Dawn Marie Estlow Stillings
[email protected]
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Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 14:07:26 -0400
Hi y'all
I did make it the Washington Navy Yard..... As some already anticipated,
there is a bit of bad news, most of the World War II records have JUST been
transferred to the Archives at College Park. Oh, and this was a
disappointment-- I brought cash and a credit card for backup. Naturally, the
policy was checks and money orders only. But that's okay, there is plenty of
good news, too.
On Adm. Rickover---- consider writing a book. His biography folder was THREE
folders. The Navy Yard's Operational Archives keeps biography folders on
officers. (They use to have a Biography Branch, but it got cut.) For
Rickover, they have one folder dedicated to Navy biographical info, one of
summaries (!) and one of every newspaper article, quote or mention of his
name. I didn't know how much info was needed. I would have picked up one of
the summaries, if I had a CHECK. However, I wrote down the info on how to
request it. The cost may be about $3. I also began writing down some info,
which I will e-mail later. I learned so much about this guy. I had no idea
of the extent of his significance. I know he wrote a few books, which I am
interested in reading now, but someone ought to look into his autobiography
if it hasn't been written already.
Oh, I should explain the Navy Yard to those of you who have not been there.
It is a real working Navy Yard. I thought it was going to be more of a pomp
and circumstance, office building, museum kind of place. It is all that but
so much more. To get in, I really had to show a driver's license from which
a great deal of info was written. Then I was asked why I was driving a car
with Virginia license plates since I was from Maine. I had to explain which
buildings (they're numbered) I would be visiting and why. The guard was very
polite, yet VERY serious. Civilians can only park in blue or white marked
spaces. Naturally, I could only find red, yellow and green marked ones. I
kind of thought the Ships' History, Operational History and Archives would
be like a big library----WRONG. I'm glad I went into this with an open mind
and acceptence of this as a fact finding mission. I came away feeling like a
got a great deal accomplished and got really excited about some findings. I
can't wait to go back again when I have more time.
For those of you willing to read this novel, I'll continue--- The building
is being renovated. I knew that because there was info available on the WNY
web page. Also, those areas are closed on Wednesday which made my visit more
difficult. (We had a lot of other plans and family members in for a
reunion/surprise party.) The Ships' History branch was a bit of a bust. The
woman wasn't very helpful and I didn't have time to deal with her. She sent
me up to the Operational Archives. Once I got all signed in and gave them
everything but a blood sample, things got moving. They issue you a handful
of pencils, NO pens in the archives or work rooms. I'm still not sure why.
No food, no beverages, no smoking, I was however quietly chewing a piece of
gum. They issue you pads of paper and check all of your notes when you sign
out. No materials can be taken from the work room and you can't roam the
archives looking for a cool report. You have to know what you want. Well, I
didn't have a clue. The items that I had specifics on were at the National
Archives, so I had to try to wing it....
A guy in civilian clothing (he was the only one not in uniform and I'm not
sure what his story is) was quite helpful. First he explained that most of
what I wanted had just been shipped to the Archives at College Park and gave
me the phone number. When he found out that I was doing research for a group
of people putting info on the Internet, he got excited. He wished that we
could get EVERYTHING on!! He brought me into a room where civilians don't
usually go. His first thought was the damage reports. These were unlike some
summaries I've already seen on other web-pages. The "books" have extensive
reports of every scratch each ship received. Then it has fold out (to about
legal size) pages of blue print-style drawings which pin point damage. Then
it has drawings of how the metal was bent or twisted or missing. They looked
like photos - tremendous work. There are damage books for each ship and then
summary type books for wider time periods including all ships at that time.
I copied (by hand) some of these damage reports for Light Cruisers. He (the
guy that was helping me) thinks that we should get all of these scanned and
onto the Interent. I am not a veteran, but he told me that this is the stuff
guys talk about at the reunions and that there is a lot of interest in these
damage reports.
This is where I get excited. Many things are on fiche there. He said reels
of fiche can be copied by them for $20 a reel. If we go through the national
Archives is is like $.30/page and thus VERY expensive. So his first thought
is to go through his branch. But- since we'd like a lot of information, it
makes more sense to try to work out a deal with the Navy to get this stuff
either for free of for an even more nominal cost. They probably can't afford
a staff to get this stuff on the interent or they would do it themselves.
With all of our defense cut-backs, the general public would probably not be
happy increaing spending for Internet buffs. However, I think they would
like the information to be accessible. This guy was really excited about
these web-sites. I think we could prepare a good case to work out a deal.
I also got very pumped up when I went to the Navy Art Gallery. At first I
was a little down. It was a tiny one-room exhibit with mabe fifty
paintings/sketches on the walls. I squeezed through the "Authorized
Personnel Only" door and found someone to ask questions about the Combat
Artists. Shepler was on the San Juan on his way to Guadal Canal. I wanted to
see the pictures. I also knew almost nothing about the Combat Artist
program. For those of you who care..... there were 8 combat artists in WW
II, I think 5 in Korea, 2 for a period after that and barely 1 during
Vietnam. During Vietnam, the combat artist's role was changed dramaticly and
he took along a civilian. Back to WW II- I was amazed to see the extensive
work of the Combat Artist. I few drawings are in my grandfather's Cruise
Book, but I didn't understand the program. Like the paintings I've seen of
the Civil War, the Comabt Artist replaces the camera. They document
everything- from portraits, to entire battles, to village civilians, to
damaged church steeples, to hands pulling on rope. I'm sure you all know.
Their work is in every genre - charcoal, water colors, pencil, oils,
everything. Most are in storage, there are thousands!
I couldn't see Shepler's orginals, so I was given a few hundred
documentation cards to flip through. This was very exciting. Each card
documents the art work in great detail: the artist's name, rank, etc..,
where he was stationed, his artwork task, what the subject matter was,
details such as dimension and genre, a black and white phot of the artwork
and then some artist's notes. This was really neat. Example, I knew from the
San Juan Cruise Book that early on they had detroyed a Japanese PT boat and
taken 16 prisoners. Shepler painted the rescue from the sea and sketched the
interrogation of one of the prisoners. On the documetation card there are
additional notes regarding info not in the cruise book: the prisoners were
surprised at how well they were treated by the enemy. The "commander" or
highest ranking prisoner tried to commit hari-kari in his cell and took off
half of his scalp. I would never have know this. Well, this is the type of
insight I got by reading a few hundred of these cards!
I asked if these painting are shown at galleries. While the response was
"yes", it seems that they don't get out much. I am looking into showing them
at our gallery, here in Portland. The Bath Iron Works is an intregal part of
our economy and way of life around here. During the War, the Portland Yard
(Fore River Yard) fitted many ships that were built at other Yards. The San
Juan was built by Beth Steel but was fitted here in Portand! I thought it
would be interesting for our local gallery to show the ships that came
through Portland. We could see what was the result of our hard labor and at
the same time learn new things about the War and the people in it.
The work is extensive. Maybe we could even sponsor a tour of Light Cruisers.
It is not as narrow as one may think. There are thousands and thousands of
pieces of art encompassing so many aspects of the war.
I don't have with me right now the info I brought back from the Navy Yard. I
will pass that along later this week. My time was quite short. I only had a
four hours and nearly two of them were dedicated to driving. Some may view
this as a bust, but I had a great time being there and am very excited about
the future.
"Talk" to you later.......
These are not those wonderful detail reports I described a few days ago.
These are all of the Light Cruiser reports from two summary books I was
assigned. You may have this info already...
ATLANTA 11/13/42 Guadalcanal
* Gunfire - 49
* Surface Torpedo - 1
* Sunk by demolition charges
* 8" AP 5 1/2" HE 5" common 3" projectile damage topside
* 1 destroyer torpedo struck forward engine room, por tside
* Moderate flooding
JUNEAU 11/13/42 Guadalcanal
* Surface Torpedo - 1
* Sub Torpedo - 1
* Blew up after 2nd torpedo hit
* Damaged by destroyer torpedo hit on port side forward fireroom during
night action
* Blew up & disappeared in approx 60 seconds when sub torpedo hit on port side
* Little info - conflicting reports
MARBLEHEAD 02/02/42 Java Sea (War Damage Report #34)
* Bomb - 3
* First bomb struck starboard side upper deck at frame 46
* Second bomb struck port side main deck at frame 125-1/2
* Near miss on port side bow at frame 25-plating dished and ruptured
BOISE 10/11/42-10/12/42 Savo Islands (War Damage Report #24)
* Gunfire - 8
* Gunfire damange forward of bridge - forward 3 turrets put out of action by
magazine powder fire
SAN JUAN 10/26/42 Santa Cruz
* Bomb - 1
* Bomb hit at frame 128 passed through ship with minor damage to rudder
HELENA 11/13/42 Guadalcanal
*Gunfire - 5
* Minor projectile and fragment damage topside
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To request the biographical info on Adm. Rickover from the Navy Yard:
These reports are in the biographical folder stamped: "Filed in Bios/Smooth"
* 6 page biographical "smooth" summary (typed)
* 1 page military medals
* 2 page officer biography sheet submitted 10/31/56 (personnel)
* 3 page transcript of Naval Service
Rickover ID # Pers-E24-1K 57728/1400
As I mentioned before, there is a whole file dedicated to just
newspaper/magazine clippings. The above referenced info is easy to ask for
and is actually already copied for distribution.
I began writing info by hand until I realized that it was a futile attempt.
This is what I got down, but it's included in the above referenced material...
Hyman George Rickover
* born 01/27/00
* John Marshall High School, Chicago
* 1918 Annoplis, Ensign 06/02/22
* 07/01/53 Rear Adm, 10/24/58 Vice Adm, 12/03/73 Retired Adm list
* Consecutive duty 04/27 LoVallette & Nevada
* return Annopolis for electrical engineering at USN Post Grad School
* Master of Science in Electrical Engineering 12/29 Columbia, NY
* 01/30-06/30 submarine training at New London
* Consecutive duty S-9, S-48
* Qualified to command subs 08/04/31
* 07/33-04/35 Office of Inspector of Naval Material, Philadelphi
* Sea Duty Engineering Office, New Mexico
* 1937 Command Finch on Asiatic Station
* Later in 1937, selected for engineering duty at Navy Yard, Cavite,
Philippine Islands
* 08/39 Bureau of Ships, DC through WWII
* 02/07/46 Legion of Merit as Head of Electronics Section Bureau of Ships
* 11/09/45 British made him Honorary Commander of Military Division of Most
Excellent Order of the British Empire
* 04/45-07/45 Temporary duty Staff of Commander, Service Force, US Pacific Fleet
"'That's all she wrote"...... By this time, I decided that transcribing his
life was NOT an efficient task.
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FICHE is requested from a series of pink cards. My "helper" at the
Operational Archives gave me some cards that would probably pertain to us. I
wrote down the info. These can be copied by the Navy Yard for $20. They send
the whole role of fiche to "some place" to be printed. I think it is worth
our while to figure out what we'd like and negotiate for free copies or a
reduced price. Chances are that $20 doesn't even cover their costs! Anyway......
Cruiser Ops
* NRS 1972-25 BuSHips Summary of War Damage Series Cruisers 1941-45
* NRS 1974-4 USF-75 Current Tactical Orders & Doctrine Cruiser Aircraft
Cruiser/Destroyer Flotilla 3
* NRS 374-OpOrder 301A-61-Evaluation of NTDS
* NRS 653-RVN support cruise 1967
Cruisers, Scouting Force
* NRS 1973-11 WWII Diary
Cruisers, Task Force 17
* NRS 1973-45 WWII Diary
Cruisers, US Pacific Fleet
* NRS 1971-17 Midway Battle Report
I Have to run, but there's more.....
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