Capt. Mundinger brought back from Austria quite a bit of Captured German Signal Equipment, specially RADAR, and because I had enough “discharge” points, they put me with a couple of officers shepherding that equipment back to Washington (actually Arlington Hall Station, the Headquarters of the Signal Intelligence Service).  They thought I would get home before the rest of my outfit,  but when I called my wife from Staten Island, N.Y., she asked where I’d been!  The outfit landed two days before in Norfolk!             

We shipped out of Naples, Italy in a Liberty Ship, and sailed on extremely calm seas for almost the entire trip…The three of us, two Major’s and myself a Master Sgt had the run of the ship, no duty, our private stateroom (they had lower bunks and I had the upper).  We ate in the ship’s galley with the crew, Officers and men, plus Naval Gunnery crew who manned the 5” cannon our main armament, though I think there were a couple of 50 caliber Machine guns also…You didn’t just have your food plopped on your mess kit as in the army, rather you chose from a menu on the black board, and could have seconds if you wanted!

One dark and quiet night, I lay reading in my bunk, when one of the Majors came down and plopped in his bunk – just resting, I thought.    Soon the other Major came down and plopped in his bunk…After a few minutes, he called up to me and said the First Mate wanted to see me in the wheel house!   I asked what he wanted…He just said go on up and ask him!    Remember, even though the war was almost over, we were still ordered to move under black-out conditions..  I got to the wheel house and asked the Mate what he wanted.  He asked if I’d ever steered one of these ships –silly question!  No, I replied.  So, he showed me how to keep the needle on the Gyro-Compass at a certain heading, without varying more than three or four degrees to Port or Starboard…As I said a quiet night!…It was also a bit foggy, and with no lights, I could barely make out the first mast

About 10-12 feet in front of the window!   As the ship glided along on the smooth water, it also rode the swells and rolled back and forth!   I think I lasted about two minutes, having to pull hard on that big three foot pilot wheel to maintain course, and out of the periphery of my vision seeing the mast moving back and forth, I got sick to my stomach real quick -  Then I knew why the other two guys were so quiet when they came back! 

Another night, really foggy, the First Mate called me over to the Port side and near the rail and said we nearly ran into another ship (blacked out, as we were also) and pointed out through the fog.  As I leaned on the rail, peering into the blackness, he reached around behind me and pulled the cord to the Fog Horn!!  I nearly jumped overboard!  It vibrated the whole ship! 

During the day time, we had nothing to do but read, sun bathe, sleep, and the Officers, with the Ship’s Officers had target practice with their pistols.   The LORD provides for HIS creatures—

The large sea turtles float on top of the water, and as they do, one particular bird lands on its shell – each turtle has a large pile of bird “doo” on his shell – and the officers thought it great sport to try to shoot them from the upper deck!   Until  the Gunnery Officer brought out his M-l Rifle and blew one out of the water about 500 yards away!  That ended it.

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