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The 594th EB & SR

Tall Tales | USAT SEAWITCH | Milne Bay | B Company | The 287th Signal Company, 2nd E.S.B.

USAT SEAWITCH

Archie Anderberg, Company C, 594th. wrote the following Tall Tale:

Around the first of February, 1944, we began packing all of our gear as we had received word that we were shipping out of Camp Gordon Johnston for an unknown destination. Everything was packed in crates and we boarded the troop train, bound for who knew where. Even now, I don't have any clear idea of the route we took, but it meandered all over USA, apparently to confuse us as well as any spies who might be checking troop movements. I know we went through Philadelphia because Joe Sullivan wanted to call his dad to come down to the tracks to meet us but wasn't allowed to, and also through Alton, Illinois as we stopped there for exercise within sight of Lathy Roloff's home.

Our journey ended at Pittsburgh, California, site of Camp Stoneman. Our obvious destination was to be somewhere in the Pacific.. At Camp Stoneman we had the best chow we ever got while in the army. They were fattening us up for the kill. We did get some leave time to enjoy the sights of San Francisco - if you stayed sober long enough to enjoy them.

On February 29, 1944 we were marched to the embarkation pier on the Sacramento river to board the USAT Seawitch. The entrance to the pier had a large sign that said, "Through These Portals Pass The Best Soldiers In The World". We were marched to the end of the pier, NOT through the gate under the sign, and up the gangplank to our new home.

The Seawitch was a converted merchant ship of about 10,000 tons, about the size of a Liberty Ship freighter of the period. The cargo holds had been emptied and racks of 6 X 3 bunks, made out of canvas stretched over a pipe frame, placed in them about as close together as they could get them. They were stacked seven high with just enough room between for a man to crawl in and try to sleep. When not in use they could be folded upwards, out of the way. Company C's compartment was deep in a forward hold, near the bow of the ship. Here you get all of the benefit of the up and down motion as well as the side to side rolling of the ship. We put to sea and passed under the Golden Gate Bridge the same day, traveling alone, without an escort. After clearing the harbor, we never saw another ship until we reached our destination thirty-one days later.

The waves, or ground swell, are greatest near the coast so our sea legs, and our sea stomachs, were soon put to the test. Being packed seven deep in the small, poorly ventilated holds was bad enough, but half of the company was soon seasick - and the other half was shortly nauseated by the stench of the first half vomiting in their bunks. Sgt DeFarkas had the best advice. He said, "Boys, take two hairs on your hind end and tie them together so that they throw that up too. That is the only cure for seasickness. The mess crew of the ship did all that they could to help by serving a greasy chili the first night out.

After we became accustomed to the rolling and pitching of the ship, it wasn't too bad, if you could get up on the deck. We spent all of the free time available playing cards on the hatch covers or just looking over the side. There was also a continuous crap game going in the latrine with small fortunes changing hands - much too fast for me to play.

There was a Special Services unit on board, called "The Stars And Gripes" on their way to entertain the troops in the Pacific. They had singers, musicians, hypnotists, etc in their group. Red Rlanchard, a comedian, guitar player from the WLS Barn Dance in Chicago is the only one I remember by name. I recently heard that Don Knott was a member of this troop, but whether he was present or joined them later, I don't know. It was well before he became famous as Barney Fife. They put on a show every afternoon on one of the hatch covers. Their MC was a Mickey O'Shaunessy, or some such, from New York, who had quite a high opinion of himself. A couple of us used to get ringside seats and stare at him, NEVER cracking a smile at one of his jokes. It finally got to him and he would come over to where we were and make faces at us. It didn't work - we never smiled back. The hypnotist got some guys, including Matthew Hermetz from our company, to debate the relative value of twin beds over double beds. Hermetz's main argument was that the carpet would quickly wear out between twin beds.

We crossed the equator sometime about March 23rd, and were all inducted into King Neptune's Court as "Shellbacks". Sailors who had previously crossed the equator made up the court. Our company had two old tars, Salvatore Anderson and Warren McCrocklen, who were part of the initiation team. Everybody was hosed down, and some were dunked in a tank of ice water by the Royal Polar Bears (or Polaris Club). The Royal Baby was some fat guy wearing only a bandanna and a diaper and carrying a slop jar filled with "brown stuff" which he threw at the crowd. McCrocklen had the role as King Neptune, A few days later, we crossed the international Date Line and became ''Polliwogs" as well as "Shellbacks".

The ship's crew had the main responsibility of the operation of the ship, but various companies had to provide guards at times. I was CO (Charge of Quarters) the night C Company was called upon to provide sentries. Around midnight the ship's captain pulled an inspection of the guard and found several of our boys asleep at their posts. Our Captain Ford was furious, suggesting that they be shot. If an opinion poll could have been taken among the troops, they would have voted to throw Captain Ford overboard. The guilty were placed in the brig for the remainder of the voyage. They came down to our hold looking for the CO in order to locate our First Set Stanton. The CO was asleep too. It is not a criminal offense for a CO to sleep on duty, but he should be at his designated place and properly identified so that he could be found if needed. Capt. Ford threatened to "break" me from Sgt. too, but never did.

In later years I ran across a tale about the Seawitch in a history of the Pacific war. I assume that it was the same Seawitch while still in the merchant marine service. It was sent to Batavia (later called Jakarta), Indonesia with a deck load of fighter planes in crates for the air force. The Seawitch came into the Batavia harbor just as the Japs were entering from the other side of town. They quickly unloaded the planes and left them on the dock, intact, for the Japs to capture.

March 31, 1944 we reached our destination, Milne Bay, New Guinea. It was the first land we had sighted for a month and what a beautiful sight it was. Milne Bay is a long, narrow harbor with steep hills on both sides and lush tropical growth along the shores, and coconut plantations along the way. We were soon to learn differently.