| Show Roberts' Isn't Typical Who Said So Dear I note with amusement Clark's review of The unkempt appearance and non-regulation actions of the crew and officer of was certainly typical of nearly all of the small combat and auxiliary ships with which I was familiar during World War H. The unkempt appearance was often due to the difficulties of procuring new clothing When small ships were almost continuously on the laundry faculties and fresh water were often lacking or in short supply at least some of the Many older ships were also difficult to keep clean at all Many smaller ships and auxiliary ships habitually ignored Navy regulations in the These conditions were not necessarily an indication of low morale but rather often indicated such close cooperation among crew and officers that any unnecessary rules could be Our most outstanding Annapolis wore a polo shirt and a baseball cap while the crew dispensed with clothing above the waist while in the tropics and never wore a hat on The use of alcoholic drinks aboard ship was not unknown I can well remember once when the at the helm was drinking beer in company with the and among In three years we had only one court martial for a sailor who went AWOL for three weeks and virtually never had a captain's Even in the case of one sailor while stole a kangaroo the Australia zoo and brought it aboard there was only a verbal reprimand in Other Navy regulations were also regularly I never saw any one salute during my entire shipboard experience of nearly three years in World War H. In the states ship's were supposed to keep one third their crew on The night I reported on there were only three men and no officers on In spite of this or perhaps because of it our morale was very high even though all other ships of our squadron were sunk that saw combat action and we were hit by a kamikaze and Our ship also collected two Navy Unit Of all the stories about the war in my comes closest to actually portraying Navy life as I knew In fact during service in the Korean incident I had a Captain Who actually had a palm tree on each wing of his bridge and the crew plotting revenge on Some of these plots were at least partially Philo C. |
