My life and experiences in the United States Navy

Henry Clifton Marler: Service Number 838-58-12 May 01 06

I was drafted, but only if I had known I would not have had to serve. I found out later since I was the breadwinner for the family, after the passing of our father, I would have been exempt from the military. No one ever told me, not even the draft board. It was a hard thing to face, giving up a job that was the only support for the family, and going into things and places that were totally new and strange, not knowing what the next turn would bring. I made an allotment to Mom for $37.50 a month and that was less than one-half of my pay for a weeks work at the shipyard where I was working. My starting pay was $73.00 a month. After deducting for insurance and saving bond, my pay was down to $2.00 every two weeks. Talk about big money. Ha. I would stand guard duty and wash and iron uniforms for a little extra money. When it came my time to serve [30] days in the mess hall and my time was up, I volunteered for [30] more days, because I could get what and as much as I wanted to eat. You could always tell the poor old country boys, because they were like garbage disposals--- they never could get full.

Every other week-end I would have [48] hours off. This was in 1944 and I'm getting ahead of myself because, I'm not keeping my story in perspective, so you will have to read in between the lines. I liked being stationed in New Orleans Naval Air Station because that was the only place where I could go into a poolhall and get a mug of draft beer and a hot dog for less that a quarter. The beer was [7] cents and the hot dog was [10] cents. Big deal. But two dollars went a long ways back then.

I was drafted in 1943 but, was not sworn into the Navy until Feb. 23 1944. After receiving my draft notice, I was sent to Fort Oglethorpe Georgia. There I had my first physical and the first real shower in my entire life. I was clean from top to bottom and I felt really good. After that I was ask what branch of service I preferred, and I said the U.S. Navy and that was that.

I was sworn in the Navy in the old post-office building in Birmingham Alabama Feb, 23 1944 and put on a regular passenger train headed for Great Lakes Illinois. We reached Louisville Kentucky about daylight the next morning, where we had to switch engines because the tracks from Louisville to Chicago was covered with snow and ice. We reached Chicago late that Sunday afternoon Feb 24 1944 and it was cold and windy. I can remember walking past the engine while going into the station and seeing the drivers [drive wheels] on that engine. I had never seen drivers that big before. At that time I measured 5 feet 61/2 inches tall, but those wheels were taller than I was.

We arrived at Great Lakes Naval Training Center late that night and the next morning started six weeks of hell. We did six months of training in six weeks. Four days before we were to graduate, I came down with the seven year itch. We were supposed to graduate on Monday, but Saturday, I just had to do something. I was scratching myself to death. I told my C.C. [company clerk] about the problem and he told me to go to sick bay. At first a corpsman looked at me and said that he thought that it was scabies. That scared me, but he had a doctor look at me. The doctor was a full Commander, [ Colonel in the Army ]. The doctor confirmed the scabies deal and that really scared me because I didn't know what scabies were, and we were going home in three days. he sent me to Camp McIntyre Hospital and on the way I ask the ambulance driver if he knew what scabies were and he told me seven year itch.

It only took four [4] hours to treat me for scabies, but it took two [2] days to treat my clothes. I was still worried about getting out in time to join my company and breaking camp to go home. I told my nurse who was a Lieutenant and she informed me, she would do what she could. Anyway I made it back to camp Porter just as the company was lining up to get their tickets home. The company clerk worked me in with the rest of the company and we all went home, otherwise I would have had to stay for another six [6] weeks of training.

After boot camp leave was over, I went to GLNTC on TDY and when my name was called to go to New Orleans Naval Air Station, I jumped and yelled for joy. I arrived there in April 1944 and stayed until late fall. After New Orleans I transferred to Banana River Naval Air Station Florida. Boy, that was something else, twenty-five miles to the nearest town, which was Cocoa Florida. The only good thing about it was, if I could come up with the train fare, I could go to Palm Beach and spend the week-end with Aunt Betty [ Conaway ] Hightower. She would always have a fifth of bourbon and we would spend the week-end out under her big Banyan [ rubber ] tree playing rummy.

I stayed at Banana River Naval Air Station until late October of 1945, where I worked on aircraft engines and gained enough knowledge to become one of the two seamen that was allowed to fly as flight engineers and for this we were paid $5.00 for four [4 ] hours of flight time. Although this didn't happen every day, I was on standby and could only fly when one of the regulars had been out the night before and was too hung over to fly or had some other reason for not being able to fly.

Late October 1944 we received orders to ship out. There were about 25 of us that caught a passenger train from Cocoa Florida to Jacksonville where a troop train was made up and waiting for us. We transferred from one train to another. The cars were converted cattle cars with seats and no bunks. We did have a couple of cook cars, and again I volunteered for mess duty. I just couldn't get enough to eat otherwise. We left Jacksonville and headed for Shoemaker Calif which took about a week to make the trip. I saw more of the country than I thought there was. I saw the Royal Gorge in Colorado, the Great Salt Lake in Utah, the Desert and the Rocky Mountains.

We arrived in Shoemaker and stayed there about a week. The only unusual thing about Shoemaker was we had old wooden barracks and in these were coal burning heaters to keep us warm, which required a fire watch and guess who that was. My watch was from 12;00 [2400] to 0400 [4.00 AM ] hours and then every half hour we had to walk over to headquarters to make our report. I would get so sleepy that I couldn't keep my eyes open, so I found an empty bunk and folded the mattress back and would lay down on the bare springs to catch a nap. The peculiar thing was that I would sleep exactly 25 minutes and wake up in time for my report, then go back to the barracks and do the same thing again.

After about a week at Shoemaker we got orders for Long Beach Calif, and then on to the Battleship USS Iowa BB-61. It was a few days before Thanksgiving 1945 and the Iowa was being put in dry dock for repairs. The repairs took about a month. The Navy was different aboard the battle ship than the aviation navy that I was use to. It was a floating boot camp, strictly G.I. military. The Iowa was the flag ship for the Asiatic Pacific Fleet with a Full Admiral in command. Dungarees was out. White uniforms were out except for hospital and galley crew personnel. I had two blue uniforms and had to work in our undress blues. The dress blues was for inspections and liberty. I made it alright until a guy, by the name Story stole my undress blue trousers and I had to wear my dress blues to work in. Mom sent me seven dollars so I could have two pair of trousers. The guy Story got 30 days in the brig for his deed.

January 13 1946 we left Long Beach Calif. headed for Japan. The Battleship USS Iowa [BB-61] was next to the largest Battleship in the U.S. Naval Fleet. The largest being the USS New Jersey BB-60 at 836 feet and 6 inches and 110 feet at the beam. The Iowa was only 836 feet and 110 feet at the beam. [ which means the width at the widest point ] With a full compliment of 3000 enlisted personnel and 1500 officers fully loaded weighed in at 45,000 tons. [ where they found scales big enough to weigh the thing I never found out.]

I went aboard the Iowa in Nov. 1945 and the only thing exciting happen while we were in drydock, was this young kid who was on guard duty down at the bottom of the dock with a fully loaded M-1 rifle had a scare of his life. As we were always trained to do was to inspect and check your weapon when going on watch. This kid forgot to remove his magazine clip before he cocked his rifle, so he aimed it and pulled the trigger. Well I'm glad that I wasn't down there with a bullet bouncing off all that steel. There is another story that happen to me at Banana River Naval Station and I've never told any one about, except it was a 45 cal. pistol instead of a rifle, but I caught myself before I pulled the trigger. Roe O. Wright was the Petty Officer of the day, so I took the pistol over to his shack and ask him if he could let the hammer down. He did it, but I never tried that again.

I have heard all my life that a ships captain would never pull out of port on the 13th day of the month. We left Long Beach Calif. January 13th 1946 and arrived in Yokohama Japan two weeks later. We were in a Typhoon for several days going over and I couldn't get over how big those waves were. I had to stand mine watch [ watch for mines ] and my station was on the signal bridge, which was [65 ] feet above the normal water line. After four hours of watching for mines I would be soaking wet even with my foul weather gear on.

We made our tour and got back to Long Beach April 07 1946 where we stayed until May and received orders for Bremerton Washington where the Iowa would be put in moth ball. The same day we docked in Bremerton, we left the ship and headed for the separation center at New Orleans La. That was my second happiest day in my life.

I received my discharge papers in the same building that I lived in when I was there in 1944. That was the third happiest day in my life. The only thing I really wanted from the day I was sworn in the Navy was out. I received my discharge June 13 1946. There is more to this story, but some of it I can't put in writing and if I could, I wouldn't. It would take a lot more than three pages and a whole lot more time. It took me a week to do this much. I hope you all will enjoy.

Henry Clifton Marler

Service # 838-58-12