The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-05-19
Nv LEE G. MILLER

ABOARD A CRUISER IN THE
CELEBES SEA-By Wireless)-
The destroyer on which I was
spending D-Day minus one finally
ceased firing, and we were just
hanging around near Tarakan
beach in case the Aussie engineers
blowing up obstacles close inshore
needed further support from our
guns.
Then the word was passed that
the channel through which we had
approached, and which had been
combed and recombed by our
minesweepers, had just yielded
more mines and we should stay
inside" pending further search.
One mine it developed had turn
ed up just Is yards from course
had followed earlier.
Everybody began to look little
more serious. This destroyer has
seen elsewhere what mine could
do. And it would be small consola-
ton if we struck one Of our mines
for our forces had mined these
waters months ago to inhibit Jap
shipping. The sweeps hadn't yet
accounted for quite all the number
known to have been sowed.
While we waited, l got ac-
quainted with some of the destroy
er crew.
Signalman (first class William
]. Richardson took lot of pains
helping me figure out how to look
through one of those long tele-
scopes with single eyepiece-you
know, the kind ancient mariners
are always pictured with.
It's quite trick to adjust the
thing to the. particular conforma-
ton Of your face, and my eyes
seem to be wider spaced than
most. So Bills recommendation
that 1 rest the scope against the
bridge of my nose didn't work out.
But finally we figured the thing
out.
Bill was attached to Commodore
Bob Martins staff. He comes
from Trenton, but now his wife
and 2-year-old daughter live in
Poughkeepsie. He's been in this
destroyer division nearly three
years.
He showed me how his signal
flags work, and explained about
repeater" and "corpen" and
negate.'
There's a flag for every letter
and number, but no extras. When
you want to use a letter the second
time in the same signal you hoist
one of several repeaters, one
meaning repeat the preceding let
ter, another meaning repeat the
second letter above, ct cetera.
Corpen means the course pennant,
and it's hoisted above the flags
giving the code numbers for a
new course. Negate simply means
signals over"-that is, if some
body changes his mind the neeate
is hoisted to cancel the signals.
Bill introduced me to Torpedo
man Second class Howard M.
Peterson, Of Spokane, Wash. Quar-
ter,naster 0irst class R. A. Loon
am, son of Mr.. and Mrs. B. J.
Loonam, Of Indianapolis.
!. Commodore Martin suddenly Az.
claimed "The has hit !,
mine" But it turned out that =
sweep had exploded a mine inst
beyond the destroyer. The Incl.
dent didn't tend to relax rs
I talked with Lieut.. Donald r
Sinclair, the destroyer's gunnery
officer, blond who burns easily
especially when Spending hours
with his head protruding from tho
range finder tower in tronic s,,n
He had zinc ointment plastered 1a ~,
his lips. Sinclair attended Hiran,
College. He was assigned to tf hi.
destroyer before she was comm;.
stoned, about three years ago. He
knows the idosyncrasies Of his
guns plenty well. "4S
About IS officers and men NJ ~.
oesIroyer's original crew are stiII
with her, I was told b. one At