Source: NavSource.Org

  USS Carpenter DDK-825      03/50 - 07/51  International: NAYS   Voice: Pirate

Got my sea legs on this DD.  Waiting off VACAPES for our submarine counterpart one day and a sleeve tow plane the next, we lolled around in the trough.  Hours and hours of absolute "I'm gonna die" misery hugging my own trough in the head.  I never had another truly seasick day again (thank goodness).

Shakedown in Gitmo gave me my first liberty calls in foreign ports - Port Au Prince, Kingston and Montego Bay.  There was a crewman who, after much negotiation with a trader in a "bum boat", sent over the side his inspection shoes for a small semi-automatic pistol (in a shoebox).  The pistol had a square barrel and was without (square) bullets.  A starter pistol?  Perhaps, but we never did find out - the bum boat disappeared.

Our home port was changed to * Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii.  Two days after departing Norfolk in June 1950, Korean hostilities broke out (in earnest). Carpenter, scheduled for a "leisure cruise" with stops in Mexico and San Diego before crossing to Pearl immediately proceeded to, and transited, the Panama Canal sailing direct.  Arriving after 1700 local, we berthed at the fuel pier and topped off.  The next morning at 0600 two flatbed trailers of stores arrived and were laid below.  WestPac Ho!  Well, we never did go west (on my watch), assuming instead a Monday through Friday ASW/AA training schedule where months later I enjoyed a day as a target aboard Greenfish (but looking through the periscope, I wondered just who was the "target").  The closest we came to Korea during my tour was Life Guard station about 300 miles west of Pearl for President Truman's "visit" of General McArthur.  But then, what could we do with 3"-50s?  NOTE:  Apparently a lot ... see History, below.

As the months passed, ships rotating from WestPac Korean duty arrived, spent a few days, and went on to CONUS.  In November, it was eerie as Mansfield and Brush slid by our home berth at the SubBase "SAIL" piers, short, stubby bows attesting to their experiences with mines; Bosn's Locker, CPO Berthing/Mess, MT51 and crew taking the brunt.

The area was still under Cinderella Liberty in 1950-51, so night life was rather limited.  I did one day get up the courage to have a drink at a local bar.  Lacking experience in alcoholic drinks, I finally asked for a vodka collins, something I remember hearing somewhere.  For me it was my very first "walk in" drink.  I made Laverne's down on Honolulu's King Street a once a payday stop for a while.  Once?  Yes - it was all I could afford - one liberty a pay day. After all, in 1950 a boot was knocking down $75/month, a Seaman Apprentice $80 plus and a full bore Seaman about $95 (as I remember).  There will be someone out there who will correct me if I'm wrong - I am sure of this.  Money was short (but what's new?).  One day I was called to the quarterdeck to take a long-distance (stateside) phone call.  The operator said it was collect and asked if I'd take the call - it was a girl in New Jersey I'd met earlier in my "career".  I asked the operator for the rate - she said $10/3 minutes.  Whoa!  Had to say no.  A few weeks later I got a letter in which the young lady said that it was a lonesome night and she was curled up on a couch and "just wanted to talk a while".

Before enlisting and while still a scout, I'd saved money to buy a ring - silver it was, with a black stone set with a silver fleur de lis.  With wear and tear it softened, then broke. I had it fixed in Norfolk and the band part thick-plated.  I was proud that I'd been able to own that ring.  Well, as fate would have it, and during my mess cook tour, one bright morning while enroute to the Pearl Op Area I tossed an orange crate over the side.  You know the ones - kind of thin slats with small nails ... well, with my wet hands one of the nail heads caught my ring and off they went - crate and ring together.  I ran to the fantail - I could see that ring hanging on the nail ... and we were doing twenty knots plus.  Sick - so very sick.  I wonder if some fisherman found it in the belly of a catch?  (If so, please send up a flare ... I'd like to get it back, okay?)   Somehow, I never thought to yell "RING OVERBOARD".  I wonder if a Williamson Turn would have worked?

I did weekends at the Sub Base pool getting "bronzed" - since I couldn't swim, I would fake it at home in June.  General Butner to San Francisco and a cross-country DC-3 flight home, for 30 days leave.  I bought my first car, a 1933 Plymouth with a rumble seat, paying $35, and had an old school pal with her own car to get me through a driver's test. Lillian W., thanks - I know that I wasn't the best pupil.

I damned near drowned in a lake trying to impress Anna Mae M. with my Hawaiian prowess.  She and Roy were neighbors and I the odd-ball from the next couple blocks when we were kids.  Anyway we all were kind of school buddies and when I got home we went "swimming" in a fresh water New Jersey lake (don't remember which one).  They each left the row boat I was propelling and swam out a few yards and returned.  My turn!  Well, I got a couple yards out and then sank while trying to turn around - I really mean "sank".  I could feel the fight going out, and somehow knew Roy would be laughing instead of acting; and I heard a putt-putt-putt sound.  Roy came through though, shoving an oar to me; I got to the boat coughing up the lake.  These two older men in a boat with a very small outboard ( the putt-putt) came up ... as I remember one asked if I was alright and mentioned that "a little girl drowned there last week."  I needed that.  Number 1!  (I still couldn't swim, but I did look pretty).  Returning to T. I. for transportation west, I went south - ordered to a Pre-Com detail in San Diego.  I never saw Carpenter again, nor my peacoat which was left aboard to save space, it being summer in New Jersey.

There were:

CDR Grady, CO:   I didn't like cigarettes, but one day I tried one and flipped the butt over the side through the portside 01 level WTD just as CO hit the top of the ladder (blind to me).   It went just past his nose.  I recollect him to be about the stature of James Cagney (and just as ... Irish).  I smoked a pipe for years starting AFTER I left Carpenter.

RD1 Melvin F. Clifford:  His job was to rule the roost and mold kids into men - He ruled, and I was molded ... and molded - and molded some more.  RHIP ruled ... coffee, for example, was perked until done then boiled for awhile, then it sat untouched, until RD1 took his - then RD2, and so forth.   I usually got mine from the 3rd pot which was close to "mess gear".  I mess cooked, head cleaned and compartment cleaned for nine months.  Needless to say, this 17 year-old hated these "arrangements".  Learning very quickly the harsh lessons of my "molding", I swore to get out from under by advancement - "get as high as you can, as fast as you can" became my watch words.  Little did I know that one day I would lean very heavily on the training and education received under RD1 Clifford.  Although we met at "C" school in Great Lakes, in the '60s we never really talked.  I still wonder if he felt drained as I "used him up" in my own CIC.

RD2 Harvey John Adams:  This is a correction to memory error. Please refer to OSCM Harvey J. Adams - I ran into him at the Des Piers CPO Club in Norfolk years later; he was Master Chief Radarman (now Operations Specialist) by then.

RD2 Mathew Glad:  Another old hand.  We all berthed in the port guinea pullman, the 3-inch magazine being on the center-line.  As Reveille PO, Glad played a record of "Goodnight Irene" almost every morning - over and over - loud.  He was an ace at DRT tracking, even torpedo attack solutions.

RD3 Hamilton; "Ham" was the last of the "old salts"of this radar gang.

RDSN Edmondson and Breslin: a bit older than me - early twenties, I'd say. 

RDSN Gary V. Black: talked and talked of putting in for GCA school - one day he did ... and he actually went.

RDSA Faustino Guistini: a Pittsburg fellow (forgive my spelling, Faus - it's been a while).  We came aboard together from RECSTA Norfolk riding the bed of a stake truck with our sea bags and possibles.  Faus, funny, wiry in stature; a neat guy.

GM1 ( believe):   I'd stood some messenger watches with this WWII fellow who made it through the air raid in '41.  He had this little ditty that he had coined for Reveille - he'd told me it was naval custom to offer up a verse for the 1MC wake up.  I never did check that out, but years later, when I had a bit more "authority" on the Quarterdeck, I did use the "custom" **.  

A few facts:  Carpenter, and R. A. Owens, unfinished steel hulls at end of WWII, were revamped to specialize in ASW tactics, sporting an aluminum superstructure (the first, I believe) and  fitted with two dual 3"-50 rapid-fire (main battery) gun mounts vice the three (Gearing Class) twin 5"38 mounts; some 20mm mounts; hedgehogs; a very large "hedge-hog" known as Weapon Able (perhaps the forerunner of ASROC); and depth charges, together with modern sonar.  They were, in fact, submarine "hunter/killers" by design and mission.  The "K" was dropped later, due to the influence of some congressman (so the story went) who didn't think we should have "killers" in our Navy.  Elder submariners may remember that there was an "SSK" designation - similar in mission, a submarine ... a hunter/killer of other submarines; that desig, too, changed later.  Carpenter and R. A. Owens became DDEs, and even later, reconfigured, DDs.  

*   Pearl Harbor, December 7th, 1941 - A well done graphic of the ships and their position before the attack - good clarity.   Interested in the Pearl Harbor attack?  See this NAVSOURCE page for tons of info.

** Credit PO1 (GM?)

"Reveille, Reveille on the Killer Line -
You've had your sleep, I've had mine.
Cook's in the galley long time ago -
Heave out, Tryst Up, Stow."

The rest, also in rhyme, included both the breakfast menu and
the weather report for that day; these latter items were
mandatory if the "custom" was to be observed.

Author's Note:
Reclassification to DDE in 1960 is nine years after my service aboard and my tall tale above. NAVSOURCE.ORG page, shows Carpenter's different configurations across the years and her re-designation to DD-825 along the way.  Scroll to DD-827 while there and read  information by Bill Schrader SOG2, USNR

History:

DD-825

From: Dictionary of American Fighting Ships, Vol. III, 1968, Navy
Department, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Naval History
Division, Washington, D.C.  Available at HazeGray.org/danfs/.

CARPENTER

(DDK_825: dp. 2,426, l. 390'6", b. 41'1". dr. 18'6"; s. 36k.; cpl. 367; a. 4 3", 4 21" tt.; cl CARPENTER

CARPENTER (DDK 825) was launched as DD-825 on 28 December 1945 by Consolidated Steel Corp., Orange, Tex.; sponsored by Mrs. D. M. CARPENTER, and commissioned 15 December 1949, Commander J. B. Grady in command.

CARPENTER was reclassified DDK on 28 January 1948, and completed as a hunter-killer destroyer at the Newport News Shipbuilding Corp. in 1949.  Following her commissioning and shakedown, she was reclassified DDE on 4 March 1960, and assigned to the Pacific Fleet.

CARPENTER cleared Norfolk 26 June 1950 for her home port, Pearl Harbor, arriving 13 July. Local operations were conducted until 4 February 1952, when she sailed for duty in the Korean War.  During her tour with TF 77, she patrolled the Taiwan Strait, twice entered the dangerous waters of Wonsan Harbor to rescue downed aviators, and took part in hunter-killer exercises.  Reporting to TG 95.1 in the Yellow Sea 28 May, CARPENTER's guns pounded the Choda Islands off the west coast of Korea on 1 and 2 June. The destroyer returned to Pearl Harbor 29 June for a summer of operations in Hawaiian waters.

After fleet exercises at Eniwetok and Kwajalein in the fall of 1952, CARPENTER prepared for her second tour of duty with TF 77 off the east coast of Korea. She sailed for the western Pacific May 1953, and took part in the smashing bombardment of Hungnam on 12 and 13 June.  Once more she returned to patrol vigilantly in the Taiwan Strait, and took part in hunter-killer exercises before returning to Pearl Harbor 19 December 1953.

From the close of the Korean War through 1960 CARPENTER alternated periods of training, exercises, and regular overhauls at Pearl Harbor with annual deployments in the Far East. These tours in the Western Pacific included operations in the Philippines. assignments on patrol in the Taiwan Strait, exercises off Japan and Okinawa, and visits to ports in Japan as well as Hong Kong.  On both her 1957 and 1958 tours, she sailed outward bound by way of Samoa; Sydney, Australia; Manus; and Guam, thus varying the usual passage via Midway to Japan.

CARPENTER received five battle stars for Korean War service.

USN Years
USS C. J. Badger DD-657