I was assigned to the heavy cruiser Chicago.
What pitching is in a short series in baseball, goaltending is in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Always avoid picking up hitch-hikers who are wearing a mask.
Those who will not start, will never finish.
The good news was that Enterprise and the newly arrived Yorktown had attacked the Marshall and Gilbert islands. Those attacks had a great effect on morale.
We made air attacks on the Japanese anchorage, sinking and damaging several vessels. However, the Japanese were alerted to the fact that American carriers were nearby.
My observations of Japanese naval fighting men, their abilities and equipment led me to believe that they gave a better account of themselves than we did.
I passed a typing test and became a member of the staff of Rear Adm. Newton.
Another nice thing was that I would type out letters home for the admiral’s stewards. They would then feed me the same food the admiral ate.
Everybody knew that I could type pretty well.
After the Battle of Midway there was a week in a rest camp at Pearl Harbor.
A chief petty officer taught me shorthand, which got me promoted to yeoman first class.
If it’s free, it’s advice; if you pay for it, it’s counseling; if you can use either one, it’s a miracle.
Our task force put to sea in early January 1942, to attack the Japanese in the Marshall and Gilbert islands, but the mission was called off on the eve of the attack.
The Japanese invaded Tulagi, in the Solomon Islands, on May 4.
Chicago’s buoy was a couple of hundred yards astern of Arizona, and I was saddened to look at her.