LST (925) - Naval Cruise Book

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down every time the anchor comes up. Looks like the hiccup cure is good for sea-sickness, too. Eh, Hoov- er! All right! Hit the deck. Hey you! Drop your - and grab your - l You know there is something mighty fun- ny about an MAA. Perhaps it is be- cause of the fact that he wasn't born, but just quarried. For example, take Schmidt. He is about the mostincon- siderate human being alive in the morning, especially if he knows you have ben out to a late church social. Please get out of your sacks fel- lows, 95 .... GUS.. ..., G. And a mighty bellow sends Pappy Iensen's sweet and sour running for cover, tails twitching. You know, Iensen can spend hours telling you about that time in-, and when I was, and every story ends up with a tattoo. That black panther must remind him of some cute little cat with sharp claws. I wonder if he really thinks the Hula Girl is worth what she cost him? I You'd never know it, but there are two people aboard who know some- thing about Minnesota and The Great Inland Empire. Gne of them is smart enough just to keep his mouth shut and avoid all embarrass- OUR COMMON PRAYER Now I lay me down to nap, . With someone's feet next to my map. Please let some other sailor take The mid-watch, or the four to eight. Lord, guard me in my tired sleep, And keep this old bucket, the 925, moving along smoothly o'er the briny deep. I pray no air raids me will wake, But let me sleep 'till dawn doth break. I'll dream of eating Sirloin steak, And top it off with Hoover's cake. God keep us while we move at large, And let us hit no ammo barge. I wish it were a feather bed, The sack whereon I rest my head, A bed away from all these scenes, Of' horror and of half-baked beans. I'd rather live in army camps Than swab at night by battle lamps, ment, but the other is consatntly wal- lowing through the land of lakes, singing its praises in rugged bar- ber shop, and dreaming of those delicious steaks he is going to diet on when he gets back home. But then it takes a pretty healthy kid to stand those cold winters. With Mr. White on leave, the wardroom ice- box has finally gotten cooled down below the freezing point for the first time since leaving Lingayen Gulf. It's just a matter of will power, my boy! You can ask Yung Yoe. Our Captain existed on stewed bread crusts and roast celery leaves for more than a week. He wasn't going to let his appetite get the better of his figure, no sir! But he almost was kept in the Americas as an essential entertainer. The Panamanian Gov- ernment was seriously considering retaining him. lt can be ,seen easily that our crew is made up of a bunch of normal, healthy Americans. A few of them have suffered NO ill effects from the war, and one says he is going to re- fuse the bonus, but these are excep- tions. You can say safely, therefore, that we are all typical examples of Uncle Sam's Wartime Navy: land- lubbers at heart. Gr work all day for Iip-Ioint-Ioe Where Gooding's smoke would never blow. I wish that gobs had clean washed clothes, But God, Thou knowest all our woes. Please take me home, I'll promise then I'll never sign for four again. I'll trade my blues and khaki boots For one of Brooklyn's new Zoot. Suits. Our Father, who art in Washington, Please grant that I may get away From food served on a metal tray, Please add a point most every day , For things we've done the Navy way. If you'll forgive my awful past, Those things for which I went to mast, I'll be the best lad 'neath the sun. I pray you'll not this year refuse To send me on a homeward cruise.

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though, just give him a cube of yeast and a can of apricots. What Hap- pened? Yep! He's the boy who makes the light, tasty-sinkers. He's pretty lucky now though: he's got old jake Harding making the holes. ls he a changed' man since those pretty nurses gave him a once over in the hospital! He's even trying to out- Miller Miller- as the most asiatic Asiatic. You've all probably heard of Bube Goldberg. Well, he's NCT aboard, but the jerk he gets his ideas from IS. One of his gismos actually worked: a percolator made out oftwo five- inch shell containers and one ink bottle. l saw his plans for a garbage can-washing machine and an elec- tric ice cream freezer, and were they duzies! Mid puffs on his Sherlock Holmes, he confided to me that his next one is going to be a Watermelon de-seeder. Where were you on the night of l9l2 B. C.? Come on, quit stalling and talk up or l'll use this hunk of hose on ya! Ofcourse, all most cops do is breakup kids' ball games, but this one is different. He can tell you how he broke up the New York City gambling racket single handed. He sent up thirteen kids he caught flip- ping for match covers, lt is rumored that father Moyer nearly met with' catastrophe when steering aft during the special sea detail., As usual, he was comfortably crapped out on a coil of manila when his Christmas stogie became serious- ly entangled in the cables because, you know who, suddenly gave full left rudder and all back seven. A close bunk-mate to Moy is the short lad with the long drawl. Quote: We all, just want all, to get home all, ya all he-ah, unquote. Big john also has excellent reasons for want- ing to get home! Hope the local retail stores keep their delivery boys in the day johnny comes marching home. john used West as a sparriflq IDCITTTIGI for his conditioning periodsp West in turn took advantage of the exercise and shaped up for his match with Ewing. 4 P. T. Furr's great tent show did disclose some hitherto undreamed of talents in our one and only Har- rison Brown Smith, the THIRD. The aristocrate from Princeton seriously upset all professional wrestling when he ignominiously pinned our hither- to undefeated champ, Chopper, the Angle, Bugler Ann Gradisherf' lt looked so easy, too! H. B. is planning to return to school soon-after a year or two of rest. T We have another lad who has been inquiring about a college edu- cation, but what he plans on taking they don't teach in any advanced courses, and he is'WAY beyond the elementary stage by now. How Shaw can wear the good conduct ribbon and get away with what he gets away with is a mysteryg but then we USNB boys got the condensed train- ing program, and a few of the more intimate subjects were omitted. Freud had been dropped from the ciricu- lum. Therer is nothing quite so disheart- ening as to have some unapprecia- tive lunkhead make uncompliment- ary remarks about your swell de- hydrated potatoes, especially after you have put in long, grueling hours all day over a hot stove. just ask Bender. After holding up the chow line just to give some undeserving lad a piece of heart-warming ad- vice, he usually retreats with the statement, l 'love to hear you gripe brother, so just keep it up. Chop! Chop! l Well, we're under way at last. How do you know? Easy. just take a look at Green Hornet Kelley. A little invasion and a few japs sem to have changed Kel- ley a bit, and he has stopped going

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LEST WE FORGET lt was warm that morning of Iuly fifteenthas we stood at attention in our clean white uniforms, but we didn't feel the heat very much. We were all thinking-wondering just what the next year, or the next two years, would mean to each of us as a member of the crew of the ship we were about to put into commission. Could we have had the ability to see into the future, some of us would have felt our stomachs sink as we heard Lieutenant Commander Smith accept the LST 925 for the United States Navy: others of us would have be- come eager for the experiences that were ahead, as we heard Bos'n Floyd McDaniel Furr read the order which directed him to assume command. At 0946 Navy Time the commission pen- nant was hoisted aloft and the 'first command was given, Mr, Cooke, set the watch. No one remembered the hour, and few remembered the day. Those were not important things to remember. This was the beginning of a rather intimate life within a very confined space which would grow smaller with time. lt was this begin- ning that we did remember. Work on the new LST which lay alongside the Marginal Loading Pier at Bethlehem l-lingham Shipyards had stopped for a few minutes during the commissioning ceremony, but as soon as. the last prayer was con- cluded workers again swarmed over the ship, swabbing on paint, welding and chipping, and installing numer- ous items of miscellaneous equip- ment in a last mad rush. Soon she would be complete in every detail and would go to sea. lt would be up to us to sail her, yet only,a handful of us had ever been to sea before. Undoubtedly our first trip would prove an adventuresome experiment. We turned in late that nightp some of us might as well not have turned in at all. There was too much going on. Workers tramped about in the ship all night, and everything was still in an uproar. All hands set the special sea de- tail. lt took quite a while to get the word passed around the first time. The officer of the deck was afraid of committing a calamitous error and didn't get the ball rolling very fast. His messenger almost got lost below, but the special sea detail was finally set. At least the first entry l-L B. Smith made in the quartermaster's notebook asserted this accomplishment. After successfully backing away from the pier Cand without knocking it overlb we slowly picked our way through Boston Harbor and a short while later tied up for the purpose of deperming. Iuly 17 We cast off without too much diffi- culty this morning and headed for Commonwealth Pier Five. As we eased in past the transport West Point she began to lower her davits, but realized her mistake before we were hoisted aboard. Tomorrow we would put in a full day loading pro- visions, and tomorrow Louie Frietas would be logged as the first man ACL. . Iuly 20 Hasul joined up with us today, and as he came up the gangway he was preceded by one hundred and thirty- two pipe wrenches which the COD, Mr. Poyle, tried to steer into the arm- ory. Dog began to eat dog as far as supplies were concerned. Louie's sea bag was sent ashore this morningp Louie returned this afternoon. His tim- ing was a little off, but he would sail with us tomorrow. Slated to leave Boston in a traditional fog, the radar would get its first big chance. Now let's see, who knows how to work that stuff, anyway? L