Consolation (AH 15) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 37 text:

Connie was home and in the months ahead lay the task of preparing her, after her many years of service, for decommissioning and tak- ing her place among the ships of the Pacific Reserve Fleet . . . the waiting ones. Through these pages various pictures tell the story of our cruise — events on board and on shore. There were weddings; celebrations and parties; many hours spent with a deck of cards or 14 chessmen; long hours spent on watch — in icy waters one week and torrid waters the next; hundreds of helicopters to bring in; engines and equipment to repair and service; patients to patch up and send back to duty; supplies to hoist or carry on board; visitors to entertain; letters to write home; reports to complete; count- less meals to prepare and serve; bulkheads to scrape and paint; decks to holystone and swab; — all this in addition to keeping up morale and maintaining discipline. We accomplished all this for ourselves, our shipmates and our coun- try under pretty trying circumstances, consid- ering that we were not engaged in a full scale war. WE WERE THERE — just in case. And as is the situation with men who live for the just- in-case, like firemen and munitions-makers and doctors, we had had our share of jangled nerves and disordered, restless minds; we were puffed with sleep and a lot of us had put on needless weight and had decided that we could never turn an honest eye on grade-B movies or on muddy waters, or even on a deck of cards. But we had been there. We had held up and done our job. In the months that we spent in Inchon we had some serious casualties. Marines up front were discovering mine patterns that hadn '

Page 36 text:

•i; f[ Alter two days of our first stateside liberty in months, and the transfer of our patients, we sorted out those of the crew who were to de- part on leave and steamed out of San Fran- cisco, south along the rugged California coast- line to Long Beach, our home port, where many transfers and a rash of marriages began . . . we remember the philosophy of Chief Bos ' n Peterson . . . There is nothing quite so wonder- ful as bachelorhood, the shipboard Navy, Japan and unrestricted freedom, he is quoted as hav- ing said. He convinced himself so thoroughly that he even requested shore duty in Japan. His bride? Annie Erlinger ... so, maybe he wasn ' t convinced. Also we remember the many other unusual and interesting things that hap- pened such as the time the First Lieutenant ' s yeoman was so anxious to hit the beach that in one of his well known absent minded mom- ents he forgot to put on his clothes. No, he didn ' t quite make it, some good shipmate shook him out of the trance just before he reached the Officer-of-the-Deck. Home again, officers and men who had seen so much and who had shared so many experi- ences at sea received orders and began to go their separate ways to all parts of the world. And for the ship, a change began too. Her hospital staff began the staggering job of sort- ing, classifying, wrapping and stowing the mountains of instruments and medical equip- ment. On April 12, Captain Wirthlin was de- tached to take command of the U. S. Naval Hospital at Ouantico, Virginia. Captain W. S. Lawler then became the officer in command of the Consolation ' s hospital. For the flip ' s com- pany began the seemingly endless chipping, painting, securing and the million and one jobs to be accomplished prior to the inactivation of a ship of the U. S. Navy ... for now the

Page 38 text:

i Tf been chcrrted. We doubt that any one will for- get the magnificent 12 hour struggle to save the life of a young marine brought in with severe head wounds from a mine explosion. Nor will any one forget the pseculiar irony of the situa- tion. The boy died on his birthday ... he was eighteen years old. Battle wounds are terrifying and grotesque. A doctor can ' t read about all of them in textbooks and unless he has been in war before, he has little or no experience to rely upon. Each wound is unique and some- times hopeless. A few who went to the front to visit friends or simply to be near the more historic places like Panmunjon, could look over the brusque stony hills and see the communist machine gun emplacements — and these people who thought that Korea was pretty bad, knew one thing: that it would be more tragic if we weren ' t there. We genuinely loved our ship, its mercy mis- sion and the best food in the Navy. However, any ship, whatever type, is confining. In spite of inconveniences many men preferred to stay on board or return with their cameras at sun- down. It wasn ' t escape we wanted so much as J 4