Missouri (BB 63) - Naval Cruise Book

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Commander H. V. Bird, 1933 Naval Academy graduate, the Missouri's assistant gunnery officer, wore proof of his experience in a citation ribbon won while he was gunnery oflicer of the Service Force, Atlantic Fleet. His specialty was the five-inch guns, which he handled for eight years aboard the Colorado, a new destroyer and other ships. His greatest satisfaction as the U.S.S. Missouri steamed toward the Pacific war zone was that four of the five E awards for gunnery efficiency held by Missouri gunners were on five-inch mounts, Numbers 1, 3, 8 and 10. The fifth E award was held in Turret 3 of the Main Battery of 16-inch guns, and much of the credit for this was being tossed back and forth between Lt. Robert Matusek, Turret 3 officer, and Lt. Comdr. Heber Player, Main Battery officer. Lt. Comdr. Player was usic a football man at the Naval Academy, Class of 1937. Fgurth on the gunnery team was another athlete, Lt. Comdr, Joseph C. Bintelen, Jr. Burly Joe Bintelen, a Naval Beservist, was ship's wrestling officer, but his big job aboard the Missouri was handling the 20- and 1110-1VllV1 antiaircraft machine guns of which he was in charge. ln civilian life he had been successively a mill superintendent and a mineralogy professor fand wrestling coacht at Carnegie Tech and Duke. He was the onlygman aboard with a doctor of philosophy degree. He went into the Navy early in 1911-2, fry K

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D - haplam Boslet presenting prizes at smoker N THAT long run down to the Canal and then up the west coast to San Franciscog the Missourfs gunnery department worked at the job of per- fecting the fine showing they had made in the Shakedown. Commander Louis T. Malone, gunnery oliicer, was no believer in easy- going optimism. Said he: 4'The crews have done some remarkable firing. But each man has to keep on the job. There are 101 things to do to keep those bullets dropping on the target and if one man lets down the effective- ness slumps. When we see our guns hit every Jap target theyire supposed to hit, then we,ll be satisfied. Not till then! The thought was pounded into the crews, day and night, that without big guns there wouldn't be any Missouri or any other battleship. Com- mander lVIalone's job was to see that the guns shoot straight and often after they have been lugged to spots where they'll do the most good. On the Missouri, gunnery was, of necessity, the Number One department in personnel. About 60 per cent of the ship's company were attached to gunnery. Under battle conditions, 500 to 700 additional sailors help to man guns, pass powder and ammunition and otherwise lend a hand to speed the Missoarfs bullets toward enemy targets. Commander Malone, the gunnery boss was a peppery Irishman, a 1927 Naval Academy graduate, who learned gunnery on many ships, taught the subject at the fire control school in Washington and had practiced it against laps as gunnery officer of the battleship Alabama He had a deep respect for the tools of his profession and vehement distaste for careless- ness or slovenliness towards guns or ammunitions He pounded the thought into his men: A Gunner must be experienced and competent and its a good idea if he s a little cocky too BUT-he must never get overconfident or careless Then hes asking trouble for himself and his shipmates .

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and ecreation A Fifth top gunnery man was Lt. Comdr. James C. Bidwell, 1939 Naval cademy graduate, lire control officer, whose job it was to see that few eggs were wasted before they landed on the target. With these men drilling excellent gun crews the ship's com an had v P Y cpnliildegci that the Missouri would come through admirably in any test t . o e g ting job that lay ahead. The men learned that a salvo of armor-piercing shells from the nine 16-inch guns of the Missouri was equivalent to nine Ford automobiles b . h . . . eing urled into the air at a speed of 200 miles an hour, thundering along several miles, and then hitting a target 20 miles away and setting off a ton of explosive. The gunnery departmentis job was to deliver the nine Ford automo- biles-or their equivalent in weight-smack at the right destination. A diflicult job, when it is considered that the Missouri might be steaminff at 30 knots an hour in a high sea and the target might be doing the samdjl To find th ' b. ' e range, earing, speed and other data about a target is a complicated job but the Missourigs gunnery ofiicers knew how to operate their instruments and the men they were commanding knew these jobs, too. Besides those huge main batteries, the Miss.ouri's secondary batteries of five-inch gun required similar plotting and directing devices. These live- inch guns were meant originally for use against surface targets but the all-out lighting in World War II required that they serve a double pur- pose-they were mounted as anti-aircraft defenses as well. In addition, the ship bristled with anti-aircraft 20 and 40 millimeters. The ship's gunnery department was clicking like a well-ordered ship7s clock when the big vessel nosed its way into San Francisco bay in early December of the year of its launching. At that port, it was groomed for its trip westward into the Pacific. Christmas mail was loaded aboard, and as the expectant crew counted the sacks it looked as though every man aboard would average about three Christmas packages. Where they would be when Santa Claus passed those packages out to them, the crew could only speculate.