Memorable Events
I hit 82 this year (1997). This old head it seems, can store just as much info as it ever did but, it now has a lot of trouble remembering just where it stored it all. I was transferred from Hydraulic School in San Diego to the BB-58 but was delayed in New York for three or four weeks. They held me in New York aboard an old cruiser tied to the dock as the Indiana was not ready for commissioning yet. This cruiser was tied to the dock next to the Normandie, the French liner, which had been fitted out as a troop carrier. They supposedly had the conversion completed and had stocked the ship for its first voyage to Europe with troops when it caught fire, and as I was told the fire crews of New York poured so much water into the upper decks that she just rolled over on her side. It pulled the mooring fixtures right out of the dock and laid on her side in the mud.
Well lucky for me I was unable to go to Norfolk or Newport News right then so I was assigned to picket, patrol or whatever duty they called it and along with about 20 or 30 other lowly sailors to patrol an enormous ship laying on her side in the Hudson River with I don't know how many tons of rotting meat and other stinking stuff to patrol to prevent the Germans or Japs or somebody from getting it. I can tell you one thing though I had better duty stations in the Navy before that and after that too. Walking around on the side of an overturned ship in the dark with no lights allowed sure made me appreciate what blind people have to put up with.
When I went aboard in Newport News or Norfolk, (I don't remember which), I was assigned to the Sixth Division, and was assigned to Mount 10 where I spent my entire cruise the next four years or more. The Chief Gunners Mate over me and I got along pretty well as I had pretty extensive hydraulic equipment experience prior to the Navy so I had plenty to keep me busy the first few months. On those 5" twin mounts the control valves and hydraulic motors were mounted in the girders below the mount deck which meant all of the valve blocks and motors had to be worked on from the upper ammo handling room deck. This meant every hydraulic motor and valve block was over your head and oil, that is free oil, always runs down hill which meant to me that I probably drank more hydraulic fluid than I ate beans for breakfast. When you work on any Navy equipment you are extremely limited as to what you can do or not do to correct any problems. These five inch guns were primarily AA batteries. The upper hoists for the shells had to be very exacting in their operation and I had a couple of hoists that did not want to operate that way. They would continually fail to stop until the jumped the detent latch and that would mean that the gun was out of business until I could get down off my mount captains perch or stand and back them up by hand to put them in firing order again. The Gunnery Officer would not let me increase to a heavier size spring so I had that problem whenever we fired AA fire. In fact I spent the entire time on the shake down cruise to Maine working on that problem. When we left Virginia for Panama I had one hoist apart and unworkable.
I had a few events while out their in the Pacific. First was when we dropped anchor in Tonga a signal man came to the mount and told me there was a message for me from someone on the beach asking me to come ashore. I went to the Gunnery Officer with it and he got me permission to go over there so I went, but not knowing what I was going for but when I got ashore who was there but my little brother who was a life timer in the Navy air bunch, He was stationed their with an antisubmarine group. I spent the afternoon there with him and some of his buddies and their girl friends and enjoyed it very much.
The next unscheduled event was a few months later. One PM I was not on watch and I was sitting on the hatch directly below Number 8 5-inch gun when the crew on watch started up the mount and was training it around manually, which we did on occasion while on watch for practise. But we sometimes fired at a towed sled or powered drones for AA practise. When we were to do any actual practise firing we were to warn anyone on deck to stand clear. This time no one informed me that they would be firing live ammo but they fired right above and over my head maybe 12 or 15 feet away. I could not hear anything but roars in my ears for weeks. In fact some weeks after that event we came into Noumea and I got in a party going to Shangra La and I went swimming there. There was a float tied out about 65 yards off of the beach and I dove in and was going to swim out to the float but the minute my head went under the water I thought some one had shoved a red hot poker through my head and that lasted for a long time. In fact my ears are still bad, but the VA says nothing they can do about it.
The next item was right after Najouro, or however you spell it. I was on watch in Mount 10 and it was black out there and early in the morning. I was sitting up on my mount captains stand looking at the stars when I heard a ships horn and it sounded pretty dammed close so I started looking around every way I could when a big shadow appeared between the smoke stack and the aft conning tower and I thought what the hell was that, but I didn't have time to think long. About that time I heard a big crunch and the ship began listing pretty hard to port and I really thought we were going over. Then the red hot rivets and pieces of steel began flying over to the port side. I had my ear phones on but there was not a peep from the director. When the steel quit flying I began to look toward the fan tail and even though I couldn't see anythig but darkness I swore I could see water coming over the fan tail near the airplane lift crane. Then I got to thinking about my crew down in the mount and lower handling rooms and what I should tell them other than we just had a wreck with another ship, but I didn't know which one. After whar seemed a long time but probably just a few minutes I got someone in the director to tell me what happened. I lost a very good mate in that mess who was on on of the 20mm guns on the starbosrd side.
Probably one of the worst sights I saw was all of the bodies floating past the ship during the two days we bombarded Iwo Jima. A lot lot of them were our guys but more of them theirs, which frankly didn't bother me one dammed bit.
The next memorable event was during the battle up there when the fleet shot down, I don't know how many, jap planes. We got to shoot at some but with so many ships in the fleet firing it was hard to account for the number. The bigger guns were pretty restricted, but as mount captain I was able to see most of the action especially when one nip tried to crash the starboard side. I think he hit the water before he hit the ship but some pieces of the plane flew past me from the starboard side and it was a wheel and the strut of his landing gear. Also, I think it was the same day that after the heavy firing had nearly ended I was standing in the hatch of my mount looking for possible bogies when I saw a plane coming behind us at about 190 or 200 degrees and coming up on our port side and flying no more than 50 feet above the water. I kept watching it closely because something did not look right to me. It looked an awful close resemblence to the Jap pictures and outlines we stuided all the time while practising. The closer it came the more I believed it was a Jap, but none of the cans of the fleet had fired on it, on it came. When it it got close enough to see the big red suns on it, I knew it was a Jap, but the director above me never said a word and that damned Jap flew about 40 or 50 feet above the water and not over seventy feet from the port side of the ship, and nobody even took a shot at him. Hey, I got so caught up in this lecture that I over did it. Anyhow to end that tale about the Jap who got the free unguided look at our fleet, and a very close one at that, I was never able to have anyone who would or could explain exactly how or why a single enemy plane could fly right through our mighty fleet and get away with it
Now to end my final days on the mighty Indy we came back to the states to Frisco and the on up to Brenerton. Mothballed the ship and although I was acting chief the last year, I was told to take the CGM exam which I did and passed and to order my new uniform which I did. I think there was just a few of us left aboard to finish up the mothballing when somebody ordered me to firefighting school down at Treasure Island for 2 or 3 weeks. Well I went down there but I sure never enjoyed any part of it. I was coughing, sneezing, and eating diesel smoke the entire time. Just before the class ended I heard some scuttlebut that the Navy would give a discharge to any regular Navy man with over 5 years who wanted it, and with a belly full of diesel smoke im me I couldn't wait to get back to Seattle and apply for a discharge. Which I did and got out sometime in 1946.
Paul Joseph Smith, Gunners Mate 1c, 06 Division

After The Indiana
In September 1944 the Indiana returned to Bremerton for a long overdue overhaul, repairs, and update. I went on the 2nd leave party around 15 November 1944. I got back from 20 days leave and immediately got transferred with 28 days delayed in route orders to Advanced Fire Control School in Washington, DC. I got back on the train that night for 5 more days of travel.
I never got to say goodbye to anyone on the Indiana except to Lt. Berquist, who told me I was transferred. I spent January through June of 1945 at the school in DC. After graduation I was transferred to New York Shipyard, across the river from Philadelphia Navy Yard, to new construction, USS Fargo, CL-106. While waiting for it to be commissioned, I went to school at Arma Corp., Brooklyn, NY for their Mark I computers training course at Long Island City, NY. I was there when the WAR ENDED on a Wednesday, and NEW YORK CITY went wild. They closed the school and we had until the following Monday to get back to Philly. My enlistment ran out the day before I was 21, 29 October 1945, but it was December before I got discharged I nearly re-enlisted but I thought I should give college a try.
I have always missed the Navy, I guess I grew up there. I learned a lot, we had good officers and petty officers on the INDIANA, during the year after I was transferred, I never encountered people of the caliber we had while I was aboard.
Whitner Livingston Griffin Jr., Fire Controlman 1c, FA Division

Late Arrival
I boarded the USS Indiana on 15 January 1946. We then sailed her to the Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, WA and went into dry-dock for "mothballing". During that time the crew lived in the Chief's quarters, where we proceeded to get fat ... breakfast "to order", etc. I think mothballing was completed on 09 January 1947. We were then towed to Pier 91 Seattle and I stayed aboard until 20 June 1947. I was then transferred to San Francisco, and no more good chow
William Van Est Wilcox, CMC-3, R Division

My Adventures Aboard The Indiana (Verse)
When we arrived in the Pacific Ocean,
The Captain addressed the officers and crew.
He said this is YOUR CAPTAIN SPEAKING
An there's an important job that we must do.

It may take us quite a while,
But we will not quit until it's done.
And we have defeated the enemy that is from the land,
That is called the Land of the Rising Sun.

We cruised up to the Marshalls and Gilbert Islands,
Our sixteen inch guns made quite a roar.
As we blasted the Japanese defenses,
So all our troops could get ashore.

Sometimes the Japs would send out planes.
But when they came in to attack
Then our five inch thirty eight guns
Would send up a wall of flak.

If they happened to get through that,
Our forty millimeter tracers would streak across the sky.
Then our twenty's would open up on them
To make sure they did not get by.

Although they tried their best to sink her,
They found the INDIANA hard to sink.
And her well trained gun crews,
Soon put them all into the drink.

We were at Iwo Jima and Okinawa,
And also at Saipan.
Where ever the troops needed our fire power,
We were there giving them a hand.

We hit a lot of Jap held islands,
All of whose names I can't recall.
And it would make this poem much too long,
If I tried to name them all..

Yes, anywhere that duty called her,
The INDIANA and her crew would go.
Why we were already in the Bay at Tokyo,
When in sailed the MIGHTY MO.

After about three years of battles
Up and down the Pacific Seas.
We had finally defeated old Hirohito and Tojo.
And had brought them to their knees.

So my hat is off to the USS INDIANA
Although the seas she never more will roam
But she sure kept me safe all through the war
And then she brought me safely Home.
Robert Clayton Hankinson, Seaman 1c, 4th Division

June 1945 Typhoon
One of the most memorable times during my duty on the Indiana was the "Big Wind," or typhoon, that occurred on June 5, 1945, off the coast of Okinawa. I was on the bridge serving as a talker for Captain Francis P. Old. We were taking on fuel from a tanker when suddenly over the intercom system came the message to remove all lines and disengage from refueling. At this point I didn't know what was happening. Shortly afterward we were told about the approaching typhoon. So what was a skinny kid from Long Island going to do during a typhoon?
We were instructed to install safety lines in all critical areas of the ship, and to dog down all ammunition hatches.
It started to blow about midnight. By 0500, June 5, it was raining horizontally and blowing at 138 mph. Green water was well over turret two and the ship was rolling at a record twenty-six degrees. I was up on the signal bridge, which I would guess was approximately seventy-five feet above the water line. And I was looking up at the waves!
At this point I didn’t think I would ever see Long Island again.
The rolling and pitching kept up until the next morning when the water was like glass. We were almost dead-in-the-water because of some water in the engine rooms, and some electrical problems. We could move at only four to five knots.
The Indiana sustained only slight damages. Other ships did not come out as well. The Cruiser Pittsburgh appeared in the early dawn minus eighty feet of her bow and the Carriers Hornet and Bennington had damage to their forward flight decks.
Eventually the Indiana was repaired and returned to full active duty. She was a great ship and did her share in World War II.
Albert Joseph Vicarelli, Singal Man 3c, CS Division

Recollections
I remember a lot of disconnected things.
I went overseas in a troop transport, General Robert L. Howze, completely filled with sailors as replacements for the fleet. After our arrival in Manus Harbor, in the Admiralities, each of the warships made requests to the Howze for certain types of qualified people from the replacement pool. Along with others, the Indiana had transferred five Fire Controlmen and requested five replacements. There were no Fire Controlmen replacements on the Howze. So the Howze sent from the replacement pool, the next best thing, five F1c(EM), all graduates of Electrician Mates School. That's how Gibson, Gilson, Givens, Golder, and Goodman got on the Indiana. Two nights later an ammunition ship blew up in the harbor. I don't know if any F1c had been assigned from the pool to the ammunition ship. But if there had been, what might of happened if their request had come in before the Indiana's?
Sitting on a hatch cover on the fantail after dinner, watching the clear, red, beautiful South Pacific sun sets, shooting the breeze, discussing the future after- the - war aspirations, until well after dark, before going back into the hot humid ship.
Opening the flame proof mattress covers, the dampness, the strong ammonia smell, waking up the next day and recovering the damp mattress again to repeat the situation.
Cleaning station was Spot one, the main battery fire control directory at the highest point of the ship. I got there by climbing the last thirty feet on an outside ladder and climbing over the Sky One air-defense railing. Of course, the directory had wonderful optics. You could see beyond the horizon, and because of the curvature of the earth sometimes you could only see the tops of the masts of other ships. While there I often watched the launching and recovery of the aircraft from the carriers.
I remember a SB2C that couldn't gain altitude after taking off. The loud noise trying to gain altitude, the destroyers pulling out to recover, the pilot finally nosing in.
All day liberty on Mog Mog in Ulithi, trip from ship and back again in a LCM, two cans of 3-2 beer and a spam sandwich for lunch. Some went swimming, no fresh water showers, sticky from the salt water. Some played softball. One ship mate met his forty some year old draftee father who was on a Cruiser.
From my vantage point in Spot One, watching, on 14 March 1945, all the ships of Task Force 58 steaming out of the entrance to Ulithi in a long line headed for the first carrier raids on the Japanese Home Islands.
The laundry system was unique. Everyone was assigned a large horse blanket pin with a unique number, and also given an open mesh laundry bag. We could fill the bag with scivy shirts or shorts and use the pin to close the bag, or we could use the pin to attach any combination of six pieces of dungaree jeans or shirts. If you got the pin with attachments to the ship-board laundry by 0900 you could pick up the washed and dried laundry after 1600.
Standing at quarters in dungarees entering Pearl Harbor, back from our overhaul at Bremerton. The USS Missouri came in a day later, from the states for her first operation. They were at quarters in whites. We had the Senior Officer Afloat. Therefore, we got the first pick of the best movies
After transferring to the E Division I was on the Navigation Circuit, one of my duties was to go down into the bowels of the ship and pull up or lower the "Sword", when we entered or left a shallow harbor. The bottom of the sword extended about ten feet below the keel plates of the ship. The sword had a venturi meter in it and it determined the speed of the ship.
Standing at Quarters in dress blues, going under the Golden Gate Bridge through the cool light fog, first ship back from Tokyo Bay after the Peace Signing. The WAC band playing their hearts out, on the top deck of a ferry boat off of Sausilito, with a ten foot high sign saying WELCOME HOME, what a home coming. Something the lads from Vietnam never received.
Benjamin M. Givens, Jr., Fireman 1c, FM & E Divisions

Last Updated 23 April 2005

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