Oct 30, 1942 - We are now anchored at Noumea, New Caledonia, which is owned and administered by the French.
An Australian ship, which is tied up to a pier in port has the assignment of acting as mail ship for all of the ships entering and leaving port. I went over to receive the mail for Admiral Kinkaid. The Petty Officer, who was to give me the mail snapped to attention, takes three paces backward and salutes with his hand quavering until I respond with a salute. He is surprised to have an officer pick up the mail, which was usually done by an enlisted man. I am surprised to be saluted, because in the U.S. Navy there is no saluting done below decks. It reminded me of the time when I was on the USS Oklahoma and the entire marine section were called to attention and saluted me when I went in their quarters.
Ensign Fields evidently wrote a letter home telling of his escapade with the near miss and within days he received orders to go back to the states to a gunnery school. I took the orders to him to give him a copy for his signature. Marsh told me that it wasn't fair for him to have the orders when Lt.(jg) Flood and others had been waiting for almost two years for orders and he had only been out two months. He said he wanted to transfer the orders to Lt.Flood. I told him that the BUPERS orders were for him and were not transferable. He said again, "I don't want the orders." I said, "Well, I don't have any authority to do anything about it. If you want you can talk to the Ship's Gunnery Officer and see if he will change the orders." This he did. It was all arranged and soon Lt. Flood was on his way to the states to go to school. (Note: Sometime later, an officer in the wardroom was telling a group of fellows, "That namby-pamby Marshall Fields got in a little battle and now has orders to go home safely to his Mommy." I wasn't with the group, but I spoke up and told them the whole story. Marsh had evidently not told anyone what he had done. Anyway, from this day forward, Marsh was a big hero. Who else would give up orders to go back to the states? Not I.
Oct 31 - The officer, who makes room assignments was very apologetic to me. I had insisted on getting a certain room which had been assigned to the Flag, just before the Battle of Midway. He said that because of the newly created "Tent City", he was going to have to put me temporarily in a room with three other officers. One of my new roommates was a coding officer, Lt(jg) Robertson (Robby). I outranked him and had my choice of bunks, but I let him keep the bottom bunk as I didn't think I would be in this room for long. Ensign Lovelace (Remember him?) was assigned to the new tent city and because he couldn't nap there, he napped on Robby's bunk. Dick Woltemate casually mentioned that Lovelace had the "Crabs". Robby got all excited and grabbed me and we went down to our room and sure enough both of our beds had crabs in them. We summoned the room boys and had them haul our bedding to the laundry for cleaning. They also sprayed our room. I was very naive and because Robby was so excited, I thought that "Crabs" was a venereal disease so I was very concerned. I was greatly relieved to find out that we had ridded ourselves of "Crabs" and that they were not dangerous. Robby really gave Lovelace a good tongue-lashing and told him not to ever nap again in his bed.
Nov. 1 - The USS Vulcan, a repair ship is over to work on the Big 'E' while we are here at Noumea. The repair officer estimated that it should take three weeks to get us ready for more duty. The construction and repair crews are working practically around the clock while the rest of us are practically on vacation.
Nov. 2 - Today I went over to Admiral Halsey's flagship on an assignment. As I was leaving, eight boat gongs sounded, which signifies that Admiral Halsey is either coming aboard or is leaving the ship. I stood aside and saluted him as he and his entourage of high-ranking officers passed by. He returns my salute and recognizes me. He stops and asks me questions about the Big'E'. He wonders about the condition of the ship, the morale etc. I tell him of the perilous condition of the elevators, which I'm sure he knew anyway. I tell him that all the officers and men wished that he were back aboard. All this time, the Captains and commanders who are with him are fidgeting and wishing he would quit talking to a lowly Lt(jg). It is fun to see the brass have to wait for me. I am also pleased that he recognizes me. When he was aboard the Big 'E', I never passed a word with him except to show him the secret dispatches and make any necessary explanations.
Nov.3 - One of my friends has an appointment with a friend of his somewhere on the Island. Three of us go together to find his friend and to walk around and see the sights. It is fun to see a group of teenagers play soccer. They don't have a ball. They use a tin can and run and kick it with their bare feet. If you see one native man, you have seen them all. They all look exactly alike. They have dark skin, but blond kinky hair. I learned that they bleach their hair to kill lice and insects.
They are of a stong, husky build and seldom wear a shirt. Most of them seemed to be aobut five feet nine inches tall. While we were walking, a shirless boy on a bike delievered bread. He carried about five loaves of unwrapped bread under his left arm while guiding the bike with the right hand.
As he came to the house of a customer, he let go of the handlebar to throw a loaf on the porch like our newsboys throw papers. We come to a corner. I continue after the bike, but the two officers say, "we are turning here." I said, "No, no, not me. I'm following the bike to see who gets that last loaf of bread, whic is under his left armpit."
Nov.11 - We were supposed to remain here until about Nov 21, but there is too much at stake at Guadalcanal so here we are heading back to the "Canal". The place where we are going becomes known as "The Slot". Henderson Field on Guadalcanal has TBFs, SBDs, and F4Fs operating. Hopefully, the enemy will not even know that the Big'E' is operating down here if they see our aircraft. If they find us they will be met by two of our new battleships, the USS Washington and the USS South Dakota.
Nov 13 - The cruiser USS Pensacola and two destroyers join up with us and US mail is sent over to our crew.
1208 Hours - One of our aircraft shoots down another of those big Kawanishi flying boats. The enemy probably knows our location so we are at GQ.
Nov 14 - Our bombers are out all morning and afternoon, many good targets are found and a couple of enemy cruisers are sunk.
1500 Hours - We launched all of our bombing and torpedo planes and then the Big 'E' headed toward a rainstorm. Thankfully this rainstorm protected us from any attacks. Our ship is doing good and because of the work parties, the ship is in much better shape than when we left Noumea. We continue to lose aircraft and pilots. I feel sorry for the pilots. They are under constant stress and lose buddies almost every day.
During this operation, the enemy came to Guadalcanal with eleven troop transports and seven of them were sunk. I believe the remaining four were sunk at the beach when they attempted to land at Guadalcanal. Some of the men from these transports made it to shore, but they are without supplies. None of our ships have been located by the enemy so we are very fortunate to receive no damages.
Nov 15- Most of our aircraft are at Henderson Field. Today, Admiral Halsey ordered the Big 'E' back to Noumea. Most of our aircraft will remain at Guadalcanal.
Nov 16- We arrived back at Noumea.
Nov 17- Repair work commences and lasts until about Dec 3, 1942. During this time, the number 1 elevator was finally tested and it works.
Late in November - The Big 'E' is now in pretty good shape. Men have been working each day to make us seaworthy. The rest of us have been having a vacation. Some of the men think though that we will be going somewhere on December 7th, the anniversary of Pearl Harbor.
Dec 1, 1942 - A group of us (about 12 of 15 junior officers) were promoted to Lieutenant Senior Grade (that is equivalent to Captain in the Army). This should have included Ross Glassman, but he is the one who was passed over for the last promotion. Ross passed by me in the passageway and saluted and called me "Sir". He is now really in the dumps. This isn't fair. Ross is more qualified than any of the rest of us for promotion. He can do a day's work in navigation. He can stand a top watch as OOD underway. He is also qualified to handle a watch in the boiler room. None of the rest of us can do all of these jobs.
Dec 3 or 4 - The Big E gets underway again. We are fearful that on Dec 7, which is the first anniversary of the Pearl Harbor sneak attack that the enemy will try something.
Dec 7 - We are in the central Coral Sea area, but the enemy is elsewhere.
Dec.11 - We entered port at Espirto Santo. One of the ship's yeomen is the secretary for Captain Hardison. He told one of our yeomen the following story: "Captain Hardison was checking over the officer records and noticed that Ross Glassman hadn't bee promoted during the last two promotions. He called Ross in for an interview. Ross was able to answer all of his questions in all naval categories. He asked Ross whey he hadn't been promoted and Ross answered that he did not know the reason. Captain Hardison then called in Lt. Parsons and asked him why Ross wasn't either promoted or released to inactive duty. Lt. Parsons said that Ross was doing his work OK, but was too friendly with the enlisted men. The Captain asked Parsons how Ross could be expected to learn anything if he didn't question the enlisted men. The Captain told Lt. Parsons to give Ross his two back promotions with full back pay and allowances or if he didn't want to do that, he, Captain Hardison, personally would promote Ross and appoint him as the Lookout Division Officer and Lt. Parsons would be working under Ross." Needless to say that Ross was immediately given his two promotions. I was very happy for him.
Dec.15 - Back at sea again, we rendzvous with the USS Saratoga (Sara). We played a few games. It felt good to have another carrier in the area. We haven't seen another carrier since the Hornet was sunk. We go back in port again. We learn that we are to get a new Admiral.
Dec. 25, 1942 - I didn't eve realize that it was Christmas Day today, until I noticed the date on the calendar.
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