Newspaper Clippings
Although the greatest collection of USS Utah memorabilia will
be turned over to archives in Salt Lake City, we are including various items
which have been sent to the Webmaster for inclusion on the web site. This is one
of several very interesting articles we wish to share with viewers of this web
site.
This piece, written in a column by a former Utah Sailor turned newspaperman, Bob Kull and published in his 'DOWN TO EARTH" column in the Yakima Republic News, Yakima, Washington, 20 June 1954 is too good not to share. Here is what Shipmate Kull had to say:
"Ah Memory: A Navy chief gunners mate was in the office last week. He looked familiar, James W. Clark, recruiter in Yakima. I asked where he had served and none of the stations and ships he named rang a bell. "And I served on the old Utah" he said.
And suddenly I saw young Jim Clark, scrubbing decks, looking a bit afraid of those old-time
Boatswain Mates, as we new-timers all were.
[Ed note: Photo below/left is James (Jim) Clark later in his career as a Chief
Gunners Mate. Jim, now in his 90's has long been retired from the Navy]
The Utah was nothing to be proud of as far as I knew. She never saw action, until she was sunk at Pearl Harbor, and her greatest distinction was carrying President Hoover on one cruise. But there was a fierce pride among our crew. Utah sailors were rougher and tougher, Utah Liberty Boats were faster, and more beaten up. We were all work-worn.
The Utah was a target ship those years before World War II. Twice a year we spread railroad ties over the decks, locked ourselves below, and let Navy planes plaster us with 100-pound water bombs. It was an eerie feeling, but we never had an accident.
Ah - Jim! And Gandre, and Diekhoff and Miller. And Muck and Stu and Scratchy. Ennis with the accordion, Romberg the football player. And Chief Scherner, whom I later met in Puyallup, and who finally was raising chickens on his long-cherished "stump ranch."
And Lt Weldon. What a fine officer. And Capt. Blandy, later Admiral Blandy, a genius in gunnery, who ran some of the first A-bomb tests in the Pacific, and who later stormed out of a government meeting, to retire from the service, too young and too learned to lose, too tempered to stay.
I left the Utah, regretfully, before she went to Pearl Harbor. Through the years I've pieced together what happened there. "The gosh - awfulest thing I ever saw," Radio Chief Putman told me in Mare Island. He limps badly today, to prove it.
And Diekhoff killed on the bridge. Dick! We went through boots together at Great Lakes, later to radio-signal school at San Diego. And Gandre - Gandre who talked so tough and don't-give-a-darn- - Gandre died raising the flag, when a Jap pilot ripped him open with machine-gun bullets.
Ah Navy, you were hard. But it is good to remember, good to see Jim Clark, good to think of other days, of friends gone, of friends never to be seen again."
[Ed note.Shipmate Kull's observations bring to life many memories of a unique old ship and an equally unique crew. If anyone has a photo of Bob, please get in touch with me. WEH]
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