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The Korean War, USS Juneau


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The above star has been in the family as long as I can remember. I know I asked Pops about it many times and he claimed to not know. Below is a chapter from his autobigraphy (never to be a major motion picture). It recalls his duty aboard the USS Juneau - First to Fight in Korea. Pops was a highly opinionated man, which is why he never made ADM. I hope you all enjoy his bit of personal history from Juneau

 

VIII USS Juneau CLAA 119

The Korean War

 

My orders, dated 18 May 1949, directed me upon detachment from the Naval Academy in June to "...proceed to Glenview,

 

Illinois to report to the Commanding Officer, Naval Air Technical Training Unit, Naval Air station for temporary duty under

 

instruction in CIC for a period of about sixteen weeks." CIC stood for Combat Information Center, the radar center for Navy

 

ships. After training I was directed to report to the Commanding Officer USS Juneau (CLAA 119). My duty was to be Assistant CIC

 

Officer and air controller. The training at Glenview was to prepare me for that assignment. An Air Control Officer used a PPI

 

(Plan Position Indicator) attached to an air control radar to control fighter aircraft on combat air patrol above the task

 

force.

 

So, I drew a fifty dollar advance on my pay and Toni and I piled in the Ford and were off to Glenview. My records show

 

that we were given $67.36 reimbursement for travel by car between Annapolis and Glenview.

 

I had written the CO asking about government housing and found that there was none and civilian housing was tight. I

 

was to arrive before the preceding class graduated so I would be able to canvass them for housing. Indeed it was tight. Toni

 

and I ended up renting a room in a house with four other boarders. We had kitchen privileges and one fourth of a refrigerator.

 

It was a miserable arrangement and one which did not make Toni very happy. We had stored our household goods so all we had was

 

what we carried in our suitcases.

 

This sixteen weeks, and the nine months in a Quonset hut, did not set particularly well with Toni because she was

 

completely removed from what she had become accustomed as a night club dancer. No doubt it was during these months that she

 

decided marriage to the Navy was not going to work. More about that later.

 

We had some trouble making ends meet. We ran a tab in a local grocery and it was a chore each payday to pay up. During

 

this period, for the first and only time, I bounced a check -- at the base exchange yet! I asked Marcus for a loan which he

 

promptly sent. Then the problem was to pay back the loan -- we managed somehow.

 

I remember a tremendous storm in Glenview. I had never seen such a black cloud closing down so closely before -- even

 

in Nevada at the mine. I don't recall any reports of twisters associated with that front but there must have been some.

 

My Officer's Qualification Report from Glenview, signed by Captain W. B. Mechling, USN 61456, put me in CIC Officer's

 

School, Class 4-49.

 

The school was interesting and I enjoyed it. The course was "CIC Theory and Operations," and I did well in it. I did

 

have a shock when our fitness reports for the sixteen weeks were distributed. Almost all my marks were at the bottom and I was

 

horrified. I took it to the senior officer in my class and almost in tears asked him what I had done wrong. He looked at it and

 

said "....that damned yeoman put the X's for 'Not observed' over one column and they all ended up in the 'Unsatisfactory"

 

column." We went to the admin office and had it redone.

 

As I recall the senior officer in the class was a lieutenant. I remember him for a number of reasons -- but most

 

because he was the proud owner of a Lincoln Continental Mark II.

 

According to my early Data Preference Cards, including the one I submitted while at Glenview, I wanted to go into

 

public information. I requested PIO schools regularly in those early years -- I suppose it was because of my high school and

 

Academy year book experience. Other choices included CIC officer on various ship types, duty at the Naval Academy and as an

 

NROTC instructor in California.

 

On the seventh of November, with another advance in pay -- this time for one hundred dollars -- it was back in the car

 

and a drive to Miami where Toni would stay while I was at sea. Juneau was in Norfolk, scheduled at that time for a three months

 

overhaul in Portsmouth, across the harbor. She wasn't about to be a stranded Navy wife in Norfolk! And, I must say, I didn't

 

blame her. She and I, and Mother Rayneri, took #302 at the Temple Court Apartments, 431 NW Third Street in Miami and made

 

arrangements for our household goods to be shipped to Miami.

 

It was there that I received news that Juneau had been assigned to the Pacific Fleet and would sail 29 December. Our

 

three month overhaul had been changed to Bremerton, Washington. So, Toni's decision to go home to Miami was a good one. The

 

letter announcing the change was signed by the Operations Officer, Commander James S. Cooley, USN. More about him later. I

 

reported for duty on 9 December, 1949. My new Commanding Officer was Captain J. C. Sowell, USN 59586.

 

On reporting I was assigned as assistant CIC Officer and saddled with the appropriate number of collateral duties.

 

Again, according to my Officer's Qualification Report dated 31 December, 1949, I was air controller, lookouts (and I can't

 

remember what that entailed), Post Office Inspector, Aerology Officer, Photo officer and public information officer -- I think

 

the lookout reference had to do with the fact that I was the custodian for a batch of binoculars (45 7x50's). Although the

 

report does not mention it I was also on the crypto board, assistant CIC division officer and who remembers what else1.

 

We sailed on 29 December and spent New Years Day transiting the Panama Canal. During the transit we had a VIP passenger

 

-- Representative Flood of Pennsylvania. He was dressed for the occasion in tan shorts and a sport shirt and had in tow a young

 

blond lady who he introduced as his secretary. As Public Affairs Officer I had a photographers mate and a 4x5 inch Graflex

 

camera. I decided to do a story on Flood. We needed pictures, of course, so I went to the bridge where Flood and his secretary

 

were watching the transit. We placed him at the helm and, just before taking the picture, he said "...don't let my shorts show

 

and don't let my secretary in the picture. The good people of Pennsylvania would not understand." After an uneventful transit

 

we proceeded to Long Beach, California, our new home port. After a few days there we sailed for our overhaul in Bremerton.

 

Most of the families of the crew were moving to Los Angeles, the new home port. Our skipper's wife had two Siamese cats

 

which she did not want to take with her across country -- I believe she was driving. So they accompanied us in the Captain's

 

cabin under the care of his Filipino steward. A screen door was installed at the Captain's cabin and the cats were ever

 

vigilant, speaking to everyone who passed the door.

 

Our Executive Officer, Commander William S. Porter, was a colorful guy -- a kind of loose cannon. He had just returned

 

from a tour as Naval Attaché, Oslo, and had brought with him a stunning blond who was his fiancee. The wedding was held in

 

Bremerton and it was quite a party. My boss, the operations officer Jim Cooley, had a great deal to drink. He was driving the

 

car in which several of us had come from the shipyard and he insisted on driving back. I remember that all the other passengers

 

begged off the return trip with Jim -- how they got back I know not, but I knew I could not abandon my boss if I wanted any

 

peace at all. We were followed for several miles by an off-duty policeman who finally got the attention of a patrol car to flag

 

us down. So, we ended up in the local police station. Being in a little better condition than the Ops Officer, I tried to

 

extricate us. I was finally taken aside and told that I was about to be charged also, so I shut up. On his wedding night, Bill

 

Porter came to the police station and got us released. Jim Cooley was bad news. Not a proper influence for junior officers.

 

We returned to Long Beach and I took a couple of days leave to visit Bobby and Bernie and the McKenney's in Yucaipa.

 

Then Juneau was off to Japan with the flag, ComCruDiv 5 embarked. He was also COMSUPGRU and CTG96.5. We arrived in Yokosuka in

 

early June, 1950 and I came down with the most horrendous case of the trots I have ever suffered. I was not alone and of course

 

we all blamed the Japanese. But it was not so. During the overhaul in Bremerton one of our fresh water tanks was somehow

 

overlooked in the cleaning process and we had brought that bad water all the way from Bremerton. I recovered.

 

I was flown back to Barbers Point, Hawaii, to attend all-weather air controller training, arriving 16 June. The class

 

began on the 19th and was to last for four weeks. On the 25th the North Koreans crossed the 38th parallel. On the 27th

 

President Truman ordered U.S. forces to support the South in answer to the UN call for action. On the 30th my temporary

 

additional duty to Barber's point was terminated and I was flown to Sasebo to rejoin Juneau. Going to Barber's point I had air

 

transportation priority THREE. Returning it was TWO. Boy! Was I important.

 

Juneau was in the fight from the beginning, but, alas, I was to miss the major engagement in which the ship

 

participated. A recent history of the black shoe navy had this to say about it:

 

American surface warships took part in the contest virtually from the beginning. Although only five U.S. vessels were in

 

Japanese waters at the outbreak of the war, just four days [29 June] after North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel, the

 

light cruiser Juneau (CL 119)2 and the destroyer Dehaven (DD 727) opened the U.S. Navy's role in the struggle with a shore

 

bombardment at Okkye on the east coast of the peninsula. On 2 July, Juneau, joined by British ships, fought the only naval

 

engagement of the war -- and a possibly decisive one. By sinking fifteen of the sixteen North Korean vessels headed for Pusan,

 

the allied force deprived the Communists of the opportunity to seize that vital port by a coup de main.3

 

So even before I left Barbar's Point, Juneau was in the fight.

 

By six July I was back aboard ship in Sasebo and I had already missed the first shore bombardment and that decisive

 

surface engagement. Everything in Sasebo was on a war footing. I made it my business to assemble a complete set of Army Map

 

Service (AMS) maps in two scales for the whole of the Korean Peninsula. I bound them in several volumes and placed them in CIC.

 

They would be a great help to us during shore bombardment. Shortly thereafter we sailed again for the East coast of Korea along

 

with four destroyers -- two U.S. Navy and two Australian and the British cruiser Belfast, all under the command of Commander,

 

Cruiser Division Five, Rear Admiral ???? embarked in Juneau. This was my first appearance off the North Korean coast but the

 

third for Juneau.

 

We spent the next month cruising the coast bombarding when we found targets and supporting the amphibious landing the

 

24th Infantry Division. The 24th was largely Negro troops who had been stationed in Japan since the end of World War Two. They

 

were not battle ready by any means and they were soundly beaten once ashore and pushed back into the Pusan Perimeter. That

 

division has been the subject of the rewriting of history recently (1997). Many claim they were made the scape goats for our

 

early loss of territory because they were black. This was not true. They simply could not measure up after their four years of

 

soft life in Japan and the general neglect of the armed forces after the War.

 

Here my first lesson in interservice interoperability. We could not communicate with the troops ashore. Our radio

 

equipment and frequencies were incompatible. The 24th sent a field radio, an operator, and a young major to set up shop on our

 

flying bridge and through them we coordinated our fire support to the troops ashore. The Army team soon left us and we were

 

saddened to hear, a few days later, that the Major had been killed in action.

 

We did sustain another attack by a North Korean torpedo boat. We sunk it.

 

Our XO, Wild Bill Porter, decided he needed another medal so talked the skipper, Captain J. C. Sowell, into a raid

 

ashore to blow up a railroad tunnel. He put together a small raiding party with enough explosives to close the tunnel and set

 

out to do his thing. It was a great secret. I had no idea what was going on. I went on deck to see them board a motor whale

 

boat and then, looking at their chart, found out what they were about. Something was fishy so I raced down to CIC, got the

 

appropriate volume of AMS maps and raced back. I showed Bill Porter that he was landing smack in the middle of a fishing

 

village of about 30,000 people. It didn't show on the nautical charts but it sure showed on the Army maps. He grabbed the map,

 

ripped it out of my binding and made off for the opposite end of the target tunnel. They claim that not only did they get the

 

tunnel closed, they also bagged a train entering the tunnel. And, they all got their medals. Lesson one in the proper use of

 

all sources of intelligence and lesson two in over classification. It was also lesson one in self-promotion for medals -- one I

 

never learned.

 

After better than a month at sea off North Korea and that part of South Korea in the hands of the North, we returned to

 

Sasebo. What a difference. It looked like the whole Pacific Fleet had arrived. Not a sleepy little port anymore. At this point

 

the Marine second lieutenant who commanded our shipboard Marine unit decided he wanted to fight the war ashore. He requested

 

permission to join Marines ashore and it was granted. He left us in Sasabo. I don't recall if his troops went with him but I

 

think they did. He was slightly wounded and was sent back to California where he joined us for our return home.

 

My Officer's Qualification Report covering that first month of the war off North Korea named me K Division Officer, Air

 

Controller and CIC Watch Officer. It has a mimeographed paragraph appended which reads as follows:

 

Par. 2:(Employment of JUNEAU from 1 January 1950 to 24 July 1950: Undergoing overhaul at PSNY until 1 April; refresher

 

training until 22 April; enroute WesPac 1 May; reported COMNAVFE 1 June, Flagship COMCRUDIV 5, COMSUPGRU and CTG96.5 until 23

 

July. From 6/27/50 to 7/23/50 participated in liberation of Korea campaign, conducting operations against North Korean forces,

 

including land and surface forces and installations on the East Coast of Korea as far north as 40º30'N. Various and numerous

 

shore bombardment missions against troop transports, observation posts, enemy held towns, railroads, highways and shore

 

batteries. On 2 July, in company with HMS JAMAICA and BLACK SWAN sank 3 PT boats and 2 PG's, and on 3 July sank 7 North Korean

 

resupply vessels hidden in harbor of Chu.

 

On 3 December, 1971, I received a color photograph and slide of one of the burning PT boats that Juneau had put out of action.

 

It was sent by Bill Chadwick, who also served in Juneau at the time of the action. In 1971 he was the Director of Supply

 

Support, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Installations and Logistics. I don't recall what his billet was in

 

Juneau. The note that accompanied the photo said, "Here is a 2 July 1950 shot of a burning N. Korea M/T boat hit by Juneau --

 

North of Kamgnang." That was the engagement I missed.

 

During this short period of high activity, two of our lieutenants, Jim Collier and Tall Paul O'Conner were selected for

 

promotion. They were great friends and reminded one of Mutt and Jeff. Jim was short and squat and had a fine sense of humor. On

 

the anniversary of the day when Josephus Daniels outlawed booze aboard American Warships, Jim would wear his black arm band.

 

Paul was far more reserved than Jim.

 

To qualify for promotion they were required to take written exams. Jim was the gunnery officer and I don't recall Tall

 

Paul's billet but it was similarly difficult during these operations. They failed the first exam, taken while we were

 

conducting a bombardment of North Korea. A make-up exam was set up several months later after we had returned from the Taiwan

 

Straits patrol. It was given aboard one of the two carriers in our task force and they were transferred by high-line to take it

 

while the carrier conducted flight ops. This time, fortunately, they passed. This was stupid on the part of the Navy. These

 

guys were competing for promotion against officers in cushy shore jobs where they could take some days off for the exams. Jim

 

and Tall Paul O'Conner could not. They were fighting a war. I think it got through to the Navy because very shortly thereafter

 

a policy was established that would allow officers to qualify without a written exam by taking correspondence courses and

 

preparing a paper.

 

When we arrived in port on 24 July, Captain Sowell was relieved by Captain W. T. Kenny, USN 60416. We were sorry to see

 

Captain Sowell leave. He had been a fine commanding officer and was really a great guy to be around. Captain Kenny was a

 

different breed. He was more aloof and was far more demanding. But, he was a fine seaman and a good commanding officer.

 

After a few days in port to catch our breath Juneau was detached along with an oiler and four destroyers to set up the

 

Taiwan Straits Patrol. This assignment lasted from 25 July till 31 October, just over three months. It seems like a much longer

 

time to me as the next few paragraphs will illustrate4.In this capacity we were operating as unit of 7th Fleet. Incidentally,

 

by this time I had qualified as an underway deck watch officer. Today that would have won me the right to wear "Water Wings,"

 

the surface officer's recent rejoinder to aviators wings and submariners dolphins. I liked it the other way. I believe these

 

tin badges -- the most garish of which is the one worn by SEALS -- detract from the elegant simplicity of the Naval uniform.

 

We made our headquarters alongside a dock in Keelung. The warehouses (go-downs) on the dock housed families of dock

 

workers who did their cooking over open fires on the warehouse balconies. One day we found that the warehouses were filled with

 

ammunition and explosives. We nearly flipped. But, we escaped without an explosion.

 

On the third of August, 1950, Juneau was awarded the Battle Efficiency Pennant for the competitive year, 1950. The CNO

 

commented in his message that, '....the award of this high honor is noted with particular approbation in view of the

 

performance since 25 June which has demonstrated the appropriateness of the standing achieved..."

 

It was about this time that I resigned my membership in the Army and Navy Club in Washington, DC. I had joined on

 

graduation from the Academy, as did many other ensigns, without having to pay the initiation fee -- a perk offered by both the

 

Town club and the Army Navy Country Club. I saw no chance of ever using the club. It was for old Indian fighters anyway.

 

Our Chaplain was a junior grade lieutenant named Davis -- we called him Chappie Davis. Spending many long days

 

alongside a dock in Keelung was not great for moral. Chappie tried in every way to find wholesome things for the crew to do.

 

One great disappointment was the pollution along the shores. So bad our doctors would not allow the men to go swimming. One

 

day, Chappie Davis discovered there was a town called Pei Tao just outside of Taipei where people could swim in swimming pools.

 

He organized the trip, telling all to bring their bathing suits, and had a few takers. They got to the "spa" at Pei Tao and sat

 

down for tea. Soon, Chappie Davis's charges began to disappear. How they all got back to the ship I don't recall -- Chappie

 

Davis came back almost alone. But they all did and they had all been swimming and didn't even get their bathing suits wet. Pei

 

Tao is notorious for its prostitutes and hot springs. Nobody told Chapie Davis so the next day the line to sign up for his tour

 

stretched all the way around the ship.

 

We experienced a typhoon while in Keelung. The normal routine is to send out orders to the patrolling destroyers to

 

seek cover at their discretion. As soon as the order was out the two radar dots at the south of the Taiwan Straits proceeded at

 

top seed north to Keelung, which is a fine port in a storm. The two radar dots at the top of the straits headed full speed

 

south. They took shelter in Hong Kong. Now who was the smarter skipper?

 

Our young doctors were really quite good and worldly. They determined on arrival that the local prostitute population

 

was unfit for use so they set about establishing a U.S. Navy certified brothel. They found the cleanest one and cleaned it up

 

some more. Then, they required weekly inspections. The result was that most prostitutes in Keelung cleaned up their act and our

 

crew's venereal disease rate was remarkable low for a Far East cruise.

 

Navy ships are dry and there were few clubs ashore the officers really wanted to visit. One day on a trip to Taipeh

 

friends and I stopped by the Grand Hotel -- recently taken over by Madam Chaing Kai Check. We went to the bar and ordered a

 

martini. The bar tender had no idea what we were talking about, so, with his permission, I stepped behind the bar and made the

 

drinks. But there was nothing in Keelung. So, we commandeered the lounge of a floating hotel and established an officer's cub.

 

Somewhere I have photograph of the skipper, myself and a couple of other Academy Grads taken in that club. It appeared in

 

Shipmate.

 

Can you imagine doing these things -- the swimming party, the certified brothel, the unofficial officer's club -- in

 

today's Navy?

 

We were honored at the local celebration of Double Ten Day, the tenth of October when the Nationalist Chinese celebrate

 

??? We were invited to attend a marvelous banquet which was followed by a Chinese opera, The Monkey King, a great favorite

 

among the Chinese, then and now. The opera was long and the facilities inadequate. We were expected to sit through the opera.

 

That didn't stop the young mothers. They simply held their babies out over the aisle and they let go. It didn't help our

 

situation any but it pleased the babies. This would be repeated years later in Turkey when I served in the SIXTH Fleet.

 

We were relieved of the Taiwan Straits Patrol command in late October and ordered back to Sasebo. You can see now why

 

it seemed like much more than three months.

 

As Juneau was returning to Japan from Keelung we encountered a terrible storm. Captain Kenny put the sea on his quarter

 

and increased speed. We road out that storm and made our destination on time, with very little damage or discomfort. On the

 

other hand, a merchantman we sighted going south was later reported foundering and we presume it sunk.

 

After a short stay in Sasebo we were off again to the shores of Korea. This time we were a part of a two carrier task

 

force and Juneau became the permanent task force guide -- we sat in the middle of the formation and everyone else kept station

 

on us. We never saw the coast line again. It was real dull duty.

 

I had long since qualified as an underway watch officer and was learning a lot about ship handling from Captain Kenny.

 

Once we were returning from some sort of detached duty (how could they ever survive without Juneau and her Zero flag). It was a

 

calm night but visibility was about zero in the fog. Radar reception was fortunately great so navigation was not difficult. I

 

had the con as we approached the formation -- our position in the center of that tight circle having been vacated awaiting our

 

return. We were approaching the formation in a directly opposite course. This is the sort of situation where Captain is on the

 

bridge. He did not normally interfere with the officer who had the con. But this evening, as he looked at the PPI (surface

 

search radar plan position indicator) he asked me how I intended to join the formation. I told him I planned to pass the

 

formation to the west, then turn and come into our position from astern of the formation. He said, "...nonsense..." and took

 

the con. He increased speed and set a course for a position just west of our assigned position in the formation -- just enough

 

west to accommodate our turning circle. At exactly the correct time he slowed to Task Force speed, called for full left rudder

 

and slipped directly into position, the speed having slowed to Task Force speed during the turn. It was spectacular, a maneuver

 

I will never forget. I wonder, though, what other conning officers in the formation were thinking as this madman ran directly

 

at them at twenty-five knots. I bet that more than one skipper was called to the bridge during that maneuver.

 

In October I wrote a story, "A Korean Adventure," with the encouragement of my bosses. It was submitted to All Hands,

 

Proceedings and Shipmate. They all turned me down. It was about our duty in the Korean War. All I have left is the title page.

 

Shipboard tactical school contained lectures by Ens. Bates on aerology and air control problems -- I had a few. On the

 

tenth of December, 1950, I submitted my application for a change of designator to Special Duty Officer (Intelligence), 1630,

 

and on 19 March, 1951, I was selected. According to a roster of 1630's dated 21 March, 1951, I was number forty in the

 

specialty, and at the bottom of the list. My classmate -- actually in 48A -- Don Harvey was number thirty-nine.

 

Christmas and New Years were spent at sea in the middle of the formation, Jim Cooley had taken a liking to me and

 

invited me to his cabin for a New Years toast. I swear, I had never seen an officer with booze aboard ship before, but it was

 

really quite common. I refused his offer and he cooled a bit.

 

On 14 April, 1951, I was promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade.

 

My OQR dated 1 May, 1951 covering the first four months of that year says, "...JUNEAU operating as unit of Fast Carrier

 

Task Force, 7th Flt, in Korea, China and Japan area until 4/18/51; en route CONUS to end of period."

 

On the 25th of April I was sent on temporary additional duty to Long Beach to work with the Naval Base to prepare for

 

Juneau's homecoming. I flew to Pearl Harbor where I got a seat on one of the four Mars seaplanes owned by the Navy. It was a

 

luxurious aircraft and a delightful trip to San Francisco. My seat-mate was Lieutenant Commander Frank Balsley whom, I

 

discovered, was a 1630. I had received orders to the Naval Intelligence School just a few days before so I had a million

 

questions for Frank. He was most helpful and a fine gentleman. He had completed a tour on the CincPacFleet intelligence staff

 

and was on his way to an ONI assignment in the Pentagon.

 

Juneau returned to Long Beach just over a year after she left for the historic Korean War cruise. Ships on foreign

 

assignment for a year or more are allowed to fly a homeward bound pennant. The pennant sports a white star on a long blue field

 

for each officer who also spent a year away, and a much longer red and white field -- a foot for every crew member who was away

 

for the year. There was some controversy -- other ship's companies charged that we had included a day in Pearl Harbor in our

 

year and so we were in violation of the tradition. We did it anyway. After arrival the pennant is cut up so each officer gets

 

his star and each crew member gets his foot of red. I still have my star somewhere.

 

When we arrived in Long Beach on 1 May, 1951, Captain Kenny was relieved by Captain Alexander S. McDill, USN 60152.

 

While in port after returning a local television station did a tour of the ship. They used several cameras -- it was

 

all live of course -- and I was the happy smiling tour director. The anchorman whom I was conducting about the ship was quite

 

good -- trying to save dead time when we went from one camera position to another we did some sprinting and I taught him how to

 

slide down ladders without using the steps. It saves time. The crew was a little upset with me when, saying good bye from the

 

bridge and told everyone in the TV audience that we would be open for visitors on Armed Forces Day. We had a great crowd of

 

visitors.

 

My orders, dated 21 May, 1951 in Long Beach, ordered me to report to the Naval Intelligence School in Anacostia, the

 

District of Columbia, no later than 2 July. I was detached on the first of June, spent a few days with Bobby and Bernie in

 

Barstow, then boarded the Santa Fe's City of Los Angeles for my trip east. I had a roomette and a wonderful trip. I reported to

 

school on 18 June.

 

1 According to a biographic sketch I submitted to Op322F, Captain Robert N. Norgaard, on 22 April, 1953, I was Air Control

 

Officer with collateral duties as Assistant CIC, K Division, Photography, Public Information and Aerology Officer. I qualified

 

as Officer of the Deck (OOD) underway and in port, day and night air controller, and gunnery liason and CIC watch officer.

 

2 This is an error on the part of the author. Juneau was a light anti-aircraft cruiser - CLAA.

 

3 Black Shoes and Blue Water by Malcolm Muir, Jr. Naval Historical Center. 1996.

 

4 My Officer's Qualification Report dated 31 December, 1950, covering the period from the day Captain Kenny assumed command on

 

25 July to the end of the year

---------------

 

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Autobiography of VIII USS Juneau and the Korean War This version printed

Richard W. Bates September 5, 2009

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