3 | for god and country
Journey to Morocco
Sunday, October 25, 1942 Feast of Christ the King 0530 – General Quarters. Mass on boat deck aft at 0630, half an hour before sunrise. The altar is set against the shield of the #16 and #18mm AA guns, with crews manning them. Portside aft of boat deck, as I turn around to start the Mass, the full moon is setting in the west, a bit pale after its long trip, looking as though it needed a rest. Stray clouds drift along slowly, keeping company with the moon to make sure that she will not be lonely. They are just a handful who apparently detached themselves from their brothers and sisters and went on their own. The others have gone to parts unknown. The winds are blowing a bit but nothing of consequence to disturb me during the Mass. Men, hundreds of them, stand in the three lanes looking at the altar. A strange setting for Holy Mass but one that is pleasing to Our Lord and that the men will not forget. One regret – the celebrant has to keep a silent tongue in his head when he had so much to say; an unexpected and most untimely attack of laryngitis hit the Chaplain, first ever of its kind. Printed a dope sheet to familiarize men with some necessary points. Gave General Absolution. Lieut. [Mark] Starkweather, leader of 15 Commandos, taken aboard at the last minute. They are to cut
the sub net up the river where we are to land. He tells me that the 5th Columnists of ours have been doing their work in Morocco for a long time.48 Just before he left Washington on this trip, he said goodbye to an officer who told him that he would meet him on the dock in Morocco. Lieut. Starkweather sent one of his Commandos, Ernest J. Gentile, to me with offers to help me in any way that he could. Later in the afternoon he visited my room. He told me their job is to cut the net silently for passage up of a destroyer; they have rubber boats with paddles on board. Hope to take charge of the net tenders without resorting to bloodshed. Why did he sign up for this volunteer work? “I told my wife that I would give everything I’ve got; this was a chance to give. Will be doing our bit to bring the war to a close in a hurry. I’d hate to think that my two little girls would have to live in a world ruled by Hitler and his gang. That’s why I signed up.” Calmly he spoke of his ambitions and ideals, the long preparations made for this raid, how he used to read about such things in books as a boy, without ever dreaming that he would take part in one some day.
48 Mark Starkweather was a munitions expert working in salvage diving at Pearl Harbor when he and a small group of men with experience working under water were brought together to take part in the North Africa landing at Port Lyautey, forming a unit charged with disabling underwater defenses that blocked battleship access to the Sebou River and the nearby Vichy fortress and airfield. The unit’s effort was successful, as Foley relates in his diary, and each member would be awarded the Navy Cross—second in distinction only to the Medal of Honor—for his work. The ad hoc unit was then disbanded but is considered the forerunner of the Navy Sea, Air, and Land Teams, known as the Seals.
31 | chapter 3: journey to morocco
