Recollections recorded 23 February 2002
About 2 months after my 20th birthday, I joined the Navy on an impulse. I was working for Louisiana
Public Utilities Co., which had ice and electric franchises in my home town of Sidell, LA. I was on the platform of the ice
house when a Navy recruiting motor home type vehicle drove up to get some ice for ice water. Of course they asked if
anyone wanted to join the Navy, so I decided to do so. They asked me if there was any section of the Navy I preferred, and I
told them to put me where they needed men the most.
After a couple of trips to near-by New Orleans for complete physical examination and swearing in, I
was told to wait for notification of travel orders. We left New Orleans the night of Dec., 23 and reached Camp Bradford in
Little Creek, VA on Christmas Day. We Received our clothing allotment that aftrnoon, and that's when I found out I was a Seabee.
I had never heard of them before.
The CPO in charge of training our platoon was Patrick Tansy. He managed to to be strict and tough
without being mean about it, and was probably one of the better men doing the training.
After Boot Camp, we went down to Camp Hollyday in Gulfport (MS), for 9 days boot leave and a little
further training. My 9 days were over on March 22.
From Gulfport we went to Hueneme, Calif. We must have gotten sudden shipping orders, for the West
Coast men never got their boot leave. We were given more equipment, and boarded ships at San Francisco about April 6th,
and left 2 days later. We got to Oahu about April 15th, and half the battalion got off the ship. The other half went down
to Palmyra (Island) to build facilities there, and were there for several months. The rest of us went to Lualualei, on
the west coast of Oahu to built a naval ammunition dump.
After several months the 76th battalion was reunited and were moved over to Wahiawa, near the geographical
center of Oahu. I was able to join the electrical gang of Chief EM John Hood from Selma, Ala. We built a good
many radio antennas for RADIO NAVY 41. These antennas had to be pointed in a specific direction, so our surveyors laid them
out for us. We then set 75 foot poles and strung out the antenna wires. I think this Navy radio station handled the bulk of
Pacific radio traffic.
We also built and wired Quonset huts, and built electric and telephone lines.
On liberty one Friday in Honolulu, I met a nephew, Ollie, on the street, who I didn't know was in
the Navy. He was stationed on the cruiser New Orleans, which had just returned to the Pacific after being refitted with a
new bow. She had lost her bow to a Japanese torpedo the night of Nov. 30, 1942 off Tassafarongo, and Ollie had been
assigned to her as a replacement. I was able to visit him on the ship the next time they came to Pearl.
About the end of 1943 we moved down to Iriquois Point, on the west side of the entrance to Pearl
Harbor. Here, there was a little more training and a little less work.
My main memory of this period was an incident which occurred on a Sunday afternoon in late April
or very early May. Those of us not on liberty were lazing around when there were several very big explosions. We ran
outside and saw smoke rising at Westlock (West Loch *), the western arm of Pearl Harbor. Two of our trucks came by looking
for volunteers to move 5 inch shells and drums of aviation gas off the docks. They were being loaded onto LSTs, and something
had gone wrong. There were close to 2 dozen of us, and we jumped on the trucks and went to Westlock, which was only a scant
mile away. Chief EM Hood was our ranking leader, and we moved the shells and drums of gasoline which were in danger, and
impeding the efforts of damage control, out of the way. What really irked us was the civilian stevedores sitting
on their duffs out of harm's way. They were almost all of Japanese ancestry. A picture of the smoke rising is enclosed, taken
by our battalion photographer from Waikiki Beach, close to 5 miles away.
We left Oahu about June 12th and sailed west. We crossed the International Date Line June 24th,
and reached Eniwetok 2 days later. We stayed in the harbor there for 30 days, then left late in July for Guam, as it turned
out.
My 2 main memories of this leg of the trip are as follows:
1. We had a submarine alert one morning, which was serious enough for a destroyer to drop 3 depth
charges. Then an all clear was given, there were no conclusive results.
2. Our ship passed very close to a large whale shark, which was basking on the surface and not at
all perplexed by our presence. He was at least 30 feet long.
We reached Guam Aug. 4th, and cruised off shore for 3 or 4 days, awaiting our turn to land. We landed
at Dadi Beach, near the villiage of Agat, then went by truck to Piti, where we were to be based.
We worked the beach head for a couple of weeks, then maintained the roads, which were deplorable,
for a somewhat longer period of time.
I helped build and wire Quonset huts on Orote Peninsula (Apra Harbor Naval Station), and helped
install generators for a Navy boat pool camp, also on Orote. Pehaps our battalion's (76th NCB) biggest project was the breakwater,
built to protect Apra Harbor.
A brother of mine, in Europe was killed of Mar. 3rd, 1945, and I was given a 30 day leave. I left
Guam about the last week in April. My leave was from about May 9th to June 8th. I went back to Camp Parks at Shoemaker, CA,
them back to Maui. I was placed in the 98th C.B.s which in turn was attached to the 2nd Marine Div. We were trained for the
invasion of Kyushu, Japan, when the war ended. I left there near the end of October, getting back to the states about Nov.
9th. I was discharged from the NAS (Naval Air Station) at New Orleans on Nov. 19, 1945.
