Steinaker (DD 863) - Naval Cruise Book

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ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT ccThe effectiveness of any navy is always gauged by its ability to damage and destroy the enemy. Suc- cess in such a venture depends upon various weapons, which on board ship are underthe supervision of the Gunnery Departmentn. The effectiveness of the Stei- naker can then be judged by the accurecy of our firing whether it be five inch, 40 millimeter, depth charges, hedgehogs, or torpedoes. The 4cStinkyv has always managed to get its share, and more too, of drones, sleeves and theoretically destroyed Subs and surface targets with its torpedo and depth charge attacks. The ship has always had high marks in gunnery, these marks being the result of the best ordnance gang in the whole aTin-can Navyn. Any member of the ordnance gang, whether he be GM, TM, or FC has a working rate. Just because a man is a petty oflicer, is no sign that he doesn't work. For illustration we have 44' men in the department, and of these about one half are rated men. These men are not specialists in just one particular phase of their work, but can perform almost any duty of their rate aboard this or any other similar ship. The following may serve as a hint to the type of man it takes to become a member of the ordnance gang and the type of work he does. X TCRPEDO GANG fThe Ten Tall Menj , As in all destroyers, the more intelligent, good- looking and astute characters are found in the torpedo gang. The function of this gang is the maintenance of the depth charge battery and the torpedoes which are referred to as ccfishn in the Navy. In charge of these we have such capable men as Chief Torpedoman Copperberg whose decisions are always accuratef?j JustQ?j and unquestionedQ???j Next in charge we have TMI Gerald ccThe Clowrm Randolph - part torpedoman, part gangster, not much sailor, home owner, land owner, or what have you. The last of the petty officers but not the feast is Lewis ccShore Patroln Becker TM3, lumber salesman par excellence, who is serving modestly but efficiently as custodian of the tube mount. Heading the list of efficient strikers is well-liked, quiet mannered Wayne Barber, who is a farmer of the first water in his own right. . . David, ccArabD Stehn is Barber's most efficient and forgetful helper. . . Who puts the vitamins in Brooklyn ? George Terry, a true reserve who has answered the call to arms. . . 4cMushn Musbach, a dapper young man, slaves among the K-guns with no thought ofhimself. . . J oe Pucciarella keeps his assigned K-guns andhidepth charges gleaming and deadly Qwhen they workj. Sam- son of the gang is Tom Crogan who relishes loading and unloading depth charges. . . Next probable mayor of Limestone, Tennessee - if he can keep awake - is Louis ccTennesseen Bitner. FIRE CGNTROLMEN e ' Contrary to popular speculation on just exactly what a Fire Controlman is, he is not a member of the abucket brigaden. The main function of a Fire Controlman is to maintain, repair and operate the various and sundry equipment that has to do with aiming and firing the ship's guns and other offensive weapons. His motto is cclf you didn't do it, radio itn. In charge of the Fire Controlmen we have Chief Holly fhis name always spoken in whispers, who has a natural affinity for always showing up as soon as the entire working force has assembled around the coffee pot. . . George O'Neill, top whip cracker, still dreams of doing his twenty traveling week-ends between Norfolk and Maryland. . . Strictly a liberty hound of the first water, Ernie Calvert, has out one desire out of his navy life - Shore duty in Virginia Beach. . . Then there is ccMetroD or ccCecil Bm Hutchison who labors under the impression that he is in the Con- federate Navy. His dreams are of being a motion picture producer. . . c4Stronksv Milburn, who has spent most of his cruise in his sack, is counting the hours until he gets back to Baltimore and Doris. . . We come now to the strikers. Those poor downtrodden people who have to bear the brunt of everything. They are numerous in number but you wouldn't think so if there was a working party in the offing. There is McFerron who wants to get home to his wife and go to school in Washington. . . There are others who want to go home to their women too.. . Madenfort, who has been engaged for about twenty years, is going to get married when the cruise is finished. . . Bowden is carrying on a romance by mail to some little thing back home in Maine that is killing the postman. .. ccDickyn Davenport has hung his flames portrait in ccplotn and spends most of his time look- ing over the rim of his coffee cup at it. . . The steady- ing influence of the gang is cclrvn Barbyg the guy everyone would like to be like, but can't ind out how he got that way. . . ccKirbyn Kerstetter, who is our budding author, is writing a novel expected to end all novels. . . ccGeorgieD Dowden, our Fire Control Yeoman puts it this way, aYawnn! Last but by far not the quietest is W.T. KG-riffn Griffin, condemmer of all the third class petty officers. f- se

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THE BULGARIAN TRIP Mined roads, tank traps and Greek soldiers every half-mile greeted us as we approached the Bulgarian border on a tour sponsored by the American Consulate at Salonika and under the auspices of the Greek Army. Bouncing over the roughest roads imagineable for the last 15 miles of our journey we saw, for the first time, what the Greek countryside was really like. Most of the land was poor by American standards, the people managing to exist mostly by sheep herding and by farming the 'rocky soil. Almost every small town had it barracks and soldiers, and as we ap- proached the border, the road became rougher. We passed over a railroad bridge, hoping that a train wouldn't choose that particular moment to come charging down the tracks. On the last ten miles, barbed wire, tank traps and barricades were everywhere. Upon our arrival we were' greeted by two Greek majorsrand some other oflicers who showed us the Greek-Bulgarian border. We had a chance to inspect the cclron Curtainn, in this case, merely a wooden fence designed to keep the Bulgarians from looking out into Greek territory. SALONIKA GREECE Salonika, known as Thessaloniki in Greece, with a population of 350,000 was founded by Carsander, king of Macedonia, in 315 B.C. and was named for his wife Thessalonika, the sister of Alexander the Great. Its location on the Via Egnatia, the main line of communication from Rome to the Near East, gave it considerable importance as a commercial and intellectual center in Bome and Macedonia. St. Paul preached here and founded the church to which his Epistles of the Thessalonians are addressed. The history of Salonika is a repetition of siege and occupation by all the great powers that dominated the Eastern Mediterranean at various times for the last two thousand years. During World War 1, Salonika was a center of ope- rations against Bulgaria and the central powers by the Allies, and in 1917, some 600,000 men were stationed in the district. The city was the scene of northeastern Greece's resistance to guerrilla warfare after the close of World War II. Points of interest in the city include the White Tower constructed in the 15th century by the Venetians and used by the Turks as a prison. It stands as a prominent landmark of the harbor. The Citadel or Acropolis, is of Byzantine age, 6th century, and occupies the highest point of the city. It is now used as a military prison. Remains of the ancient city walls which were built in the 6th century extend for several miles through the northern and eastern portion of the city. Greek soldiers still maintain a lookout from the .fortifications along the walls. The Church of St. Sophia resembles the celebrated church