Recollections of Harry James Numrich
Here are my recollections & opinions of occurrences on the Nassau.........Admiral Nimitz was famous for his appearances at the Ford Island Beer garden ....... Sad, but I was never there when he was.....Some of the Nassau's crew saw him & reported their encounters... Admiral Halsey did appear on the ship, but I was unaware of his purpose.....I do know that the Enterprise was badly damaged in a storage area, we gave them most of our food supplies..... We ate lots of powdered eggs, beans, & Spam before we went back to Pearl for a fresh supply of food stuff....... Captain Doyle was popular with the whole crew......He had some of the "fighting Lady's" crew [Lexington ] so he handled the ship as though it were the Lax........He walked the flight-deck every night with the ships crew....The Executive officer Commander Foster walked and talked with the officers......I got to know the Captain better than a lot of sailors...........I was constantly moving his communication gear from his regular living quarter's, to his sea-cabin & visa -versa....He really felt the loneliness of command....He liked his line-of-sight TBS Talk Between Ships, so I used some radio spare parts, to build him another..... Commander Born, Air Officer & Lt Commander Hansen CIC & Air plot had a number of officers including Lt JG Blakely Radar Officer, without hands-on experience... Our search radar had a maximum range of 80 miles.....Capital ships, like Battlewagons, CV's & Cruiser's, got the same radar, with an extra [light-house-tube] preamp....... We were in Neomea , with buddies of mine on a BB ..... This friend of mine, supplied me with a spare light-house tube, circuit info sufficient for me to build a pre-amp for the Nassau's SC radar........Our range increased to 128 miles by actual test... Commander Born was pleased.......... Lt. Adair Communications ........His people saluted the uniform..........He had several officer's operating decoding machines.. A fat little warrant, who spoke Japanese ........Two RM CPO's, one for the comm gang [Chief Lesco], the other for Radio 2 transmitters....He liked spark transmitters....My crew consisted of Joe Dickerson RT2C , Frank Spisak RT3c, JN Smith, & JP Smith. Adair was conspicuous by his incompetence ........i.e. When we were returning from ATTU , we suddenly stopped...Adair gave the wrong recognition signal, & this battlewagon was poised broadside, ready to blast us out of the water...A savvy signalman on the bridge corrected Adair's mistake, with the right signal...... On another occasion, Adair ordered me to crank up the big transmitter, for an arrival report to Brisbane, the next day.........When there was no response to the signal, Adair promised to break me........When Lesko checked, both Pearl & San Francisco heard the signal strength 9. Aussie's were asleep at the switch......Food & booze ........Captain Doyle saw that Nassau served the best mess in the fleet ........All profit's from laundry & sundries was given to the Supply officer to better the mess........Our Lexington cook's & bakers were outstanding.......Their pies [300/day] were the best I've ever eaten.......Hundred's of cases of beer were carried in our forward hold, for R&R parties on South Pacific beaches........ After the Gilbert Campaign, the Bureau NavPers advertised the opportunity for fleet personnel to take the test for officer training........Commander Born asked me why I wasn't taking the exam? .......I said Lt Adair told me that I wasn't officer material & he would not recommend me.........Commander Born, chewed Adair's ass out, arranged for me to take the test, & I wound up in San Diego, waiting for an assignment to a University.......... War's are not fun .....The Navy can be an excellent training ground.....I don't know if I would like to repeat my experiences, I wouldn't trade them for anything.........
Harry J Numrich
03/05/02