John McCain (DL 3) - Naval Cruise Book

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The Second Division gunner's mates, having completed successful competitive gunnery year in which Mount earned a hash mark, Mount 31 gained its second hash and Mount 32 earned its E , set out for their second tour of WestPac within a year in a high state of readiness and with a high degree of confidence in their ability to meet any challenge. When the ship left Pearl Harbor none of them realized the tremendous amount of travel the MC CAIN would do to places not normally visited by Navy ships. However, this was to prove to be a once in a lifetime cruise. All of the Second Division men will hold individual memories of Calcutta, Rangoon, Singapore, the Equator Crossing, Subic Bay, Hong Kong, Sasebo, the Formosa Patrol, the Shinwa Maru rescue, Cebu, and the many exciting oper- ations at sea. When we look back upon the experiences and friendships of this cruise, we will undoubtedly remember . . . GINGRAS' perpetual golf swing, Shotgun CON- NELL's terrific iob as boss of the two after mounts and his MAA work, How about a light? EDWARDS who took care of both his mount and our Red seaman, MC GUIRE who took care of our educational needs and all of our training records, WORLEY who savored the noodles stuffed with rice and longed for his chipmunks at home, BERRY who had a bad year while only making second class, earning pro pay, winning a S500 motor scooter, and gett- ing a transfer to shore duty, MATHIS who argued land never lostl and proved to be old reliable in every emergency, EASTERLING who kept us informed on life in Pearl while staying close at hand during his daughter's convalescence, ANDERS who kept an eye on the first class lounge, Baby Guns MESTRICH and Flaps PRITCHARD who both made third class and assumed new responsibilities, MC LEAN who continued to do a fine iob as MAA, and Kneeling left to rightbz LTJG D.H. Le Sieur, Osterberg, l'l.H., Gingras, F.A., Anders, .l.W. CFront rowiz Woodrow, ,l.C., Crook, B.G., Hopper, J,T.L., Houser, W.L., Mestrich, R.A., Bojarski, A. fBack rowjz Squiers, B.W., Guerin, G.A., Robbins, J.C., Easterling, B.V., Onstad, L.A., Edwards, W.F., Mc Dermott, P.F., Connell, J.E.

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The perpetual talker

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the Chief who inspired us all with his leadership and will- ingness to see a iob through to its successful completion. The strikers were not without memories either. ROBBINS, after his return from 5 f54 school proved to be a highly talented striker, the MC CAlN's answer to Wilt Chamberlin, PHILLIPS, made a fine record on the basketball courts during our good will contests in various countries Ialthoughhe did admit that he was camera shy and that he didn't like his female admirers to rush himl, Ole Number 65 MC DERMOTT dazzled us all with his athletic prowess Iparticu- larly his slides into third in the Subic softball gamel while keeping up his constant talk in the nightly movies and keeping a lively correspondence going with his I3 year old love in Singapore, BOJARSKI who threatened a jump to every Russian freighter we saw and was a potential interpreter in four foreign languages, JOHNSON who was second only to MAC in the chatter department while improving his vocabulary in preparation for his return to the street corner and his eagerly sought swap to any ship in 253 , HOPPER who continued to be BERRY's number one man on the Rocket Launcher, ONSTAD who understudied PHIL in basketball while waiting eagerly for June when the cat from Crystal North Dakota would again see his college love , Woody WOODROW who X Adding a hash mark maintained the torpedo room's record of Outstanding for all inspections lin spite of the fact that the room more often resembled a bike shop or storeroom than a torpedo. rooml, CARMICHAEL whose wife had a baby boy while he was in WestPac, SQUIERS and CROOK who shared the mesi cooking duties and did a bangup iob in the torpedo room, and GUERIN who proved his worth as a gun striker and told us all how they did it on other ships. Second Division played a leading role in the ship's in- tensive good will effort during this year's WESTPAC cruise. Their fine conduct and their genuine interest in people, of other countries helped to make the People to People Program as successful as it was. The outstanding appearance of all Second Division spaces, and most particularly the mounts, made a tremendous impression on our many guests. The fine leadership and willingness to share equally in all divisional work made possible the high degree of spifll within the division during the entire cruise. Each member of the division can take pride in the fact that he played an important role in both the defense of the United States and the entire free world and in the successful promotion of the President's People to People Program.