Skipbo
06-29-07, 12:11 PM
The "food ain't so great" post reminded me of some comments from an old friend of mine. Since I thought it would be of general interest to the community here, I've elected to post it as a new topic rather than on that post.
Reminds me of what I was told by a good friend (Art Schelling) who I corresponded with regularly for several years prior to his death three years ago. He was a radioman on the USS Harder under Sam Dealey. He was tranferred to the USS Gunnel just prior to the Harder's final fatal patrol, but was on Harder when they sank four destroyers (officially "only" three) off the coast of Borneo. Admiral Lockwood also quoted Art in his book about the Harder - "Through Hell and Deep Water". Anyway, Art used to send me his recollections, copies of their war patrol reports, and an occasional photo (the "bare-breasted island girl" that they all looked forward to seeing, etc.). I remember two comments about boat conditions offhand. He said that they normally had a "field day" to clean up the boat prior to returning to port and that they filled up their mattress covers with trash out of the compartments. He also told me that the men hesitated to eat raisin bread since the boat was so full of cockroaches (said that the cork insulation was alive with them) that they weren't sure whether the raisins were really raisins. There are a couple of pictures of him on the USS Gunnel website that Jim Lavelle did in honor of his father which was recently mentioned in a post here on SUBSIM. Art provided Jim with a lot of photos and information for that website. Spent a couple of days with Art at his home in Napa, CA and he gave me a tour of the Napa Valley. I'm going to take the liberty of posting an excerpt from an email I received from him just over ten years ago since I believe that you SUBSIM folks are the most likely group to appreciate what he experienced. I noticed in his obituary in the Napa online newspaper that he was awarded the Silver Star, but he never once mentioned it to me in the over seven years that I knew him. I miss him......Jim (Skipbo)
Jim:
I was on the Harder for the 4th and 5th war patrols. Fortunately
missed the 6th and last. I was on the Gunnel for her last two patrols. The
Gunnel was quite different from the Harder. I felt at home on the Gunnel
but did not feel that way on the Harder. Maybe because the Harder was my
first boat and I also replaced a very well liked Radio Technician (later
called Electronic Technician). LCDR Dealey was the CO for all the patrols
and he received the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously. He was a
very well liked respected man by his crew as well as by others. J.S. McKane was
the original CO of the Gunnel but was relieved by Guy O'Neil for the last 3
patrol runs. It was a real good boat even though it was kind of dirty. I
remember being out on patrol for 79 days and we only turned on the lights in
the after battery berthing compartment two days before getting into port to
hold field day and we collected 2 mattress covers of clothes etc off the
deck. The cook neve made raisin bread because the guys would not eat it, as
they were not sure if it was raisins or cockroaches.
I am sure we were better off not going ashore to the island party. The
girls while bare breasted certainly were not the beauties you see in travel
folders. We did go ashore to look around and just "look".
Art
http://www.jmlavelle.com/gunnel/index.htm
Reminds me of what I was told by a good friend (Art Schelling) who I corresponded with regularly for several years prior to his death three years ago. He was a radioman on the USS Harder under Sam Dealey. He was tranferred to the USS Gunnel just prior to the Harder's final fatal patrol, but was on Harder when they sank four destroyers (officially "only" three) off the coast of Borneo. Admiral Lockwood also quoted Art in his book about the Harder - "Through Hell and Deep Water". Anyway, Art used to send me his recollections, copies of their war patrol reports, and an occasional photo (the "bare-breasted island girl" that they all looked forward to seeing, etc.). I remember two comments about boat conditions offhand. He said that they normally had a "field day" to clean up the boat prior to returning to port and that they filled up their mattress covers with trash out of the compartments. He also told me that the men hesitated to eat raisin bread since the boat was so full of cockroaches (said that the cork insulation was alive with them) that they weren't sure whether the raisins were really raisins. There are a couple of pictures of him on the USS Gunnel website that Jim Lavelle did in honor of his father which was recently mentioned in a post here on SUBSIM. Art provided Jim with a lot of photos and information for that website. Spent a couple of days with Art at his home in Napa, CA and he gave me a tour of the Napa Valley. I'm going to take the liberty of posting an excerpt from an email I received from him just over ten years ago since I believe that you SUBSIM folks are the most likely group to appreciate what he experienced. I noticed in his obituary in the Napa online newspaper that he was awarded the Silver Star, but he never once mentioned it to me in the over seven years that I knew him. I miss him......Jim (Skipbo)
Jim:
I was on the Harder for the 4th and 5th war patrols. Fortunately
missed the 6th and last. I was on the Gunnel for her last two patrols. The
Gunnel was quite different from the Harder. I felt at home on the Gunnel
but did not feel that way on the Harder. Maybe because the Harder was my
first boat and I also replaced a very well liked Radio Technician (later
called Electronic Technician). LCDR Dealey was the CO for all the patrols
and he received the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously. He was a
very well liked respected man by his crew as well as by others. J.S. McKane was
the original CO of the Gunnel but was relieved by Guy O'Neil for the last 3
patrol runs. It was a real good boat even though it was kind of dirty. I
remember being out on patrol for 79 days and we only turned on the lights in
the after battery berthing compartment two days before getting into port to
hold field day and we collected 2 mattress covers of clothes etc off the
deck. The cook neve made raisin bread because the guys would not eat it, as
they were not sure if it was raisins or cockroaches.
I am sure we were better off not going ashore to the island party. The
girls while bare breasted certainly were not the beauties you see in travel
folders. We did go ashore to look around and just "look".
Art
http://www.jmlavelle.com/gunnel/index.htm