SAILORS ON THE TOWN, AT EASE, & ALL IN THE FAMILY

 

This, of course, is a very famous photo of a sailor kissing a girl.  It happened in New York’s Times Square during the celebration of WWII coming to an end.  I didn’t know the background of this shot until I looked it up online for this post.  I’ve always thought it was simply a sailor kissing his sweetheart.  It wasn’t.  The sailor was on leave in the celebrating crowd, saw the nurse and, thinking she was part of the troops, grabbed her and gave her a celebratory kiss.  She was a nurse, but not part of the troops and didn’t know him from Adam! J

A group of sailors on leave – looks like somewhere in the south seas?  Or they’re posing in a studio in front of a backdrop like the fellows below?

Here’s a happy trio obviously not in a studio.

Do these fellows look disgruntled because they’re still on duty aboard ship?

These men are standing at ease around the perimeter of what appears to be an aircraft carrier coming into home port?

This is the aircraft carrier USS Ranger coming into home port at Alameda, Calif. in 1969 with its compliment of sailors in their dress whites standing at ease around the perimeter of the huge ship.  Two years earlier it came into this same port with my brother aboard.  My Mom, my brother’s wife, and I were there, along with hundreds of other folks, to greet the ship and it was a truly impressive sight seeing that ship come in with all those sailors in their white uniforms ringing the ship in the bright sunlight of a beautiful day.

Eventually we were all welcomed onto the ship to have lunch and explore.  At one point, while we were having lunch in the mess hall some sailors began rolling some big rumbling things through the place and someone asked what they were?  The answer was “bombs, but they’re defused”.  Yoikes.

My brother (right) with a friend.  I asked him what his duties were when he was on the Ranger and this was his answer:

“I stood at the LSO (Landing Signal Officer) platform which is pretty close to the aft end of the carrier during recovery - landings of the returning squadron of planes – with binoculars to make sure wheels and tail hooks were down in proper position for landing.  The premier perk of that job was in my position I could see the catapult launches from just a few feet away.  I only had to dive out of the way a couple of times, but don’t tell Mom!

Another area that I worked was in the superstructure at flight deck level during flight operations informing various pilots where their planes were: on the flight deck, or on the hanger deck, and where, exactly.

In the 1960’s without computer assisted location monitoring apps it was quite an ingenious setup for me to be able to see, from small models on a double tiered long narrow table in my workspace, where all driven mobile equipment and planes were, almost in ‘real time’ both on the hanger deck, and on the flight deck.

Also, as an aircraft electrician, I did some wiring on aircraft returning from missions shot full of holes.”

My cousin Mike and my brother were in the Navy round about the same time, but served aboard different ships.  Mike served aboard the aircraft carrier, the USS Saratoga.  When I asked Mike what his duties were aboard the Saratoga he explained it this way:

“Every time a plane is launched, they have to verify the weight of the plane with the pilot to verify that we have the correct weight. The reason for that is that will indicate to the person that is “firing“ the catapult, and thus launching the plane, applies the right pressure based on the weight of the plane. So that was my job as weight checker.  When the catapult is fired they basically time how long it takes from the firing of the catapult to the point where the plane is released into the air and that’s what they call a speed checker, another one of my jobs, and that is done below deck.  When a plane is launched from a catapult - at least back in the 60s when I was on the ship - there were people who would attach the lanyards ropes to the plane and the loop would go around the “shuttle” which is the launching device on the catapult and that is what they call a hold back man – another of my jobs - which is before they fire the catapult. They have to make sure the plane is only released after a certain tension is made by the catapult firing mechanism. The hold back man would attach a piece of equipment to the flight deck, and there would be a bar - looks almost like a barbell - that would go between the flight deck and the attachment to the plane.  Once the plane was held tight and the catapult was fired, the tension bar would break and release the airplane. I hope that’s as clear as mud for you.”

He also talked about the different colored shirts on the flight deck. Everyone is identified by the color of the shirt they wear. Green shirts are catapults and arresting gear which he was.   Brown shirts are plane captains. Those are people that are with the squadrons and are responsible for the plane and to also make sure the plane and pilot are ready to go. Purple shirts are responsible for fueling the aircraft.  Red shirts are responsible for “ordinance” (bombs, missles).  Yellow shirts were responsible for moving aircraft, launching aircraft and aircraft landing.  The LSO (Landing Signal Officer) would be a yellow shirt and typically an officer - the officer who would signal the “launch” command to the catapult. 

The USS Saratoaga

Mike told me the Saratoga was assigned to the 6th fleet which patrolled the Mediterranean and said:  “While we were on our 1967 cruise, the current senior naval aviator (Gray Eagle) retired, and a new Gray Eagle was named. As a present to the new senior naval aviator, the Saratoga and the America (CVA-66) positioned themselves across from each other and compliments of sailors on each ship formed the name Gray Eagle, Gray on the USS America, and Eagle on the USS Saratoga. I was standing on the bottom part of the ‘g’ in Eagle. RA5 vigilante launched off of the Saratoga, flew over the ships, and took a picture.”

A nice tribute and welcome for the new Gray Eagle.

Mike's Dad, my Uncle Jim, in the 1940s.

Uncle Jim served on several different ships during WWII.  He is pictured here, second from left in the back row, as a crew member of LCI 821 shown below.

 

LCI stands for Landing Craft Infantry which were, according to Wikipedia, several classes of landing craft used by the Allies to land large numbers of infantry directly onto beaches during World War II. They were developed in response to a British request for seagoing amphibious assault ships capable of carrying and landing substantially more troops than their smaller assault landing craft (LCA). The result was a small steel ship that could land 200 men, traveling from rear bases on its own bottom at a speed of up to 15 knots.

And now we come to the first sailor in my family that I have any record of - my paternal Great Grandfather, J.K. Smedley, seen here in 1862 at age 23.  He served  aboard several different ships during the Civil War as an engineer.  One of those ships, the ironclad USS Monitor “Nantucket”, is shown below.

She sure did ride low in the water!

Wikipedia gives this history of the ironclad “Nantucket”:

Assigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Nantucket participated in the attack on Confederate forts in Charleston Harbor 7 April 1863. Struck 51 times during the valiant but unsuccessful assault on the vital Southern port, the single-turreted monitor was repaired at Port Royal but returned to Charleston to support Army operations on Morris Island, engaging Fort Wagner 16, 17, 18, and 24 July. She captured British steamer Jupiter at sea 15 September. She again challenged the Charleston Harbor forts 14 May 1864 and thereafter remained on blockade duty through the end of the American Civil War.  Since I don't know exactly when J.K. served aboard the Nantucket, I don't know if he was present for all or any of these attacks?  I would suppose he might have been for some?  I'm lucky in that I have the sword pictured with him.

:-> 

La Nightingail