I went aboard the Mervine in September 1942 when she came back from her Shakedown Cruise. I was just out of BOOT CAMP when I went aboard, where we took on stores and then went on manuevers in preparation for the Invasion of North Africa.

When we invaded North Africa, I was still a BOOT. Our main mission during the war was convoy duty in the Atlantic. I loved the North Atlantic,the rougher the better. We later participated in the Invasion of Sicily in 1943.

Brooklyn Navy Shipyard was our home port. I remember one time about 40 or 50 miles out of the Brooklyn Shipyard, Mervine slowed down to 18 knots and dropped a full pattern of depth charges at 25 feet. Being in the number 4 gunmount, I had a great view of the resulting explosions. What a mess. I never saw fire come out of the water as I did that day. There were a few injuries to our crew.

Another interesting tale I had aboard the Mervine was when I was at the helm one night ;where everything was dark except for the compass and that had a card with a little hole at the top so you could see the points. Well looking at that light it put me into a trance and I went to sleep. This was while we were convoying! The O.D. of the watch woke me up and asked me if I was sleeping and of course i said no. He informed me that I was about 15 Degrees of course!

I made Coxswain in 1944 and was transferred to new construction in Boston. I went on a Destroyer mine layer and made the invasion of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. I saw my share of fun. I was also called into the Korea conflict, being that I was in the active reserves.

There are many things that happened between 1942 & 1944. It was a great experience for me and I learned a lot.

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