Macomb (DD 458 DMS 23) - Naval Cruise Book

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asm-nl Over the TBS, Captain Hutchinson urgently put out the warning. There were some dgubters on the bridge, however, but not after Ensign Harry blurted out, Wfhere it goes again! Callously, machine gunner Jackie Wynn reported that the 'ftorpedoi' was nothing more than the ufoxeri' gear, under strain of the 28 knots the ship was making following from side to side far astern of the ship. All was reserve again in the underway life of the Mighty Mae for many months to come. AUSTIN'S LEAP TO FAME William Henry Austin had as wicked a gleam of mischief in his eye as would be found in that of any fox. He had many forms of amusement. his favorite being, on his return from liberty.. In heap abuse upon the head of the officer-of-the- deck. One of his stock quotations was, lull chiseled a free education out of the government. und, lt took an act of Congress to make a gen- tleman out of you. fle also delighted in chal' lenging the 0.D. to diverse forrns of athleti- cornpetition. such as l'll race you around the deckhouse for ten bucksf' 'l'hese. and like antics. kept him in continual hot water. but did not pre- vent him from becoming one of our most popu- lar characters aboard ship. It was a lovely day in l'alerrno. Sicily. when our hero, well-lubrir-ated. returned to the ship with his bosom buddy. lieggie Sherrnan. who was also well-lubricated. After dishing ulli the proper allotment of abuse lu the ollicer--of-tho deck. these two inebriates swaggered their w ai to the fantail. Presently those topside heard a loud barrage of taunts. jeers. and insults. orig- inating on the fantail. It seemed that our friend Austin was trying to pursuade Sherman to do a little post-liberty high diving. fle was getting nowhere. lfach verbal explosion left Reggie more indifferent to Austirfs scheme. lfinally. thoroughly disgusted. Austin left in a decided huff. A few minutes later found our friend poised on top of the flag stand on the director deck. about sixty feet above the placid surface of Palermo harbor. Great contempt showed upon his face-contempt for his friend Sherman who had deserted himg contempt for the laws of grav- ilrr and ,lllfi plain contempt for all earth-bound mortals. Before anyone could question his in- tention' PUP 'BS he was called aboard shipi thrust himself out into nothingnes. His first 19315 WHS the laziest journey into space ever. He seemed lu literally defy the law of gravity by 5U5Pf Nlillg himself in space in an armchair posi- tion for long impossible seconds. 'lihen suddenly llt? llfuppetl all r'Xpt'r'Ss-lraitt speed to lik' Sllt'f:ll't' f llltf llllflnir. liacl-tlvorre first he cleaved a gap- r trip wound rn the sea and disappeared from the ken nf man. lip this time. all hands had rushed In the port side' to ln-hold rtns spectacle. lhcy neednt have hurrir-dl l'op ex idently had no intention of leax- ing the bottom until he w as gunil and readx. XX e had about nrade up ultt' minds that he was breaking through the crust ral tlnna. when a A, v sight disturbance was tioterl rn the water. lt was the livin: carpenter s mate. alright. but not l'li' tltttl uf llitll lllgtl he ll1trlr'Xlu'r'lr'il. lllht't'ltil1g with bi- di-r'cp.rrrl for the inrpo--ible he carrie to lin- -rrrface fr-ct fir-ti lfxcntuallx riplrlinp hint- -r'll-. lla- pitlllctvul up lllr' lift'-lite'-r'tXr'l's tu' lliltl tiirown hint. and -warn nonchalantlx lvack to the Slip. ' iff p I A ' 4' fl Q f 1 wilt rt . t i f u'l . 1 ' ,J 5711 li l l xi 2 il 1 A ', a, A' , N - ,-. j . f -, L., L ,- 57

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The South Dakota spent all of two hours replac- ing the paint we scratched. Soon after the 1n1t1al landings at Oklnawa we steamed into Kerama Retto for fue l and stores We haVen't always come out second best in these arguments. In Toulon we made the C. F. Hughesi side and promptly put our anchor into their chief's quarters. This was a grave tactical error since they were packing the command burgee of ComDesDiv 14. It was only a small hole, but, Oh! the points we lost. That was the day it was decided by popular vote that we would be better off on patrol. That area was jinxed for us. It was around there that we left the Brooklynis side to go along- side a French tanker for fuel. The anchor now rates two flags-one American and one French. It was very rough the day we started to anchor and dropped something like one hundred fathoms of chain in seven fathoms of water. l'ivcrybody loves us in the Med. Charleston, C.. was uneventful fin some ways! but we made up for it in Norfolk. We got there Christmas llay and bad luck was in our wake. It was so foggy that it was common practice to baek around bends in the river to make it easier running from oncoming trafhc. One nice night. shortly after coming out of dry dot-k lwe got there by trying to run 14- feet of ship through l2 feet of watert, we started through the thick fog toward the de- perining dock. navigating by fog horns. ive reached the entrance safely enough and were about to enter when a Sunday driver in a ferry boat came tearing down on us. The 0.0.D., who was the one and only Mr. Lawrence ty pride of Brooklynt made a mad dash for the uP.A.i7 and yelled. Standby for collision to starboardfi which was the wrong side anyhow. The captain threw the Mac into emergency forward, back, and then forward again. They missed us but if there had been another coat of paint on the port side it would have been scraped off. Nice people these Norfolk pilots. We got through the Canal with nothing more than a slightly bent depth charge rack and for a while it looked like old man trouble had finally left us. But it was not to be. if 56 and were assigned an APA who was ab friendly looking as' a bobcat with his fan bared. Life rafts jutted out from her sides and as we were in a helpful mood we decided to clear some of it away. As Bogiesw were an ever present menace wehad to choose the expeditious means available, so we scraped it out as gS most off. Once again we came out second bestg our only boat was stove in and one machine gun was put out of action. Since some of her life rafts were splintered our wounded pride was assuaged in a small degree. Since then we have found nothing to really test our mettle. A Norwegian freighter had a boom rigged out to carry away our rigging, but we foiled her treacherous schemes without any difficulty. Then there was the supply ship that crossed our path while we were steaming off Okinawa. They wanted the right-of-way merely because the rules of the road said she had it, and although some of the Macombis hotlieads wanted to contest it, cooler heads prevailed and we charitably complied with their request. Everyone knows that the Macomb is a regula- tion ship, and doesnit go around looking for arguments, but woe to the ship that defies us, be it the Oueen Mary or the Flying Dutchman. THE RECOGNITION 0FFICER'S RISE TO FAME It had been a sleepless, tense night, climaxed when the U-boat surfaced, abandoned, and WHS sunk by the combined gunfire of the EllyS0llf Hambleton, Emmons and Macomb. All hands breathed easier as our seven destroyer forma: tion formed line of bearing, cranked up 23 knots, and headed for Oran. Then at noon came two explosions close astern, later ascertained to be acoustic torpedoes launched at the M30 by a lurking U-boat. Quickly battle stations were manned, and all ships streamed Hfoxerv gearfo lure any more acoustic fish away from the Sill?- All was quiet on the bridge again, until surl- denly Ensign Hartl, newly-promoted recogllg tion officer screamed out uThere goes one- dea

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2 Y 1 i i t 4 t 1 l J l l All this was not without repercussions. The skipper, fearing that the whole war effort might be jeopardized if this soaring into space became a fad, declared all points of the ship that had any take-off possibilities at all, to be out of bounds. THE GAME When the Macomb was converted to a mine- sweep in November, 1944, her complement was augmented by the addition of two sterling char- acters, namely, CBM Brunson tThe Sailorl, and CPHM Sullivan tjungle Jiinfl. Both of these men were salts of the old school, and both were passionately fond of that old Navy game, acey- deucy, known to polite society as backgammon. There was nothing polite about the way these guys played it. The uSai-or'i tso-called because, as he said, 'lim one of the few leftfit and 'clungle Qliniii lealled thus because ol' his strange habit of climbing trees while on libertyt were engaged in a game calculated to decide. once and for all, who was the master. The title carried with it a considerable sum ol monex to be donated bv the loser. This classic contest was taking place just outside the port door of the erews head. The game had reached a erueial point. ,lnngle Jim had just executed the famous sleeve move. This more is well know to dexotees of the game. The idea is to reach at-ross the board for the diee. and at the same time drag the sleeve across the checkers. moving one or more to a position ol' greater adxantage. lle carried out this maneuver with great dexterity. lint the Sailor re- taliated with the complex deception pass, This more eonsists of distraeting the attention of the opponent with a casual gesture of one hand, is hilt- the other plaeing several men on the board in strategic positions. ln spite of this counter- play. the Sailor it as behind. lie must have an aeey deuey to win. It is as his mote, He raised his hand to throw the dice. ,lust as they left his hand. with his renowned Chinese twisti the sig- nal for general quarters sounded through tlie Ship! .lllllglv .lim dashed for his battle station, located in the erewis head. The Sailor looked at thi' diCt'- il-Keep' deueyf' he shouted triumph- antly. and took off for the fantail. S8 , x I . N X x t Ag N X t , -if 't ,g Xu R ss-rm is 2 . tg AY p g i 1 6:55, Rx Q ty wwf - - fs Xl, T-b',i'3'i'.vo V i X f ri t .v i .st 4 ir ii- t i l X W X lf! tl . ,I V, , I, t 1 l X lt if l N, y From his battle station underneath the port paravane, the Sailor glanced aloft. A horrible sight froze his more-than-ample innards. Diving straight at the ship came a ,lap plane. The lVlac's guns were thundering their song of death. The Sailor ducked his head. As he did so a peculiar sight met his eyes. Out of the door of the lieutt stretched an arm, which he immediately identi- fied as belonging to Jungle Jim. The arm reached for the acey deucy board. The hand on the end of the arm picked up a dice, and set it down again. just then, whaml A bomb ex- ploded not fifty feet off the port quarter. Thc arm suddenly withdrew. The Sailor saw no more. The Mac leaped out of the water, hcclcfl over and quivered in every strake. But she kept going. As soon as the excitement was over, and as soon as his legs would support him, the Sailor dashed forward to the scene of the game. There was the board, miraculously unharmed. And there lay the dice, but no acey deucy. Irlfifead a six and a one met his infuriated gaze! Thus ended all acey deucy games between these two former friends. And thus commenced