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Navy Days
- Dartmouth College Press
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Navy Days ---------------------------------------------------------paul e. hale : u.s. navy G raduation was approaching. My good friend Doc Davis and I hadn’t a clue about what to do with the next phase of our lives. All we knew was that the draft loomed, and without any kind of deferment we figured our days were numbered. So rather than run the risk of becoming a soldier for two years, we decided that becoming an officer for three was a better bet. Having grown up on the water— Doc in San Francisco and I on Long Island— and liking the look of our roommate Barry Blackwell (’63) in his Navy ROTC uniform, we decided to apply for and were accepted to Navy OCS, both starting in October 1964. A good thing, too. Vietnam hadn’t heated up yet, and a year or so later you practically had to know a congressman to get in. Doc turned out to be colorblind, so he went into the Supply Corps and was based in Naples, Italy. I put in for destroyer duty, deck or operations, because I’d never been out of the country, and the East Coast, because I wanted to see Europe before Asia. I got Mayport, Florida, but was assigned to an aircraft carrier— the USS Shangri-La, CVA- 38— and to the engineering department as repair officer and assistant damage control officer. Go figure— this English major in engineering? So two years later, when the public affairs officer billet on the ship opened up, I went to the executive officer, Commander Fred Carment, and begged for the position: “Commander, I was an English major— absolutely, this is the right job for me.” He said, “Paul, I’ll do it, on one condition— you complete your engineering officer courses.” So I did, and I got the job. Lesson learned. Anyway, being repair officer was interesting work, except that most of the repair work got done whenever the ship was in port. So while my friends in CIC (Combat Information Center) and navigation had nothing 102 : dartmouth veterans to do but goof off or go on leave, I didn’t get to do so much of that. This really culminated when the ship went into drydock in Philadelphia for a major refit, including installing air conditioning and better evaporators , which made for more regular showers. In addition, I ran a specially formed fire watch division, composed of sailors who had to man fire extinguishers wherever any welding was being done. I was pretty busy. But not so my best friend on the ship, Ensign Jeffrey Pill, with whom I shared an apartment for those six months. He was in CIC— not much combat information work being done in drydock. So after a night of carousing we’d drag ourselves down to the ship for 8 a.m. quarters. Then I’d go to work, and Ensign Pill would go back to bed. This went on for the entire time there. A year or so later, we were conducting night operations in the Mediterranean , when one of the eight destroyers surrounding the carrier became disoriented during a maneuver and plowed into the carrier’s anchor locker. It is said that “a collision at sea can ruin your whole day.” Try telling that to the OOD (officer of the deck) and the captain of the destroyer and the two sailors aboard who died. We put into Naples, had a cofferdam installed over the hole in the ship’s side, and had a steel plate welded in place. Then it was off to Norfolk Naval Shipyard for a proper repair. Once there I soon got the call I expected— “The XO wants to see you.” I went down to his stateroom. Fred: “Well, Paul, it’s time to set up another fire watch division.” Paul: “ I figured that’s what you wanted to see me about. But let me suggest something. I’ve got enough of a full- time job as repair officer, and it seems unfair to saddle me with the fire watch duties as well, when any junior officer could handle the job, and there are plenty of them in navigation and CIC who have nothing to do in port.” Fred: “Paul, you make a very reasonable point. Who would you suggest?” Paul: “I think Lieutenant JG Pill would do an outstanding job.” Fred: “Good idea. I’ll take care of it.” A few hours later, Jeff stormed into my stateroom bellowing “You sonofabitch!” [35...