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Phonetic radio call: Splendid Five
Ship's call sign: NCNX
~ THE CREW OF THE SUBCHASER 995 ~
That sailed north from New Caledonia
in the late summer of 1944
to participate in landings
in the Palaus (Peleliu) and the Philippines.
Known as the "Donald Duck Navy,"
a contingent of the Splinter Fleet.
Ended up at Saipan
doing air/sea rescue service
in the Marianas Trench.
Photo by Kilroy. |
 Enlarge photo |
This photo was taken at the Naval Supply Base, Ile Nou Island (New Caledonia, Noumea Harbor), in the summer of 1944. See the Bugs Bunny logos on the bridge skirt? There were five of these wooden subchasers, all with a Walt Disney logos like this. We were called the "Donald Duck Navy." The other nickname for wooden subchasers was the "Splinter Fleet."
Top row: Wild Bill Cody (GM1/c, Troy, NY), Johnny Carpenter (F2/c, yeoman-striker), Leo Diagostine (RM3/c); I replaced him in the radio shack), Doran Chester (Pills) Leafdale (CPhM, 10546 Pinewood Ave., Tujunga, California), Wesey E. Hall (yours truly, RM3/c, Route 1, Box 123, Konawa, OK), Eddie Jake Groth (SC2/c, messcook, Star Route, Inez, Texas).
Second row: Harold D. Jines (First radio, RM2/c, Rute 1, Rockville, Indiana), Johnny Olson, Jr. (QM3/c, 2337-C, 9th St., Milwaukee, Wisc.), Ensign Wiley Potter Lowry (XO, CO, Jackson, MS), Julius (Julie) Anthony Roucloux (GM3/c, my loader on the starboard twenty, 529 Leigh St., San Antonio, TX).
Third row: W. R. (Pop) Law (S2/c, rotated before ship went north), John Matthew Leavy (Cox, c/o Mrs. E. McMahon, 6123 Woodbine St., Brooklyn, NYC, NY), Arthur (Ace) McCormick (QM1/c), William Christian Schmidt (Lt(jg), Skipper, Bayonne, NJ), Ensign Lawrence T. Cleary (3rd officer, XO, Andover, Mass.), Rex M. Henderson (blurred) (SoM2/c), Chalmer Jean Taber (SM2/c, P. O. Box 293, Blackwell, OK).
Front row: Rymond T. Kwiatowski (SC1/c, cook, 5267 Wren Ave., St. Louis, MO), Gilberto Ramon Martinez (GM2/c, Box 352, Alice Texas), Harold Hayes Hutchinson (S1/c).
Missing Crew Members: Lloyd E. Milleson MoMM2/c, 2726 N. Broadway, Wichita, Kansas), Alfred Daniel Beck (MoMM3/c, 8818 81st. Ave., Glendale, L. I., NY), Robert James Blair (MoMM3/c, 1303 Maple Ave., Evanston, Illinois), Robert Eugene Boyle (F2/c, S1/c, General Delivery, Kent, Ohio).
This information comes from the Deck Logs (Vols. 1-6, National Archives), a notebook I kept while aboard the ship, and my memory.
We had to write home on a single sheet of paper that would be thoroughly censored, photographed, and reduced to a 4X5 scrap of paper. This is what the finished result looked like when it reached the folks back home.
The SC995 crew at war's end
Two old salts from the Bridge Gang
More information about the crew of the SC-995
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Patrick Tillery's book review
