Fred Wellmerling

Fred Wellmerling

I was born and raised in Spences, Iowa which is a small county set town of about 8,000. In the fall of 1941, I enlisted in the USNR as an Apprentice Seaman at Sioux City, Iowa. At that time, the Navy had just opened up their V-7 Program which I applied for and was accepted. This allowed me to finish my senior year of college. While waiting for the Navy to call me up for Officer's Training School, I taught math at Morningside College. I took my Midshipman training at Columbia University, and was commissioned an Ensign in February 1943.

Upon receiving my commission, I was ordered to Corn. 12 where I was assigned to the U.S.S. Nassau, and reported aboard in San Francisco.

Captain Artie Doyle assigned me to the Communications Division as a Watch Officer where I coded and decoded radio communications. My battle station was on the Signal Bridge.

I spent three memorable years on the Nassau — from February 1943 until February 1946, at which time I received orders to report to Puget Sound Navy Yard to be an instructor in the CVE pre-commission school. By the time I was a Senior Grade Lieutenant, I had a "ton" of points to get out of the Navy. I was Honorably Discharged from the Navy at Puget Sound Navy Yard on March 19, 1946.

I met my wife in July of 1945, when the Nassau was in Mare Island for some repairs and radar upgrade. It was a brief courtship. We were married in February 1946, and recently celebrated our Fifty-Fifth Anniversary. As it turned out, the U.S.S. Nassau was my entire Navy career, and what a lucky and memorable one it was. "She" brought me home safely from the Battles of Attu, Tarawa, Makin, Kwajallein, Enwenetok and fringes of the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea. And, yes, we had occasions to "visit" Cold Bay Alaska, Pago Pago, Espiritu Santo, Noumea, Brisbane, Finschhaven, Manus, Ulithi, Guam, Saipan, Samar, Okinawa, and Tsingtao China; let along the many visits to Pearl Harbor, San Diego, and Alameda.

All in all, we made 26 crossings of the Equator (13 each way), and the Nassau logged 227,948 nautical miles while I was privileged to be a member of her crew. Yes, she was a proud ship and every reason to be.