|
I swam to a life raft that had been blown off the ship which was
badly broken. There were some men on the raft that had been injured
and others were clinging to the lines that were attached to the
raft. One of the landing barges nearby soon picked us up and took us
to the beach on Guadalcanal. I found that I had a small scalp wound
and a gash on my inner right arm near the elbow.
On the beach, we were given rags to remove the oil, new clothes
and shoes and some salt water soap and permitted to take a cold
water bath. After doing my best to remove the oil, my new clothes
were soon soaked with the oil from places that I could not see while
taking the shower. We were on the island for a few days and while
there, Washing Machine Charlie would disturb our sleep by flying
high and slowly dropping bombs from time to time while we stayed in
the trenches dug for air raid shelters. One afternoon, the survivors
were told to report to the armory and draw rifles and ammunition as
a large Japanese landing force was expected to land on the beaches
that night. I had never fired a rifle larger than a 22 caliber, so I
was unsure of just what use I would make of the heavy 30 caliber
that we were issued. Well, thank the Lord, the Japanese never landed
as expected.
I was soon flown to the Naval Hospital on Espiritu Santo where I
was treated for my wounds. I was asked a few days later if I was
ready to return to duty along with other survivors that were being
sent to New Zealand for leave and reassignment. I had been having
trouble with my left ankle, which had been swollen for some time,
and I asked the doctor to take care of that problem before I was
returned to duty. As a result, I was separated from the other
survivors and I never saw or heard from any of them again.
I was sent aboard the destroyer tender in the harbor at Esperitu
Santo for reassignment. While on board, I saw the USS Aaron Ward
enter the harbor. As my brother, Carl was on that ship, I caught a
ride to visit him. When I got aboard the Aaron Ward, I saw my
brother busy cleaning paintwork and I slipped up behind him and gave
him a jab in the ribs as I knew that he was ticklish. He whirled
around ready to punch me until he recognized who had given him the
jab in the ribs. He was surprised, to say the least, as he didn't
know where I was at that time. He was on board that ship when it was
sunk a month or so later at Guadalcanal. He was quite badly injured
and was discharged shortly after recovering from his wounds.
I finally returned to the States and was given 30 days leave.
Then I was assigned to board the USS Satterlee (DD 626) at
Bremerton, Washington. Before the ship was commissioned, my father
was killed in an auto accident near Mojave, California. I was given
30 days leave to do what I could to assist my stepmother and three
younger brothers and one sister. While on leave, the Satterlee was
commissioned and sailed for the Panama Canal and duty on the East
Coast. Upon returning to Bremerton, I was sent by train with four
other sailors to New York City to join the Satterlee. When we
arrived there, the ship was in Portland Maine. We then went there
and finally boarded the ship, but the captain refused to accept us,
as the ship had no room aboard for us. We were returned to the
receiving station at Portland for assignment.
While at the receiving station, I was selected to speak at a War
Bond Rally at the Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, as I was a
survivor of the DeHaven that had been built there. I was told to
write my own speech and be prepared to speak to the shipyard workers
about my experience on board the DeHaven. I had never made a speech
before and had completed only the 7th grade in school so I was
really intimidated and suffered considerable stage fright while
speaking over a loud speaker to a very large crowd of people.
Anyway, it worked out ok as I received a great amount of applause
after completing my speech.
Later, I was assigned to the USS Wickes (DD 578) and served on
board until I stayed over leave for a few hours and missed ship on
11-1-43. After spending six weeks in the brig in Boston, I was kept
on restriction without leave until assigned overseas to the
Submarine Repair Base, in Brisbane, Australia. I worked and lived at
the Torpedo Repair Shop in Brisbane, which was located several miles
from the repair base. I stayed there until the entire operation was
moved to Subic Bay, Philippines after that area had been secured
from the Japanese. I finished my Navy tour of duty finally on
5-l5-46 at Camp Shoemaker near San Francisco. I was awarded the
Purple Heart, the Asiatic Pacific Metal with one star, and the
American Area of Operations, Victory and Philippines Liberation
metals.
Later, I joined the Naval Reserve and was called back to duty on
9-21-50 and served on the USS Pine Island, AV-12 until 12-18-51. I
completed the requirements for high school at Central High School in
Oklahoma City by participating in the Veteran's Accelerated Courses
during 1947 and went to the University of Oklahoma for a short time
thereafter.
On 1-10-49, I entered the U.S. Border Patrol school in El Paso,
Texas and served with the Immigration and Naturalization Service
until 1979 when I retired at San Francisco, California where I had
last worked as the Assistant District Director for Examinations
(GS-14).
Since my retirement, I have lived in Lakeside, California and
enjoyed my retirement while hunting and fishing in Baja California,
Mexico and the San Diego area ocean and lake waters.
|
