USS Atherton DE 169

DESTROYER ESCORT - CANNON CLASS

I was on duty one night when our Skipper came back to the ship a "Bit ah…how you say ah…" (Time 2 AM). He went to the PA panel, opened all the switches and said, "Now hear this. This is your Captain speaking…

All Hands Aft Lay forward, All Hands Forward Lay aft, and All Hands Amidship stand fast to cause confusion." He then closed all switches…and went to bed. What a GUY.

I remember one time seeing him sitting on a depth charge with a cloth around his neck getting his hair cut, along with the rest of us GIs. Most of the other officers had someone come to their state rooms.

I read, in one of the articles about his climbing the mast to free a signal flag caught in the antenna. Actually whoever wrote that was mistaken. It was a great deal more than merely removing a flag. I had the signal watch that day. We had just left the shipyard a couple days before where they had replaced one type of antenna with a new type of High Frequency Radio Direction Finder. I just happened to look up at the top of the mast and saw that antenna flopped to one side and as we rolled to port it flopped the other way. Evidently they had forgotten to tighten the bolts in the flanges that held it in place. I reported it to the OD and him to the Skipper. The Skipper went down and got a pair of crescent wrenches, stuck them in his hip pocket and up the mast he went. It wasn't a heavy sea, but when you are 93 feet above the water even in a calm sea you move 4-6 feet off center. Everyone that was not on watch was out there watching and praying for him as he worked those wrenches. From that day on he could ask any one of us to do ANYTHING and it would be done.

Unusual name story, One of the original crew had such an unusual name that the Ex. Officer was going to make him change it. He refused to do it so they transferred him to shore duty. His name was D.J. Illuminate. The problem was, the command "Illuminate" was to light up the big search lights, such as if a man fell overboard. The fear, of course was, if we were in battle or such and someone was to yell "Illuminate" the lights would be turned on and you know what that would mean.

Well … That's my "Stories" for today.

Carl F. Barth Jr. SM 2/c USS Atherton DE 169