RECOLLECTION

Chester Hill 1988

“FINEST IN THE FLEET”

In Swanson we had many, many outstanding sailors, both commissioned and enlisted. I would love to be able to write a commentary on each of them whom I feel truly deserve such singular, special praise. There were too many, however to do that, but with our publishing committee’s approval I would like to single out one, who truly deserved and attained the accolade of “Finest in the Fleet.” This was because of his technical excellence, but also his supervisory capabilities, his personality, and his unstinting pride in and loyalty to his Country, its Navy, and his ship and shipmates. We will all remember Chief Warrant Officer – former Radio Technician – Joseph C. Jagiello, of New Jersey.

This was before the days of silicon microchips or even transistors, but we did have radio, both voice and beep. We also had what would now be called rather primitive radar, compared to the phased arrays of the Ticonderoga’s. Joe Jagiello could fix anything that squawked, beeped, rotated, or glowed in the dark whether he had ever seen one before or had a wiring chart on it or not. I will cite three ocassions.

First there was that night in late 1943 returning to New York with a convoy from the Mediterranean on a dark, cold and stormy night. The St. Elmo’s fire was glowing like neon in our rigging, and we could even see it slightly on nearby ships. Bitter cold. Our TBS – talk between ships – voice radio in the pilot house went out completely. Repair was essential because of the close quarters of the formation. Chief Joe checked the circuits, tubes, etc.and told me that he knew what was wrong, and encouragingly that he could fix it. Problem had to be a frozen over antenna, with the solution of thawing off the ice with his bare hands! All electrical power to the mast structure would have to be secured, however, while he went aloft. With considerable apprehension on my part, and on Captain Robertson’s as he gave his permission, we shut down the radar, etc., on the mast,slowed to bare headway into the wind to moderate the rolling, and held our breath as Joe climbed aloft, inched his way out to the end of the port yardarm, and soon returned. “Try her now,” he said. It worked.

In late 1944 while sailing in the famed Task Force 38, with constantly heavy radio message traffic, our ECM went on the blink. ECM was our electrical coding machine, our ultra secret coding system with an elaborate structure of many revolving wheels, which when properly aligned according to security level, date, and time enabled code in – plain language out and vice versa by simply typing away. It was such a highly guarded device that the code was never broken. Only about four of us on board, all commissioned, had security clearance for access to the device and its wheels. I went to Captain Ratliff with my problem. “What do you suggest we do?” he asked. “Let me have Chief Jagiello take a look at it’” I replied. “Does he have security clearance?” “No sir.” Well, go ahead, but it is your full responsibility.” “Aye aye, sir.”

The Chief spent about five minutes looking and probing inside the safe where the inner working were, and came up with a smile: “Try it now.” It worked.

The third instance was the culmination of many times that we had been called upon by other ships for Jagiello’s help while we spent a fair amount of time at anchor in Tanapag Harbor, Saipan as patrol and escort flagship, on into early 1945. One of those ships was the seaplane tender Curtis, which was the base for the big flying boats’ reconnaissance patrols far out to sea in that area. Joe had helped them many times not only with their own equipment but also with the planes’. One day a lieutenant from Pacific Fleet Headquarters in Pearl Harbor, who was inspecting the Curtis came aboard Swanson and asked for me. He had heard of Jagiello’s reputation as the finest radio technician in the whole fleet, and wanted to offer me four radio personnel, either operators or technicians, up to first class in exchange. I called Joe in and left it up to him, sort of in the interest of the service. Without hesitation he decided to stay in Swanson. I don’t know what I would have done if he decided to go ashore!