chapter 4 | for god and country
What a Trip!!!
Monday, December 14, 1942 In port at Army Base, Norfolk, Virginia; ship is moored to the dock. I go ashore to secure some sheet music for our musicians and have dinner in the City Market. Imagine Faneuil Hall Market [in Boston] in one big cement building. At one end of it is a lunch counter. “This will be a good place for me to get a fine steak.” Girl, “No steak, but you buy it and we’ll cook it.” To the man at the meat stand in back of me, “I want a good steak.” T-bone, one pound, $.65. Back to the counter with it, wrapping and all. “Here it is.” “What else?” “One raw onion, tomatoes, mashed potatoes, a glass of beer, dessert – apple pie and two big scoops of ice cream.” Best steak I have had in Norfolk in a blue moon. Happy surprise! Frank MacDonald, S.J., one of our passengers. “Goodbye” at BC., now he shows up as Chaplain of the CBs.62 Young sailors; an 18 year old taking his first shave; boys standing around, kidding him. “Just put a little cream on your whiskers and let the cat lick it off.”
Wednesday, December 16, 1942 Nine days before Christmas we leave the Army Base, anchor out in Hampton Roads on a morning harshly raw, grey and cold; in the afternoon, snow falls. First time for Kendrie, a Southerner. Scoops it up with delight.
Thursday, December 17, 1942 We begin the first lap of our second cruise. Heave up the anchor at 0830 on a bright, crisp December morning; temperature about 35 degrees. Sun is shin-
ing in clear sky but coldly. It is too far down in the sky. Our passengers this trip different from the last. Then they were assault soldiers; Commandos and Rangers. These are Construction Battalion men, not Army. They are an older group; men who had already established themselves as machinists, welders, divers, electricians, etc. They line the decks as did the last passengers. For the large majority, this is their first ocean trip. As I go topside with some of their Officers to identify for them the landmarks on the Virginia shore and Cape Charles, Delaware, I speak to some of the enlisted men. Ask them how they feel as we get underway. Reply, “This is what we have been waiting for.” “What kind of sailors will you be?” “That’s what we are wondering about, too.” “Well, we’ll find out shortly.” Within ten minutes we have passed through the submarine nets, pulled back by their little tenders on the north and south side. The order comes from the bridge: “All hands wear life belts.” Once more we are on our own, with destroyers on ahead of us, in Indian file, seven of them. We too are steaming out, Indian file, the second of the ships in our division, following the USS Allen, our flagship. We are making about 15 knots with the rudder pushed over hard to port and to starboard alternately, as we weave through the minefield. At the end of an hour, the destroyers fan out into picket lines on either side of us. We pick up a cruiser and an aircraft carrier, her flight deck loaded down with planes. The USS Chenango is the same one that travelled with us to Africa last month.
62 A reference to Naval Construction Battalions, commonly referred to in writing as the “Seabees.”
46 | chapter 4: what a trip!!!
