Navy as Commanding Officer of the ALLAGASH, an oiler. October 1956 saw Captain Sieglaff assume command of the ALBANY where his extensive experience carried us through the Yard Period, Re- fresher Training, a Midshipman Cruise, through NATO Operations and then into the Mediterranean. 102 k

Page 108 text:

Now, of course, you ' ve got to realize that we ' re in fine hands as a unit, and even though we ' re the best ship afloat, we belong to a bigger group yet. Sure, we belong to the Navy, the Atlantic Fleet and Cruiser Force Atlantic but we belong in a Cruiser Division also. Commander Cruiser Division Four has been almost exclusively embarked in the AL- BAN i ' except for the Midshipman Cruise when he rode the MACON, our sister ship in the Division. He brings with him all the personnel that he needs to operate; but I ' ve mentioned them before: the Flag Division, remember ' Just before we were scheduled to leave the Mediterranean, the Flag left us for good, transferring to the U.S.S. Canberra in Pollensa Bay, Mallorca on 5 January 1958. 104