Chief Machinist's Mate, U.S. Navy, 1939-1945, U.S.S. Lexington "Plankowner"
HISTORY
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A. At first I was assigned to the boiler rooms and shortly we were to make our trial runs to determine if everything on board was working well after our Navy yard overhaul. We left Norfolk and went to sea for our trial runs. The trials lasted almost all day, where we ran at full speed, (about 36 knots) which is about 40 MPH by land measure. In the closed boiler rooms the forced draft air pressure is about 27" compared with topside or about 14.7" and your ears pop, your voice is somewhat unnatural and there is not much room for errors, and at an early age I was somewhat fearful and awed at the sound of so much machinary that was needed to produce such great speed.
Life aboard ship for me was fine. All was clean, the food was good, you lived near where you worked and knew what was expected of you. By the end of the first year I was well aquainted with the entire ship and nearly all of the equipment crew.
Q. Did you have any family or friends or special persons that you left behind when you enlisted? Did they write often, and if so, what did they write to you about?
A. I left at home my mother, dad and two sisters. My older sister was married. I wrote to my mother almost monthly the entire time I was in the Navy.
At sea, in the western Pacific, mail was often an on again/off again situation. I don't remember corresponding with friends at home, for one, my penmanship was horrid. I did write to a favorite teacher and she answered my letter and enclosed my letter corrected! So much for writing.
Q. The U.S.S. Lexington CV-16 was the first Essex Class Aircraft Carrier in the Naval Fleet. how did you feel about being assigned to, what was then, one of the most modern Naval vessels of the time?
A. Coming from and older ship, (U.S.S. Babbitt 128) onto the newest ship in the Navy was like moving from a little village town to New York City. On a destroyer we washed our own clothes in a bucket, then bathed from a bucket and wore work clothes most of the time, and the relationship between [the] officers and men was somewhat relaxed. Destroyer sailors are forced to operate a greater variety of equipment, (boilers, feed pumps, evaporators, windlass, main engines) for example, and not only operate, but repair also.
We felt very confident coming from convoy duty in the north Atlantic, where 5 Tin-Can destroyers would shepard about 100 merchant ships laden with Lend-Lease material, planes, tanks, fuel, ammunition and miscellaneous war supplies. We had seen our share of merchant ships blown up and men struggling in oily water that was about 40 degrees and knowing full well that they would not survive more than 20 minutes in that cold water as we raced through the convoys dropping depth charges on German submarines.
So we destroyer sailors felt very confident going to a bigger ship. But we, about 10 of us, went to the Lexington in what is called the "fitting out" crew. We lived in barracks adjacent to the shipyard for about two months before the ship was commissioned. Each day we went to the ship [and] watched the shipyard workers install various pumps, pipes, valves [and] generators and as they did this, they explained to us things that we may not have known about some of the new machinary.
Then, at last, we moved into the newest carrier in the Navy and about 40 of us had our pick of any bunk and locker we wished. [The] ship was towed from the Fore River Shipyard to a pier at South Boston, where the rest of the commissioning crew boarded. The ship was then commissioned and departed for Norfolk Naval Operating Base to be laden with supplies, fuel and Air Group 16 and the crew was filled out in preparation for our shakedown cruise to Martinique.
Q. Were you aboard the U.S.S. Lexington when she was commisioned on February 17, 1943? Were you aboard when she sailed her maiden voyage? If yes, what was that like?
A. The USS Lexington was commissioned in Boston on February 17, 1943. I was aboard and we sailed shortly after on our shakedown cruise to Martinique. This was an uneventful cruise except for the air operations, landings and launches that went on daily.
Veterans of the Blue Ghost Home Page
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US.S. Lexington Museum on the Bay
Tarawa to Tokyo Sabrina Roper's Fantastic site on the U.S.S. Lexington
U.S.S. Lexington CV-16 Association
NavSource Online: Aircraft Carrier Photo Archive
History of the U.S.S. Lexington at Wordiq.com
About Me
References
Send Some Love to "Iraqi Bill"
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