Topeka (CL 67) - Naval Cruise Book

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'cSweet Tooth Emporium downtown. All the men were not youngsters, of course. Even some of them who we-re quite young had long been shouldering responsibilities as heavy as any you know. They really ranged in age from 16 - and maybe younger - to 39. Many of them were family men with from one to six children. One oldster of twenty-six received word while we were at sea fighting the enemy that his sixth daughter had arrived. He and his wife had been married all of seven years. Such champions make a champion ship. All in all the Topeka family was numerous and scattered all over the world from Australia to the countries of Europe. One of the cooks had a wife in Australia, and a new baby daughter whom, at the end of the war, he had not yet seen. Most of the newer families of the men were living with parents-for the most part perhaps with the girlsi parents. ln more incidents than you would guess, babies 'were born while the fathers were at sea. The most prevalent pin-ups on the Topeka were new babies in their girlish mothers' arms-or those shameless exposures of babies which so de- light parents, especially fathers, and embarrass children at least until they marry and have children of their own. In this matter man seems to learn so little from experience. These pictures play an important role in an unabashed blackmail practice used by every adult generation on the younger. Of course many of the men had already established homes, and were in the process of paying off the mortgage when the war caught them up. They were typical of the American places of which we are justly very proud-full of modern gadgets that make the American wife several grades higher than a slave, and giving evidence at every turn of the handiness and loving concern of her husband. He had that way about his work, whether he liked it or not, which astonishes people of every other country, and leads to some of the grossest misunderstandings about Americans and their country. Work to him is always at once a pleasure and a drudge so that he always appears to be fighting it or playing with it. And even when he fights he plays. It never seems that he is taking the thing serious- ly. For this and other reasons a foolish Hitler called him decadent, and the unhumorous Japanese attacked him with a stab in the back. The Japanese must understand by now that they have been defeated by these same irresponsible American youths. But one wonders whether they know, or would believe it if they were told what is the truth, that these men often prayed that enemy planes would come in close enough for some sure shooting-any action even dan- gerous action was preferable to withering boredom. The navy did an astonishingly fine job placing round pegs in round holes. But there are limits to which even psychologists can go. The Topeka did not carry cows S0 one dairy man was an electrican, and another a firecon- trolman. Farmers on the whole seem to be able to do any- thing and everything. For that matter so do soda jerkers, artists, truck drivers, or hobos. The American youth is the most versatile fellow in the world. A sales-manager for a large grocery house was a laundryman, a milkman was an evaporator operator, a building contractor was a cook- a thing We are pledged b'y a sacred oath never to reveal to his wife-an artist was a laboratory technician, a radio an- nouncer and script writer was a sergeant in the marines, a boxer a shipfitter, and so it went throughout the ship, men throwing around talents and skills no one including them- selves evetr knew they had. Naturally there were many career navy men who had been in the servic.e anywhere from five to thirty and more years. They were the cream in the coffee, as one might say, professionals who poured out their Hknow-hown and Hwhatw to the ample amateurs that did everything but out-know them. Add to these the professionals among the officers and the conglomerate amateurs with them and you have the mass- that was moulded into the unbeatable Topeka crew. Nothing was more astounding than the way these men got along with one another in crowded quarters which never offered any privacy, and at times under most tense circum- stances. You would not believe it if we told you that there neve-r was a cross word or a fight. You would be right be- cause it would not be true. There were sharp words at times, but really ver.y few, when men would fly at one an- other with brutal purpose. Even loving brothers do that at times, and that was about how it was. They were friends before they fought, while they fought, and after they fought. For instance here is a conversation between the Chaplain and one of the men whose one eye looked the worse for wear. '6Fight, son? HYes, Padre. 4'Did you hit him back? '4Yes, sir . 4'Did you shake hands when it was over?,' f'Oh, yes sirn. MOK, sonw. A spirit of genuine and warm camaraderie pervaded the ship from stem to stern within departments and as well be- tween departments. There was good natured rivalry for excellent performance, but the height of pride was in the ship and not in any single department. lt is pretty hard to compare the excellence of a cake with perfect gunnery, which is a very helpful factor in the cause of peace. Rivalry is a good thing but cooperation is absolutely necessary in the operation of a fighting ship. Our young Americans seemed to come by cooperation as naturally as they did their spirited love of contest. Willing helpful hands constantly tested your own initiative and ambition. They were attracted to undermanned jobs like ants to sugar. Of c.ourse there were slackers and gold-brickelrs, but they were too small a minority to set the tone of the crew. Many of them were shamed, cajoled, and disciplined to some gen- uine, or at least a semblance, of willing effort. Even the hardest could not forever withstand the pervading spirit. On one occasion a large numbelr of the men were taken suddenly and violently ill-it was something they ate-and before anyone could snap his fingers electricians, shipfit- ters, radio technicians, cooks et al became working hospital corpsmen. They stood by their buddy-patients doing some of the most unpleasant jobs imaginable in spite of the fact that they had had very little sleep for days, could have had some then, and had little promise of any for some time to c.ome. But that was only typical of what was going on in the ship every hour of every day. It is no wonder that the men who have served aboard the Topeka mention her with an inflection that denotes and at times oozes affection. 68

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II An Admiral entertained at one of the wardroom parti6S remarked that a good ship is always a hard working and hard playing ship. And he went on to say that he knew that the Topeka was just that. We can take that for an out- line for the rest of our story and show the men of the Topeka hard at work and hard at play. Work, of course, was our chief occupation. It all started months before and continued at Newport and Quincy where the men were given additional training. Most of them were called on to learn new techniques and to develop utterly new skills. They attended schools morning, noon and night at Newport, while the men at Quincy swarmed the ship learn- ing her mechanical innerds while she was being built. The first days were hectic and chaotic, though the Navy with its usual efficiency had injected a semblance of order that was gradually to be fully realized in a comparativel'y short time. Urgency marked every single effort. The times were urgent with the incompatibles, speed and thoroughness, re- quired of everything and everyone. The stor.y of the crew really began as early as the spring of 1944- when the first ofiicers and men reported for duty at the Quincy yard. At that time some of the men who were to become members of the crew were far in the Pacific desperately fighting a very determined, strong, and far from beaten foe. Others were at death grips with the European enemy on the Atlan- tic and inthe Mediterranean. They were brightening days but still dark enough to be disquieting to any but the in- different. Most of the men, and we mean by that about eighty per cent of them, were still in school or engaged in their civilian occupations. By the time the ship was launched in August they were in the throes of boot training being hard- ened, trained, and shuffled for their naval careers. The ship was commissioned in December, and the crew that was not in lVla'y, that was so many unrelated and in- experienced boots in August, and was in parts scattered all over the world even as late as September and October, was integrated and ready at least to sail the ship when it went aboard to take over for the Navy on the day of commission- ing at the Boston Navy Yard. It was an amazing feat of training and organization that warrants oceans of praise for the men of the Navy who had persevered against most dis- heartening odds and downright ignominy and disapproba- tion during the hectic decades of the twenties and thirties. The cry for ships and men came from the Pacific in an ever increasing crescendo. By the first of the year, 19415, the Naval leaders smelling victory and as eager for it as a hound dog after rabbits were planning the daring Naval strategy that was to pound the Japanese to submission not more than seven and a half months later. But in the ofiing were Iwo Jima and Okinawa which called for everything the Navy had and could muster. The officers and men of the Topeka knew that they were racing against time and victory. There was the urge to get there, an urge that be- came intense as time went on. There was a great new American Navy in the Pacific, greater than the world had ever seen before. It was a real- - ..,. ffm, , the dreams of littler people, and it was still ity beyond I . th increasing acceleration. What a disheartening growing wi sight to a treacherous foe who thought they had left our Navy an irrecoverable wreck in the shallow waters of Pearl Harbor! But the American Navy never was her ships, hulks of steel that can be shattered, burned, and sunk, but her men and their indomitable spirits, and their soaring dreams. After the commissioning the men of the Topeka worked with zeal and a will to make her good enough for a place in the great Pacific fleet that by its prowess, daring, and courage had already indelibly insc.ribed its name in glory on the pages of Naval warfare. But the goal so consumately to be desired was not easy to win. There would be test after test and trial upon trial that would call for perfection of performance of all departments which the oflicers and men knew they were not then capable of giving. The race began as soon as the men went aboard on a cold bleak New England winter's day that by the calendar was December 23, 1944. Only men of experience and vision could see this ship and crew ready to take its place with veterans in battle action within six months. But that is the record that was made, and let it be said that the Topeka was not the only American fighting ship to make such a record. But that she was among those that did will bea matter of great pride to every man who helped her do it, and those who will serve in her so long as she remains an active ship of the United States Navy. The work involved in this enormous task was prodigious. The engineering department with its divisions and sub- divisions was best prepared at the start to take over its duties. At least they were able to steam the ship within several days after the commissioning. That was due to the fact that many of the leading men of the department had been at Quincy while the ship was under construction and had had the opportunity of living with the equipment daily as it was installed. Even so there was little experience in operating such a gigantic and intricate plant-engines that would develop more than 110,000 horsepower under steam pressures and temperatures that most of the men had never heard of let alone handled. There were innumerable valves, switches, and throttles that had to be knowingly and carefully ma- nipulated. There were giant generators, producing up to 4110 volts of electricity that ran hundreds of motors fed by an intricate pattern of wires that were strung along bulk- heads and decks, an automatic telephone system and various other ship's communication systems, to be operated and maintained in efficient operating condition. Then there were the gyro-compasses and steering mechanisms, the lighting system, and many other things like the Ventilating system, fans, and water plant, too numerous to mention. All of this equipment, absolutely necessary to the life of the men and the efficient operation of the ship, depended for value on the ability of certain men to run and maintain it, men who five and six months before were in school, on farms, in offices and factories, doing anything and everything but running ships. And they did itl Again and again in these pages we will sing that refrain. They did it! 70