I rolled out of my sack as the bong bong of the general quarters bell sounded for the fourth time this night. I didn't have to dress as we had learned that we could get to our guns faster if we slept in our clothes. I ran up the ladder to the main deck and got to my Battle Station in eleven seconds.

I heard a loud speaker say, "All mounts, stand ready! Bogies at 30 miles and closing."

I got to wondering what I was doing in a spot like this, as a few months before I was in high school in a small town in western New York State. The biggest water I had been in was the old mill pond where we all learned to swim. Believe me, this pond here was a lot bigger, plus it had these damn Kamikazes or Bogies as we called them.

I quit school and the first thing I knew Uncle Sam said "I WANT YOU." I wanted to go into the Marines because my older brother was in the 3rd Marines. Unfortunately, when they drafted me they had their quota in that field so they offered me the Navy or the Army. I took the Navy. The Navy gave me food and five suits of clothes, three pair of shoes plus underwear. Being from a ten kid family and not having too much in food and clothes, it was a big change for me to just adapt to so much all mine. They took me to Sanpson NY Naval Training Station for what they called Boot Camp. We trained for seven weeks, and they taught me how to get up early, march, do KP duty and salute. We also learned how to take care of our clothes, ourselves and how to say "yes sir" and "no sir". The best part of it all was it all came in handy later on.

Upon finishing boot camp in January 1944, I worked in the warehouses for a week or two. Then I was put on a train the New York Central with hundreds of other sailors. We had no idea where we were going. But after traveling all day, all night and half the next day with only ham sandwiches to eat and soda to drink, and only seats to sleep in, we stopped in Newport, Rhode Island. They were sending us to go to school there. I was sent to Torpedo School, and others were to attend gunnery, radio, and signalman school, and etc. They lined up 220 of us and then we were told why we were there, namely to study torpedoes and depth charges. From now on we were to be addressed as Torpedomen. We were marched down a road to a barracks on the bay. This was February and there was a cold breeze blowing off the bay. We were told this was going to be our home for 17 weeks while we were in school. We went inside, and got a surprise - no heat - no bunks - just one big room. That;s when we figured out why we had been lugging those hammocks with us. Yep, our bed was going to be a hammock, for the school anyway. Fun for a few minutes but 17 weeks is a long time. Each day they had to be taken down and folded up before breakfast.

No one had started a fire in this barracks and it was a very cold building the first day. I was shivering from the cold, so after chow f bit the hammock and got under the blanket to stay warm. This school was to learn how to use equipment to kill or be killed, so I thought it was the most important thing in my life, and I would try to learn this to the best of my ability. It may save my life some day. I studied hard and did what I was told and got along well. The worst of being there was the marching in review every Saturday. I caught the measles there and missed a week of school. Had to go stay in the hospital and my high school athletic coach was working there. Hadn't seen him in two years so we had a good chat about our home town high school.

But I made up the time in school and came out second in the score of 220 men. Upon finishing school in R.I. I was sent to Boston to a Destroyer the USS Laub (DD.613). This ship had been rammed over in the European Theater by a Cruiser, which had almost cut it in half. It had been patched up in Italy and towed back to Boston. The crash had killed four sailors so I seen the bad part of where I was going, and what I was in for. I was on it three days and they towed it across the bay to a dry dock and I got seasick from that, so I knew I was in big trouble being in the Navy. I came out of boots as a 2nd class seaman, and made 1st class seaman on this ship.

They were repairing this ship and we had to live in barracks on the beach. I was trained to run the laundry on the ship, and I ran that for 3 months Then one day another sailor Stan Mclemore and I received orders to go to New York City Pier 92 to await further orders.

Upon arriving at Pier 92 we found a large building sitting on a pier holding thousands of our Navy men. Right after arriving there a hurricane came through, and the Queen Mary was breaking it's mooring lines. They called for volunteers to help contain it. By the time I got outside they had all they needed so I lucked out. After being in New York City for three weeks there was a notice on the bulletin board for me to report to TheTransportation Office for orders. I reported to the office and in there was Stan McLemore who came down from Boston with me. He was going to the same Ship. The orders read to report to the USS Van Valkenburgh (DD 656) at Charleston, SouthCarolina navy yard in three days. Our train tickets came with the orders. We grabbed our duffel bags and got to the train. We had a good trip down to Charleston, and when we arrived there was a shuttle to take us to the Naval Base. We took our bags and signed in at the Gate. The guard told us that the ship was in dry dock just keep going straight ahead. We passed a building and there she was - a spanking new destroyer The USS Van Valkenburgh (DD 656) sitting in a dry dock with all the gray and black camouflage. This destroyer is of the Fletcher class, weighing 2100 tons, 376 feet long with a beam of 39 feet. Armament consisted of five, five inch guns, ten torpedo tubes (with ten torpedoes loaded in the tubes with war heads attached) five twin 40 mm, and seven 20 mm guns, depth charge K-guns and depth charge racks on the stern.

This destroyer was named after the captain of the battleship USS Arizona. Who was killed on December 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor. He went down with his ship. Captain Van Valkenburgh was a hero in my book. I know we carried on his name, and made the Japs pay for the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.

A destroyer is built to do a lot of things on the ocean, like escort larger ships and protect them from submarine attacks. Destroyers are equipped with sonar to find subs who are submerged. They can also support landing troops, make mail runs, pick up survivors and a lot more. It did not take a scholar to figure out this was serious business we were going into, and this ship was made for only one thing - WAR! McLemore and I agreed this one was going to take us to the fighting part of the world. We both agreed also what a beautiful ship it was, all new and ready to go.

We took our bags and crossed the gangplank, saluting Old Glory and the officer of the deck. The OOD made a call and William Graham, a T/M First Class came to take us to our torpedo shack. A new kind of life for me had just started.