Here is the rest of the Story of my great uncle Gordon Gehrkes World War II experience. In his own words.
"I believe it was in May,
1941 that I qualified and played for the club championship at Ala Wai Golf
Course. I got into the final match for he championship and was paired against a
Japanese fellow. Deep inside I knew I could beat the guy so on a week day afternoon
when I had liberty, we started. I won the first three holes and had him three
down. Aboutthe fourth hole I noticed that he was attracting a group of (his
friends. The group got larger and larger until there were probably fifteen to
twenty of them. They were constantly talking, in Japanese of course. It
wouldn't have been so bad but they began to talk louder and louder and
especially when it was my turn to hit my ball. Look up the word
"Psyche" in the dictionary and you will know what was happening in
the golf match. They were psycheing me out! To make a long story short, I got
beat some-thing like one down or two down with one to play. Anyhow, I got beat!
At Ala Wai Golf Course in
the 40's, the custom was that any golfer who got a birdie on the par three
eighth hole would win a case of 24 case of Coco Cola. One Saturday afternoon
our usual threesome and one other Navy guy were playing. Palko and I had a hot
match going and I birdied six, seven and eight in a row and naturally won a
case of coke. So after we finished our round we tossed the case of coke into
the trunk of Palko's car, had some dinner and I bought a bottle of rum. Now you
can't drink coke without rum, altha' neither Palko or Butsko drank any liquor.
They were good Catholic men. We finally headed toward the Ala Muana Hotel at
Waikiki Beach and found a spot where a wedding was in progress. I was drinking
a lot of free coke spiked with rum and by the time we left Waikiki Beach, the
last thing1remember was that the car hit a small bump and I passed-out in the
back seat. Palko and Butsko returnedto their barracks, but couldn't get me out
of the back seat of the car so just let me there all night.
The next morning they
attended early mass atsome Catholic church, but I'm still passed-out in the back
seat. The sun was coming up and I guess when the warm rays beamed down on me in
the back seat, I woke up. I remember that I raised up on one elbow and looked
out of the car window. When I saw a church and a cemetery and all those head
stones, I figured I must have died and was going to Heaven! I just went back to
sleep hoping Palko and Butsko would find me. Well, they did and soon we were on
our way to Ala Wai. It was still very early and I recall that I staggered up to
the first tee and darnerd fell flat on my face when I bent over to put my ball
on the tee. I started out double bogey, double bogey, double bogey. I'm six
over par after three holes but the sun was continuing to rise; and it got
warmer and warmer and I began to sober up!
I played the next fifteen
holes in one under par and finished the round with a gross 77. Less my five
handicap, I was even par 72. I never ever drank rum and coke again. (Not that
much, anyhow!)
Our threesome stuck
together and we played a lot of golf. On December 7th, 1941 we were playing at
Ala Wai, real early in the morning as usual. We had already finished the first
nine holes when we noticed all these planes (aircraft) flying over the Pali and
heading toward Pearl Harbor. We didn't think too much about it because we knew
that a couple of our carriers (Aircraft Carriers) were expected to be coming
into Pearl Harbor. We all remarked about the same thing; there come our carrier
planes. About the time we got to about the 14th hole we heard these muffled,
loud explosions. We remarked that the stupid army was holding gunnery practice
on a Sunday morning. Even when we saw the huge columns of black smoke riSing
off in the direction of Pearl Harbor, we remarked that the stupid C.B's were
burning tires again! This was all happening very quickly and it wasn't until we
sawall these jeeps and military police out on the golf course and the M.P's
asking if any of us were in the military. We all remarked that we were regular
Navy and we were promptly told to get our ass back to our ship or base!
I don't remember exactly
what I did with my golf clubs, bag and shoes but I guess I left them there at
the Ala Wai Club House and put my regular civilian shoes back on and headed for
the next taxi that would take me back to Pearl Harbor. It was the fastest seven
mile ride I ever had in my life!
When I reached the gate to
the dock at Pearl Harbor, I began to run to get on the next motor launch that
would take me to the USS MEDUSA. No one could comprehend what was happening.
The Japanese planes were making their bombing runs, anti-aircraft guns were
rattling, our battleship row was wiped out, A thick black oil covered the water
and I noticed that the mattresses that were in the motor launch were covered
with blood from the wounded that had been transported from some of the ships. I
won't elaborate except to say that it was chaotic. My first four year
enlistment was expired and I was awaiting transportion back to the States to be
discharged. As soon as the confusion, etc. settled down, perhaps a couple of
weeks, I guess, I received permission to go to Nanakuli Rand R base where I had
been assigned for temporary duty. All my navy uniforms and personal gear were
there. For a couple of weeks I was wearing my civilian clothes that I had worn
on the golf course. I re-enlisted for another four years immediately! The USS
MEDUSA was not a combat ship but we had one five inch battery and some 20 and
40 millimeter anti-aircraft guns on the ship. My battle station was top side
with a set of head phones to relay messages from the bridge. I recall a two man
Japanese submarine that surfaced or tried to surface near the MEDUSA. We
helped' sink that sub that was later raised for the records.
In February, 1942, I
received orders to return to the States to help put a new ship in commission.
It was being built at the Alameda, CA ship ard and it was the AT-2, USS
MENOMINEE, a salvage, sea-going tug. I was now a Second Class Petty Officer
with one hash mark for four years in the service, (correction - the USS
MENOMINEE was the AT-73, not AT-2). When I reported to the officer in charge at
the ship yard and gave him my service record and orders he told me that the
ship was a long way from being built and that I should find some place to live
and all I had to do was report to him at the ship yard Monday through Friday. I
was to receive a subsistence allowance for my room and meals. I met a First
Class Carpenter's Mate by the name of Pete Gianotti who was also assigned to
the USS MENOMINEE. When he told me that he was staying at a pretty nice hotel
in Oakland, CA that was close to bus transportation to the ship yard, etc., I
decided to do the same. Pete had been in the service eight or nine years and
was much older than I was. He was born and raised on the east coast and was typical
Italian; dark hair and dark skin. Pretty rough around the edges, so to speak.
But, hey, this was good
duty. No restrictions, plenty of free time for liberty, you name it! As the
months passed and the ship was beginning to shape up, I met a few of the other
ship mates, namely one First Class Yeoman named Mike Striebel. A hell of a nice
guy and gung ho Navy. He was a take charge type of a man with two hash marks
(meaning he had eight or more years in the service). Mike apparently had been
instructed to start keeping some records of personel being assigned to the
MENOMINEE. One day he said to me that I would have to be bonded since I was to
be the Mail Carrier when the ship was commissioned. That was fine with me since
it paid an extra $10.00 a month. I had a regular heavy leather Mail Carrier's
bag and had to have a special belt and holster to carry a 45 automatic. Ah,
yes, things were beginning to shape up.
About September of 1942,
the ship was about finished and ready to make what the Navy calls, "trial
runs". The ship was soon commissioned and we took it out under the Golden
Gate Bridge, past the Farralon Islands and out to sea. I had never been on a
ship this small and when it reached· an area called the "cabbage
patch" (that's real, real rough water) it was plain hell! It was one of
the few times that I got sea sick; with everyone else on board. We had a
3" gun mounted near the bow of the ship and when we returned to the ship
yard that gun was promptly removed from the ship. It was deemed t~ be use-less
especially in rough seas. The ship was ordered to proceed to the Fiji Islands
where one of our cargo ships had gone aground on a coral reef. Of course that
meant crossing the Equator. This was sea duty, however, and I quickly went from
being a "pollywog" to becoming a "shell back". I've got the
diploma to proove it!
The cargo ship had been
abandoned and was breaking-up on the reef, but we salvaged whatever was
possible before we received orders that there was a terrible typhoon headed
toward the Fiji Islands. We had an Australian gun boat as our escort during the
salvage operations but I don't know where it disappeared to after Comdr.
Genereaux, our skipper headed toward a small atoll (a ring shaped coral
island). The skipper decided to put out the port and starboard anchors near the
atoll and back the ship astern forming a "y" effect. He knew what he
was doing and when the typhoon began to hit we were doing 4 knots forward and
trying to keep the bow of the ship into the 120 knot winds. About 0100 the port
anchor chain, broke from the strain of the wind and the ship began to sway back
and forth like a fish tail. It was about this time too that the Executive Officer,
a Lt. Comdr. by the name of Wetsoltoft lost his cool and began screaming. He
had never been to sea before. Of course Captain Genereaux, thank God, kept the
MENOMINEE upright and with proper maneuvering we were able to "ride
out" the typhoon. All night long we could see huge I>alm trees floating
past the ship. The wind had blown them off the atoLl along with the sand and
other debris. By day-break the typhoon had passed us and the ship looked as
though it had been sand-blasted. The grey-blue color paint job had been
stripped down to the yellow under-coating. But we weathered the storm. Oh yes,
the Executive Officer was transferred to other duty shortly after.
Perhaps I am devoting too
much space to my military life, but it did span approximately eight and a half
years of my life. Our mission in the Fiji Islands was complete. I did enjoy
meeting some of the real Fiji Islanders and was particularly impressed with the
changing of the guard, a dail ritual.
The USS MENOMINEE received
orders to proceed to the Florida Islands namely Guadalcanal and Tulagi. We
arrived in Tulagi on February 24th, 1943. Our fighting Marines and Army had
secured Guadalcanal near the end of November 1942 although we were still
finding a few stray Japanese soldiers on Tulagi and Guadalcanal. Our assignment
was to raise and re-float a Japanese destroyer that had been hit by our
torpedos during the fighting on the two islands. The Japanese navy tried to run
the destroyer up on a coral reef and they were successful except that the ship
slipped off the coral heads and eventually sunk in perhaps fifty foot deep
water. This, however, turned out to be a very interesting and difficult
assignment.
It took over eight months
of terrible duty to complete the job. Remember that the USS MENOMINEE was a
small ship with a crew of perhaps 80 to 90 people. The ship was anchored in
Tulagi Bay and there was no way to get off the ship unless you were ill or got
hurt or were the Mail Clerk, like me! It was also my responsibility to try to
keep enough food, coffee, etc. on board since we had no Supply Officer and no
Medical Officer. We did have a First Class Pharmacist Mate however who did a
good job of patching up the guys and keeping himself and me and the First Class
Yeoman in "sick-bay" alcohol. We used to dilute it with grapefruit or
orange juice when and if we had any.
Every single night without
fail, the Japanese would send one aircraft over Tulagi Bay around 0200 in the
morning. We would sound General Quarters and everyone would man the battle
stations. "Washing Machine Charley" as we used to call the Japanese
pilot and plane, would drop one or two bombs from high altitude and then
disappear until the next night.
These were nuisance
attacks and we didn't get much sleep. One day when I was picking up the mail at
the main base on Tulagi, I got the word that the Japanese military were sending
down over a hundred planes from Rabual. We had our aircraft on Guadalcanal and
shortly after noon time all hell broke loose. The reports were that we shot
down over ninety Japanese planes and I can believe it because the
"dog-fighting" was fierce. The Japanese managed to sink an Australian
Gun-boat and one of our oil tankers.
It took us eight months to
complete the job of ralslng the Japanese destroyer; patching the torpedo hole
in it's side and floating it. It was one of the older class of ships that the
Japanese had. I remember the No. 23 painted on the bow. Our orders were to tow
'it up one of the rivers that ran into Tulagi Harbor and beach it. Eight months
of "hell" duty for what?
We received orders to
proceed to New Zealand for a little Rand R. Actually, we had to have some dry
dock work done on the ship. And after eight months of Tulagi with nothing. the
New Zealand beer and steak and eggs were out of this ·world. Liberty was pretty
damn good too! There were. about twenty young women for everyone man since all
the young men were in the military and off fighting someplace. I remember one-night
a couple of guys and myself went on liberty and found out where there was this
dance hall. It was a big building and sure enough there were all these girls
lined up against the walls of the room just crying out take your pick. I
spotted this beautiful brunette and asked her for a dance.
We got acquainted real
quick! I found out that she worked in the office of a large laundry and dry
cleaning building in Auckland. Well, I was still the Mail Clerk for the ship
and that meant I had to go to the Auckland Post Office every day to deliver and
pick-up the mail. Every day except Sunday. Patti Wills, that's the brunette I
met, told me to put all my dirty clothes in the mail bag when I came ashore
each day, drop them off at laundry counter and she would have them ready for me
the next day. How sweet it is! The rest of the guys aboard ship could never
figure out why my white uniforms looked so nice and why my white hats looked
like new. I met Patti's mother and father. Real nice people and even though gasoline
was hard to get, Patti's father offered to let me drive their car to take Patti
for a drive. I never did, of course! Thirty days in New
Zealand went by very
quickly and then it was back to some serious duty. Of course I had made First
Class Petty Officer some time ago and I was almost eligible to make Chief Petty
Officer. Mike Striebel had already been promoted to C.P.O Yeoman and one day he
said to me that he was about to write a letter for the Captain's signature,
requesting that he be promoted to Ensign. Mike further added that I should
write a letter for my- self requesting that I be promoted to Warrant Officer
(Acting Pay Clerk). Mike said that he would get the Captain to endorse both
letters and he would send them in to the Bureau of Personnel. Mike also
intimated that he was being transferred and as soon as I made C.P.O. I would be
transferred too. Well Mike was right as usual. He was transferred and shortly thereafter
I made Chief Storekeeper and got my orders to report to a new ship being built
in Tacoma, Washington. It was the USS KENNETH WHITING, AV-14, an aircraft
tender. I came back to San Francisco, CA and soon was on my way to Tacoma, WA.
Things were moving pretty fast. This was June of 1944.
I reported for duty on the
USS KENNETH WHITING as a C.P.O. Storekeeper. The ship was pretty well outfitted
and getting ready for some trial runs. Atleast that's what I thought. But after
a week or ten days, my orders came through promoting me to Warrant Officer
(Acting Pay Clerk). It was back to San Francisco, CA to await further orders
for reassignment. Soon I learned I was to report for duty on the USS BELLE
GROVE, LSD-2. I learned that the LSD actually meant Landing Ship Dock. It was a
combat ship and I was to be the Assistant Supply Officer. I was to wait for the
ship to come into San Francisco, CA and when that didn't happen I got on board
another ship that was bound for Pearl Harbor, HI. I stayed at the Bachelor
Officer Qarters waiting and hoping that the USS BELLE GROVE would come into
Pearl.
On September 12th, 1944, I
reported for duty and went on board the LSD-2, USS BELLE GROVE. This ship was
396 feet long and 44 feet wide, built at Moore's Dry Dock Co. in Oakland, CA
and carried a crew of 330 men and 18 officers. It was commissioned on 9 August
1943. This ship was a real amphibious assault vessel, the second of its class
to be built. Many, many more followed later.
So here I am, on another
ship. I'm the Assistant Supply Officer and thanks to Mike Striebel, I got a
little gold stripe on my sleeve. Even got my own little stateroom with lots of privacy.
Commander Morris Seavey is the skipper and Lt. (jg) Loyd Bjorlo is the Supply
Officer that I would be working with. I was also the "s" Division
Officer and had supervision over the Storekeepers, Cooks and Bakers and
Officer's Mess Boys. It didn't take long to get into the swing of things and I
had the feeling quickly that I was going to enjoy this duty.
After a short stay in
Pearl Harbor, HI for some overhaul work and to replace all the wooden furniture
with metal furniture, we were soon headed out to sea. Our orders were to join
other ships for an assault on the Philippine Islands. We hit Leyte on 20
October 1944 (I remember well because it was one day after my 25th birthday).
What a nice birthday present!
Between the Leyte invasion
and 7 December 1944, the BELLE GROVE had inaugurated a vigorous War Bond
Campaign. When the campaign was over and all figures were compiled, Admiral
Nimitz saw fit to send a letter of commendation to the D.S.S. BELLE GROVE
announcing that the ship was first in the Amphibious Force of the Pacific Fleet
in the Pearl Harbor day sale of war bonds. The average sale of $36.62 per man
for a total of $16,350.00 was better than that of any other ship in the
amphibs. Since I was the appointed officer in charge of the sale of war bonds,
I received a personal letter of commendation from the Commanding Officer for
initiative, originality and attention to duty. I started the campaign out as a
competition between the divisions on the ship. Altha' the sales were made to
individuals, I had the division competing against division. Each morning I would
post a running record of how each division was doing. I would mimeograph enough
copies so that each division had a copy to post on the division's bulletin
board. The competition grew and grew and the sales of bonds did likewise. Don't
forget this was 1944 and the war was going full blast. What better thing to do
but buy a $25.00 War Bond?
The BELLE GROVE, between
the invasion of Leyte on October 20th, 1944 and December 30th, 1944, made
sixteen trips from Hollandia, New Guinea and other islands carrying supplies
back to Leyte. Besides carrying supplies we would transport Marines and Army
personnel back and forth as well. Oh yes, the BELLE GROVE was kept busy. We had
direct written orders from Rear Admiral Forrest Royal who was in command of
Transport Division 28. It was war!
The ship was in Hollandia,
New Guinea on a Sunday 24 December 1944. I remember we put on a little
Christmas Eve Celebration. I was the Committee Chairman and we had four boxing
matches, a short talk by the Chaplain, T.R. Clancy, singing of "Joy to the
World" and "Silent Night", cracker and pie eating contests,
distribution of presents by a make- believe Santa Claus. And it was Christmas
Eve and we tried to be merry and thankful for still being alive. On Christmas
day, 1944, the ship sailed from Hollandia and Humboldt Bay loaded with
equipment and combat troops and headed for Lingayen Gulf in the Philippine
Islands. We took part in the invasion on 5 January 1945.
After a couple of weeks,
the ship sailed on to Ulithi, Guam and Saipan. We loaded up with landing craft
and "hot" cargo, marines and army personnel and we knew that we were
headed for another invasion somewhere. Some little island halfway between
Saipan and Tokyo was the word. That little island turned out to be Iwo Jima, 5~
miles long and 2~ miles wide. A little pear-shaped island of volcanic ash with
Mount Suribachi
on one end and Kitano
Point at the other end. There were two airfields on the island with a third
airfield under construction. The BELLE GROVE delivered the First Wave Marine Am
Tracs toward the landing beaches just north of Mt. Suribachi. We were under air
attack every day from "D" day until the island was secured. We saw
the raising of the American flag by our marines on Mt. Suribachi. The hand to
hand fighting on the island and in the caves on the island was fierce and I
could see it very clearly from the bridge of the BELLE GROVE. We were at anchor
from "D" day,
February 19th, 1945 until
March 21, 1945, when the island was supposedly secured. From Iwo Jima it was
onward to the next battle, the battle for Okinawa. Okinawa was an island one
mile long and actually considered =to be a part of the Japanese mainland chain.
It was a battle that didn't last as long as some of the others, but 310,000
people died! It was finally secured.
By the middle of June the
Japanese had admitted that the battle for Okinawa was lost and were boasting
that preparations for the battle for Japan were complete and perfect. Japanese
troops were making a "strategic" withdrawal from China's east coast
and on 21 June, Admiral Nimitz announced that all organized resistance had
ceased on Okinawa.
The battle for Japan never
did materialize. After the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
the emperor intervened for Japan and surrendered according to the Potsdam
terms. It is estimated that the surrender by Japan saved Japan 3.4 million
lives. Thank you Harry Truman who was then President of the U.S.A. Between
November and December, 1945, the USS BELLE GROVE transported personnel to
Shanghai and Hong Kong, China. The ship left Hong Kong. China in late December
and was ordered to proceed to San Diego, CA. It arrived in San Diego, CA on New
Year's Eve, 1945, a gallant, proud ship that had boasted of traveling some
65,000 miles in 27 months.
I left the ship in April,
1946 and shortly thereafter the ship was decommissioned and was assigned to the
Pacific Reserve Fleet. Upon leaving the ship in San Diego, CA, I proceeded to
Treasure Island, CA near San Francisco, CA and received my Honorable Discharge
from the U.S. Navy as a Chief Warrant Officer, Supply Corp. Thus ended my Naval
career after eight years and four and a half months.
A lot of people have asked
me why I didn't stay in the Navy. I had an excellent rank as Chief Warrant
Officer and was in a pretty good pay bracket. But as you may recall, I never
wanted to join the Navy to begin with. If it wasn't for Alden King talking me
into joining, who knows what might have happened.
So the war was over and I
was a civilian once more. I had no job to return to since I joined the Navy
right out of high school. So as circumstances would have it, I returned to
Santa Cruz, CA. It was April and it didn't take me long to find out that there
were no jobs in Santa Cruz, since it was a summer resort small city. I managed
to get a part time job in a Greek restaurant on the boardwalk overlooking the
beach and
Pacific Ocean. I only
worked on weekends, Saturday, Sunday and any holidays.
The pay was something like
$1.00 an hour plus whatever you earned in tips. But that was O.K. I figured
"beggars can't be choosers". So I cut the brass buttons off of my
Navy uniform and removed the gold stripe on the sleeves and replaced the brass
buttons with regular black buttons. Threw a white linen napkin over my arm and
bingo, I'm a waiter. I also was lucky enough to get a one day fill in job as a
cocktail waiter at one of the large hotels in town. This one evening job as a
cocktail waiter paid more, including tips, 'cause a lot of people were spending
their evenings at the hotel. All this probably doesn't make much since, but
that's the way it was!
I struggled along at this
waiter's job through the summer months and near the fall of year the Casa Del
Rey Hotel ownership changed hands and I went to work for the new owners as the
receiving clerk accounting for receiving all the produce, meats and food
supplies. To me, this was a hell of a let down from once being an assistant
Supply Officer in the Navy.
Santa Cruz is a summer
resort, vacation sort of a town. It didn't take me long to realize that once
the summer vacations were over, you could forget about business or jobs. So, I
decided to move back to the big city of San Francisco. I still had no
employment and started from scratch. I consulted the newspapers and started
looking at the ads and pounding the sidewalks. I remember it was on a Friday
morning and I was on Mission Street, between Fifth and Sixth Streets. I
actually wanted to find employment with some large company and wanted to start
as an outside salesman. I had purchased two new civilian suits; one a brown
tweed and the other a gray pin stripe. I also purchased a gray semi-Homburg
hat, cause every man wore hats in 1946.
Anyhow, I walked into this big store on
Mission Street and asked to see the personnel manager. His last name was Lester
and I explained to him that I was seeking employment as an outside salesman. He
explained to me that he would hire me but I would have to work as an inside
salesman until I learned the type of merchandise, etc., a little better. We
agreed on the salary and Mr. Lester told me to start work the following Monday
morning. At least I had a job and I think the salary started at around $350.00
a month, five days a week, less holidays. Lester stated that as long as I was
agreeable, he would have someone show me around the store. As I looked around,
I began to feel more and more that I would be "a small cog in a big
wheel" and be lost in the shuffle so to speak. As I left the store
building, I noticed that there were several other similar business
establishments on this one block of the street. So even tho' I had a job, for
some reason I still kept looking at the ads in the newspapers.
