Evening star., 1943-04-12
BY IRA WOLFERT.
CHAPTER l.

CHAP IEtC l.
The new torpedo planes took off
from Norfolk, Va. This was in
May, two months after the manu-
facturer had delivered them to the
men of Torpedo 8, who had been
detached from the aircraft carrier
Hornet to put the planes into
commission.
Putting new-type planes into
commission for combat in two
months is a record. The reason for
the haste was that this new plane
TBF, the Navy called it, and the
manufacturer. having Pearl Harbor
in mind, called it the Gruman
AVenger-WaS such a beauty and
handled so we'll and so fast that the
men working on it hated to think
of their friends back on the Hornet
having to go into action without it.
Larsen a Driver.
Then. the fellow in charge, 1t.
Harold H. Larsen, who, at the time
was Torpedo 8's executive officer,
was a driver. I'm not very smart"
he said. I've got brains that work
slow and the only smart thing I
ever thought of in my life is that,
to realize that I'm not very smart
and that If there's anything in
life that l want l have to work for
it, work like hell for it, because 1
haven't the brains to get it easily,
like some fellows
What 1t. Larsen wanted was to
get the war over with. That was
his idea, get in the war and get it
over with. So he was down in the
pits or up in the air all the time,
grease on him, swapping the whip,
and when the fellows wanted to
knock off for an hour or so to
watch Bob Feller pitch and said,
Hell, SWede, the warll keep that
long" there was look of surprise
on his face that you could see
plainly through the grease.
One Thing at Time.
SWede is out of Omaha originally,
Gig blond straight-haired man
with the build and the walk of an
old-time sergeant major. He was
~ e'o IilC lllllC anu llC IhCo DdScUdll
as well as anybody could. He had
played it at the Naval Academy,
along with football and lacrosse.
But he was fellow who had to
think of one thing at time. SWede
had soft voice, yet when he
snapped the whip you sure heard
it crack, and the fellows didn't get
to see Bob Feller and the Navys
Tunney-fish, as Gene Tunney's boys
were called, NOV down the opposi-
ton. They flew over the ball park
once or twice, but that's the nearest
they got.
When his Uncle Karl Stefan got
elected to Congress from Nebraska.
SWece gave up seeing him. He
didn't want Uncle Karl to think
he was hanging around expecting
favors, He didn't see Uncle Karl
for 10 years, not until there was
nothing anymore that Uncle Karl
could do for him because he had
become a man with a career that
only God could do anything about.
And he was hard on his own foot
bail career.
Not So Good at Football.
SWede got into six varsity games
one season and missed winning his
M by few minutes of play. Il
wasn't much good he said Il
might have been. I did pretty good
on the line in high school, but when
I got to the academy I made a mis-
take. l decided to go into the back
field. I could run fast and I was
big and strong so I wanted to carry
the ball and be the fellow, who
touched it down back of the goal
line. That was the mistake. I
could run fast all right, but only in
a straight line and all they had to
do was spot the rut I was running
down and put somebody into it, and
I ran right into him. 1t always
ended up with the both of us knock
ing each other down. and the coach
hollerlng, 'SWede, Swede, where's
the brains for your feet?'"
Just about the time the fellows
down in Norfolk were thinking up
adjectives to go before the name
SWede he'd knock off work and take
the squadron over to CRANKY street
and tear all the kinks out of their
minds with a party
The fellows took their girls along
The girls had come from all over
the country to be IN Norfolk with
their men during these last days
before the war got them. There
were Missouri girls, Florida girls,
Oregon and Washington and Cali
fornia girls, girls from massachusetts,
and Louisiana and Ohio. The war
wasn't biting very deeply into the
country last May, but it was biting
deep into the hearts of those girls
as they used up the last days and
minutes. What they thought of
SWede at that time is one of those
unmllltaly secrets. The DAYS were
going very fast. The minutes were
hustling by and, if they didn't, If
some of them chanced to have anv
languor in them or ease or sense of
tlmelesSneSS, there was SWede's soft.
demanding voice always at hand
to crack the whip What they think
Of him now need not be a secret.
They must know that it was the
habit of working like HI for what
was wanted that saved the lives of
those who were saved.
SWedes wife, the former Sadie
Roberts, came up from Birmingham,
Ala, with their two daughters.
Melissa, then babe in arms, and
Swiss, a little less than 3, and she
went along on the parties. Swede
calls her Missy and everybody sang
"MissySsippi' to her and Missy
YOU And John Thurman. a lad
from Cincinnati, was the ladies' man
of the gang, and Cookie Ensign
James Hill Cook of louisiana had
Just been married. He was 21, the
I.