Post By Gene Holtmeyer on Memorial Day 2007

Now I remember EXACTLY why I went into the Navy during WWII. I always had a bed (sort of) I always had food and I never had anyone shooting at only me only. At Palau we had to worry about them firing at the ship from shore. At Okinawa it was the Kamakazi pilots diving into our ships. One dove into the ship next to us one night so they came close. I had made up my mind that I was going to die there at age 20 or if not there when we hit Japan in September or October . We had 1,000 ships ships in the harbor for that purpose. Suddenly they found that the Air Craft Carriers, Battleships, Cruisers etc were at the other end of the harbor and went after them as they were the ones that was going.to cause them the big problems as we all would have sat offshore and bombarded them. Many bleeding heart thought it as terrible that we dropped the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima which killed 200,000 a lot of which was women and chi ldren but I say to them Sorry but you are the ones who started the war when you bombed Pearle Harbor on 12/7/1941 when I was 16 years old. So I did not go into the service until 4/10/43 at 18. "Thank GOD for the bomb for the A bomb as not another Japanese or American service men was killed after that." What griped me was that nobody talks about the 200,000 men they lost on Okinawa obviously the men did not matter.We lost 50,000 there alone. I only lost one friend and that was at Iwo Jima a Marine. I thank GOD that my son did not have to go into the service. He turned 18 during a quite time.

It took me about 6 months to get thru my about 6 weeks of boot camp in San Diego. After a month I came down with Spinal Meningitus and was in the hospital 28 days. One beautiful young nurse took a liking to me and she would spend time talking with me and I was the only one she would give rub downs to. I am sure all the other guys hated me but who cares. One day she said "How old are you? I should have realize that was coming but how experieced is an 18 year old.I had to think quickly and I thought about saying 22 as I never had problems for passing for more than 18. I am still kicking myself that I did not say 22 as I would have loved to see where that relationship would have gone. I always had trouble lying however.When I said 18 she said "Oh I thought you were about 24." I never saw her again. I received a 38 day recuperation leave. So that alone accounted for 66 days of boot camp.

Then home on a 38 day leave. Went back and finished boot camp and was sent home on an 11 day leave. (I was schudled to go aborad a cargo ships as a 20mm gunner when I got back). On the last day I came down with Pneumonia and went into Ellington Field Air Force Hospital for 16 days. Word spread over the base that there was a ssick ailor there. So I became a side show exhibit so to speak (which I did not mind at all) and in fact seveal of them brought me boxes of candy. One reason was the the closest Naval base was in New Orleans and we were just outside of Houston. So many had never seen a sailor.

One day Mitse Gaynor who played the lead in the movie South Pacific came there to entiretain the troops. Woundn't you know she stopped at the end of my bed and sang a love song looking right into my eyes. I could feel my fact turning red but I stood it a long time and finally pulled the covers over my head. The doctor said "I am keeping you here at home for another 15 days of recuperation. Many people were saying "What - are you home again?"

I finally went back to San Diego and to Balboa Park, a shipping out place. They have my Pay records so I am getting paid but they could not find my other records ship so they could ship me out until they found them. So I was there for perhaps 6 months and was put incharge of the garbage locker. I did strictly supervisory work and I had two helpers. I went from 165 pounds to 190 as I had access to the food. So now they sent me to Miami where I went throught six weeks of training for small craft school but low and behold now that the have my personel records, they have lost my pay records. I had to write home for money as I was not getting paid. They did not know what to do with me so they sent be through the small craft school again for another 6 weeks. At Miami I was a catcher on the Station soft ball team and I had made the Station basketball team about the time I got shipped out.
They finally found them so it was then that I picked up my ship in New Orleans. If we stop to figure it out I went in on 4/10/43 and I picked up my ship on 1/2/45.

Half of us picked out ship up at New Orleans on 1/2/45 and I kept a diary of every day until I left the ship to go home on 11/23/45 and It is on the Internet but it is pretty boring since we saw very little action until toward the end of the war.

My first two years were a ball and "Yes I had a girl in every port which is expected. " Three of us were walking down the sidewalk in Miami Beach and three girls passed us going the other way. One was gorgeous and I just had to have a date with her. I was bashful but the other two were worse than me. So I said "Come on Guys" and we followed them into the icecream parlor. Turns out she worked for MGM and they were down there making "PT Boat" staring John Wayne. I had six dates with her and got shipped out to New Orleans.

At New Orleans we went down on Bourbon Street and there was drunken sailor giving a girl a hard time on the dance floor. I cut in and she thanked me profusely. We danced together for 2 or 3 hours when I had to be back to the ship by 10. She invited my out to her abode Sunday for a chicken dinner. We got shipped out Saturday on our way back to Maimi. In Miami I found another nice girl, had two dates, got shipped to the South Pacific.

I am currently in touch with two men from my ship who are also still alive and one of them put my diary, which I had typed out, on the Intenet. I am not sure how to reach it but I am sure it is under PGM-31.

02-09-2007 Post By Ginger Haywood

02-09-2007-Post By Ginger Haywood

Hi Bill,

I wanted to thank you so much for putting my email and pictures on your site. It's wonderful thing that you have done, thank you so much, it has given me an avenue for questions that I had with no answers, and that is a great thing. And Gene has been a wonderful help, telling me stories of things that happened aboard ship.

I am including another picture. Click for enlargement It's another puzzle, maybe you can help. Here is a picture I found with my Dad's stuff. I know which one he is in the picture, as you look at the picture, he is the one with hat on on left side down in front of the railing, hat a little tilted. Some of the other guys look familiar from other pictures but I thought that maybe you could tell me approx when and where this was taken, and some other names. " It looks like a day off. " I have tried to clean this up as much as possible but it was really in bad shape. I have left it pretty big so that you can see it, I hope that it comes through that way. I sent a copy of this to Gene and I am going to print out one and send to Frank Kamer also. I am also sending Frank a copy of the picture of you and he in Hawaii.
Again thank you,

Gin

03-06-2007 Post By Gene Holymeyer

I don't know if you were topside or not when we pulled into Okinawa but there was a PGM that had gone aground. I searching it a little further I found that it said the 10 had gone aground there. They later got it unstuck and I am sure it was with us when we were following the Minesweepers.

Speaking of which three of us had gone ashore on leave on one of the islands and either we missed the boat to take us back to the 31 or it never came. So we rode out with one from one of the minesweepers. They said "My GOD it looks like you are sitting right on top of the mines when you explode them. I said we are and thus far two guys have taken shrapnel on the bridge, and another one was hit. And a half a mine lit on our deck heading straight at me and I do mean straight. I just had time enough to jump big time behind the tower of the Twin 40s. I thought for sure I was a goner.

They gave us each a life jacket to use for a pillow and we slept on the fantail. About 10PM (in case you have forgotten that is 2200 hours) all hell broke loose, 20 mm, pyrotecnics, searchlights etc. celebrating the news that the war was over however that was not quite right. Would you believe it, I don't remember how we got back to the ship.

02/20/2007 Post By Ryan Galentine

e-Mail to Gene Holtmeyer on 2/20/2007

Hi Gene: I got this in my mail box this morning!! Another member found. I remember him and nelson too.

Hello, may name is Ryan Galentine and I am currently enlisted as an Electricians Mate Third class in the US Navy. While researching my grandfathers former ship, I ran across your web site. He has been very eager to speak with some of his old shipmates and asked me to send you these pictures. His Name is Frank Kamer 2239 Suncrest DR. Columbus Ohio 43223. Phone # 614-274-6872. If you have any questions or need to contact me please fell free. Ryan Galentine Ph# 614-354-6892 rgalentine@yahoo.com thank you an dwe both look foreward to hearing from you.

Ryan sent pictures. Here is one of them. I will post the rest on the PGM 31 site;

02-20-2007 Post By Bill Borough

Hi Mike: I got your e-mail. It was good to hear from you. On the PGM 31 site we have a ships blog and is where we add all e-mails and stuff that we receive. Gene Holtmeyer an other crew member has you dad listed there as a crew member. you have to scroll down a way to get to it. Till us about your father. What did he do? Where did he live? Any sea stories? Do you have a pictures you could sent to us to put up on the site.

Bill Borough

www.keywestwatercolors.com

www.billborough.com

http://www.billborough.com/PGM-31.html

02-19-2007 Post By Michael Dziovgo

Hi Bill....my father married my Mom Helen Solar from W.Va April 12,1947.....they met in night school in the Bronx......kids as follows...Joe Jr. 03/02/47 (USMC Vietnam Vet),Elizabeth 09/03/49,Me 01/10/54, Edward 09/14/61..........we lived in Somerville NJ in our first house from 1961-1986....Dad was a draftsman (furniture) which he loved to do....he got colon cancer in 1984, retired to a brand new house with my mother in Fountain Hills, Arizona in 1986...The cancer came back and spread to his liver...sadly my father passed away in Somerville NJ at the young age of 61 on 10/13/88........he was buried in the Bronx but about 10 yrs ago my Mom had him moved to Piscataway NJ where I live........ my Mom will be 79 in 2 wks and she lives in a nice retirement village about an hour from me.......my father and the rest of our family were so proud of what he and the rest of you servicemen and women did........you truly were THE GREATEST GENERATION...I'll send you some real good pictures this weekend.........God bless Michael

02-02-2007 Post By Gene Holtmeyer

e Mail from Gene Holtmeyer to Ginger O'Connor Heywood

Bill Borough forwarded your email to me. Bill served below deck in the engine room so very seldom saw the light of day much less know your grandfather but I had a closer contact with your him since he was a Petty Officer and told me what to do and where to go (I'm kidding). He was a nice guy. I cannot tell you much about him personally since they did not associate with enlisted men. I will show you that what he saw was not too exciting. If they had to depend upon us to win the war we would be speaking Japanese today.

For you land lubbers I will not use the term Starboard or Port sides of the ship (left and right) or bulkhead (wall) or any other foreign language. I think my spellchecker just wants me to think it knows how to spell Starboard etc.

First I don’t know about Tom but while I had a girl in every port my love life was for the pits. Three of us were walking down the street in Miami Beach when three girls passed up going the other way and one was gorgeous and I just had to have a date with her. So I said “come on guys” and we bought their ice cream in the parlor. I had five dates with her and got shipped out to New Orleans to pick up the PGM-31. The first night there I went down on Bourbon Street and I saw a drunken sailor giving a girl problems on the dance floor. I cut in and we danced solid for 2 or 3 hours but I had to get back to the ship by 10. She invited me out to her apartment Sunday for a chicken dinner. We shipped out for Miami on Saturday. I met another girl in Miami (the other one had gone home to Tennessee) had three dates with her and got shipped out. Keep this in mind as you read about life aboard ship. I had another one earlier in San Diego but tha t is another story. From this you would never know that I was very shy. I was only 19 years old. All three of those girls no doubt thought that I had stood them up. The motto in those days was "loose lips sink ships" so we never knew until almost the last minute when we were leaving.

I kept a diary from the day we picked up the ship in New Orleans on 1/2/45 until I left the ship in Japan to come home on 11/22/45. Speaking of Japan, after the war we operated out of Sasebo, Japan

I recently went through it and listed the highlights but for some reason it does not come up. I decided to write it so you could live with us vicariously. So here goes, we left New Orleans on 1/28 headed for Miami. When we left the Mississippi River and hit the ocean I remember thinking "Boy are you stupid. What are you doing in the Navy when you sometimes haven't felt too good in a swing. The reason I went into the Navy was I liked the idea of eating, sleeping and not having to hike long distances. Funny thing I never did get sea sick but every time I felt like I might I ate a piece of bread that did the trick.

We arrive at Miami on 2/1 and it was so rough it was tough to keep food on the table so we served it cafeteria style. The guy in front of me made a dash for the table on the right side of the ship but did not make it. The floor was all wet from everybody coming down. He lit on his rear and went sliding by me with his coffee in the air in one hand and his food in the other and hit the wall on the other side of the ship. I waited a roll to the right and made a dash for the same spot, slammed my tray on the table and hung on to the table. When the ship rolled back I sat down.

2/22 We left for the Panama Canal at 10:00pm. Past CUBA on 2/24. On 2/25 it really got rough. I normally would be on the helm (steering wheel), then lookout on the bridge and then radar 30 minutes at each place for four hours i.e. if we were on duty from noon to 4 then we were also on from 12 to 4am etc. If you got seasick you did not stay in bed and my two relief guys were laying motionless on the pilot house floor. I had to be on the helm the entire 4 hours time and we had 16 guys on our watch and guess who were the only ones not sick besides me, the Quartermaster and a fellow by the name of Tom O'Connor who lived at 1733 Kiralfre (it looks like) Pittsburgh, PA. we all three stayed in the pilot house the entire watch and every hour either Tom or O'Donnell would relieve me on the helm so I could go get some coffee. So we had three Irishmen running things as my mother was Ma ry Ryan so am half Irish. Whenever I felt like I might get seasick I would eat a piece of bread and I never got seasick.

3/1 We spent the entire day going through the Panama Canal. We would enter a lock then two more and they would close each one and fill it with water and we pulled into the next one. That was really beautiful it was like going through a jungle on a river. The canal was the same height as the ocean on the other side so we simply pulled out. The ocean on the Pacific side was smooth and we pulled into San Diego on 3/10 and left for Hawaii on 3/13 and pulled into Pearl Harbor on 3/21. Everything that was sunk on 12/7/41 was still there. Left Pearl Harbor on 3/31 and on 4/5 from midnight to noon it was the 5th and from noon on it was the 6th as we had passed the 180th meridian so time changed. Being a wise guy in those days I wrote in my diary that this morning this afternoon was tomorrow and this afternoon this morning was yesterday.

4/10 We pulled into Eniwetok and there must have been about 300 ships there. It was a barren island except for a few palm trees. We went ashore. This is the island they used to test the atomic bomb later.

4/17 we arrived at Ulithe in the Caroline Islands and the next day 4/18 we went swimming over the side. Two guys threw another one overboard and he was floundering hollering help, help I can't swim so the other two dove in to save him whereupon he swam over and climbed out. So he had the last laugh. They were all dressed in their work cloths and shoes. We went swimming over the side of the ship on one day and the next day a big shark came swimming by that spot.

We heard that some Jap planes were shot down in our area today so this was our first taste of war so to speak.

4/19 We left for Palau Islands today and on 4/20 and about 1,000 yards from us on an island there are about 10,000 Jap's however we control them as we owned 5% of the island at both the top and bottom plus we controlled the air and sea. We bombarded the island on 4/23 We wiped out a Jap lookout post with our twin 40mm.

4/27 At the spot where we wiped out the lookout post the PGM 29 was greeted with rifle and mortar fine. Our instructions were to wipe out their three radio towers. We sat out about a mile and the ship was rocking big time. Not only did we not hit any of the towers but I only saw one shell hit the island which wiped out their barracks - big deal. We fired 97 rounds of 3" which means the shells were 3' wide. I had nothing to do with it. 4/28 We loaded 96 more shells of 3" last and went back to the same spot. Just was we fired out first shell a 5" shell lit right off our bow. We knew they only had three five inch guns to protect the entire island. The skipper would normally say all ahead 1/3rd the all ahead 2/3rd and finally all ahead full very slowly. This time it was that as fast and he could talk and then added all ahead flank.

4/29 I sank a floating mine with my 20mm 4/30 we heard that Germany had surrendered.

5/1 We were firing individually and 3 Japs broke for a cave. I put 50 of my 60 round capacity right in the mouth of the cave. At the time I hoped I had killed all three but in later years I hope I didn't. The other remaining Officer alive today was Lt.jg Prewee. He sent the word down "fantastic firing Holtmeyer" then he came down. I told him I had taken my front sights off of my gun to straighten it just before we went to GQ so I was firing using tracer bullets only. (this allowed us to see exactly where our bullets were going.) The next day he ordered all the front sights off of the other 20mms. The 20 is the gun you see in the movies where they are strapped in and shooting at planes.

5/4 Three if us went ashore on liberty and without guns. We found everything from Jap money, to Jap bones, guns, ammunition in a place called Hells Pocket. I picked up a Jap helmet for a souvenir but a skull fell out so I dropped it. I brought back a rifle which I lost in San Francisco when I turned my back for a moment.

The Captain went ashore most of the day and they signaled out that we had better move as the tide is going out and we are anchored over a reef. Nobody did anything and the next thing you know we are bouncing off the reef so it bent our screws (propellers) and we had to go back to Ulithi to get them fixed. Guess what because of that we were not in on the invasion of Okinawa. Which did not make me mad because we could get shot there. It was so obvious the it was done on purpose. Our Executive Officer should had been court marshaled. 5/8 arrived back in Ulithi and we were not ready to leave for Okinawa until 5/23 and we were in a convoy of other small ships.

5/27 Sighted a Jap Cruiser and 3 Destroyers we split up and it was every ship for itself. We also learned that our Task Force 5 was only five miles from us so they took on the Jap ships.

5/29 Arrived at Okinawa and we spotted another PGM which was grounded ashore. A Destroyer was towed in by a Tug Boat with a big hole in its fantail (rear).

8/4 I don't think I will go into the details except to say that the Jap Kamikaze pilots flew over every night
and dove into our ships. We were going to GQ 5 to 7 times a night. I was strapped into my gun most of the nights however we laid out smoke pots and I doubt they could see us and we could not see them. I was so tired one night that I took off my helmet sat on it, leaned against a wall and went to sleep. I had a loader for my 20mm so told him to wake me if there was any action. Since it was difficult for them to see us they found that our big ships were in the other end of the harbor so they started going after them. We had 1,000 ships in the harbor as we were due to bombard Japan in either September or October in preparation for the invasion.

Our job out there was to follow the Minesweepers. They had a wire going out to each side and a gismo that held them at about a 35 to 45 degree angle from their fantail (rear). The mines were anchored by a wire not too far below the surface of the water they would cut the wire and it would pop to the surface and then we would either blow them up or sink them. By the time I left the ship on 11/22 we had destroyed 315 mines. Here was another thing that galled me, I was just turning 21 and to begin with we would fire the 20s at them in short bursts at the mines and explode them and that is the way we should have kept it but no we moved closer and shot them with our 50 caliber. Then we moved to somewhere between 25 and 50 yards and did it with a rifle. As a result, two guys were hit with shrapnel on the bridge, another guy was also hit and I was standing by my gun a half of a mine which was at least 2 to 3 fe et wide landed on the deck and was headed straight at me. I just had time to jump out of the way or I would have been killed. It is funny how far you can jump if you are scared. I think I might have broken the world jump record with that jump.

8/5 We heard that the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki today which killed at least 200,000 civilians. Later some bleeding hearts thought that was terrible. The way I look at it is they killed civilians at Pearl Harbor when they started the war. All is fair in love and war. Nobody has ever said that it was terrible that we killed 200,000 Japs at Okinawa and how about the 50,000 men we lost. It was the bloodiest battle of the South Pacific. I also look at it that not another American was killed after that. If you had told me that someday I would be driving a Toyoto Camry, at that time I would have thought you were out of your mind.

8/9 We heard that Russia had declared war on Japan today.

8/10 Here it is word for word from my diary. "We got liberty today. Our boat did not pick us up so we spent the night on the fantail of a minesweeper with life jackets for pillows. At 2200 hours (10pm) we heard the war was over and what a display followed from every island and all the ships in the harbor: 50 caliber, pyrotechnics, anti aircraft fire and searchlights all blending together to make the most welcome and beautiful spectacle I have ever seen." Imagine going to a fireworks display but it being 20 or 30 times bigger than they are.

8/11 we heard it was not over and the next day was completely unbelievable.

8/12 Today we are leaving for an operation which makes no sense whatsoever. Tomorrow we are heading up toward Japan and we are told that we expect to lose 25 ships. How stupid can we be? For all intents and purposes the war it over.

8/13 Today is my birthday and I turned 21. We had heavy air cover with many Corsairs flying above us for protection. As it turned out the Japs were more intelligent than we are and did not come out so it was a piece of cake.

One other important item. We heard that we had dropped the atomic bomb on both Nagasaki and
Hiroshima .Three of us went ashore on liberty again and we missed our ride back to our ship so we managed to get a ride to a Minesweeper. They gave us lifejackets for a pillow and we slept on the deck.

I turned 21 on 8/13 and the war ended on 8/14 over there so I had a reason to celebrate. Unfortunately I did not have anything to celebrate with. I remember they gave us 2 bottle of beer each one time so I save them up thinking I would perhaps feel not pain. I drank two cans got full and gave the other four away.

I am sorry I cannot tell you more about Tom but at least you know he was well thought of and what one year of his life was like.

We later operated out of Sasebo, Japan after the war and we were still going mine sweeping. We went ashore on liberty one day and all the other guys headed for the nearest bar. I have always looked the town over first no matter when it was. At the time I was Catholic and I headed for the Catholic church. I took my shoes off and stuck them on the rack. Inside the Alter looked just like any church in the USA. The big difference was that where we have seats they have a huge strawmat covering the floor with an isle down both sides and up the middle just like our churchs. I had wanted to buy some things for my family and girl but all they had our was old dishes. I figured that thought that perhaps we would just take what we wanted. I was in a suburb and I had been flipping my wrist like I was fanning myelf with an accordian fan. Everybody either smiled or laughed. Finally some young girl realize what I wanted and went in th e house and got one for me and would not take any money. Her folks were sitting on the front porch and today I am kicking myself that I did not find out if they spoke English so I could find out how the fared during the war.

02/18/2007 Post By Michael Dziowgo

Recieved form-mail from PGM 31 Contact Page

From: "Michael Dziowgo"

Reply-To: "Michael Dziowgo"

To: bill@boroweb.Com

Subject: Feedback Form

Owner_email = bill@boroweb.Com

User_name = Michael Dziowgo

Address = 122 Dunellen Avenue Piscataway N.J. 08854

Phone = 732-356-6940(H) 732-512-8605(cell)

User_email = Mikejovgo@aol.com

Request = My father Joseph Dziowgo was a S 1/c on the USS PGM 31

01-23-2007 Post By Ginger O'Connor Heywood

E-Mail Recieved

Mr. Borough,

My name is Ginger O'Connor Heywood, my father was Thomas J. O'Connor who was stationed on the USS PGM 31. My father is the sailor on the right-hand end of the picture from Ryan Galentine, pertaining to his Grandfather Frank Kamer. I don't have too many pictures of my Dad from that time, but I do have some, including the one on your website, and I do not know when they were taken or where, or who the other men in the pictures are. (Please ignore the captions on the pictures, my Mother gave me those after my Father had passed away.)

I am enclosing a few of the pictures that I have, maybe someone can tell me who the other men in the pictures are. I am also enclosing a picture of my parents when they got remarried on Sept. 9, 2001, almost 62 years after their first wedding.

My father passed away on July 4, 2002, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He spent his life from 1937 until 1962 in the US Navy, and then the next 10 years working for the Navy in San Diego. He would never talk about the WW II years, and unfortunatey it has taken me this long to sit down and take a complete inventory of all the paperwork that he had. I found his card from the Sacred Order of The Golden Dragon from April 5, 1945, (I am going through all of his papers doing a scrapbook of his life), so I wanted a picture of the PGM 31, which is what brought me to this site.

Any information would be greatly appreciated. My telephone number is 828-453-7509 or cellphone 828-980-3186 and my email address is
heywoodj@bellsouth.net.

01-23-2007 1:16 AM Post By Ginger Haywood

Form Mail

From: "Ginger O'Connor Heywood"

Reply-To: "Ginger O'Connor Heywood"

To: bill@boroweb.Com

Subject: Feedback Form

Owner_email = bill@boroweb.Com

User_name = Ginger O'Connor Heywood

Phone = 828-453-7509

User_email = heywoodj@bellsouth.net

Request = My father Thomas O'Connor was on the PGM 31 from early 1945 until March 1946. I tried to send an email but it came back to me.

Submit = Submit

--------------------------------------------------------
This CGI expires in days

See http://www.netdor.com/ to register.

--------------------------------------------------------

01-30-2007 Post By Gene Holtmeyer

I found a deal on the Navy listing 438 people who served so I joined to make 439. None of our shipmates were listed. I wonder if any are still alive. To find it go on the Internet and loost for
Together We Served.

2-20-2006 Post By Bill Borough

e-mail sent to Ryan Galentine.

Hi Ryan: Many thanks for you contacting me. I recognized your grandfather in the pictures you sent. On the personel pictures link of the PGM 31 website in a picture of your grandfather and me standing by a surfboard at Wakakee Beach ( See Below ). I will post some of the pictures you sent on the PGM 31 website soon.

I was an Em 3rd class too in ww II

Where are you stationed?

Who is Kasey Galentine?

Dose you Frank Kamer have an e-mail address?

This makes 4 persons That we know of that was in the crew of PGM 31.

Bill Borough	bill@boroweb.com
Gene Holtmeyer	g.holtmeyer@comcast.net
Donald E. PRIEWE	Ens. (D) Gunnery Offices
Frank Kamer	Columbus Ohio

02-21- 2006 Post By Betty Wood

Subject: Feedback Form

Owner_email = bill@boroweb.Com

User_name = Betty Wood

Address = 2 Badger Court Novato, CA

User_email = woodlerchin@yahoo.com

Request = Wondering how I might get info on my father's ship: PGM 11. He too served in the Navy but rarely spoke about it. I have since learned that he "saw action" . He was a pharmacists mate first class. Where might I go to get more info on his ship and any men remaining? Thanks so very much. Betty Wood 415-382-0533

12-06-2005 Post By Bill Borough

e-Mail on Dec 4th 2005

Hi Robert: I only thing I can do is put a notice on the PGM 31 home page stating that you are looking for shipmates who were onboard PGM 31 in the Bikini atom bomb test. You can't tell someone might find it and reply.

Another thing you can do is go to the archives 2 in Washington DC ( the one in Collage Park Maryland) and go thru the PGM's log. That's what I did. There are 5 log books there! I read in the log that the ship was in the Bikini test. It's duty was to that water samples for radiation. Were you in the Navy and on PGM 31 at Bikini? How did you find the website?

Bill Borough

12-05-2005 Post By Rob Campbell

Good Evening from Maine...

I was at the atomic tests at Eniwetok in 1951, a thing called GREENHOUSE. My interest in Bikini is that I am
writing a book about what really happened at CROSS-ROADS (JTF-1). The "official" history is a fairy tale. At the
same time, in cooperation with another atomic vet, I am compiling a mortality study of CROSSROADS vets. There seems to be a lot of deaths from cancer and the indication so far is that two ships could rightfully be called "Death Ships." However, in researching I came across the fact that the PGM boats were all over the place running errands, doing radiation studies, etc., and given this I am trying to reach out to all former PGM sailors at Bikini in 1946. You see, the VA has been very sting with benefits when it comes to taking care of Atomic Vets. Oh, yes, I was in the Army at Eniwetok. I'm 73 and winding up my career as a legal secretary. Will now see what I can find out from the archive source you sent me. Many thanks and please stay in touch.
Rob Campbell
207-773-9594

12-03-2005 Post By Rob Campbell

e-Mail from Rob Campbell Dec 2005

I am trying to get the names of crew members that were on board PGM 31 during the atomic tests operation
CROSS-ROADS
(JTF-1) in the Bikini Atoll. e-mail me if you were there!

10-05-2004 Post By Gene Holtmeyer

60 years later, Nagasaki remembers A-bombing
Nagasaki marked the moment 60 years ago Tuesday when an American plane dropped a plutonium bomb, killing tens of thousands and sealing Japan's defeat in World War II.

http://g.msn.com/0MN2ET7/2?http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8877842&&CM=EmailThis&CE=1

I see that some people in Japan are indignant because we dropped the atomic bomb and the mayor of Nagasaki is angry. We were at Okinawa since about a week after the invasion and it was the bloodiest battle of the South Pacific because the Japs lost 200,000 men and we lost 50,000 including the wounded. The Kamikazi pilots were coming over nightly and diving into our ships. We heard about the atomic bomb being dropped on August 8th over there. On August 9th we heard that Russia had declared war on Japan. On August 10th at 10 pm word was passed that the war was over and I never saw such a display of celebration at night. Most of the ships in the harbor were firing anything with tracer bullets into the air, they also fired pyrotecnics and used searchlights.To me it was the most beautiful spectical I had ever seen. Would you believe that on August 12th we went on a mine sweeping operation up toward Japan in which we expected to lose 25 ships. We had some Destroyer Escorts with us and air cover provied by F6Fs and Corsairs. We could not believe that we would have done something so stupid since basically the war was over. The Japs were a lot more intelligent than our leadership and did not come out after us.

The story today talks about the following"
“Together with some 260,000 A-bomb survivors ... I swear in the presence of the souls of the victims of the atomic bombing to continue to tirelessly demand that Nagasaki be the last A-bomb site,” said Fumie Sakamoto, who represented the survivors at Tuesday’s memorial. Sakamoto was a junior high school student when Nagasaki was bombed.

If that bothers them why arn't they crying over the fact that they lost 200,000 men at Okinawa and that we lost 50,000. They bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Did you ever hear them morn about how many people they killed at Pearl Harbor and elsewhere in the South Pacific. Lets put it this way, after that bomb was dropped not another fighting person on either side was killed to my knowledge.

I personally had made up my mind that I was going to die either at Okinawa or certainly when we would have hit Japan in October. We had 1,000 ships at Okinawa and we would have sat offshore and bombarded them unmercifully two months later. Believe me I prayed every night i was there.

We based out of Sasebo, Japan and went ashore on liberty one day. All the guys except me headed for a bar but I wanted to see the sights knowing I would never be there again. A Catholic church was interesting. I left my shoes on a rack outside and entered. The alter was basically the same as some American alters. Instead of pews they at two straw mats with and isle and on both sides. I had a great time walking amoung the Japanese people and they were all polite. In later years I thought that was not too bright for suppose I had run across a fanatic, I am dead. I have always felt that war is stupid.

11-20-2003 Post By Gene Holtmeyer.

This is an e-mail received
Good news. Another Officer has been fond!
To Don Priewe: ( son of Don Priewe, Gunnery Oficer)It was so nice to hear from you and to find out that your dad is still alive. The last time I saw him I was 21 and now I am 79 so you would think there might not be too many of us left. Your dad was my favorite officer. He seemed like a very nice guy and he liked the way I shot my 20mm gun. I was from Houston, Texas but I married a girl from Mound, Minnesota which is 20 miles from downtown Minneapolis on Lake Minnetonka so have lived up here since I was 28. I have had a fantastic life from a job standpoint and have 3 wonderful children and 5 wonderful grandchildren.

Tell him that Bill Borough Bill EM 3/c has put a nice site on the Internet and that is how all of this got started about two months ago. I kept a diary aboard ship and I was able to add our day to day adventures starting when we picked it up in New Orleans on January 3, 1945 until after Japan surrendered in August. I sent it to Bill 3 or 4 days ago and no doubt he will have it on the Internet on his site shortly if it is not already there. Otherwise if he is interested I can send him a copy. I always have trouble finding it and if I ever find it again I will put it on my desktop. You can get the email address from him. There is a complete list of all the staff on the internet and on my list. In fact why don't I just send it to you and you can give it to him.

11-14 2003 Posted By Gene Holtmeyer

This is an e-mail received
It is his latest recollections with dates and events during his time on PGM 31. Very well done.
Keep in mind in the beginning you are looking at this through the eyes of a 20 year old Seaman 2/c and you can’t get much lower than that.

Ships Officers

Lt. Jack Glassford		The Skipper
J.N. Cutler		Executive Office
Randell Guyer		Communications Officer
D.E. Priewe		Gunnery Officer
Bill Bond		Engineering Oficer

Ships Crew

Asel, Ernest	Klein, Leonard J.
Benson, Jack	Korta, Gilbert
Blackwell, William	Kozlowski, Stan
Borough, Bill EM 3/c	Kramer, Frank A
Brady, George	Mahoney, Herbert
Broches, Howell "Red"	Maur, M.L
Brownell, Dick	Metelak, H.B. Chief BM
Brunsman, Joseph	Miller, C.L. Howard
Burrell, Ben	Moorhead. J.E.
Chartek, Louis	Nelson, Johnny
Costa, Lawrence A. RM 2/c	Nielsen, Alvin (Skip)
Cvarovsky, Joe cook	O’Connor, Tom
Depew, M.A.	O’Donnell, John
Davis, Green (the other Steward)	Owens, Charles HR
Dickey, Howard	Patrick, George W.
Dzroiwgo, Joseph	Powers, Richard T. Genes buddy
Espe, R. K.	Rode, L.C. or E. cook
Fisher, Ben GM 2/	Thomas, Leo
Hance, Rual	Totten, John
Hawthorne, C.A.	Van Allen, William
Head, Alvin	Westberry, Pete
Holtmeyer, Gene	Williamson, Maxwell
Humphries, Jr , Calvin	Wilson, R. J.
Mc Artor, Jim B.	Woelfel, Robert
Mc Clellan, Roy

The above is our crew when we started out.

1/4/45 upon arrival in New Orleans, they put us right to work at the Naval Repair Base. We spent 1/5 and 6 driving stakes for a fence. On the 7th which was Sunday we did not have to work but I had the 6-12 duty and I got soaking wet. On the 8th we went out for a stay at Shell beach for gunnery practice. I was taught how to take a 50 caliber apart and put it back together and then they made me a 20mm gunner. That’s the Navy for you. We would fire at planes flying on screens. I know I did extremely well on that because it was just like leading a receiver in football and I had thrown many a football. On the 9th -11th we fired at a sleeve being towed by a plane. We also fired the 3” today and I was one of the loaders. Those things get heavy and it is very noisy. I was put on mess cook duty for three days and then we boarded our ship at exactly 2pm on the 16th. On the 12th we fired the 3” and it is noisy and the shells are heavy. From the 13th to the 16th they put me on mess cook duty again. 1/17 to 1/21 we moved the ship to the Boling Dock on the New Orleans side of the Mississippi. We scraped the rust off the anchor chain and painted it on the forth. Then we started sewing provisions on the life rafts which took 3 days. On the 25th and 26th we were demagnetized and picked up fuel. 27th We picked up ammunition and stores today. We left New Orleans at 8:15am on the 28th and reached the Gulf of Mexico at 3:3 0 and by 6pm 5 men were seasick. In route we chased a sub for 2 hours but lost it. We arrived in Miami at 8:30am on 2/1. It was so rough we had to eat cafeteria style. 2/1/45 from the 2nd until the 16th we were firing guns at targets. One day they brought radio controlled small planes and Nelson shot one down. For three days we bombarded Woman Island with our 3”just for practice. The following is a picture of the 3”. Note there are wheels on each side one which allows you to raise of lower the barrel and the other to turn it. The 17th – 21 we painted the sides of the ship. On the 21st we moved from dry dock to Pier 2. On the 22nd we picked up ammunition and at 20:05 we left for the Panama Canal. The weather was calm on the 23rd but as soon as we past Cuba it started to get rough. Going across the Caribbean turned out to be the roughest weather we would ever face. On the 26th we did a roll of 45 degrees which threw Williamson clean across the pilot house. Then a 40 degree roll got O’ Donnell. We had one roll that threw me off the helm against the Starboard bulkhead (wall) and as I went flying back by the helm I grabbed it and hung on for dear life rather than hit the bulkhead on the Port side. It felt like my arms were being pulled out of the sockets. My relief was seasick and laying on the pilot house deck my other relief was sitting at the radar with a bucket between his knees. About once an hour either Williamson or Jack Anderson would relieve me on the helm and I would go get a cup of coffee. We were the only three on our watch of 16 guys that did not get sick. I found that when I started feeling like I might get sick I would go get a piece of bread. It might have been psychological but it did the trick. The Skipper came up and I am at the helm smoking a cigar and he said “Why Holtmeyer I did not realize you were an old salt”. “Oh Yes Sir”. We arrived in Cristobel on the 27th and we went shore on liberty. Cristobel is on the Atlantic side of the Canal and Colon is on the Pacific side. We spent all day on 3/1 going through the canal - very beautiful and enjoyable. We would drive into the first lock they would close it behind us and fill it with water. Then they open the forward gate and we drive in. Again they would close it behind us and fill it with water. The same thing happened on the 3rd lot and then we were up to the rivers height. Unfortunately we had no time to get supplies at Cristobel and we had a lot of rice fixed in every way imaginable. It was years before I would try rice again. Even today I am not too fond of it. When we reached the Pacific it was the same height as the canal so we just kept going. The sea was smooth today off the coast of Nicaragua also the next day off the coast of El Salvador. Also smooth the next off of Guatemala. We saw several schools of porpoise with perhaps up to 1,000 in a school. It was fun to watch them dive back and forth just in front of the bow of the boat. 3/5 It started to get a little rough and we were having trouble with the Port engine. On 3/6 we found that we just missed two storms off the coast of Tiawanipec. 3/7 we pulled into Manarillo, Mexico for refueling. 3/8 Smooth sailing today. 3/9 we are off the coast of Southern California. 3/10 we pulled into the Naval Repair Base at San Diego. Speaking of that, there were a lot of signs that said “Dogs and Sailors keep off the grass.” I certainly gave me a warm feeling knowing we were going to risk our lives for a bunch of Jackass’s like that.” I could not believe anyone could be so stupid and every time I think of San Diego I think of that. Of course it was only 58 years ago. We shifted births to the end of Broadway. 3/13 we left for Hawaii on at 16:00 hours. 3/14 we had a rough night and we passed a huge transport with Marines all over it. 3/15 the waves were so high that when we were down in the hollow, we could not see the horizon for the wave. Things calmed down and the only thing we saw was an empty life raft. One thing I neglected to mention was that the Exec. Cutler missed Miami by 50 miles when we went there. We need not have worried as he hit all the islands on the nose. However he could use his sextet in case he got off course. Which reminds me, later on for one day the ocean was as smooth as glass. 3/21 we arrived at Pearl Harbor. I went downtown Honolulu one day and then out to Waikiki beach. It felt exactly like I was in Galveston, Texas. Other than that, we played softball against five other ships and won them all. Obviously coming into Pearl we saw the ships that were sunk by the 12/7/41 attack on Pearl. 3/27 - 3/28 Guess what, we painted over the side of the ship again. #$%^&. 3/31 we left Pearl Harbor at 0900 heading west. A Navy PBY pulled a target over and we were at GQ for 3 hours of firing practice. Started on the 12 to 4 watch this morning meaning we were on from 24:00 to 0400 and from 12:00 to 16:00 hours. Here are just a few tidbits. When we crossed the 180th meridian on 4/5 we all became members of the Golden Dragon. In addition time changed and it was the 5th of the month this morning from 2400 hours until 1200 hours and it was the 6th from 1200 hours to 2400 hours. That is how we gained a day. 4/10 we pulled into Eniwetok at 10:00 and we must have had about 300 ships at that island. It was nothing but a sandy atoll. Not one tree or bush except for a few palm trees. We picked up supplies and water. Later the US would use this to test the atomic bomb. April 17th we pulled into Ulithi in the Caroline Islands. On 4/13We heard that President Roosevelt had died three days before. We heard about two weeks later that Germany had surrendered. 4/18 we were allowed to go swimming over the side. We were in the harbor so protected from the sea. Two guys grabbed Asel and threw him in with his cloths on. He is floundering around hollering “Help I can’t swim.” The two guys dove in with their cloths on and Asel swam over and climbed up the ladder. So he had the last laugh. The next day we watched a shark swam right through the area where we had been swimming. At 10:00 hours some Jap planes tried to reach Ulithe but were shot down by the Air Force. We had gone to GQ. In fact, since we were now in what was called “the front area” we went to GQ every morning and evening. On the 19th we left for Pelilu and that night a bomber flew over and challenged us and the signalman who had just come on duty forgot the code name. We had to send someone down to wake the former signalman to get it. Finally the Skipper said “For Gods sake send him something. Send him anything.” I was on lookout so I heard everything that went on. Finally we got the signal and sent it to him. Since I had time on my hands I learned the flag signals and I got so I could read them just as well as the signalman. One day one particular word stumped him but I was able to read it right away. After he asked them to repeat it five times I finally told him what it was. I didn’t want to show him up but it was obvious that he was never going to be able to get it. On April 20, we arrived at Pelilu in the Palau Islands. We controlled 5% of the island at both the north and south and the Jap’s still held the other 90%. We controlled the air and the sea so they are not going anywhere nor are they getting anything in. On the 22nd a bloated dead body floated past our ship. The Skipper said not to touch it as it could be booby trapped. He had two grenades attached to his waist and something hanging from his neck by a rope We wiped out a Jap lookout post with Twin 40mm fire. Here are some more stupid things that happened. They put us on Air/Sea rescue. The islands are 200 miles long and we are at the farthest point north. A pilot was shot down about 100 miles south of us and they asked us to pick him up. At flank speed (meaning top speed) since we can only do 22 knots (a knot equals 1.15 miles per hour) it is going to take us almost 5 hours to reach him. After we had gone about 50 miles they radioed back to forget it. They had landed a PBY and picked him up which is obviously what they should have done in the first place. We did what I thought was some other stupid things. We went among the islands and at times we were so close that I could have thrown a baseball and hit land without too much effort. I was strapped in my 20mm so I pulled my helmet down over my eyebrows and hid as much as possible behind my gun. On 4/27 we were sent out to destroy three Jap radio towers. We sat off still in the water about a mile and fired 96 rounds at them. It was not an easy shot because the waves were rocking our ship big time. At any rate we fired 96 rounds of 3” at it. (3” in diameter.) Not only did we not destroy the towers, I never saw a shell hit the island. I understand however that we destroyed some barracks. There was a city about 5 miles beyond so who knows we may have hit the city many times. We picked up a bamboo raft along the way. That night we loaded 96 more rounds, in the rain, and the next day we went back. Just as we fired our first shot I saw a puff of smoke come up off the island and a 5” shell hit just off our bow. We knew they had two 5” guns. Normally when we would get underway the Skipper would say slowly “All ahead 1/3rd, then “all ahead 2/3rds”, then “all ahead full” and finally “all ahead flank.” Now say that as fast as you can possible say it and you will know how long it too us to get up to flank speed. Needless to say, we never went back. Somewhere along the way we picked up a Jap boat about 40 feet long and almost submerged. Which reminds me that before we reached Pearl Harbor we spotted an empty life raft but then lost it. I would like to know the story on that one. By the way the harbor where we were anchored was called “Sing, Sing”. Most of us slept in the bow of the ship. One morning at breakfast we heard that the forward lookout, I am pretty sure it was Broaches, had spotted a mine floating dead ahead and relayed that fact to the bridge. I understand the Officer hollered “Left full rudder” and that mine went right along the right side of the ship. We then destroyed it. Because he saved the ship they promoted him to Seaman first class. 5/1/45 we saw three Japs running for a cave and we were about 100 to 150 yards or so out. It was my turn to fire but they would not let me fire until they had reached the cave. My questions – why only one 20mm firing? Why the delay I could have nailed all three of them before they reached the cave? I put 50 of the 60 rounds into the mouth of the cave. The gunnery officer Don Priewe passed down the word “fantastic firing Holtmeyer”. He came down right after and I told him “I had taken my front sight off to straighten it just before we went to GQ. I was firing using strictly the tracer bullets.” The next day he ordered all of the front sights taken off of the guns. He had them put back on when we went to Okinawa. The more I thought about it it seemed to me that we were not really trying to kill any of them, we were just getting gunnery practice and by firing individually they could tell who was able to shoot. Our next stop was to be Okinawa. Quite frankly, if I were in command I would have left them alone entirely. They were not going to be able to do any damage. 5/3/45 we were anchored and suddenly started bouncing off of a reef. They had to send two landing craft out to push us off the reef. We had to head back to Ulithi to get the screws (propellers) repaired 5/4/45 three of us went ashore on “liberty” on an island called Hells Pocket. There were Jap shoes scattered all over the island also bones, guns, ammunition. On the top of Bloody Nose Ridge we sat by the monument that read “Lest We Forget Those Who Died” 323 Infantry 1944. I picked up one Jap helmet and a skull fell out. I decided I did not want it as a souvenir. 5/5/45 – 5/6/45 for some reason they sent us to Kossar (which is still in the Palau’s) and then back to Ulithi. Arrived in Ulithi on 5/8/45 5/9/45 spent the day tooling around the harbor and checking up on out screws. We missed the convoy to Okinawa. 5/10/45 today we tied up to the Ajax which was in turn tied to the battleship Tennessee. 5/11/45 we went ashore today on Mog Mog and played some basketball. We remained tied up alongside the Ajax through 5/16. 5/17/45 we went into dry-dock today and guess what – this offered us the opportunity to paint the bottom of the ship. The screws were either fixed and put back on or else we got new screws. 5/18/45 made a trial run today and everything is fine. 5/19/45 - picked up ammunition both days. 5/20/45- 3 of us painted the forward storage compartment. I went top side to get more paint. I said “Hi ya Boats” to Metelak and he said “What have you been drinking. Then he said “Good God have you guys been down in the hold all this time? Get the others up here right away. We were the same as drunk from the paint fumes. No wonder most of the painters I have ever met were alcoholics. 5/23/45 and 24 we are on our way to Okinawa at last along with a bunch of other smaller ships. We are going to GQ every sunrise and sunset. 5/25 another convoy passed us on the way to Okinawa. It was not as large as ours and did not have any slow moving LCI’s in it like we did which slowed us down. 5/26 we spotted two aircraft at GQ this morning and we found that Task Force 58 was about 5 miles from us. 5/27 we spotted a Jap Cruiser and three Destroyers. We only had small ships so we all split up and went off on our own. If looked like a Chinese fire drill. 5/28 sighted two of our destroyers about 20:00 hours. 5/29 we finally arrived at Karama Retto in the Okinawa Islands. On the way in we saw a PGM which had been beached for some reason but did not find out why. Also a Destroyer was towed in by a tugboat with a big hole in the fantail (back). The first night there we put our smoke pot over the bow of the ship instead of the fantail. We all inhaled a lot of smoke. The Japs hit an LST and two Destroyers tonight. 5/30 we heard they played hell at the other end of the channel. There were 1,000 of our ships here so we are all sitting ducks for Kamikaze Pilots. For the last two nights we have been at GQ most of the night in the rain. 5/31 we have to show our movies at 14:00 hours now. We received mail again today. The Kamikaze planes came from both sides just at dusk. Only three got through but one hit an LST and two hit destroyers. 6/1 we were at GQ from 0200 until 0345.It was raining all the while. We hear they played hell at the other end of the channel. We did not hear what go hit. 6/2 we had to stand at GQ in the rain again. A Jap bomber flew over tonight but we did not get any word that they caused havoc. 6/3 we spent the day going up and down Karama Passage. The Japs laid off tonight because of foul weather. 6/4-6/5 Typhoon is on the way so we moved into an area called Kantena Bay, Untenko. It missed us however. We got to go ashore and I gave one woman 5 cigarettes and she bowed. At 4 cents a pack, that cost me a penny. When they saw Britton (who is black) they ran. He is very mild mannered and nice person. We each had a 45 on our hip. I cut a piece of the sun from a Jap Francis which had been shot down. Have no idea what I did with it. 6/6 we received word that the typhoon missed so we returned to Karama Passage. 6/7 we went to GQ 5 times last night. Notice they usually always come at night and it sure screws up our sleep. We have not had anything happen since 6:30 and it is now 18:00 hours. They hit the south end of Karama Passage. I am so tired from lack of sleep that I took my helmet off, sat on it and leaned against the Twin 40 conning tower and went to sleep. I told my loader George Patrick, to wake me if they came over. Frankly I honestly don’t care if I live or die anymore. 6/8 we went to GQ 7 times today. 6/9 we went to GQ 5 times last night. They sank an LCM which was anchored next to us last night. It sank in about 5 minutes. Word is going around that our next invasion is a little island off Formosa. Why? That doesn’t make sense. Japan is the place we need to hit. 6/10 we took on stores today. No planes. 6/11- 12 another typhoon warning and we headed for Northern Okinawa again. The typhoon missed so we came back. 6/13 we picked up our orders today. We left tonight with 28 other ships, mostly mine sweepers, to go 120 miles SW to sweep a mine field. 6/14 to 16 we swept mines approximately 20 miles off the coast off the Japanese island of Sackashima Gunto. We had great air cover from Corsairs and F6Fs. 6/18 the Destroyer ahead of us shot down the only two Jap planes to bother us today. It is not much fun watching for both mines and planes at the same time. 6/19 we are still destroying mines today and shrapnel flew all over the ship. A big piece nailed Depew in the shoulder. He is the twin 40 gunner and it right behind my gun. Another piece got Woelfel in the back on the Bridge. 6/20 we returned to Karama Passage today and I only had two letters waiting. 6/21 – 6/22 we had 24 air attacks last night so were at GQ most of the night. They let us sack in today. They sank an LSM, APD and damaged an SV and two others last night. Don’t ask me what those were as I don’t remember anymore. 6/23- 6/24 we headed back out to the mine field today. 6/25 Back at Karama Passage again today. The air attacks have slowed a lot. They are not sinking as many as they were. 6/26 went ashore on liberty for the first time in about 45 days. We climbed to the top of a hill and sat there awhile. We then kicked the football around for awhile. 6/27 I have not mentioned anything about my Yeoman work. I had to keep up with the logs but usually I only did one or two at a time. This time we had been busy and I did not have time to do them. Today I typed 12 pages (days). Remember I said I could not have an erasure I finished one and I had typed the area for the signature of the officer which was J.N. Cutler and then his title Lt. JG. The ship rolled and the typewriter carriage stayed in the same place so I had to do it all over. 6/28 we got paid today for the first time since Palau. Powers and I got money orders for our crew from the crew of the PA214. I sent $40.00 home. My entire pay was $55.00 per month however I gave my folks a dependents check of about $44.00 a month so I was risking my neck for $11.00 a month. Think about that the next time you bitch about the salary you receive today. One thing I will say however was that cigarettes were 40 cents a carton. Time Out for a couple of things that happened that for some reason I don’t know the dates. Speaking of Typhoons, we got caught in the tail end of one once at sea. There was water all over the ship. I went down to get breakfast and it was so rough we served cafeteria style. The floor of the mess hall was wet. The guy in front of me tried to make it to the table on the other side of the ship and didn’t. He landed on his butt and slid clean across the ship holding coffee up in one hand and his tray in the other. I timed it and slammed my tray down on the table and grabbed the table and held on until we started to roll the other way and then I sat down. That reminds me I spotted a Jap bomber coming in just above the water. I was near my 20mm so I hooked up in a flash. By that time had I fired I would have strafed all of our ships between it and us. Would you believe that ship flew completely through the harbor and out the other side? 6/30, 6/31, 7/1, 2nd we remained anchored all time except we picked up stores on the 2nd. It gave me a chance to bring the ships Logs up to date. 7/3 thru 7/10 we went out with minesweepers for two days to practice formation for the invasion of Japan. We also worked on a minefield after that. 7/11 we helped deliver the mail to the smaller ships in the harbor. We would go directly at a ship from the side and someone would Stand on the bow and throw the mail pouch over. Believe it or not, we never lost one in the water. One day, however, the Officer of the Day (and I am not saying who it was) did not reverse engines quickly enough and we plowed into the side of one ship and smashing one lift raft to pieces. We also transported a Doctor from one ship to another. 7/12 -7/14 mine sweeping. 7/15 I took a picture from the conning tower showing the bow throwing water about 30 feet in the air. We finally arrived back at Buckner Bay. 7/16 picked up supplies today in preparation for our next mine sweeping job. 7/17 another Typhoon on the way so we pulled out for Typhoon Anchorage about 1600 but we stayed underway all night for some reason. I received a box of cookies from my Aunt Hanna as I recall I did not get to eat a lot of them. 7/18- 7/19 we finally pulled into Typhoon Anchorage in Northern Okinawa. We also got to go swimming again –both days 7/20 -7/21 I had taken my test for Seaman 1st class and passed early on so then I started working toward Yeoman 3rd class except my typing test which I was surprised that I had to take because of my work on the Logs. We came back to Buckner Bay. 7/22 heading out to sweep mines again. 7/23 Jim McArtor had been shot in the chest and while underway we transferred him via a basket to a ship that had a doctor. He was sent back to Buckner Bay. I happened to be on the helm at the time so everybody forgot about me. This was my first time to try anything like this. It was my job to keep us going straight. The closer I got to the other ship the more the pressure built up between the two until at the end I was at right full rudder. Both ships were going the same way of course. We never saw Jim again nor did we ever hear if he made it OK. If any of his relatives read this we would appreciate knowing. Bill’s email is bill@boroweb.com and mine is g.holtmeyer@comcast.net. 7/24 we went mine sweeping today. 7/25 we delivered mail to 21 ships today. 7/26 – 7/30 sweeping mines and we are finally done with this field. 7/31 we arrived in Buckner Bay only to find we had to go to Typhoon Anchorage again. 8/1 while there I got a lot more done on the logs. Except for 8/3 when I slept all day. 8/4 – 8/6 the storm scare is over and on the 6th we started back to Buckner Bay. 8/7 went ashore to church but missed it. Found some Japanese writing but later found it was not important. I would have sent it to a person had it been a letter. 8/8 we have not painted this stupid ship for a long time (maybe 1 to 2 months) so guess what we painted over the side today. Now we heard about the atomic bombs being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the next day. Here is a picture of a shell that held the atomic bomb. 8/9 we heard that Russia had declared war on Japan. They would not need to fly too far to bomb Japan. 8/10 we got liberty ashore today but our ride back to the ship did not come for us or we missed it. We spent the night on the fantail (back part) of a mine sweeper with life jackets for a pillow. One of the guys said “My God it looks like you are sitting right on top of those mines when you blow them up.” I told him we were about 40 to 50 yards away.” That is why we were having shrapnel hit the deck of the ship as we were obviously too close, Jack Glassford. When were first started destroying mines we would fire the 20mm with short bursts. As we became braver we moved closer and fired the 50 caliber machine guns and finally we handed anyone on duty a rifle. In fact that night we were awakened at 2200 hours to every ship in the harbor firing their smaller guns which had tracer bullets into the air, also pyrotechnics and searchlights. Somebody hollered the war is over. That was the most beautiful spectacle I have ever seen. It makes present fireworks display look like child’s play in comparison. Most of the 1,000 ships were firing. 8/11 we heard it was not officially over but we knew it would be shortly. 8/12 If you recall early on I made up my mind that I was going to die, if not at Okinawa from a Kamikaze pilot or when we hit Japan which would have been next. After I reconciled myself to that fact, I was at peace and I never worried about getting killed again. That is until the bombs were dropped and we found out we were going on that mine sweep to the North. We were told that we expected to lose 25 ships but I don't know if that was common knowledge. Then my demeanor changed and I thought "Oh my God it will be my luck to get killed on one of the last days of the war." Now I am back to acting normal again. Here is perhaps the most stupid of all the things that we ever had to do. August 12th, it is obvious that the war is going to be over so what the Hell are we doing going on a mission where we expected to lose 25 ships? Fortunately the Japs were a little more intelligent and did not come after us. I don't remember the Destroyer Escorts being along with us but it makes sense that they were. I do remember we had a number of Corsairs (planes) flying cover. 8/13 today is my birthday here but it won’t be until tomorrow in the States. One of the minesweepers was damaged and it had to turn back. It must have hit a mine. We kept the water tight doors closed so it evidently just had water in one compartment. 8/25 we swept mines from the 13th until today and we arrived back in Buckner Bay. In the meantime the war had officially ended somewhere around the 15th over there as I recall. The 14th in the States. 8/28 - we left for another sweep of Area x-ray just off the coast of Korea. We swept for about 7 days. We thought we were going back to Buckner Bay but instead we went to the Jap Naval Base at Sasebo, Japan. We had to sweep our way into the harbor. I remember seeing all those big Jap Navel Vessels. It was impressive. A few days later a typhoon hit us, I was in the mess hall when another ship banged into us. I climbed to the top of the ladder and I could see one of our ships with both anchors out and they were going fast backwards. I thought for certain we were going to find it on the rocks in the morning but we didn't. Later we went ashore at Sasebo all the guys wanted to go drinking which I could never understand. I knew I would never be back here so I wanted to see how they lived. I took off on my own and the first thing I did was visit a Catholic Church. I left my shoes outside in a rack. The alter looked like any American alter. The big difference was that there were two large straw mats that took up the entire area where we would have pews. There was an aisle down each side and one down the middle. You have heard the saying that there are no atheists in fox holes. That certainly is true. I said the rosary every night when I was in the war zone. From the church I walked around the area and into a suburb. I wanted to buy three kimonos one for Peggy and my mother and my sister Myrtle. I don’t know where I would have gotten the money. Anyway the only thing they showed for sale was used dishes. Were they really that bad off or did they think we would just take what we wanted. So I did not buy anything. As I said Richard T. Powers was my buddy and I tried to reach him about 10 or so years ago. There are 153 Richard Powers in the NE. He owned a small town newspaper in a small town in New York at one time. I did not know the T. part at the time. These are the various ships we saw: CARRIERS – Shangri-La, Ranger, Enterprise, Yorktown, Wake Island, and Midway. BATTLESHIPS – Mississippi, New Jersey, Iowa, Tennessee, New Mexico, Idaho, Nevada, California, Wisconsin. CRUISERS – Quincy, Alaska, Guam, San Diego and Tuscaloosa

08-20-2004 poast By Bill Johnson

Request:
I am the eldest son of Howard K. Johnson who served on the PGM-17 from 24 Oct.44 when it was commissioned in Florida until 4 May 45 when it was "dstroyed by grounding Okinawa, Ryukyu islands" Other records I have been able to find indicate that the PGN-17 was decommisioned on 2 July 45. My Father never spoke of his service and died young many years ago. I was able to get his personnel records (some of them anyway) and have been trying to trace his Navy service. Records show that after the PGM-17 he was transferred to ATR-( and participated in the occupation of Japan. I think it may have been in Nagasaki. I'm writing this to ask if anyone has any knowledge of PGM-17 or its crew or ATR-(. He was returned to the States on the USS Electra on 25 October 45 and discharged on 20 November. The PGM 31 deck logs and the blogs have heen very helpful.
Thanks, Bill Johnson

07-24-2004 Post By Henry Zeman.

Here's my color photo of PGM in the Pacific, (Ediror's note. It looks like PGM 24 is on the side).

In the fall of 1945, I was a pharmacist's mate aboard the PGM 23 and while we in port at Sasebo, Japan we received a number of whole turkeys to be used for Thanksgiving and Christmas that were stored in the ship's cooler.

On Thanksgiving we had a feast of turkey and all the trimings, punpkin pie, etc. Later, we left Japan with a trace of snow on the ground sometimes in mid December. While we were on our way home, it was assumed that we would celebrate Christmas on the high seas. Several days before Christmas the cook approached me telling me that our turkeys were getting a little "ripe" and he didn't want to cook them in this condition. I examined them and it was apparant that they did not look good. I talked to the captain and he told me that if I thought someone could get sick to give them the deep six. So with the cook handing me the turkeys, I tossed them overboard from the fantail giving sharks a royal feast. Myself, I felt like scrooge, spoiling the crews their Christmas dinner. In the end, we did have turkey that day, but it came from a can, of which we had plenty.
Henry F. Zeman Pharmicists Mate 1/c

06-10-2004 Post By Bill Borough

E-mail sent to Henry. Hi Henry: I am Bill borough the guy that put up the PGM 31 website. Thank you for signing the guest book. I would be glad post you color photo of a PGM on the website. Please send it to:
Bill Borough
1536 SE 13th ST
Deerfield Beach, FL 33441

Also I can post any sea stories you might have
Bill

06-10-2004 Post By Henry Zeman

Signed our guest book.

Name: Henry Zeman Ph 1/c E-mail: hfzeman@cs.com

City: Grand Rapids MI Country:

Homepage: Date: 10-Jun-2004 19:44:38

Message:



I was aboard the PGM 23 serving off Okinawa in WW II.
I have a color photograph of a PGM in the Pacific
if anyone is interested in such a photo.

05-11-2005 Post By Victor Decker

The PGM 31 website recieved the following message :

To: Bill Borough

Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 4:21 AM

Subject: Ernest P. Asal, PGM31

Hey Bill...

I just wanted to personally thank you for the website. My grandfather, Ernest Asal, will be very happy to find out about it.... though he isnt much into the electronic information age...I was excited to see the Ship's Blog with a story about him. He will find it funny...as he would probably try the same joke today if he was ever tossed into any body of water. I am an avid WWII buff ..especially the Pacific Theater. I watch and own many shows about the Navy during the War. And i am definitly a true supporter of those who are serving and those who have served.

My wife is currently in the Navy and that has spurred me on to learn more and more.

God Bless You for what you and my Papa and all of your shipmates and fellow Seaman did for this country. For if it wasnt for you i may not have even been born...and if so...not into the world i know today.

I salute you sir!!

Victor Decker

08-24-2003 Post By Bill Borough

After they dropped the atom booms, there was a week after Japan surrendered that nothing happened. They sent us up to sweep mines of the cost of Nagasaki. Our duty was to detonate the mines when they were cut loose. We had 30 ships out their, Mine Sweepers, Destroyer Escorts and PGMs. Then along came a typhoon. Our navy officer got hold of the Japanese officers and told the they had all these ships out at sea and would you please help us. They Did. They told us the way thru the mine fields. We all got in a line and drove up the cost and in the safe harbor of Sasebo, The first foreigner ships in the there secret naval base for a 100 years

Does this sound OK to you. This is what I remembered but there was no mention of this in the ships log. I figure they didn't put it in because we were the first in to Japan and it would spoil all the big shots publicity going in the Tokyo.

Send me your pictures and I will post them. Do you know any names of the crews pictures I have up so far? I plan post you very informative e-mail too. Again good to hear from you.

Bill Borough 954.428.4368

bill@boroweb.com www.boroweb.com

08-23-2003 at 3:40 PM Post By Gene Holtmeyer

Gene Holtmeyer Was a PGM 31 crew member. It is great to hear from you also and once I saw your picture I remembered you. I am 79 so you must be about the same age. I had just turned 21 on August 13th and the war ended on the 14th over here. when the war ended. I wonder if there are very many of us left or if f they use the computer.To answer your questions about how did I find the site. I wish I knew I tried to find it again to get the second page of the list of the crew and could not find it. As I recall I typed in something like USNavyShipsWWII and your site was the second one listed. I could not believe my eyes. I tried about 2 or 3 hours to bring it up again and was unable to find it. Can you give me that address please. By the way, I typed those ships logs you saw and I could not have any erasures. The names of the Officers are all correct.

Before I proceed, I made up my mind that I was going to die, if not at Okinawa from a Kamakazi pilot or when we hit Japan which would have been next. After I reconciled myself to that fact, I was at peace and I never worried about getting killed again. That is until the bombs were dropped and we found out we were going on that mine sweep to the North which you mentioned. We were told that we expected to lose some ships but I don't know if that was common knowledge.Then my demeaner changed and I thought "Oh my God it will be my luck to get killed on one of the last days of the war." Now I am back to acting normal again..

I don't remember the Destroyer Escorts being along with us but it makes sense that they were. I do remember we had a number of Coursairs (planes) flying cover.

Regarding the incident at Sasebo. As I recall we were heading for Sasebo anyway but we had to sweep our way into the harbor. I remember seeing all those big Jap Navel Vessels. It was impressive. Re:The typhoon .I was in the mess hall when another ship hit us. I jumped to the top of the ladder and I could see one of our ships with both anchors out and they were going fast backwards. I thought for certain we were going to find it on the rocks in the morning but we didn't. Your version is as good or better than mine. Incidently I was wrong when I said ODonnell was the Quartermaster but it was Williamson.. Here is a list of the guys that I had sign my book with the exception of Green Davis and William Blackwell. I noticed they have a few of the names mispelled my first name is spelled Frederick that has been a pain all my life. It is an old German custom my dad's was the same way his first name was George but he was known as Ed.

Humphries, Koslowsky, Kellerhals, Humphries,need to be changed. The only one I am not positive about is
Kellehhals as it is difficult to read his writing.

The following is a list of the ships officers and crew taken by Gene Holtmeyer shortly after the war ended on August 24th 1945

Ships Officers Bill Bond JN Cutler D.E. Priewe Randell Guyer Lt. Jack Glassford

Ships Crew Asel, Ernest Benson, Jack Blackwell, William Borough, Bill Em 3/c Brady, George Broches, Howell "Red" Brownell, Dick Brunsman, Joseph Brunsman, Joseph Burrell, Ben Chartek, Louis Costa, Lawrance A. RM 2/c Cvarovsky, Joe cook Depew, M.A. Davis, Green (the other Steward) Dickey, Howard Dzroiwgo, Josph Espe, R. K. Fisher, Ben GM 2/ Hance, Rual Hawthorne, C.A. Head, Alvin Holtmeyer, Gene Humphries, Jr , Calvin

Ships Crew Klein, Leonard J. Korta, Gilbert Kozlowski, Stan Kramer, Frank A Mahoney, Herbert Maur, M.L Mc Artor, Jim B. Mc Clellan, Roy Metelak, H.B. Chief BM Miller, C.L. Howard Moorhead. J.E. Nelson, Johnny Nielsen, Alvin (Skip) Oconnor, Tom Odonnell, John Owens, Charles HR Patrick, George W. Powers, Richard T. Genes buddy Rode, L.C. or E. cook Thomas, Leo Totten, John Van Allen, William Westberry, Pete Williamson, Maxwell Wilson, R. J. Woelfel, Robert

At times it was difficult reading their writing but I think these are all correct.

As to the pictures you show I could not see them even with my maginfying glass.

The one thing I remember about Asel is that two guys threw him in the water at Mog Mog and he is splashing around yelling Help I can't swim. The two guys dove in whereupon Asel swam over to the ladder and climbed out so he had the last laugh.

It took me about six months to finish boot camp. I get Spinal Meningitus about half way through and spend 4 days in intensive care and was then moved out to the ward. A beautiful nurse developed a crush on me and she would give me back rubs while the Corpsman gave rubs to the others. She played cribbage with me and gave me all sorts of attention. Finally one day she asked me how old I was.

Now this taught me a lesson the hard way why did she want to know? stupid me I said 18. She said "Oh I thought you were about 24." From that point on I started getting back rubs from the corpsmen too. I hardly ever saw her again. I went home on a 38 day leave. Went back and finished boot camp and went on an 11 day leave. The night before I was suppose to leave I got pneumonia and they took me out to Ellington Field Air Force Base. After two days one guy looked at my chart on the foot of the bed. He said "S 2/c what kind of rating is that?"

I told him and he hollers hey guys we have a swabby here. After that they could not do enough for me. Take me to the mess hall for pie and ice cream at night etc. Also many WAFS would come but just to see what a sailor looked like. Mitsy Gaynor (South Pacific) sang a song at the end of my bed looking in my eyes the whole time. I know my face was really red and I finally pulled the covers over my head. After 15 days I am ready to leave. The doctor said "I am going to put you on another 16 days leave.I was home a lot of the time but I never got another leave. When I get back to San Diego they shipped me to Balboa Park.

They could not ship me out because they don't have my papers. They put me on mess cook duty and I was put on in charge of the garbage locker. I supervised for the most pay for 1 1/2 hours work a day. After about 3 months the finally they found my papers and sent to Miami. I spent 6 weeks in Small Craft Training School and when I got out they could not ship me out because they don't have my pay records.
I had to write home for money. So they sent me through the course again. Again they cannot ship me out so they put me on mess cook duty. I started playing catcher on the station softball team. The Lt. in change called down and had me put on 4am to noon duty because we were playing other bases and the games were at 2pm. I also played on the team on the base in the evening so I played a total of 64 ball games.

Then came flag football and the Lt put me in charge of one team. We won all of our games except two that were all ex college players at least. Then the basketball season started and I made the station team but about that time Roosevelt put out and edict that anyone who had been stateside for two years had to go overseas. If he had not done that I could have played sports the rest of my time in the Navy. It was at that time that I joined with the PGM-31 group.

I was shipped from San Diego to Miami. I lined up a beautiful girl in Miami and had about 6 dates with her. I got transferred to New Orleans and we were in Marty Burkes. Some sailor was giving this girl a bad time on the dance floor so I cut in on him. She thanked me and invited me out to her house Sunday for a chicken dinner. We shipped out Saturday for Miami. I lined up another girl in Miami and we shipped out for San Diego. The thing that bugs me is that they all think I dumped them because I did not say goodbye since we never knew when we were going to sail.

When we were going across the Caribbean if you recall it was the roughest weather we ever faced. We had one roll that threw me off the helm against the bulkhead as I went flying by the helm I grabbed it and hung on for dear life rather than hit the bulkhead on the other side. It felt like my arms were being pulled out of the sockets. My relief was seasick and lying on the pilot house floor my other relief as sitting at the radar with a bucket between his knees. About once an hour either Williamson or Jack Anderson would relive me on the helm and I would go get a cup of coffee. We were about the only three topside that did not get sick. I found that when I started feeling like I might get sick I would go get a piece of bread. It might have been psychological but it did the trick.

My job at sea was half hour stints on the helm, radar and lookout. Do you remember when we transferred the fellow who was shot in the chest over to another ship with a doctor. I was on the helm and there was so much pressure between the two ships that I was at right full rudder.

One day we exploded a mine and a big piece of it came bounding across the desk I just managed to get my rear end behind the twin 40s conning tower. Had it hit me I would have not received the Purple Heart but I would have received the purple rear.

Well I realize these is a lot to digest but if you can use any of it that pertains to everyone be my guest.

How about you when did you guys leave to come home and when did you arrive. I know Earl Hutteman came through Houston some time in February and called the house but I was going to the University of Houston at the time.

It looks like the ship was sold to the China. Is that the impression you get. I was never afraid on the 31 but that AKA scared hell out of me.

There is some stuff in this message that I know you may not read but it was part of my Navy time.

As I said Richard Powers was my buddy and I tried to reach him about 10 or so years ago. There are 153 Richard Powers in the NE He owned a small town newspaper at one time.

My father died in 1947, the girl I thought I was going to marry dumped me in 1948 and my mother died later in the year. I was feeling what a devastating life this is. There you have my whole life's stoty whether you wanted it or not. One last thing. Since 1950 life has been very good to me. From the looks of things life has been good to you also. How about giving me your life's story.

I might be able to send you a few pitchers shortly I will see what I have on the computer. Again it was great hearing from you.

---

on 8-23-2003 10:30PM posted by Jene Holtmeyer

, a PGM 31 crew member.

After the war ended, I had almost everyone (60) sign their names and addresses in a book which I still have.
There are a lot of names on your list that are not familiar to me. I was Earl Hutteman's Yeoman striker. I past my test for Yeoman 3rd on August 5, 1945. The war ended and Cutler called me in on 9/1 and asked me if I wanted to accept the rate or rank of whatever. I declined. He asked why not. I told him all I ever wanted out of the Navy was out and it is obvious that the Yeomen are going to be the last ones out.

On November 21st I was writing a letter to my mother in the mess hall and one of the four guys leaving the ship the next day for the USA. Said "Why don't you go with us." I said"I don't have enough points." He said "You will have enough by the time we get back to the States won't you?" I told him Yes so I went to see Cutler. Finally he went to talk with the Skipper. Pretty soon they called me in. I think I could have sold the proverbial icebox to an Eskimo that night. He finally said OK if you can get Hutteman to type your papers. I said "If he won't I will." He typed them and we left the next morning and boarded an AKA tanker.

We slept 5 decks down and they did not fill the forward ballast tanks. Ran into a storm and the bow would go up and come down with a loud BANG and then the screws would come out of the water and whir. Finally there was a real loud BANG and 3 of us from the 31 hit the deck at the same time on an

exceptionally loud one. We went topside and I slept the rest of the night on a table in the mess hall.

We arrived in San Francisco on December 12th, my mothers birthday. I called her and said "I have a birthday present for you. I am in San Francisco and on my way home to be discharged before Christmas." It was on 12/20/45.

Just before I left to go in the Navy I said lets work up a code and then I can tell you where I am if I am overseas.
I said "I will always the date 8/13/44 but if I ever write it August 13, 44 there is a message. Look at the first letter of the third word of every paragraph and it will spell out where I am. One day I told them we were at Palau. When we went to Okinawa I never changed it. When I got home I told them that I was at Okinawa. My sister said "I just knew you were pulling something like that." That was the real reason I set it up so that would not worry as much.

I have reviewed the list of our personal and there are quite a few I do not recognize and which are not listed in my book. I did not get the second page and have been unable to bring it up again. If you will give me the email address again. I think I can give you all 65 names (remember I did Yeoman work so at that time knew all the names). I type in www.boroweb.com/PGM-31/ship-officers.html which is what it shows at the bottom of the page but it does not come up.

08-23-2003 5:26 AM Post By Bill Borough.

To: Gene Holtmeyer

Sent: Saturday, August 23, 2003 5:26 AM

Subject: PGM 31

Hi Gene: It was so good to hear from you .You are the first crew member I have heard from. How did you find the site? When I started the site, I did not remember any names. No Officers no nothing. My wife and I went to Washington DC where I went to the National Archives and got to see the ships logs. There were 6 books!! I got the list of Ships Officer from the deck log and did not recognize any one. I thought I had the wrong ship. Maybe I was on PMG 32. On another floor they had the crews roster list for PGM 31 and I saw my name.
The copy of the roster was very poor and it was hard to get the names right.
The names posted are for the day they signed aboard. I would be glade to post your roster too. It was my hope to have the crews names posted so if they ran a search with Google their name will come up and contact me.

I have search for crews names using www.whitepages.com with no luck.
I had better luck with the officers because in the log it gave next of kin and their home town. As you can see: Randell C. Guyer, Jr. II Son of Randell C. Guyer, Jr.
Dad passed away in 1993 from a Brain Tumor. We saved his war time pictures, etc. if anyone is interested. I asked for the picture but have not received them
2003-06-02 Randell C. Guyer, Jr is a CPA and has a web site!!

I have also herd from James Depew. His e-mail is as follows.

Thank you.
My late grandfather served on PGM-31 during WWII. Thank you for a wonderful and informative website.

08-22-2003 8:32PM Post By Gene Holtmeyer

By Site Mailform.
User_name = Gene Holtmeyer

Firm = Retired and joined SCORE

Address = 8984 Sawgrass Glen No. Maple Grove, MN 55311

Phone = 763-416-1602

User_email = g.holtmeyer@comcast.net

Request = Hutteman was Yeo 2/c,
O'Donnell was Quartermaster
Metelak, Chief BM, James Britton.
I kept a short diary from Jan.1 until toward the end of August. I left the ship 11/22 and by that time we had destroyed 315 mines.I enlisted on 4/10/43, I don't remember seeing James Britton's name. He was a cabin boy (don't remember what they were called. I got a nice letter from him after I left the ship. I have some pictures of me in the Navy. I need your mailing address. Was from Texas then.