At 1130 general quarters sounded because of a Red Alert on Guadalcanal. We took two horizontal bimotor bombers under fire and saw one fall. When we passed close to the wreckage, both crewmen were dead in their life raft. At 1230 we secured from battle stations. I was asleep under No. 1 gun when the general alarm beeper sounded at the same moment the gun buzzer warned for training out on a target.
Instinct adds quickly.
I missed several rungs of ladder and braked with my hands on the handrail to the floor plates. Jab Bauer already had put a fire under No. 2 boiler. He had a foot on a ladder rung when I arrived. I opened it wide, then ran back to the floor plates. Jab went up the ladder like a squirrel.