California (BB 44) - Naval Cruise Book

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M Q.. 'U 'N xi? A Q5 . ....--4 I I S. THIS ITU - , 55 E OF THE CUB IS DEDICATED TO OUR CNOTHERS - GOD BLESS THEM' i .. . I ' ' 2 W K .S Q S E V f ..... ' U. S. S. CALIFORNIA HAWAIIAN AREA N- - FLEET PROBLEM XVIII + SATURDAY, 8 MAY, 1937 TOMGRROW 'S YOUR CMOTHER6 CDAY - WHY NOT WRITE TO HER? i .... - IT WILL MAKE HER SO HAPPY TO HEAR , . 2? Z 2 TIRED FINGERS FROM HER BOY WHO IS AWAY FROM HOME 'Tim 11117071 g0 wmrn 50 n'I7itC 7-IIVCLYI CIVHIS lim! OIICC 176141, T6556d TiT6d 71 CTS' 50 IVOTH, .VO HMC, 2, i f 3 t Serving and nimniiny from morn ,til night. fi ezirly !7C'4IlI' to a nzotfrefs breast. Sewing and mending tire nflvole ciay through, .7 Tired fmndy and CQWY tfmt blink, Tirea' voice so soft, so dear From break of dfinfn 'til setting sun, Dmo mn lzfdd mo tired to tlwinfq, Sa in Siva well, darlin , mother '5 near. A Motf1cr's Wo I1 Is Never Done. P O 7 X 8 1 S5

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his eyes open. After valiantly trying, he leaned his forehead against his binoculars and fell sound asleep. He was eighteen years old, he had been fighting a man's war but now he slept like a boy. I did not have the heart to awaken him. There were GQ's with an ammunition ship alongside when Japanese planes were sighted and AA fire broke out all around us. One lucky hit, one near miss would have blown us sky high. However, we were all too tired to be afraid and the gun crews on the unengaged side slept through the attack. Again in the early moming a single en- emy aircraft came winging over our disposi- tion. In an instant the sky was speckled with 5', burstsg the plane wobbled drtmkenly among the air explosions, lost control and plummeted into the sea. I saw a ship sink slowly, tragically, ago- nizingly, dying like some mute animal in mor- tal paing over its grave for hours afterwards oily smoke sailed skyward like a pagan funeral pyre. Though many American boys lost their lives, I felt no compassion. I could imagine them fighting through blazing compartments, melting to liquid before the hell-furnace heat, but I could not feel sympathy. It was too far from meg because at that stage my feelings of humanity and tenderness were too atrophied. I was completely insensitive to anything but a bomb bursting twenty-feet away. I was even beyond hating myself for such indifference. The truth is I was just too damn tired to care. However, one vivid experience did rouse us from our lethargy. As before it occurred during a dusk General Quarters. Enemy planes had been reported earlier in the evening but now the sky seemed clear. The sun dropped like a glowing brand into the banks of low- lying clouds along the horizon, setting them aflame. The day was dying. Yet still the high dome with its circular floor of the sea was magically illuminated as by the proximity of a wonderful presence. Somewhere the doors of glory had been left ajar. The holy time was quiet as a nun breathless with adoration. Suddenly - whoosh! - out of the crisp ash of a cloud zipped a Zero straight toward the ship. 20mm Gunner Cordell Wiser of Pulaski, Tennessee, fired first followed imme- diately by the barking and thumping of the whole machine gun battery. The bastard kept barreling through despite numerous hits. It dropped no bombsg it did not strafe, it shot like a projectile toward the bridge. Thousands of tracers clawed and bit at the evil thing. It swerved to starboard, shrieked down the length of the ship and crashed twenty feet off the bow. Instantly the plane exploded, by a curious freak a parachute blossomed over the wreckage in which was the upper trtrnk of a man with bits of one leg danglingg it floated gently into the water like a girl curtseying in a flowing gown and vanished. Though the whole thing took ten seconds, as long as we live none of us will ever forget that red-spotted, maniacal plane streak- ing toward the ship. And so the time passed. Yesterday and tomorrow were a thousand years apart. We were engulfed in the Huge Now, in the all-ab- sorbing tension of the moment, and yet each moment was a separate, surprising shock like the uneven stones on a cobble road. There was no past and no future, there was no continuity except a crushing weariness that deepened and deepened into our bones until our bodies felt like blocks of granite. Then one morning I awoke to discover we had not gone to General Quarters for twenty- four hours. I lay in my bunk and felt the life stirring inside me. I began to notice how things looked around me, what they smelled and sounded like, and I obtained as great a plea- sure out of my newly recovered senses as if I had been deprived of them. I flexed my limbs ' and watched my muscles grow taut and relax. I wiggled a toe and it seemed a miracle that way down there that scrawny thing belonged to me and I willed it to move. As I dressed, I observed how expertly my fingers operatedg no mechanical contrivance could do as well, what wonderful universal joints my elbows and knees were. When I walked across the room, my legs worked per- fectly under me. I had discovered a new thrill, the joy of mere physical existence. After reviewing all that had happened to the Caldornia in the past three weeks, I felt satisfied just to be among those present. I realized then that through the rest of my days, no matter what fortune or mis- fortune befell me, no matter what station in life was allotted to me, I would never never complain again. Being alive was enough! BoA'r RACE by Carlos J. Badger I joined the USS Caljornia at Bremerton in 1922, and was assigned to the boiler divi- sion. But CDR Turner Clater Admiralj held an IQ test for all ensigns just reporting to the ship. Although I was the lowest man on the totem pole, I turned out to be number one in the IQ test. He immediately changed my assignment from boiler division to F Division!Special Jobs. For several years, the HSky Pilotu of the USS Mi.s'.s'i.s'.s'ippi had been winning the dinghy contest to the discomfitures ofthe Naval Acad- emy. CDR Turner told me to pick a crew and take as much time as I needed to figure out a way to out-sail the chaplain from the Mi.s.si.s- sippi. I spent several hours for at least two weeks before the race, sailing around San Pedro Harbor and making note of shifts in the winds and currents. I finally came to the conclusion that the CUITCHIS were much more important than the winds. The day of the race, the winds were very strong. We started with the pack in the 2nd or 3rd position and I immediately made it appear that we had lost control of the right jib because we had lost our boathook. The pack went downwind, tacking back and forth to get in position to pass the second stake buoy. We let our sails flap and drifted slowly toward the second buoy. When we got to it, we trimmed our sails to the wind and came roaring home more than an hour ahead of the next contes- tant. CMy roommate, then Ensign McComsey. had the misfortune of snapping the mainmast on a motor-sailor and finished last.j CDR Tumer had everyone aboard man the rails to welcome us aboard and ordered me to write up the race and have it recorded in the log. My next race at Cheefoo, China was quite different. The race started the day after I reported aboard. I had no knowledge of the wind and cur- rents, and nearly got blown to sea, finishing last. An experience I will never forget was watching a battle-practice off Panama in which the Calyfornia and Mississippi were imperson- ating aircraft carriers. A squad of destroyers fired one torpedo each Cwith dummy warheads of coursej, three of them hitting the Caljomia and four of them hitting the Mississippi tor visa versaj. The sea was so calm and the day so quiet that you could watch the wake of the tor- pedoes for several hundred feet from my van- tage point. I could not help but think. 'lWhat would happen if those were real torpedoes and each destroyer had fired a full compliment of twelve'?,' ...Something like that must have hap- pened at Leyte Gulf. . Nix ,Mx W N ma. W W 1 No. I raceboal crew, USS California. CJ. Lev was rh 1 1 I 'M ' I 1 fn Lx anne on rn' crew. fCUlll'l't'.V,X' QfCJ. Let-,l I 4 9 14? ini 'I 5:31:5- 1' 'lf : it A

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Page Two 'K THE CUB if ...S . - -ee... W I-TWC C THE LETTER Iyigfgflfeiee . ., 1 . , ,,Q,,... tr 0 0 I I The postman whistled down the street ii ' And seemed to walk on lighter feet, I. WEEKLY NEWSPAPER And as he stepped inside her gate ,M 'S of THE Huis CALIFORNIA He knew he carried precious freight 1 He knew that he carried joy- CAPTAIN R. C. MAC FALL. U. s. NAVY He had a letter from her boy. Qi COMMANDING. Day after day hyd kept his pace 1 COMMANDER F. I-I. KELLEY, U. S. EXECUTIVE OFFICER. NAVY LIEUTENANT G. B. LOFBERG, U. s. NAVY. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF. ENSIGN D. w. TAYLOR. Jr., U. s. NAVY. ' MANAGING EDITOR. STAFF: L. w. EADS, Sea.'lc. U. s. NAVY. J. J. MACKTAL, Y3c. U. s. NAVY. CHAPLAIN WORKMAN, ADVISOR. T0 OUR MOTHERS ON MOTHERS DAY --.,,,..- On Sunday, 9 May, opportunity is given every man to do honor to his Mother or to her memory. Many take their Mothers too complacently. How sadly true it is that a man never sees all that his Mother has been to him until it is too late to let her know that he sees it. There is no language that can ade- quately express the power, the beauty, the heroism and the majesty of a mother's love. She expects no reward but the privilege of lavishing her maternal affections where the instincts of her heart dictate. Mothers Day is an occasion that should be observed. While the tender sentiments of a son for his mother should spread over every day of the year, this particular day has been set aside for the occasion, and each of us should make it unrnistai-:ably signi- ficant. Write that letter, enclose your church program, send those flowers, or per- form some deed of servlce as may Ht the case if your mother is still living. If she has passed beyond, then take the time necessary to recall her sweet memory, her deeds of love and sacri- fice that you might live and succeed. God bless you, Mother, 'for your matchless loyalty and devotion. When we have grown faint on the way, when friends have proven false and mis- fortune has overtaken us, it has been your love and the radiance of your fidelity that has sent us on our way, heartened and strengthened. And seen her careworn faceg She watched for him to come, and took The papers with an anxious look, But disappointment followed hope- She missed the one grand envelope. He stopped to chat with her awhile And saw the sadness of her smile: He fancied he could hear her sigh The morning that he traveled by: knew that when tomorrow came She would be waiting just the same. The boy who was so far away Could never hear her gently say: Well, have you brought good news to me? Her eager face he could not see, Or note the lines of anxious care As every day she waited there. But when he wrote, on lighter feet The happy postman walked the streetg ffvveu, here it is at ieet, he'd shout, To end the worry and the doubt. The robin on the maple limb Began to sing: She's heard from him. Her eyes with joy began to glow, The neighbors 'round her seemed to know That with the postman at the door Sweet peace had come to her once more. When letters bring so much delight, Why do the sons forget to write? i-io-9- GENERAL PERSHINGS ORDER ...,-.--- In the heat of battle in France in 1918. General Pershing took time to issue an official order to the A.E.F.. as follows: I wish every officer and soldier in the American Expeditionary Force would write a letter home on Mother's Day: This is a little thing for each one to do, but these letters will carry back our courage and our affection to the patriotic women whose love and prayers inspire us and cheer us on to victory. lil! -'V' -1 T 'IZ May Fortune smile upon you. May your heart be filled with happiness. May your pathway be the path of peace. God bless you-my Mother! I'I: Q31 I I II 9 I I '7 I I -ol I -o-- I 1. Ig. To whom shall we express our I EI SERMON TOPIC:- MOTHER In 'I 1,1 gratitude for the gift of Mother? ii I I ff. Surely she didn't happen by 5: I . I chance! Ip I' Faith, in the lives of some men, gi .V V, begins with the realization that I. If there must be a supreme being If I . I. back of so perfect a gift. Sunday If II' In I morning we will gather to return I I thanks to the giver of all good Il and perfect gifts-thank God Eff. for the gift of MOTHER.. Q ini I If? Even He who died for us upon I1 1 the cross, in the last hour, in the X utter agony of death. was mind- 552 ful of his mother. as if to teach ue that this heiy love should be II I I II In fbi our last worldly thought-the last point of earth from which Hg the soul should take its flight for 'I Heaven. -fLongfellowl. . I if R-14 --i3..r::,'-:-'- -in - - 'ir' :..':' fl: - OLD AGE OVERTAKES SOME NAVAL VESSELS m.- Uncle Sam's Fleet will lose the ser- vices of 55 obsolete and over-age de- stroyers, mine layers and submarines during the present and the 1938 fiscal year, naval authorities in the harbor I I i I revealed. Thi1'ty-two ships. comprising 29 de- stroyers and 3 submarines are slated for decommissioning during the re- mainder of the 1937 group 10 destroyers of service at the pr During the 1938 fl will be placed out of include 4 light mine fiscal year. Of this are being put out esent time scal year 27 vessels commission. These layers. 13 destroy- ers and 10 submarines. ..-.,.,-... Poem THE LETTER in column two by Edgar Guest.