On Dec. 9 we anchored in a harbor that had many ships tied up alongside each other, especially the smaller ships. I could not see any large land mass, just ships. No one knew where we were, someone said they thought it was Ulithi. My geography from school did not mention this place. Actually it is a small group of islands in the Marinas group. It is east of Guam and north of Yap, if that helps pinpoint it for those with a world Atlas.

I can't remember how many of us were called, but we grabbed all of our gear and headed to a whaleboat for debarkation to our assigned ships. The coxswain of the whaleboat was confused as to which berth our ship was in, so we had a short tour of several berths. The smaller ships such as the destroyers were tied up side by side. We finally located the correct one, The USS LAWS DD558. It was on the inside of one of this line-up of ships so you could not see the ship numbers. We had to board the outside "Tin Can" and walk across the decks to the next one down the line. This was difficult because the sea bags we had to carry were not easy to maneuver across the narrow gangplanks.

The ships sure looked like TIN CANS as they were weather beaten and needed paint, they did have deck crews working on them. To someone not used to this strange site they really looked in bad shape. A destroyer was not a large ship, if memory serves me we had a complement of about 300 men. The ship was 376 feet in length, with a beam width of 39 feet. I do remember that among the men reporting aboard the LAWS there were 2 other electricians and 2 machinists. I think there were more but that was long ago for my memory to be exact.

I was berthed forward in the ship. This was called the forward crews quarters. I had a bunk on the starboard side (the right hand side). It was a top bunk. One advantage, or perhaps disadvantage of this was that the lockers for our clothes and all other personal gear was below the bottom bunk. I should explain that these bunks were hung by chains on the inboard side and hinged on the outboard side. This made it so that access to the lockers required the bottom bunk had to be raised.

Of course, the occupant of the bottom bunk could not be lying in the bunk when this was done. It was cruel to move the bottom occupant if you did not really have to gain access to your locker. So you see that is why the top bunk was an advantage, no one disturbed you to gain access to their locker, yet the disadvantage was that the top bunk guy was the one who made the other guy move. I was lucky, the guy in the bottom of my tier was a real nice guy and we got along fine.

The Chief Electrician gave all the new fellows a tour of the ship and pointed out the duties we had to attend to. The one very unpleasant thing was the maintenance of a smoke detector light on top of the boilers in both engine rooms. These lights were used to detect smoke rising from the firebox to the stack. Showing smoke was a bad thing, it meant showing smoke so the enemy could see it from a distance. The boilers were covered with asbestos but heat was very intense heat and there wasn't any air movement in that location.

Well, you guessed it I was on call the first night at sea and the smoke light was out about 1:00 AM. With the newness to being on the ship and this hot location was when I decided I was not very happy with the electrician job at that early hour. I often wondered if this duty was not for some type of initiation since that is the only time I could remember changing that lamp.

All hands had a duty to perform when not on watch. This was the normal maintenance of equipment for your division. We also had our watch schedule to make. The times of this depended on the particular section you were in and the number of men in your division. My schedule for watch was normally 4 hours on watch and 8 off. Those off watch hours at night were your sleep hours but the daytime off watch was duty time. This schedule would change when we were under attack. Then all hands had his General Quarters station (GQ).

My first GQ station was in the shell handling room below one of the 5-inch gun mounts. That did not last too long, as my physical stature was not big enough to handle those heavy shells at the speed that the gun crew needed them. The Japanese thought those 5-inch guns were automatic from the speed that they were fired. My GQ was changed to a sound powered phone operator on the main deck, amid ships by the battery locker. I was to relay messages to the bridge from the deck officer. This was changed some time later as other situations changed.

After I passed a test for Electricians' Mate 3rd Class my watch station changed to the aft engine room generator and power switchboard (There were two engine rooms and generators, one aft and the other forward). Previously I held the rate of Electricians Striker 1st class. That had changed from Seaman to Electrician after I graduated from school in Chicago.

My duty at this generator was to take readings every hour and log them. Of course if the forward generator was shut down for some reason when it was put back on line I had to sync the two together and throw the switch to tie them together. I did not have to do any maintenance on the generator itself, as it was a steam turbine, like the drive engines, that were in the same compartment. The engine room was very warm but we had big air blowers bringing in fresh air from topside.

When not occupied with other chores I sat under this blower to stay comfortable. This slack time made up much of the watch time. I spent a lot of this time reading or making rings, watch bands, belts and anything else to keep your hands busy. The midnight and early morning watches we used to feed our appetites. We would make potato soup and any thing else we could scrounge from the galley or stores lockers.

The potato storage locker was top side so we had easy access when no one was looking. This was a very big advantage to some of the other watch stations. The coffee was so strong it just about melted a spoon if you put one in it. It did keep you awake on those 12 to 4 watches.

The daytime work was always a chore to run down power line grounds in the topside conduit. The salt water was sure to find its way into the boxes. They were supposed to be waterproof but the constant movement of the ship opened up joints in the conduit. The concussion from firing of the 5-inch guns also caused its share of trouble.

The light bulbs did not survive so changing bulbs would keep all the electricians busy. That is where the name of LIGHT BULB SNATCHER came from. The compartment ahead of my sleeping quarters was where the light bulbs were stored. That was also storage for the officers special mess goodies. That is where I got my first and only taste of caviar. There was a small can that worked its way out of the wire enclosure and I tried it. Boy was that awful tasting stuff just out of a can. I suspect it should have been prepared some way.

I should explain that the officers had their own cooks and mess boys who were colored men. The officers had their own mess in the wardroom, which was above the main deck in the superstructure. They had to pay for their food out of their pay. As many of you know the military was segregated at this time and all of the cooks and mess boys were black. They had their own compartment for sleeping on the port side amidships. We had to pass through it when leaving the mess hall. It also served as sleeping quarters for some of the crew. Their bunks had to be folded up at chow time to make room for the tables to be set-up.

When we went to chow, the line formed on the starboard side and went below to the steam tables where the food was served. The Galley was on the main deck and the food had to be carried down the gangway and put in the steam tables to keep it hot. In a rough sea this was quite a tricky thing to carry these pots down a ladder.

There were no stairs, just these ladders with steel steps and a handrail on both sides. Men that were considered OLD SALTS (those that had been aboard any ship for a long time) could slide down the rails without using the steps. I was not too good at this on the ladders that went almost straight down. It was hard to slow your decent on them; your grip on the handrails was your brakes.

This routine was really altered when we were attacking or under attack. Every one was at their GQ station and food was not available when there was immanent danger. Only on long GQ's did the cooks prepare sandwiches and hand food that could be eaten while still staying on the station. This was also the practice when we were in very heavy seas. Normally when we finished the evening chow and when not on watch several of my compartment mates would play cards, checkers or chess. The card game was almost always Pinnacle; in fact we played it at every opportunity.

When payday rolled around several of the guys would draw pay just to gamble. The poker games were for more than the penny ante stakes and the dice would roll. Craps was really big with some. I personally did not go in for gambling. I never drew all the pay that was coming to me. There was really very little to spend money on board ship. We did not have too much for a ship store; the Quartermasters did try to keep some candy and cigarettes along with a small selection of toiletries. As mentioned earlier, a destroyer is not a large ship and living was pretty Spartan.

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