1923 OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE USS COLORADO ALUMNI ASSOC.INC

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1 1923 OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE USS COLORADO ALUMNI ASSOC.INC Frank Weber-Editor, Steven Leek-Assistant. Published Quarterly The Votes are In! In the previous edition of The Lookout, we asked all members of the USS Colorado Alumni Association to vote on two important issues: first, whether it is time to decommission the official association; and second, whether we should have a final national reunion to celebrate our ship and to properly decommission our association. Well, the votes are in! As to the first question, it was unanimous save one vote that the time had come to shut down the association. This was a very difficult decision by everyone who takes pride in the USS Colorado and it s sailors, but time and tide take a toll on us all. At long last, the moment has arrived to call it quits. Officially at least...the good news is that we re not planning on changing anything. We ll continue to operate our association much as we are do now, which is a few of us doing what we can to keep things running. Each person who plays a role in the association now will continue in the same role. Our goal is to keep it going at least until the new USS Colorado is commissioned. Ken and Dorothy Jones will continue organizing the books and keeping track of all of the members and going s on. Leon and Tula Shook have volunteered to continue as our chaplain, and Joyce Andresen will continue updating and keeping tabs on our website. Frank Weber and Steven Leek will continue to put out a version of The Lookout, although at less frequent intervals. In addition to those activities, Al Piña s family has graciously volunteered to continue hosting our annual mini -reunion which we hold each year in Fredericksburg, Texas. This is held over Memorial Day weekend in May and coincides with the Memorial Day ceremony at the Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg. The Reunion is On! Speaking of reunions, the second issue which members addressed from the previous Lookout was whether to December 2013 put on a farewell national reunion, where the national association could get together one last time, have fun, and lower our colors with proper dignity and decorum. We re thrilled to announce that we met the threshold of members who committed to coming and that we will be putting on the reunion in the city of Seattle from April 10-13, The details for the reunion are on pages 4-5, but the overall mission will be to Relax, Rejoice, and Remember. The reunion was planned with ease and accessibility as our focus. Our hotel is near the airport with easy access by free wheelchair accessible shuttle bus. Our hospitality suite leads out to a beautiful wooded indoor atrium with plenty of quiet space to sit and visit. For activities, we ll be re-visiting locations where our sailors spent time during the war. The first day, which we call, In the Wake of History, we ll travel by luxury coach to the Puget Sound Naval Museum in Bremerton, Washington, as well as explore the city. Then we ll return to Seattle via ferry, following the same course which our sailors travelled while on liberty during the war. The next day which we call, Seattle Then and Now, we ll tour the Emerald City focusing on the locations sailors may have visited during liberty. How much has changed in the city since then? Probably less than you think. Later that night, we ll put on a memorable banquet and decommissioning ceremony. Again, this reunion was planned with our members in mind. The hotel has several ADA rooms available. There s a short distance between the rooms, the hotel elevator, and the hospitality suite. The Bremerton ferry has an easy elevator between the car deck and the passenger lounge upstairs. On each of our tours, walking will be minimal and how much will be entirely up to you. We also plan for the busses to return to the hotel in the early afternoon each day so that there ll be plenty of free time to relax and visit with each other. We can t wait to see you there! See pages 4-5 for all the details. 1

2 U.S.S. COLORADO ALUMNI ASSOCIATION President: Clyde Amonett Vice President: Ingemar Carlson Secretary Treasurer: Ken & Dorothy Jones Assistant: Charlie Ripper Editors: The Lookout Frank Weber & Steven Leek Chaplain: Leon Shook (361) Corp. Agent: Norris Hermsmeyer Life Members 211 Members 2 Associate Life Members 215 Associate Members 7 Honorary 4 TOTAL MEMBERS 439 Alumni Assn. Address: Ken and Dorothy Jones 4101 W. Pleasant Ridge Rd. Arlington, TX Phone (817) kjones4101@aol.com Lookout Address: Steven Leek 1518 N.E. Perkins Way Shoreline, WA Phone (206) sleek1234@comcast.net Upcoming Calendar USS Colorado Farewell Reunion April 10-13, 2014 Seattle, WA Memorial Day Service May 23-26, 2014 Fredericksburg, TX Ken s Page December, 2013 SECRETARY-TREASURER S REPORT TO THE MEMBERSHIP The Colorado Lookout is published Quarterly Issue CHECK OUR WEBSITE for notices of shipmate deaths & other announcements: Contributions to our organization are tax-deductible and help keep alive memories of our ship & her crew. Address Changes We appreciate your keeping us informed of changes of address, marital status and deaths. We have received no address changes at this time. THANK YOU We have received generous contributions from Clyde and Jeanne Amonett and Mel Brady in memory of Beecher Morton. Also from Fredericksburg Friends in memory of Adolph Piña. Thanks to all of you. ADDRESS CHANGES We appreciate your keeping us informed of changes of address, marital status and deaths. We have received no address changes at this time. SEATTLE REUNION APRIL10-13, 2013 We had a very good response to our survey in the last Lookout so Steven Leek and Joyce Andresen have been going full steam ahead in the planning stages as you will see on pages 4-5 in this issue. I would like to encourage you to try your best to come and be a part of this last effort by the Alumni Association to get together and reminisce about old times in our Home Port and decommission our official organization in a dignified way. Of the 48 people who replied to the survey, only one voted to not decommission the organization. As we mentioned in the last Lookout, Joyce will continue with the website as long as possible. Steven Leek will try to publish the Lookout at least twice a year until the new USS Colorado is launched in 2016 and Dorothy and I will be a point of contact to receive and report information from the members. We will no longer officially have officers and reunions. We plan to keep the Mini-Reunion going on Memorial Day as long as possible. It may be smaller but all are welcome to participate. Shipmate Al Pina's family does the heavy work of cooking and feeding us and they say that they will be honored to do that for our veterans as long as we want them to. Let's all stay healthy, stay happy and enjoy one last reunion together and make it a BLAST!!! SEE YOU THERE! The last step of every journey is the first step of a new adventure. Unknown KEN 2

3 Chaplain s Corner REPORT OF DECEASED MEMBERS MORTON, BEECHER LM 1340 Division 6L STOVER, FRED LM 3161 Division 6H PIÑA, AL LM 3172 Division CO DONALD A. ROSS LM 1397 Division B NON-MEMBERS- DECEASED BRITTON, JOHN CROMER,EDWARD SICK BAY MEMBERS CHAPPELL, ROY LM 1977 Division MEESE, JACK LM 1004 Division 6H TURNER, RAY LM 1464 Division 6H A Christmas Story Once upon a time in Nazareth of Galilee lived a beautiful young lady by the name of Mary. Mary was engaged to a handsome young man by the name of Joseph. They fell deeply in love and Joseph asked Mary to be his bride. One day the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and informed her she was chosen to be the Mother of the One who would become the Savior of the world. When Mary was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit, Joseph was concerned for her safety as by law she would be stoned. He loved her very much and wanted to send her away for her protection. The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and told him to take Mary for his wife and he did, but they did not live as man and wife. In the last months of Mary s pregnancy Caesar Augustus decreed that all the inhabited earth must register. Mary and Joseph realized they must go to Bethlehem to register. This must have been a difficult time for them to consider Mary s condition. Perhaps Mary and Joseph were conscious that if the baby was born in Bethlehem it would fulfil the prophecy that Bethlehem would be the city of His birth. So they planned for the 70 mile journey over a mountainous terrain. This must have been a very hard journey for Mary and Joseph. They arrived in Bethlehem and Mary began birth pains. Joseph probably went to all the Inns and asked for a place to rest and for Mary to deliver the baby. He was told there was no rooms available. They found a place where livestock was living as it is recorded it had a manger. A manger is a feeding trough for animals therefore, it could not have been a very clean place as livestock are not particular where they relieve themselves. But God could make it a very sanitary place. Mary must have packed a cloth in her luggage, because she wrapped Him in cloths and laid Him in the manager. This was the very first Christmas, the birth or our Lord. May this be a special time of the year as we remember the real reason for the season. God Bless American and all the ships at sea. 3 Al Pin a Your Chaplain, Leon J. Shook On November, 19, we learned of the death of a beloved ship mate, Al Pin a. Al has gone to a far better place, but we shall miss him. Memorial Day weekend, 2010, Al and I were the only ones present on Saturday in the hospitality room of the Inn on Baron s Creek. I was privileged to learn of some of Al s experiences aboard BB 45. In Al s words as I remember He said, I was a 17 year old Mexican (his word) boy from Laredo, Texas when I went aboard the USS Colorado. One day I was ordered to the Captain s office. The Captain asked if I could type. I could type because as a very young man I had worked repairing typewriters for a man in Laredo and had learned to type. I told him, yes I could type. The Captain then asked if I could spell onion. I replied that I could and spelled onion for him. He informed me I was now his secretary. I later learned the secretary before me had misspelled onion on a document much to the Captain s dismay. Al told me many of his stories and he would laugh at some of the things an innocent young Mexican boy would find out about the world. Al later earned a great career, married, and fathered some of the best and kindest children. His family has supplied the food for our Memorial Day reunion for several years and have informed us they intend to be there for us next year.

4 My Road to the USS Colorado Mel Brady (Editor s note: here s the last installment of Mel Brady s memories from the ship. We re picking up his story in the Marshall Island campaign)...my first time out was Kwajalein and Eniwetok. I'm not sure but I think we came back to the states and that's when the rear cage mast was removed and replaced with a new structure which was referred to as the Main Top. I could be wrong on this so if all you Navy buffs and aficionados want to take me to task for this recollection do so, in fact, if anything I say you disagree with I will probably concede because my brain is getting a little fuzzy. My battle station was changed to the top of that new main top which contained a Rangefinder. The Rangefinder was the battle station for 2 officers. I believe one was a Marine and the other was Navy and I believe the Marine's name was Utley. Also, living quarters for the sailors whose battle station was on that rangefinder was about half way up that new Main Top. Nice little room with pull down bunks, brand new. Never had it so good! And I heard complaints from the old salts that that was not fair that those new recruits got the new quarters. But I guess the battle station was the controlling factor. Now to the day of the Tinian incident. The Rangefinder was a 360 degree circle with a shield probably 5 feet high with metal posts on that to hold the roof up, surrounding the Rangefinder was a 3 foot walkway area. I am still wearing phones at this battle station. The designation was the JA circuit, I believe. At the time we got hit what I remember was noise that was not of the usual type and shortly someone made a remark about being fired on or hit which probably came over one of the phone circuits. I think we had at least 3 phone circuits to that battle station. I raised up and looked over the shield right down on those 2 tubs, each with 5 20mm. guns in them. The one on the port side had taken a hit on the aft end of it and had wiped out all those Marines manning those 20 mm. guns, 3 to a gun, at least 15 guys. Don't know if anyone survived. I just folded up and didn't look again. They began releasing guys from their battle stations to help transfer injured to wherever and cleanup. I was afraid that I would be released because in my estimation I was not all that important but I wasn't. I thank God for that as I don't know if I could have taken that. It wasn't until I started writing this that I realized how lucky I was. Looking at the trajectory of that shell that hit that tub if it had been 20 feet further towards the aft of the ship I would probably not be writing this. Note from the skipper... The USS Colorado and 6L Division lost a fine officer and friend of the enlisted man. On October 20th, 2013, Beecher Morton lost his fight with Alzheimer's. Beecher was an educator and retired as the Akin County School District Superintendent. Beecher was preceded in death by his wife Boots. He leaves two sons and two grandchildren. He was my friend. Rest in Peace Beecher. Yule Tide Greetings Clyde Amonett We want to wish everybody in the USS Colorado family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We look forward to seeing everybody at the farewell reunion in April! OMG! Frank and Mae Weber In the days before cell phones and ipads, USS Colorado Signalmen use semaphore flags to send a text message to another ship. 4

5 Entrepreneurial Enterprises Aboard USS Colorado (Editor s note: Several members have sent in older editions of the Lookout, and I ve been scouring them for interesting material that we could recycle into the present edition. The following article was first printed twenty years ago in the December, 1993 edition of the Lookout) The First Class Storekeeper ran the little wire cage called the Canteen, where cigarettes, candy, and toilet articles were sold. Say for example that the shelf price of and item was 40 cents and you gave him a dollar, he would return you 50 cents in change. He must have kept a running account of the overcharges in his head. An inventory of the canteen was conducted monthly, and as far as I know, he was never caught up with. While the regular ship service personnel were not permitted to advance beyond what is now E-3, they got some sort of extra pay from ship service profits. The head barber had his own little racket, too. Haircuts were supposed to be 15 cents, but if you gave the barber any less than a quarter, you came out of the chair looking as though you had been run over by a law mover. Even the laundry personnel were engaged in private enterprise. Much of their working time was taken up in doing special work for special money which didn t go through the books. Altering blues, ironing whites, etc. My brother and I learned the hard way their attitude toward regular business. We decided to bring our civilian shirts to the ship for laundering rather than to a business on the beach. The price list looked favorable. After all, the officers utilized the ship s laundry and their stuff looked good. When we got our half dozen or so shirts back, the price was right and they looked pretty good. But each one had the collar neatly torn off. What a neat way of letting us know that they didn t appreciate the extra work our business caused them. Well, we weren t all lucky enough to be able to engage in such extracurricular activities, but we would have if we could have C.L. Higbee (Commander Retired) Please Give a Sailor a Brake! (Here s another story (from the October, 1990 Lookout) that grabbed my attention. It was sent in by my grandfather. It was the first time I d ever heard the story) In Bremerton in 1942, I was one of the drivers for the Captain and XO that were able to use staff cars and drivers. My story was about Commander Bowers and myself. I was driving out the North Gate of Bremerton and suddenly the brakes went out, so I drove the car into some bushes at the side of the gate to stop the car. I did not want to drive through the gate with Marine guards there and maybe get shot. I stopped the car and the Commander got out and was going to court martial me on the spot until he found out what had happened to the brakes. We did not get to where he was going, Port Townsend. After the war in 1950, I was working with Standard Oil in San Francisco as an assistant manager. An officer came in for gas because we were the only station open that early in the morning. He had his uniform on and I noticed that he had all of the ribbons and battle stars that I had from the navy, so I asked him what ships he served on during the war. Lo and behold, if it wasn t none other than our Executive Officer, (Joe Pot) Bowers. He knew that was his nickname. Did we have a lot to talk about! He was a customer for several months after that. One day, he came in and said that he had been transferred to Bethesda, Maryland for duty. He had been made Captain when he was transferred Elmer Hitchcock, (CR Div. & 6L Div.) While standing watch together, a marine asked a sailor where he was from. Originally, I m from Central America, replied the sailor in a slight Spanish accent. Whereabouts?, replied the Marine, Kansas? 5

6 U.S.S. COLORADO ALUMNI ASSN Pleasant Ridge Rd. Arlington, TX Coming Home for the Last Time Colorado sailors man the rails after the war as the ship steams into San Francisco Bay 15 October, (Note the homeward bound pennant flying from the aft aircraft crane) 6