Boomerville, USA

The old fashioned way of treating ADHD

Michael has inspired me with his new Monsters-R-Us blog. I've just launched yet another blog at http://boomervilleusa.blogspot.com/. Don't leave this one though, http://burruss.blogspot.com/ will remain my regular and most frequent blog. Boomerville, USA is a place to visit from time to time for a little fun and baby-boomer nostalgia.

today is tax freedom day

Tax Freedom Day is the first day of the year in which a nation as a whole has theoretically earned enough income to fund its annual tax burden. - Wikipedia

I was listening to Paul Harvey (Ron Chapman filling in) today. He said that the American taxpayer pays more in taxes than we do for food, clothing, and housing combined. I mentioned what I had heard from Ron this morning to Gina and she said, "Why isn't somebody doing something about this?" You've got me Gina...you've got me.

My bookkeeper told me last year that "if you can pay your taxes - you can stay in business." It's the truth. It's amazing what a small business has to pay out in local, state and federal taxes. The government has become the biggest obstacle for the survival of small business.

look ma - four hands!

Time for a musical interlude.

continued

David, I did not get to see the damage to this area before our captain (Lt. Charles Haslup) directed me to go to the flotilla communications message center at Deptford and stop the death message before it reached my parents in Cheraw, SC. Just before this, I had been told (either by the captain or some of the crew) that Bill McRae, who slept in the bunk just below mine in our stateroom, was one of two officers of our ship who were killed. I was believed to have been the third officer. Two bodies had been removed from my stateroom. There was shock after shock to me in every direction. Moreover, the captain or some of the crew took me over to one of the buildings at Deptford (I would guess that Dick Braman was with us, and perhaps as dazed as I) to view the corpses of the dead officers and enlisted personnel on the LST 312.

Afterwards, I began my immediate search unaccompanied to where our captain had instructed me to go and get that death message regarding me halted. Everything is as foggy as it can be in my memory at this point, but one of the most ironical experiences of my lifetime occurred when my storekeeper older brother, Murdoch, approached me. along my way. He was a part ot our amphibious flotilla (the same to which our LST had been designated as convoy flagship), and that land-based half of our flotilla organization had been moved from down near Plymouth up to London's Deptford area. I don't think he really knew that our ship had been struck, but we obviously were greatly excited and glad to see each other again. The two of us found our way to where I was supposed to go, and ended up sending a telegraph message to our parents. It stated: "Ignore any message you may receive regarding me. Am well and with Murdoch. Not a scratch on me." (More later, David)

dead man walking

On the day after the German robot bomb struck our LST and others moored alongside it at the Deptford dock, Dick Braman and I returned - in absolute shock - to see the superstructures of the two outboard LSTs as a mass of twisted and mutilated steel, hardly recognizable to either of us. I don't, at my present age (87), recall where Braman's stateroom was, but mine was the rear stateroom for officers on the port side of the ship. I shared it with the ship's first lieutenant (Lt. j.g.) Bill McRae. Officers' quarters had been on both starboard and port sides of these vessels, but what had happened in our overnight liberty period was simply startling and unbelievable.

Some of our ship's crew were still alive, but their dazed expressions said a lot to us. One or two of them looked at me, and said to me ". You've beem reported as dead." We were all standing aboard the main deck just forward of what was once the superstructure (that part constructed above the main deck that included the officers quarters, wardroom (dining area for captain and officers), galley (officers kitchen),a yeoman's stateroom (office), head (toilet for officres). The commanding officers and executive officers of LSTs, of course, had separate staterooms from the other officer personnel. Above these living quarters, etc. were the operational portions of these ships (the wheelhouse for the helmsman), radiomen in "radio shacks", navigational operations rooms. Further topside (or above) this level was a rather large deck for the quartermasters and signalmen, and an enclosed conning tower for the captain or the duty officer of the
deck. (I surely trust that my memory has served me right since my release from active duty back in March, 1950). Below the superstructure of the damaged ships were the crews' quarters where separate galley facilities and living accommodartions for up to 125 to 130 enlisted personnel were located.

David, I did not get to see the damage to this area before our captain (Lt. Charles Haslup) directed me to go to the flotilla communications message center at Deptford and stop the death message before it reached my parents in Cheraw, SC. (More later from this point)

-Pat

Abbott and Costello - Math

Unfortunately...I can relate all to well with Lou Costello when it comes to math.

My favorite line of this bit -
Bud: "Didn't you go to school stupid?"
Lou: "Yeah, I came out the same way."

I'm playing for Aroma Fridays tonight. Bruce had to back out. I'll get him to do another Aroma in the near future. You all have a great weekend.

a tidbit of info

I spoke with Pat yesterday. He was delighted to have recieved the photographs from Mr. Creekmore. Pat indicated that he did not remember LST-981 being there but thought that the other ship might have arrived while he was on shore leave. He also recalled that the 312 and 384 were positioned differently and it made sense that the damaged ships might have needed to have been moved out of the way. It is possible that the photos were taken of the three ships in a different location.

Pat mentioned during the phone conversation that the officers and the crew were relocated to a rest camp for two to three weeks after the bombing. He said that the officers were kept with the crew to watch over them. Pat said he was later temporarily assigned to another LST but couldn't recall the ship. It wasn't long before he was back on the 312 - to take her back on a slow voyage for repairs.

doodlebugs

For the complete story of Rev. Edward W. McElduff, please read the entire story published in the Morning Call. Rev. McElduff was aboard one of the LSTs the day of the buzz bomb attack. I urge you to go to the site and read the rest of his story. I did not include all that relates to his LST and that day in Deptford, England. Reading another man's account will give you a clearer picture of that day. -David

They had tied us up at a place called Deptford on the Thames River. It could only accommodate two ships. There was another LST alongside of us, so close you could step across to it. The Germans were using buzz bombs, V-1 rockets, or "Doodlebugs." They were a frightening thing. You'd hear the engine roar, then it would suddenly stop, and you'd wait a couple of seconds, because that was when it was falling with its ton of explosives. We were in what was called Doodlebug Alley, one of the bombs' major routes. They were dropping all around us, day and night, coming out of nowhere. So this one night in July or early August, I was the only officer aboard, because I was the officer of the deck. The crew was in their quarters below. The officer of the deck on the other ship had been in my Officer Candidate School class at Northwestern University. His name was John something, I can't remember. It was about 11 and we were talking, and I said, "I'm gonna get a cup of coffee," and he said, "Well, I'm gonna check something," and he went to check it. I had just left the galley, where I went for the coffee, when a buzz bomb dropped right on the aft part of John's ship. The blast blew me down a passageway about 30 feet, and I was reaching out to try to stop myself from going over the side. My back hit the railing, making my injury from D-Day worse. I grabbed onto the railing. A fire started over the ammunition. I was badly hurt -- my spinal column is wrecked from that -- but I had to get the fire out. The crew was trapped down below, so I worked while they were freeing themselves. I got the hose unfurled and the water going, and by then the guys had cleared themselves out. So they took over fighting the fire, and I went over to the other ship to see what I could do about casualties. The captain was aboard that ship, but his quarters were pretty well blown open. I heard groaning and had to get some debris off him. I tried to pull him back, because I was afraid more debris was going to fall on him. But I couldn't find any substance to him. The concussion was so much, his bones were shattered into small pieces. When I held him, it was like holding a soft mass. He looked like a rubber man. I didn't want him to die without someone there with him. Within three minutes, he died in my arms. The next thing I remember, I looked at the life raft on my ship and saw parts of my friend's body on it. I assumed it was John, because he had been standing with me and I hadn't seen anybody else. I took my utility knife out and scraped his remains off of the life raft into a paper bag. Anything I could find of him, I put in the bag.I didn't want to leave him on the raft.Someone came up to help me, and I said, "No I'll do it, I want to do it myself. "What I intended to do with the remains, I don't know, probably drop them over the side. I might have done that. It would have been a logical thing. The rise and fall of the Thames River is rather remarkable, so the remains would have ultimately gone out to sea. That would have been appropriate. But I had a great deal of pain, and I think it was overwhelming me. After I got done scraping, I put the knife back in my belt. And then I blacked out.
....After the buzz bomb hit and I was hurt the second time, I went up to London and stopped at an American Army hospital. They gave me a shot and some painkillers.Our LST was wrecked, it had no power. We were towed back to the States, across the Atlantic in tandem with another LST by a seagoing tug called the Choctaw. It took 37 days. There were dead rats in our water, so it was contaminated, so we had no water. We got the desalinization machinery working enough to keep body and soul together. We lived in filth. If you wanted to bathe, you had to throw a bucket over the side and just clean yourself off with sea water. The British had given us some rations, which were horrible. A lot of it we had to throw over the side because it wasn't edible. In New York, the ship was repaired. Then we went out to the Pacific, and that was kind of uneventful because the war had wound down. Click here to read the entire article at Morning Call.

LST-981 in August

A few months following the Deptford gliderbomb hit the 312 & 384 - the USS LST-981 was damaged by a mine off Cherbourg - 50°45'N, 00°43'E on August 16, 1944.

"Here on the 3rd she loaded Army equipment and British troops proceeding to Area Zebra, off Isle of Wight on the 5th. On the 6th at 0035 she was en route across the English Channel to Beach King, Area Gold, Normandy, France when the LST-981, abeam and to starboard of her, struck a mine. " - U.S Coast Gaurd USS LST-176 Log

day at deptford

A heartfelt thank you to Wynne L. Creekmore, Jr for sending me four images of the buzz bomb damage at Deptford. Mr. Creekmore's father was the Captain of USS LST-384. It was kind of him to mail copies of these images to Uncle Pat, who I know will be very excited to find them in his mail box. I scanned them into PhotoShop and did a little clean up. Click on the ship names to read more about about each LST at the navsource.org site. USS LST-384 USS LST-312 USS LST-981

The above crewman unknown, more than likely this was taken aboard LST-384. Pat said that the bomb did a good bit more damage to the 384 that was moored closely aside LST-312.

The Invasion of France and Germany
Author: Samuel Eliot Morison
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
IV. Miscellaneous Bases / Page 61
"Deptford, on the Thames below London, established February 1944. Advanced amphibious maintenance base, especially for LST and other beaching craft from the Mediterranean for assignment to the British follow-up force for NEPTUNE; 25 officers and 425 men by 1 May. Owing to the location, this base was exposed to frequent enemy bombings, but on 1 June was able to report that the 38 American LST attached to Force “L” were 100 per cent operational. It became a main target for German V-1 bombs on and after 13 June. LST-312 and LST-384, when moored abreast, received a direct hit on 8 July, were heavily damaged and lost 14 men killed and 11 badly wounded."