Lets not forget our buddy Billie Joe McLamore Torpedoman. Mack was quiet and shy and when he had too
much to drink he could not talk, all he could say was AH AH AH. When we were lucky enough to get to tie up at Broadway
piers about 02:30 or 03:00 a cab driver would come to the boat and say he had a guy that couldn't talk and did he belong
with us. So we would go get Billy Joe.
One time there was a party at
Cobs house, Dexter was talking to someone and Billy Joe was just standing there not saying anything. Cob turned
and asked Billy Joe what do you want. Mack asked if he could have some water, Cob said yes get a glass and help
yourself. Mack got a glass and took it out side.
Mack came in and got
somemore water and went outside. After about 10 or 12 glassed Cob asked what are you doing with all the water,
Mack said that Gilmores car was on fire and he was trying to put it out. After that Gilmores car had bucket seats the
5 gallon type.
How about the time Chief Whetington thought the down angle was too much so he went to the control room, he
didn't say a word he just went to the air manifold and put a shot of air in Bowbouyancy and went back to the forward
room. One way to get shore duty. And before we leave the torpedo room lets not forget our good buddy Gomez.
Poncho liked to dance, he was not Fred Astaire but he had a lot of fun. His favorite dance was the hat dance, the Mexican
white hat dance. He would drop a hat and stomp all over it, sure glad it wasn't my hat.
I remember when we got a new skipper McConeghy. Like most new skippers he wanted to be on top of everything, so
he had to be notified of everything. Made sense to me but we had this cook named Bosko and he said if the old SOB
wants to be woken up I will wake him up. Every night Bosko would go all over the boat collecting trash, anything
he could find. About every 30 or 40 min. he would request to use the G.D.U. so the bridge would wake the old man.
It wasn't long before Bosko ran out of trash so he was firing the G.D.U. empty.
I don't remember if it was at the same time but the Yeoman Hotch did not want the old man to sleep. He would wake
him up by typing as loud and fast as he could about 200 words per min. sometimes even without paper in the typewriter.
Sasbeo Japan in dry dock we had a bad fuel leak in the transfer line that was in the galley so we shut down
the galley. We had to take a bus about 10 miles to a base galley, this was a big pain having to get up extra early,
and long bus rides, so most people staying on board eating cold cans of beans and tuna fish. When we went
back to sea Jake didn't know what he had on board.
All the Officers and Chiefs moved off the boat. Some of the Chiefs moved to the barracks, some to the Chiefs club.
Remember Van Loon liked salty dogs and before long his mustache was solid salt.
One night Van was attacked by snakes, he said later that he even pulled off his under shorts to throw at them.
The next part of the story was told to me by an electrician Madill. He knew what Van Loon was going through.
In his youth he had been attacked by spiders. His youth was spent aboard the S-1 back when they had gasoline engines
and dry cell batteries. Back in Sasbeo maybe month later Van and Madill thought a beer would be OK, so they went
across the street to a Japanese grocery the Mamason put them in the back room and gave them a couple of beers in those
big bottles.
They had been there about 30 min, when a horned toad come out from behind some boxes. No one said anything they
just looked at the toad, took a couple sips of beer then looked at each other. After a while one asked the other
if he had seen the toad. He said yes but they weren't sure. Later Mamason told them the toad was a pet and
it stayed in the room to eat spiders.
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