July 1940 - "The Mother's Home Book" was one of my favorite books when I was a child. I believe that Mother also had it when she was a child, because it said that sailors lived mostly on beans, dried foods and hard tack. Nevertheless, in 1940, when I knew that war was imminent, I went down to the recruiting office in Salt Lake City to enlist in the navy. I would have joined then and there, but the duration of enlistments had jumped from 3 to 6 years. I investigated the Army and Marine Corp, but I really wanted sea duty. I learned that the Coast Guard had 3 year enlistments so I went to their office. I was all but sworn into the Coast Guard when I chanced to see the by-line on the evening newspaper. The warrant officer who had recruited me was sitting with his feet on the desk, reading the paper with bold print, "NAVY RESERVE SEEKS RECRUITS." I stood up and read the article and was the first navy reserve recruit from Utah for the (V-7) program.
July 12, 1940 - Friday at 7:00 PM - I caught the Union Pacific Challenger train and started on my trip. My destination was New York, where I would go aboard the old USS Wyoming for a one month cruise.
July 18, 1940 - Dear Dad, We made our way all right to New York City, but I had half expected to meet Mother, Jean and Evan at the station. At 10:00 AM, we went right on board the USS Illinois, which is an old ship used as headquarters.
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| USS Illinois: renamed USS Prairie State in 1941 |
Monday- we were moored on the Hudson River. Monday night I slept on the deck in the open air. The scenery is certainly beautiful. There are lights from the apartment houses five stories high as far as the eye can see along the one shore and along the other shore I can see the roller coaster at the Palisade Amusement Park and many lighted signs. Every so often, we hear a buoy or the blast of a ferry boats, which are going up or down the river or crossing the river.
Tuesday at 5:00 PM (1700) - We are underway and are going down the river. I can see all of the big buildings (Chrysler, Empire State etc.) We also see all of the ports of the shipping lines and the Statue of Liberty. I seems like no time at all until we are out so far in the ocean that we can't even see the shore. The ship hits some big swells, but didn't rock very much.
Now that it is dark, we are having a movie on the main deck. We are close enough to shore that the ocean is still rough. The movie is "New Moon" with Nelson Eddy and Jeanette McDonald. There are several scenes of the ocean in the movie. It is quite realistic to watch the movie of the ocean waves and a panorama just by glancing to the side and see real waves coming up over the sides of the ship.
The air below decks is quite foul so a group decided to sleep topside on the open deck. An instant storm came upon us. I awakened after just a few drops of rain and immediately went below. One fellow tried to wait it out and when he came below he looked as if several buckets full of water had been poured upon him. He couldn't get a dry blanket and really looked and acted miserably. I slept topside every night. I was really good sleeping, but the wooden deck was quite hard as we had no mattress.
Thursday - Several of us have just finished swabbing the deck. I walk over to where our leader is and ask what to do next. One of the ship's regular sailors hollered at me, "Hey Mac!" I immediately thought, "Here is someone from home." I went over to him and said, "Hi I guess that you know my brother Mack, but my name is Gordon. Are you from Salt Lake?" He looked at me like I was nuts and said, "I don't know anything about that. All I know is that you were walking on the quarter deck. Only officers are allowed to walk there." I guess that I have a lot to learn. Sailors aren't as military as the army. We are supposed to salute each officer the first time we see him every day and if we are on the main deck. However, we should stand at attention and salute the Captain every time he passes by us. I haven't seen the Captain yet.
Friday - I finally meet the Captain at Captain's Inspection. We are all lined up according to the divisions to which we are assigned and according to height. There is one man named Hale who is talker than I am so I'm lined up next to him. When the Captain saw Hale, he commented how large Hale was (6'3" 230lbs). Soon all of the men in our squad were laughing and joking, that is all but me. I had some ROTC experience in high school. I didn't smile and stood at attention. The Captain spoke to his yeoman, who came then and read the numbers from my jacket. The next day, Hale thought some mistake had been made, because I was promoted to squad leader instead of him. He thought that the Captain had taken a real liking to him. My duties as squad leader are mostly to take muster and supervise the others in taking care of hammocks.
Today at dinner, Hale complained about the eggs. The eggs were boiled, but were extremely small. I haven't seen smaller eggs before this nor since. We were each allowed three eggs. Hale made lots of comments about the size of the eggs. I don't know whether it was because of his comments or what, but several of the fellows wouldn't eat the eggs. Hale and I were able to have all the eggs we wanted. I am pleasantly surprised with the quality of our food. I mentioned before that all I expected was beans and hard tack. About the only drinks we have with a meal though are tea and coffee. Each of us were issued 3 uniforms, 4 sets of underwear, 2 pair of socks, 2 hats, 1 neckerchief, 2 towels, a locker and a stencil for inking our names and numbers on our uniforms.
Our living quarters are crowded. When it is time to do our laundry, we have to stand in line just to get a bucket for salt water. Salt water is used to flush toilets, for showers and laundry. One day per week we are each allowed to rinse in fresh water. At my first shower, I was all soaped down and before I could rinse, they cut off the fresh and salt water. We have 2 showers for 600 men. I yelled loudly enough that they turned the water on so that I could rinse off. The ship is relatively old and is used as a training ship. It's big guns have been removed. It has several 3 inch guns.
Our days activities are:
0500- Reveille, Put away bunks, polish brass, sweep, swab the main deck, clean up.
0700- Breakfast, practice collision drill, lectures.
12:00 Abandon ship drill, fire and rescue drill, calisthenics, lectures, and tour of ship.
16:00- Supper, shower, laundry, study blue jacket manual. We are now free for the day, except that we do stand a 2 hour watch every 18 hours. The daily movie starts at dusk. We are at sea so we can't go anyplace.
21:00- Taps.
(signed) Gordon
PS - It may be quite a while before I can send another letter. It'll probably be from Cuba.
Trying to learn something is difficult. There is one old Chief Petty Officer who really belittled any of us who asked questions. One of our group asked him what the gun director was. He replied that the gun director directed the guns as any fool should know. He never did show us how it worked or tell us anything about it. A younger regular navy man later told a group of us that the chief was very jealous of his job and didn't want anyone to know as much as he did.
Late Saturday - We dropped anchor at Norfolk, Virginia. No shore leave tonight.
Sunday- The only way to get off the ship today was to go to Church. Ross and I decided to go to the protestant services. The Ship's Chaplain went with us on the motor launch. On the way over he was telling dirty jokes to the men. I stood up and went forward in the boat so that I couldn't hear the stories. The coxswain should have reprimanded me for standing in a moving boat, but I believe he was as offended as I. When we arrived at the church, I was surprised to see our own Chaplain conduct the services. (Later - Halfway through World War II, I learned that this Chaplain had been court-martialed and kicked out of the Navy.)
July 23, 1940 - Probably the main purpose of the 30 day cruise is so that each of us may determine whether we want navy life or not. We are now underway and some reservists are deathly sick. These men can probably get out of the navy reserve. A couple of days ago, we saw a fin in the ocean, which we assumed to be that of a shark. I am pleased with the food, but some of the men feel that the food isn't good enough for them. Some cannot handle the discipline. Today I wrote a post card to Dad:
"Dear Dad: We are pulling out today from Norfolk Va., for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. No more mail can be sent until we get there. They asked us to apply for our preference for the 3 month school. (They call it a cruise). I said that I wanted to finish school at the University of Utah and would take the 3 months navy school next summer. I will arrive in New York on August 10th. When I get home, I can still change my mind and leave September 15th for Northwester University in Chicago. I think it will be Annapolis next summer. The ones starting August 10th stay in New York and will have the greatest advantages. (signed) Gordon." (The main advantage that they would have the lowest dates of rank and they would be the first to be promoted.)
I was quite pessimistic about our chances of ever becoming Ensigns and that because we were reservists, we would never get any kind of a promotion.
July 29, 1940 - Dear Dad and Mother, Sunday morning when I awakened, we were sailing along the eastern coast of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It was 3 or 4 hours before we pulled into the bay and dropped anchor. The land we sighted became just a mass of brown rolling hills. It seemed like a pretty little port from the ship, but when we got ashore, it was dry and hot. In the afternoon, we had a party. Everything was free. We had fresh pineapple, pears, soda pop, hot dogs and beer. To show that we are a dumb bunch, a store ashore was selling beer to the sailors as fast as the Navy was giving it away.
Guantanamo is a US Naval Base. There are some cabins, stores, machine shops and seaplanes. The seaplanes take off and land right alongside our ship. The middies (midshipmen) from Annapolis will be down here in a couple of weeks. 4 battleships are here now and during the week, 11 destroyers and 4 cruisers will pull in so there will be plenty of white uniforms ashore during the week. We will leave for New York Sunday and will arrive there about August 10th. It is interesting to note that we are just apprentice seamen now and the Annapolis men are midshipmen. In one month, we will be midshipmen and then will be commissioned as officers so we will outrank these Annapolis midshipmen.
Since Monday, we have been on daylight savings time. When we wake up at 0600, it is still dark and we can still see the stars. Monday the four of us went shore from 3:00pm to 6:00pm. It was very hot. Most of the native people were black Cubans and appeared to be very lazy, but I don't see how anyone can work in this heat. At the pier called fishermen's Point, two of our group went in swimming. I was a little sunburned and didn't go in so I walked up and down the pier looking at the fish. (I said that I was a little sunburned. The GI issued T-shirts had shorter sleeves than the civilian shirts that I was used to. That area of my upper arms that had never seen the sun before were terribly blistered)........ I saw one baby gar fish. It was blue, very thin and about one foot long. I also saw a school of flat fish with rings around them.
August 3 - Today, the Rear Admiral from Annapolis inspected us. I had saved one of the new uniforms for this and so I got through the inspection very well. The boys from Annapolis have it much nicer than we do. Of course, to begin with, they are Midshipmen (Middies are considered officers), and we are Apprentice Seamen (there is no one lower than this). They have 25 showers for 400 men. We have 2 showers for 600 men. I think that maybe the big brass just wants to see how well we can get along together.
The V-7 fellows seem to be OK with a few exceptions. I like the fellows in our 6th division best. Perhaps this is because we are more intimate. We drill, eat, sleep, go to lectures and do everything together. There is one southern boy who is in the division just starboard of us whom I intensely dislike. He is one of those who were telling dirty jokes with the Chaplain while at Norfolk. Tom Morgenthau, son of the Secretary of Treasury is one of us. One of our division met him and said that he is a real swell fellow who expects no favors. I'm getting along swell. Will probably be home as soon as this letter. I'm sending it airmail, because it takes so long the other way. Wait a minute, that is not exactly true. A fellow owed me a dime and instead of giving me back a dime, he gave me a 10 cent airmail stamp. I was a little upset, because I'm watching every penny so that I can see something of New York. I wanted my dime back. (signed) Gordon.
In about 1938, Dad had read aloud an article from the newspaper about an airplane that had dropped an article from quite a high altitude and had come within a few feet of the bulls-eye. I had always felt though that a ship could out maneuver a bomb and could also shoot the airplane down before it got close. One one of our last gunnery exercises, we filled some huge balloons with helium, tied them together and released them. The marine gunners tried to shoot them down with 3 inch guns. These guns fires projectiles that exploded in the air. We could see them explode, but very far from the target. This mad me realize that battleships were no match for airplanes.
At different times during the past month, I have stood watches on the bridge, the signal bridge, the boiler room, the 3-inch guns, the gun directors and various other places. I would prefer the signal bridge of any of the work assignments.
Here we are back in New York. Although Ross Glassman came here with over $150.00, he is now flat broke. He won't get paid for another week or two so won't be able to see New York. He is staying here at New York for his schooling. I have $8.00 left to see New York on. I felt sorry for Ross so I loaned him $3.00 so that he could at least go to town. Now I only have $5.00 left. It is interesting to note here that 16 months later, after the war started, Ross and I became roommates on the USS Enterprise. He still had his little black book. Periodically, he would take out the book and say, "I notice that I still owe you $3.00." I would acknowledge that he did, but he would never offer to pay me no matter how much money he had. About once a week we went through this ritual until finally I said, "Why don't you just forget about it?" He smiled and said "OK." Then he drew a line through the debt and never mentioned it again. I always resented this because if I hadn't loaned him the $3.00, I could have spent another day in New York. I was quite close with my money and once in a while Ross would call me, "Douglestein". Whenever he did this, I would call him "Gleichman". He would put his finger to his lips and caution me not to call him that within hearing of others, because they might think he was Jewish.
The Navy furnishes my ticket home. I went first thing to the YMCA and paid 75 cents for one nights lodging then I set out to see the sights. I went to the top of the Empire State Building, visited the RCA Building where I saw my first television set. The TV was run by wires, but we were told that the day would come when people would be able to watch TV in their homes just like they can now receive radio programs. I took an upper deck bus trip of 5th Avenue, visited Grant's Tomb, the Statue of Liberty, went on a subway and did many more things.
The next morning, I checked my luggage at the railroad station and then went to the New York Word's Fair. Then I caught the train to come home. At Pittsburgh, I got off the train long enough to buy some fruit and vegetables. These were all that I would have to eat on my trip home. My last day on the train I decided to have one meal if I had enough money. When I asked about the meal prices, I was told that my meals were included in my Navy voucher ticket. I kicked myself in the pants, because I had been living on carrots and apples. I had a 3 hour wait at Denver so I got on a bus and went out to see the Denver University campus. When I arrived in Salt Lake City, I had a grand total of 25 cents left. I bought 3 bus tokens for a quarter and arrived at my house with no money, but 2 bus tokens.
At home, I asked Mother how she felt about me being in the Navy. She said that she was upset until she learned that I could become a commissioned officer. All my friends thought that I had made a big mistake. I knew that war was inevitable though and told them that I wanted to get in early, get situated and be prepared for the war. I also didn't want to fight from a foxhole.
All the newsreels at the movies showed the Nazis goose stepping and showed Hitler ranting and raving. It seemed like the German people were thoroughly taken in by Hitler's propaganda. It was hard for me to understand how they could be so naive.
After just a few days at home, I became restless and decided to go to Northwestern University, if there were still openings. I'll save all my money and to the University of Utah after my three months at Northwestern. I was lucky that I waited, because many of the men flunked out of the New York school and the Northwestern School was much more lenient with us.
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