RECOLLECTIONS

Gordon Stone 1987

“Memories of the USS Swanson”

During March 1944 we took a group of 1^st Cavalry troops for the invasion of the Admiralty Islands. The enlisted men aboard the USS Swanson gave up their sleeping quarters to the Army so they could have a place of comfort to sleep and rest before hitting the beach.

The man who got my bunk was from Chicago, as I was. We traded addresses, so the first one home could contact his parents to let them know of his whereabouts. Three years later in 1947, I came out a Sears Store at 63^rd and Halsted into a pouring rain. I decided to take a cab home. A Veteran Cab pulled up to the curb and I jumped in. The driver looked at me and I recognized him as the soldier I had let use my bunk in the Admiralty Islands over 3 years before!

Ensign Gemmel was the Leader of a working party, of which I was a member, to pick up food supplies at an Army supply depot. We arrived at the depot and Ensign Gemmel handed the Requisition to the Lieut. in command who followed protocol and passed it on to the Sergeant. The Sergeant had an accent that is only heard in the Chicago area. I asked him what part of Chicago he was from and he said Berwyn. He asked me where I was from and I told him, south side, Harvoy. He asked me if I knew any one from Berwyn and I said I was in the CCC’s with 2 men from there in 1937. I gave him their names and he knew them both from school and in the area. I asked their whereabouts and he said they were in Europe in the Army. The Sergeant asked as to our food supply and told him it was low. He got a big truck and we began loading it up with canned fruits, vegetables and anything we could find. We loaded the Requisitioned supplies on top and picked up Ensign Gemmel at the office and proceeded back to the Swanson. When we got the supplies on the deck of the Swanson, Captain Robertson asked Ensign Gemmel where the extra provisions came from and I left two confused officers on deck and got below in a hurry!

R-46