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Our good buddy Hotch sent me some of the sea stories that you have collected. I had a good time reading them, laughed
till I cried. My memory must be slipping or I missed out on a lot sitting back in the old engine house. The way
that I remembered the story about old Hung Chow is that the cook Drylie fixed him up, he put the hydraulic oil in his potato
soup. We aint never had no Engineman with that much medical no how.
Well here are a couple of stories that
I remember. 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 streed 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.
Once I was on watch in the forward engine room.
I think it had been an all night battery change and like always Segundo was about to get under way. My good buddy Fat
Sam came in to take the watch and he had the ship toaster, he said he was going to clean it. I thought that was nice
of Sam, but he didn't say why it needed cleaning. Old Sam liked toasted cheese sandwiches so after night on the beach
he would take two slices of bread and a slice of cheese and mach them together and slide them into the toaster. This
worked pretty well until one got stuck and grounded out the toaster.
We had two strikers one was as thin as the other,
I called them Atlas and Hercules, but the names didn't stick. Hercules became Bones and Atlas became Foggy Ball.
The way Foggy got his name is a true story. My good friend Shakie Jake would not fabricate a false hood. Foggy
and Bones were the mess cooks. Jake sent Foggy to the freezer to get something and he didn't come back. Jake asked what
are you doing down there, and he said that his hands were caught and he couldn't get them free. Jake looked at Foggys
big thick glasses they were so foggy he couldn't see that he was standing on his own hands.
This time I am the mess
cook. I got the job from Fat Sam, he had the job for two days, the rates came in and Sam made 3rd. class, so I got the job.
We were getting ready for West-Pack so we had stores all over the boat. The other mess cook Tom Kosco had the afternoon
off, so I was on my own. The cook gave we a list of can goods that he needed for the next meal. There was one
item I couldn't find, I looked all over the boat I unloaded the storeroom looking for it, then I had to put every can and
box back. I still couldn't find one can that was labeled SUCCOTASH. Kosco came in to get some coffee and asked
what I was looking for, I told him succotash, he laughed and told me that a can of corn and a can of lima beans mixed together
made succotash. I sure am glad that I had already been given the name Bunch.
Still mess cooking and my first trip
to West Pack. Looking forward to liberty in Yokosuka, we had stopped and picked up Com. Sub Group West Pac. And headed
for the pier. The cook Mick Michelson, Kosko and myself had the watch in the crews mess, everyone else is topside.
Mick said I got it down here you go topside and see what it looked liked, so up we go to get our first look at Japan.
Kosco and I fell in with everyone manning the rail everything is looking good. Old sub group comes after looking at
the boat and everyone, looking good. Next the XO Anderson the Rifleman comes after and when he got to Kosco and me his
face was so red and the veins in his neck were about to brake. He told us to go below and stay their DAM IT! And
stay there we did, we couldn't go top side even at night to dump the trash. I didn't know why the Rifleman was so pissed
off my apron was clean.
It was just before Christmas and we had a spare parts Petty Officer Ed Buckvik, his nick
name was The Face, you had to see Ed first thing in the morning and you knew how he got his name. Ed though it would
be nice to give everyone in the engine room a little present. So he made out a P.O. for some electrician knives.
This Knife had one combination screwdriver blade and cost about $1.50. It was good for scraping and opening paint cans.
The Engineering Officer turned it down, he said mechanics didn't need the knives, they were for electricians and why did he
want them. Buck said he wanted to give them out for Christmas. He was told the boat didn't give out gifts.
The next week Buck gave him a P.O. for 15 sets for 1/2 inch drive sockets complete with ratchets and braking bar. Dam
good wrenches, I still use mine, Thanks Buck.
Well Prok, that is it for now, thanks for getting all of these stories
together. I hope they help. See you soon.
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