Brooklyn (CL 40) - Naval Cruise Book

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- - - ' d in San pictures in the paper of each city. At the 611 , . Francisco, the paper had a picture of 9 of us with Stewardess, and the United A1r Line plane, of course, W1 this story: 9 ENSIGNS STOP HERE EN ROUTE TO HONOLULU Nine New York Giants, who might be but aren't a baseball team, arrived in San. Francisco over the weekend, bringing the West its first view of something else new in national defense. The nine tall youths, who arrived by United Malllllllel' in custody of diminutive Stewardess Gwen Nolan, are members of the first class to be graduated from New York City's Little Annapolis, naval training school adjunct newly formed to step up natlonal defense preparations. After four months' naval training, in port and on cruise, the young men are commissioned enslgns in the United States Navy, and are en route to Honolulu duty, following ten days' stopover in San Francisco. The youths, members of a charter class that number 264 are L.C. McCormick, R.C. Mallon, J.D. Lorenz, E.F. Evans, R.M. Wasarhaley, D.L. Cole, J.L. Laird, W.R. McClintick and R.C. Glasmann. I had a chance meeting with the young man from United Airlines some years later. He spent the whole war and had a big job handling service charter flights, all startlng with our trip. That was the cruise to Cuba plus the 90 days. CHAPTER 2 LEARNING Ninety Days plus isn't really a very lon time and many people in Oakland who didn't realize Pc? been away were certainly surprised to see me in an Ensign's uniform. At this point there were only academy officers and that took four years. Ten days of this and off to San Pedro to find the USS Brooklyn. We waited, swam and sat in the warm sun for three days before it came in and we went aboard December 4, 1940. Quite a thrill. Five-W class ensigns they called us. We ate our first meal in the wardroom. Three long tables where you sat according to rank. Starting with us at the foot of the third table up to Commander Denebrink at the head of the first. The Captain, W. W. Smith, ate alone and visited the wardroom only on rare special occasions. The logical thing to do with five ensigns was to assign us to each of five six-inch gun turrets as assistant gunnery officers. And to put us on rotation watches as junior officer of the deck. The ship left the next day for Honolulu. I started standing junior officer of the deck watches underway. Learned about station keeping on other ships. How to use a stadimeter, pelorus repeater and calibrating radio direction finder. Also learned an officer is supposed to wear a hat and they don't sell them on board. Which follows that I should have known better than to let mine blow overboard and I had to make the rest of the trip without a hat. I worked in the gun turret for two days and then something happened that had a lot to do with my later Navy duties, Commander Denebrink called me to his cabin and told me I was to be the signal officer and part of the unications staff. This meant that my time Blildldlilyn would be spent entirely on.the bridge wht?-I 3:2 ship was underway, led to my becoming the officer of the deck alongside the captain. and commander at Condition I Battle Stations and qualified me to command my own ship. ot m first real taste of a storm on this trip to Honol ltgwas all heavy storm and that 608 foot-long cruiser is 64 feet wide and really rolls in a heavy sea. Another thing I learned was I am not prone to be affected by seasickness Wakefield was violently seasick and some of the others tn some degree. Some get it, some don't. It was one of my blessings to be among the don'ts. We sailed into Pearl Harbor and tied up alongside two other cruisers, the Philadelphia and Helena. Now was to be my taste of what was really peace-time Navy. Wives of Brooklyn officers and men arrived and lived in Honolulu, We had duty days and watches and our work to do, then were free to go ashore. While on board with duty, the evenings were taken up with movies. While ashore, there was swimming, tennis, golf, daughters of high ranking Naval officers to take out along with the local talent, Waikiki Beach, trips around the Island, beautiful weather, the whole thing. In my job on the communications staff I was assigned to coding and decoding and was to be the first to read all secret and confidential messages coming in and to get them right to the captain or commander. My job as signal officer was an underway assignment. I had my men on the signal bridge that were experts at sending and receiving all forms of communications, semaphore, blinkers and signal flags. My main job was the rapid understanding and interpreting the meaning of the complicated combinations of signal flags. When ships are in formation together, the command ship handles the other ships by these signal flags. As a simple example, an admiral or captain will turn to his signal officer and say, Signal 45 degree turn to right. The flagship will run up the appropriate flags almost to the top of the mast, leaving about a foot of space at the top. All other ships with signalmen constantly on the alert are running up the same flags almost as fast as the flagship gets them out. They also stop about a foot from the top. Turn 45 is communicated to the signal officer on the bridge and through him to the captain or officer of the deck. Signal officer says, Signal turn 45 degrees to right. The reply from one in charge of deck is understood The signal off1cer's call to signal man is toblock, meaning run the flags all the way to the top indicating signal is understood. When all ships toblock, the flagship toblocks and it IS understood to stand by for execution. On the admiral's orders, Execute, the flags come down on the flagship and all other ships haul doen flags and execute the right turn maneuver. That's the simple one. There is a signal book .with explanations of all the possible flag meanings. A signal officer earns his pay in a big formation of ships when the lines are full of flags, three or four groups at a time calling for complicated ship maneuvers within formation. There were some moments with many ships involved all g0lng at lllgh Speeds, the air full of flags waiting for toblocli, 01' eXeCUll10lf1, and I'd be standing there with this big signal explallatlon book turning the pages, the captain standing over me with some choice words and I couldn't quickly Come UP Wlllh the answer to that one. I never failed to figure them out. Some just took longer. In a tremendously compelltwe Shlp Hgalnst ship performance with the first ship to tobl0Cli 1'9C0gH1Zed as being on the ball, waiting for me to flgllfe out the flags didn't sit too well. We g0.0l1lQ On maneuvers with other ships during the week and ship life IS one of constant striving for perfection. Drlll after dull, Competition with other ships in all forms of Seamimshlp and. performance. My first taste of gunnery practice was a night exercise. Nothing that I will see ll? all my Navy days impressed me like the firing of those 6-inch

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on our way to Cuba. The hijinx that night trying to sling the hammocks and get into them was a lot of laughs but not much sleep. Most of us quit trying and just put the gear in a corner and slept on it. Next morning was something. Didn't seem possible they brought this big battleship and us all that way just to have some ex-civilians clean up the deck. But that morning, and every other morning, the routine was the same. Up at the crack of dawn, eat some strange mixtures for breakfast, holystoning that deck. We were the lowest rank on board and everyone got into the act of giving us orders. Holystone means taking a stone shaped like a brick with an indentation in the top. You place a stick like a small broom handle inthe indentation and learn how to move it back and forth on the deck. Some holystoned, some used brooms and suds and some used salt water hoses to wash down. But all we did was clean the huge deck. After a while we took pride in how clean it looked. There wasn't much to make it dirty and still we had to clean the whole thing the next morning and every morning. It got to be fun as we went further South and the weather was hot and humid. Didn't mind gettin cooled off with the salt water hoses as we played arouncl washing down the cool thick teakwood planking of the deck. The trip went fast and we were getting ready to anchor in the harbor at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The regular crew had duty one day and one day off for liberty, but we were pretty free to go ashore every day. Our activities were confined to the Naval Base, baseball, football and swimming, plus beer in the ship service store and soon it was time to leave. The trip to Cuba was really just an incentive to attract us to where we were. I don't really know at what point I understood exactly what I was to do after the cruise to Cuba and I'd like to think all the others were as unclear as I was. On the way back to New York there were serious meetings where the whole thing was explained to us. The USS Illinois was being fitted out as a school. On a volunteer basis they wanted us to go to that school and in 3 months Q90 daysl they would cram the best part of the last 2 years of Annapolis into us. I don't remember any discussion of what was to happen after the three months. Of the 600, a little over 300 of us volunteered. The others were free to go home. We sailed into New York and up to the Illinois. Before the day was over we said goodbye to those going home, were Eromoted to midshipman, fitted for new uniforms, issued ooks and assigned a bunk. I was in an upper bunk and I remember sitting up there watching the boys set up the table for dinner. I could fall out of my bunk onto the table. Work got started in a hurry. Day started with an early reveille over the loud speaker, also right next to my bunk. After one day I saw it was to take some planning to get into the head and washroom, shave, etc. and get to breakfast in time to eat and on time for formation before the first class. Rules said you couldn't get up before reveille. At the first sound out of the loudspeaker, I took my shaving kit in my teeth, reached out with both hands on the pipe over my bunk, swung out and down with my legs moving toward the washroom before I reached the deck. There was a line already at each sink, so I went in a shower and shaved under the shower. After the first day of this there were lines of iuys with kits in hand outside each shower, but I seemed to e able to get in one first. A near tragedy happened a few months later when it started to get cold in New York. They sent steam through that pipe one night and I badly burned both hands before I could let go. Almost had to quit the school, but managed to write enough to get by. The 90 days were mainly concentrated school work. We learned the Navy system of grading - 2.5 was passing, 4.0 was perfect. We lived to stay above 2.5. In the end, 264 of us made it. There was a little time off. The World's Fair was in New York and we made several visits. Sally Rand had a farm of some kind there. One of the most wicked descriptions of goings on about New York in our spare time had to do with Woodstock, New York. It was an artist colony. I'm not sure any of us knew exactly what that meant, but we sure blew it up in our imagination. We were to have one overnight liberty and the plans were carefully laid. 0ne middy managed to get a car and we took off about 8:00 P.M. It was the cold part of the year now and when we got to Woodstock, a real bunch of eager beavers, we went into the first' bar we found to get directions to the - whatever it was we thought we would find. The bartender was rather kind in the way he handled six fellows in uniform who he thought were nuts to leave New York City to come to Woodstock at this time of the year for action. He even explained thatwhat most artists did was paint. And so we drove back to New York City. The 90 days were going fast. We learned there was to be a big graduation with the Secretary of Navy, radio and newsreel coverage. We also found out there was to be a graduation ball at the Astor Hotel and this meant dates. We really hadn't had too much time to spend on girls and not many liberties left to do something about it. Many of the fellows hadn't gotten much farther than the places around 135 Street and those who got to New York City hadn't concentrated on the better places. All ended up with dates for the Ball and some of them were really something to see. I was lucky. I was friends with a midshipman from New York City and he had a get-together at the Van Sand's fhis mother'sl apartment. I met a very lovely girl there just staring a career in New York and she agreed to be my date. Louise and I became good friends and I later visited her and her family in Pennsylvania. I remember the time about a year after that when I got a letter telling of her wedding. The graduation was very impressive. We had gone through all the bargaining of various uniform makers calling at the ship to convince us theirs was the best deal and we should spend our uniform allowance money with them. We graduated in Midshipman uniforms, threw our hats in the air and then it was true - we could put on the uniform of an ensign in the U.S. Navy and truly became the first 90 Day Wonders. There were many to follow, but New York hadn't seen many Ensigns around in uniform in November of 1940. I was looking forward to my date and it didn't bother me much when I stood in front of the Barbazon Hotel for Women in my spanking new bridge coat with the epaulettes on the shoulders and four separate people mistook me for the doorman. It was great after the Ball when still flushed with the pride of having the loveliest girl there, I took her to the Stork Club and had Sherman Billingsly personally bring over a bucket with a bottle of champagne in it. In the final days on the USS Illinois, when it became clear who would graduate, we were let in on what might be in store for us next. The offer was very fair with no pressure. We could go home with the commission or we could volunteer to spend a year with a ship of the U.S. Fleet. Of the 300 that started school on the USS Illinois, 264 graduated, 60 wanted to go home and 204 of us asked to go to the fleet for one year. They drew for the ship assignments and must have done it alphabetically because 5 of us W's, Wasarhaley, Wickham, Wilson, Washburn and Wakefield, were assigned to the cruiser USS Brooklyn then operating out of Long Beach, California. We called United Air Lines and a young fellow came out to talk to us. There were 9 of us that wanted to fly to California and we wanted to know if United would give us any deal. He made it a really good deal. There were three stops on a flight to California in those days and at each. stop were reporters, cameramen, the works. A story and

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.17- turrets. Knocked me all over the bridge and I couldn't hear for days afterwards, but I was impressed. When we are underway in maneuvers like this, including night exercises, my time on the bridge runs 14-17 hours a day. Spent my first Christmas ever away from home by playing football and swimming in the morning and then an invitation to the home of Navy Junior, Miss Hope Toulon, whose father is captain of USS Indianapolis. I also had an invitation there New Year's Eve, but saw the year 1940 out standing watch on USS Brooklyn in Pearl Harbor and wondering where I would be on next New Year's Eve. Among other duties was to rotate standing guard, boom patrol, at the entrance to Pearl Harbor. We would sit out there in the sun with a gun and watch the boom which went across the whole entrance and held up the anti-torpedo nets that protected the harbor. I often wondered later who was sitting there when the Japs slipped those midget subs through on December 7. During this period, Captain Smith left his command to become Chief of Staff to CINCUS. Captain E. S. Stone took over as Captain of the USS Brooklyn in very impressive ceremonies. On February 9 I had my first case of decoding a secret message, telling the captain and commander, and then having to walk around with a secret I couldn't tell anyone else on board. Spent two days loading marines and equipment on board while all hands made wild guesses at our destination. Actually, it was Midway Island. We took those marines to that little speck in the ocean and unloaded them in small boats. From out where we were unloading into boats, the place looked like a deserted forlorn little strip of islands with hundreds of birds flying around. Hard to believe this was the site to become known as the Big Battle of Midway. I became very friendly with an Annapolis Ensign, Joe Keough, on the Brooklyn and we went everywhere together. Joe introduced me to two sisters, Phyllis and Fay, whose father was captain of the USS Honolulu. Two charming girls who knew many interesting out-of-the-way places on the island. Joe and I even bought a Model A Ford together so we could all get around, named it Heathcliff, and we were really looking forward to our time off the ship. Then I got another one of those secret messages that was to take us on a long trip away from Honolulu. CHAPTER 3 LEND LEASE On Monday, March 3, we left Pearl Harbor and went due South. We stay in Condition 3 all the time except to go to General Quarters every morning at 4:00 A.M. and are there to greet the sun as it comes up. I know we are on our way to Samoa and can't understand why the captain is keeping it a secret from the rest. The weather is getting very warm as we approach the Equator. I sleep in flag plot where it is cooler and I can get to General Quarters in a hurry. The captain had General Quarters five times in one day and the crew was getting battle ready when he announced our destination of Tutuila CSamoaJ. Yesterday I was a Pollywog. Today I am a Shellback as we cross the Equator with a riotous ceremony. I paraded dressed in an emergency flag to meet Davey Jones, dumped in pool of Water, completely greased, shocked, spanked, hissed a big baby's belly and had a lot of fun 1n the boiling ot sun. Sunday, March 9, Cmy 23rd birthdayl we sailed into the beautiful island of Tutuila CSamoa Groupl and anchored in the Harbor of Pago Pago. Certainly one of the prettiest places you could imagine. The ,population come out in their outriggers and circle the ship, but for some reason we have an absolute gag on talking to them. We can't leave the ship or write letters either. Even I haven't received any secret messages on what we are doing. By this time, the rest of the wardroom just assumes I always know what is going on, so I am a stinker for not telling them whether I know or not. All of a sudden the next day the bans are lifted and liberty for the starboard watch. Like a cloud of locust the officers and men bought that place clean in a few hours. The next day it was the port watch liberty and those lovely people really worked through the night to be ready. They brought out old mats they slept on for years and every conceivable piece of used junk and still sold out in no time. For some strange reason, I was sent to a Naval Office on shore and very secretly signed for and drew out 40 publications for operating in Asiatic waters. This was one secret that really had me bugged. As far as I know they were never used except to drive me crazy trying to figure out where we were going. In appreciation of our visit and spending all our money on their goods, the island sent native dancers to entertain us on board ship that evening and you wonder how those little girls way down here in Samoa learned to wave those leis around their bare boobies. The crew loved it and the officers didn't mind either. That night I got the word we were waiting for. Auckland, New Zealand. And on this day the lend lease bill was signed. We took off for Auckland and there wasn't a doubt in the mind of anyone on board that we were going to give the mighty Brooklyn to the British. We no longer darkened the ship, even had a movie on fantail at night. The weather was getting colder and we changed to blue uniforms. Some islands were shelled during the night by a Nazi raider and we still go to General Quarters 4:30 A.M., 9:00 A.M., 2:00 P.M., but skipped the usual 7:00 P.M. We crossed the International Dateline and March 15 became the day that never was. Ironically it was pay day. A message said a British mine sweeper would meet us outside the mine fields off Auckland to chart our way through the mines. As dawn came up, we sighted the mine sweeper and she blinked us a message, Send boat to pick up commanding officer with charts. I handed Commander Denebrink the message. He read it and I being the nearest and lowest ranked officer on the bridge, he pointed at me and said, Small boat officer take a boat and bring the commander here. I went down on deck and the chief boatswain let out a long bow line and lowered away a motor whaleboat with crew of four. He put the rope ladder over the side for me to climb down and it looked to me like from the top of the Empire State Building. With the whole ship looking on, I went down the swinging ladder and got my feet and then the rest of me in the oat. We took off in pretty choppy water and got to the mine sweeper. There was a ladder over the side and the coxswain made for it. Charts in a tube were passed down and then the commander, with a British-type, cork life jacket on, came down and into the boat. We shook hands and the coxswain maneuvered well back to the Brooklyn. So we both got up the long ladder with the charts and I really felt pretty proud of myself as I led the commander through the men and up to the bridge with the charts. I wasn't at all prepared for the blast from Commander-Denebrink. He put his face, livid with rage by this time, right in my face and called me some pretty salty names before he got to the point. The first time we meet the British Navy and you have to show them we don't know a thing about seamanship. You went to that ship and you took your boat to the windward side. Any common seaman would know you go to the leeward side. I was never so humiliated in my life. Then a few remarks about my lack of Naval training followed by, When you go back, and you are going back, go to the leeward!