i had mixed feelings about the next phase of my career.
i was a destroyer man. The Lloyd Thomas, the Hawkins, the Waldron, the Luce, and the Hollister were tin cans, greyhounds of the sea roaring into the white caps at 35 knots, shooting incredible five-inch shells out of those gun mounts, training in any multiple threat environment: visaged gray ladies that ruled the oceans.
Now, i was going to a completely different world. The only appealing aspect to me was boatswain mates, the backbone of the Navy from day one. i really had no idea of what my new job as the First Lieutenant on the USS Anchorage (LSD 36) would entail. i was glad to move my wife and daughter into Pacific Beach Navy housing in San Diego, but i was pretty much clueless about what would follow. i did know Anchorage would deploy with Amphibious Squadron Five in mid-March just after i reported aboard. i also knew the LSDs had a bosun, Chief Warrant Officer Boatswain. Knowing that i would have someone guide me through the learning process as STC Rogers had on the Hawkins, STC Jenkins had on the Luce, BTCM Miller (i think: still have to look up his name, ashamed i can’t remember) had on the Hollister.
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We moved into Pacific Beach Navy housing in late January. Moving has always been a major pain. This move was no less painful even though it was just over 100 miles. But we made it. We settled in and i reported for duty. After destroyers, the Anchorage seemed enormous. After i saluted the ensign and requested to come aboard, i was walked to the executive officer’s cabin. From there, we walked next door to the captain’s cabin. Charlie introduced me to CDR Lou Aldana. He was a tall, angular man with a dour countenance. During our talk, i found that he cared about his ship and his men. That made it just fine with me.
The captain also gave me his instructions on how the first lieutenant on an LSD should perform:
“You are like a farmer,” he began, “When it is not raining, your guys have to prep and paint the weather decks…all of the time. That is one of your most important responsibilities.”
It sounded mundane, but it true. The deck force and the deep hole snipes were the hardest working guys in Navy show business. i was about to discover that the deck force were not only “farmers” on weather spaces, they were always working on every aspect of amphibious shipboard life.
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i then found out the one person i was relying upon to help me through the learning process was no longer there. Bosun Holtzclaw, whom i never met, had been transferred about a month before i reported aboard. There would not be a replacement. i had no chief boatswain mate in the department and only one LTJG who had deployed before. Shortly after i arrived, my most experienced first class boatswain mate was transferred to a LST in our squadron as events had left the ship without one. i was down to one first class, BM1 Hansborough, who was in charge of first division, and a BMC, who had spent his 15 years as a boxer and currently was the “3M” coordinator in charge of the Navy’s preventive maintenance program, not even assigned to the Deck department. Challenges lay ahead.
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My wife Kathie and i were excited about being in San Diego. Our new neighbors had a daughter Blythe’s age of three, and they nice folks. And we were in San Diego, a place i had found intriguing since i read about it back in the early 60s.
When we realized, we were less than two miles from the beach, we resolved to get there as soon as possible. After we had unpacked all of the boxes and had our home in Navy housing in satisfactory shape, we drove down to the beach and parked. We walked to the beach. i was excited. i had never been to a Southern California beach. Kathie held Blythe as i shed my top shirt and shoes and ran to the water. i ran into the surf and dove into the first waves.
It was then i discovered the Japanese current brings cold water down from the Arctic Circle. As Bill Cosby noted in one of his skits (before he was convicted of his crimes) that when he hit the water, his body became “one giant goose bump.” The Pacific Ocean off the Southwestern corner coast is not warm until about two weeks in August.
i quickly emerged, grabbed the towel and wrapped it around me. Thus began my next adventure. In a month, i would be on the USS Anchorage as her first lieutenant, deployed to the western Pacific for ten months. i had no idea of the challenges ahead.
