The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-07-19
DESTROYER CREW
CREDITS LUCK tn
ALBATR0SS VISIT
BY RICHARD O'MAIJrv

HDi'O n " .. DESTROYER
WESTERN PACIFIC 9 ~:
tough, useful little warship stsr,a.
on the first of its four major BATH.
operations sheltering ''good.hcyn
albatross and later it had chic,
ems for mascots.
The destroyer, which has s0,.
action in the Marianas, the sov.a
Pacific, in the Philippines and o~.
this way, never has been hit w. W..
crew thinks that the Albatross b.s
something to do with it. N
J. Alfred Whitley" Hould cb;o,
quartermaster, of Manchester N
H., explained while a groun ~
men stood in the cool of the brsa7.
on the destroyer fantail. He sa;5.
"One night an albatross circIod
us a couple Of times and -hen
landed on the superstructvre That
bird stayed with us all night and
took off the next morning, Tnev
say if an albatross stays overnioo,
on a ship the ship will be mc;y
and that's the way it was with
u.s." the men nodded agreemort
Carl o. Swenson of Great Fall,
Mont, seaman, added:
THE officers told us not to dis.
turb the albatross and believe me
nobody did. We didn't want to SPOIL
our luck. We figure we're in the
chips for luck
One of the men brought some
eggs aboard and put them in mis-
locker. Several days later. long ait.
er the eggs had been forgotten,
he heard a cheeping and found
seven chickens were Matched. They
were raised for awhile but later
given away to some army nurses.
Harry C. Wilson, RIM &c of Hous,
ton. said it was good thing.
"Somebody would have had
those birds in pot sure. To Tell
you the truth, that's what | was
sort of figuring on"
The ships mascot now is rus
! ty", a nondescript dog picked Up
at forgotten port by crew men,
Der.
The spirit aboard the ship is re.
Elected from her skipper, 1t. Cmdr.
Francis w. Ingling of Long Beach,
Calf. A Naval Academy graduate
with the class of 1887, down TO
the newest boot aboard.
| 1t. Walter Baranger, of Los An.
geles, executive officer, is proud
of the way the destroyer operates,
Young Henry 1. Reynolds, Jr,
ON Sc of East Haven, Conn, puts
it this way:
None of us would want any.
thing to happen to this ship. She's
the best in the fleet and she's taken
us through lot of hot spots. She's
Four-O and that's navy for per-
feet"
/ 1t. Stephen E. Magill of New.
burgh, N. Y, is a strong advo-
cate of destroyers.
The officers and men agree that
destroyers are really heavy duty
ships and they are proud of it.
These boosters include 1t. Phillip
Ingals of Atchison, Kans., former
ly a geologist in Venezuela. In ad'
dition TO score of other duties
destroyer men are called on to do
as many different jobs as the ship
herself-Ingalls puts out a mime
ographed newspaper daily.
Compact living conditions, some
what similar to submarine life
prevail aboard and every inch Of
space is utilized. The ships galley
where Keith Floyd Baker &c, Of
Green Sea and Loris, S. C., turns
out 96 loaves of delicious bread a
day, is an afterhours hangout
where a cup of coffee can be
"scrounged." But for that mat
ter hot Zoe" is available on the
bridge.
"Ribbing' contests are part Of
the daily life of a destroyer and
1t. Charles Mrazek is often a
wardroom target Mrazek, the
ships Doctor, of Chicago, used 10
do a lot of practice in Chlcagos
Bridewell prison and the other oi'
ficers joke with him about 1t. Ere
Quently, if a moving picture has
to do with Chicago's gangdom Of
the prohibition era, Mrazek
called on to verify scenes as an
old Chicago man who kne" all
those guys
This destroyer is sometimes CAR
ed the great falls ship for mere
are three men from the Montana
City aboard, high figure conSlo'
ering the smallnesS of destroys
crews. In addition to SWenson our
er Great Falls men are W. e. Bra
dy and 1t. Lee Schmidt.
Montana has other repreSeh'd
tives in Johnny G. DalakoW' s'o4s'
keeper, of Broadus, and Seaman
Adolph M. Strobbe of Billings
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