Ervon G. Donahoo
When I re-enlisted, I immediately put in to serve on another battlewagon, hoping I'd get my old ship back, but its seems the Navy's needs outweighed my desire because I was assigned to a pre-commissioning crew for an AVP (sea plane tender) located in the Charleston Navy Yard.I arrived the day before she slid down the ways. With just a nucleus crew on board, we were quite a busy group of sailors for several weeks and as such, we became a close knit crew. This time gave our skipper time to get to know us quite well, which turned out to be extremely fortunate for me. Approximately 2 months after reporting aboard, I was promoted to 1st class (E-6). I guess all that studying on my own time paid off because I made this rate with a little under 5 years active duty. In this time era, making that rate in that time frame was virtually unheard of.
One day, I got the word to report to the skipper in his stateroom. When I reported, I could tell that the old man was not very happy with me and my brain went to full throttle trying to figure out what I had done. After staring me down a bit he asked, "Donahoo, What in the hell have you been up to?" Now, I was seriously nervous as I responded, " I have no idea, sir." It was then he told me there were 2 government men in the wardroom waiting to see me. I've got to admit here that I was way past seriously nervous at this point because I had a fair idea who they were and why they were there. So, I just decided to play stupid and let the chips fall where they may. No use sweating bullets over something you have no control over.
After following the skipper into the wardroom, I saw the 2 suits with their stern manner and smirky looks on their faces and I thought....What the hell, it was a good 84 days of partying. I was standing at attention beside my skipper when they informed me that I was wanted for draft evasion. The skipper, never taking his eyes off them, told me not to say a word. He immediately told them that I was a member of the U.S. Navy under his command and had been for several months. I don't believe that was the response they expected because they didn't have that smirky look anymore. One of them spoke up and asked me if I had any idea how much trouble I had caused OUR government. I just stood staring a hole through the bulk head while the skipper buzzed for the master of arms ( ship police). Upon their arrival, the skipper instructed them to escort these 2 civilians off his ship. When they left, I asked if I was in trouble and he kind of grinned like he was remembering something and said, "Not with me and remember...I'm the only person you have to answer to." He then advised me that he didn't believe liberty had been called and he was sure I had a full day. Here stood another man that I would never disappoint. It was also at this point in my carreer that I learned how much clout a skipper had aboard his ship.
It was around this time that I first met the one true love of my life ( though I didn't know it at the time and she was the last thing I was looking for ). It was on a Sunday evening, after a long Saturday night, me and a shipmate were sitting on a bench close to a small lake and we were a bit under the weather, which is to say, we were just flat hung over something terrible. I got a look at these 3 girls pacing about and one of them was a real looker. But with my head throbbing so bad, thats about all the thought that I gave to the whole lot. After awhile, my partner and I decided to get some of the "hair off the dogs " as the saying goes and got up to leave. That's when the cute one spoke up and man did she have an attitude. She informed us that the "bench" belonged to them and it was about time that we left.
So, being the gentleman that I was, I mustered up as much sarcasm as my hang over would allow and told her if thats how she felt, me and my mate would just sit awhile longer. She was furious which suited me just fine. But I couldn't stop thinking what a damn fine quality cut of womanhood she was and fiesty to boot. After sitting for a few more minutes, we got up and left.
It was also around this time, while sitting in a bar, that I found out about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. I first thought it was another Orson Wells hoax, until the MP's came charging in ordering all personel to immediately report to their command. We were at war and near as I could tell, we got hurt. All I wanted to do was fight because my old ship suffered severe damage and that made it a personal fight for me. Seeing that we were not commissioned yet, I tried to spend as much time with my little italian doll as I could. Don't know exactly how it happened, but I seemed to wake up on HER bench pretty regularly every Sunday morning, waiting for her to show up on Sunday evening. Turns out she was the kind of person you could talk to for 5 minutes and feel like you knew her all your life. I was infatuated with her. I still am --- after 58 years.
Actually, this was a time when I had the whole world in my hands. I would get to spend my quality time with my little "sweetie" and when the clock struck 10 p.m., I got to revert to the young sailor on liberty. Only problem was my carousing and bar hopping just didn't seem to excite me anymore. Something was happening to me and I couldn't put my finger on it. It caused me many moments of confusion. It was like I was in control of my destiny and at the same time, I wasn't.
Meanwhile, back on the job, although we weren't completely outfitted, we installed a British anti-aircraft pom pom gun, where our crane should have been and we were commissioned. That pom pom gun was a piece of garbage. In fact, we only used it once during a gunnery practice. After using it and all four barrels jammed, the Old Man had it covered with canvas and we never used it again.
Anyways, our first cruise was to a place called Bafin Bay which is about as far north as you can get. Off the west coast of Greenland, it has to be about the coldest place on earth.
We knew it was going to be cold when we were issued cold weather gear before we sailed. Being the curious type, I talked to a chief on board who had been up there before and asked him how cold it would be. The chief told me, "Son, where we are headed it's colder than a witch's titty in a brass bra." I didn't really understand or comprehend what he meant. However, upon our return, I can definetly state from that day forward, I would never want to fondle a witch's boob! It is difficult to describe just how "cold" it was. Our mission was to cruise and intercept any German infiltrators who may attempt to get into Canada and work their way onto U.S. soil. When we arrived on station, we began our patrol and our battle against the elements, which was far more dangerous than any man made challege. In fact, in the nearly 2 months we were on station, we never saw anyone, friend or foe. But the elements came close to closing my story before it got rolling good.
First, the air and seawter temperature was so cold that the mist froze on contact. One of our forward 5" guns swiftly turned to a block of ice. We had a man attempt to thaw it out with a hot water hose and all we accomplished was getting the man's boots frozen to the deck. Bear in mind that if you went into the water, you were dead. The ship was gradually turning into a solid block of ice and we were rapidly becoming top heavy. This would cause the ship to roll to a precarious angle. At times we weren't sure if she would right herself. The skipper decided to arrange for signals for the crew to move port or starboard in order to counter the roll of the ship. This strategy worked to a certain degree but was extremely exhausting for the crew ....as well as being damn scary.
The chief engineer came up with the idea to flood an AV gas tank which was empty and held several thousand gallons with salt water. I asked the engineer what would happen if the seawater froze and was told not to worry about it because seawater wouldn't freeze. Well, it did freeze and expanded to where you could see the deck plates and the sides of the ship bulge out. It seemed to help for a little while. But then she started to roll again and lay over...we started thinking she would never right herself. The skipper saved the day by changing course putting the down side into the wind and she finally started to roll back. However, she continued to roll in the opposite direction. The skipper decided that the mission wasn't worth the risk and we changed course back to Boston. Upon our arrival, we looked like a huge iceberg. It took close to 2 months for the fuel tank to thaw out and they were able to shrink the deck and side metal back to normal. Our crane had arrived and we had her installed. During this time, a few of us were assigned to attend classes at Whentworth Institute which suited me just fine because it gave us a couple of months of excellent liberty in Boston. I got to spend a lot of quality time and became pretty tight with my little Italian girl.
Oh yeah, my little Italian girl...in my mind, she was one for the books. Just getting to know her was one of the biggest cultural shocks of my young life, especially if you considered my background. Looking back on it, the odds of us getting together had to be uncalculable. In those days, I never gave a thought as to whether there was a God or not. But now, I know it had to be God's will. There's just no other explanation. No two people could be more different. Here I was, a mixed breed mongrel, runaway, hobo, single sailor with extremely high testosterone levels governing my every moment....
and then....there was her.
Her parents were from the "old country", Italy. They held to their culture and beliefs. She was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. Yet, she was raised as a strict Catholic girl. At the age of twenty, she was betrothed to someone she knew and worked with. ( I had to look up the word "betrothed" before I knew what she was talking about) Whenever she went out, she had to be escorted and had to be home by 10:00 p.m. which was usually when I was hitting high gear. Being seen with a sailor in uniform would cause severe consequences for her. I imagine being seen with an Irish/Indian sailor would have been the death sentence. She could only go out unescorted when she was with her betrothed. Personally, I thought it was an impossible situation, but I was wrong. Somehow, she convinced her betrothed to pick her up and bring her to me. He would drop her off and return to pick her up before 10 p.m. I kinda considered her a doll with high moral standards which was something new in my life. All the time I was dating her, I never really made a pass at her. In fact, I never did anything that might jeopardize my being able to spend time with her. However, on one occasion as a gesture, to show her how I felt, I "sorta" proposed knowing full well nothing would come of it. After all, we couldn't have been more different. Little did I know.
As usual, all good things come to an end. Our time was up and the ship was completely refitted. Our orders came in and it was back to sea. This trip was to conduct sub patrol in the Carribean. Talk about conflicting cruises---we went from the freezer to the cooker!! Now, our primary duty was to service the sea planes that were doing the sub hunting. So here we were, putt-putting around torpedo alley with about a gazzilion gallons of AV gas on board. What a firework display we would make if we took a fish (torpedo). Well, I guess the skipper was thinking the same thing because he decided to get rid of some of it by pumping it overboard. A 3" hose did the trick and after about a half a day's worth of pumping, we were done. Close to sundown, we noticed what appeared to be a tremendous fire on the horizon. Surprise! Surprise! We were well away from the gas and had no idea who or what had set it off, but we liked to think that some German sub came up for some fresh air and someone lit a cigarette. We didn't want to consider the alternative.
Shortly thereafter, we got new orders to escort an old blimp tender to South America. We embarked on the most boring cruise of my entire Naval career. Seeing as the tender could only make 4 or 5 knots tops, we had to steam circles around her all the way to our destination because we couldn't go that slow. You can only imagine our elation when we sighted dry land. I don't believe there was a man aboard who hadn't considered sinking that tub of s*#& at least once. From there, we took up station in Natel, Brazil servicing China Clippers returning from the African campaign. This was a great tour of duty. Brazil was beautiful and the people were very good to us. But I was getting a bit bored with this tour so when the word got around that experienced sailors were being rounded up for nucleus crews on new constructions in the States, I volunteered and shortly, I got my orders for Norfolk, Va. Once there, I attended a couple more schools. Once I finished, I recieved orders to proceed to Cleveland, Ohio where I attended the General Motors Factory School. I was given a two week delay enroute....so, I decided to visit my little Italian girl.
Prior to leaving Norfolk, I was on liberty with a friend and we were walking along Granby St., when he asked me what I was giving my gal for Christmas. In all honesty, I hadn't given it a thought until he mentioned it. As chance would have it, we were walking by a fur store at the time and my buddy suggested buying her a fur coat. Now, at that moment, I thought that was a damn fine idea and seeing as I had serious money in my pocket due to being overseas for so long and spending so little, I just walked into the store, picked out the coat I liked and paid cash. As an after thought, I purchased an expensive jewelry box and filled it with candy for her mother. Then, with no further hesitation, I mailed them to her house.
© 1997 ervd@hotmail.com
Get your own Free Home Page