Author: steve

June 8, 2013

John Farkas reading an issue of the ship’s primary newsletter, the BeanPot.

So, in my last entry, I was whining about losing my book into the Great Cyberspace Dump.   Three weeks later, not only have I rebuilt the 90 pages that I lost, I’ve finished a dozen more pages, and, oh yeah, I flew back east and met with two Original Plankowners (guys who were rostered onto the brand-new ship on Commissioning Day (June 31, 1943).   They live about a thousand miles away from each other, so it was a trip that required a little stamina.

I met two terrific guys, John Farkas (pictured above), who worked deep in the innards of the ship in the Plotting Room   –   where primitive computers funneled centralized gun-firing activities to the individual gun turrets and directors all over the ship.   John gave me lots of great insight into how the guns all worked, as well as some great anecdotes about his service and “life aboard the ship.”

I also met Frank Studenski, another great guy, who is also a Plankowner.   John and Frank both came to the Boston from New Jersey, and both went to Boot Camp in the dead of winter at Sampson (upstate New York).   Frank was also involved in fire control, but was stationed above a 40 mm anti-aircraft turret.   Frank got to see the epic battles between the ship’s gunners and incoming Japanese planes swooping in to try to sink the ship.

There will be more about Frank next time.

June 8, 1944    –   The Boston, having departed the anchorage in Majuro (Marshall Islands) Lagoon with all the ships of Task Force 58 two days earlier, was steaming towards the Mariana Islands.

5-18-13

So here I am working on Volume 3.   I have 91 pages assembled into a complex Adobe Acrobat file, a composite of files from 4 different software packages. . . wait, did I say “have”???   Strike that and change it to “had.”   A few hours ago, while I was saving a page that I had just converted into the Acrobat file (the book), an Error message came on the screen, telling me the file was unsavable and lost.   Gone. Lost. Un-salvageable.   All the tricks of almost 25 years of desk-top publishing . . .   none of them worked.   The file was gone.

After the shock wore off,   I assessed the damage.   The book was gone, which is a pain, but I have all the files and individual page files that made up the book.   I had been regularly backing up my files, so it is not a complete “back to the drawing board” loss.   But it it a pain in all the painful places.

I try to be   an optimist, and I force myself to find the silver linings in murky things.   So here’s my silver lining:   somewhere along the way, the gigantic file that was my book got corrupted.   At least it exploded and disappeared when I was halfway done.   It could’ve waited until I had finished and was submitting it to the publisher . . .

So tomorrow (maybe) I’ll start reassembing the book.   I’ll be fine, the book will be fine.   In two weeks, I go east and deep South to interview two more original crewmembers   –   the last of the interviews before I finish the book (and the series).   I’m really looking forward to these visits.   And to finishing off the book.   You will not be disappointed (unless of course you were gonna send me a picture of your dad for the book and you never did.)

steve

April 28, 2013

I’m about halfway through the third (and final) “installment” of the “Baked Beans” series – the follow-up to my first book about the USS Boston (CA-69), “A Bird’s Eye View.”   I started writing by deciding, for various reasons, to divide the story of the “Mighty B”   –   from her launch and commissioning – through her exciting tour of the War in the Pacific   –   to her post-war Occupation Duty and final mothballing in Bremerton, WA, into three volumes.

As I saw it, the first volume was the sort of “prelude” to the heavy action of the War, which was covered in Vol. 2.   I was predisposed to considering Vol. 3 to be anti-climactic, a sort of “wrap-up” to the Boston’s participation in the Pacific.   After all, Vol. 3 would start when the men returned from their leaves to San Pedro, CA in May and June of 1945.   The War was still on, but history shows us that it was almost over by the time CA-69 crossed the Pacific to Eniwetok and then rejoined the Fleet in late July for the bombing of the Home Islands of Japan.   One month later, the men and ships of the various US Navy Pacific Fleets were waiting for the formal Surrender ceremony to take place.   Easy, right?

For not the first time in my life, I miscalculated.   Volume 3 is anything but a boring wrap-up.   I promise that readers of Volume 3 will be amazed and satisfied!   All I can say is that the story of the heavy cruiser CA-69 and all her crew of enlisted men, officers and the detachment of Marines had one hell of an adventure.

I have two more crewmembers to see late in May, and I hope to finish the book by mid to late summer.   It goes without saying, that the window of opportunity to get pictures submitted to me for possible inclusion in the book is closing quickly.

steve

4-13-13

James enlisted in Erie, PA on Dec. 15, 1943.   He arrived on the Boston on Aug. 4, 1944, while she was anchored in the Eniwetok (Marshall Islands) Lagoon. When the ship left the lagoon on August 31, it was “all-action” from then on, starting with the Philippines Campaigns.   John left the ship on Mar. 15, 1946, after mothballing the Mighty B in Bremerton, WA.

Photo sent to us by James’ son, Jon Husted.

steve

4-6-13

John enlisted in Little Rock Arkansas on July 14, 1943.   He arrived on the Boston on May 30, 1944, while she was anchored in the Majuro (Marshall Islands) Lagoon. When the ship left the lagoon on June 6, it was “all-action” from then on, starting with the Marianas Campaign.   John left the ship on June 8, 1946, after mothballing the Mighty B in Bremerton, WA.

Photo sent to us by John’s son, Mike Cooper.

steve