Clapper: Ship’s birth
By Raymond Clapper
The following, written by Mr. Clapper before the battle of the Marshalls in which he lost his life, has been forwarded by the Navy.
Aboard an aircraft carrier, somewhere in the Pacific –
Few aside from professional Navy people know what is involved in being the skipper of a capital ship, especially of a new carrier such as this one.
A month after this ship was launched, the captain set up office ashore at the shipyard. From then until the middle of last year, he and his staff worked at outfitting the ship. When the outfitting was finished, they marched the crew aboard, and a month was spent in drilling, putting stores aboard testing equipment. It took one week just to load the ammunition, with the crew working until midnight or 2:00 a.m.
When the ship was transferred to the Pacific, she was used on one run as a transport, and carried not only extra planes, but 2,600 Navy personnel, which with the crew meant a total of more than 5,000 men aboard. It meant sleeping in passageways and on deck, and running the mess at double capacity.
This ship had its first action on Armistice Day at Rabaul. It was in action on Christmas Day and on New Year’s Day. As one of the gun crew pointed out, “We hit on holidays.”
We’ll make own holidays
I said the next holiday was Lincoln’s Birthday. The gunner said:
We won’t wait for that. We’ll make our own holidays.
The question of leadership was discussed by a chaplain the other day when he was telling me the poignant story of an airman who had become afraid. The chaplain said a majority of the men on this ship had never been to sea before they set out last summer, and that an even larger proportion had never been aboard a carrier. He said few of those aboard were aware of the change that was taking place, as the green crew shook baptism of fire at Rabaul – when 150 Japanese planes, including many dreaded “Bettys,” or low bombers, were fought off with heavy losses to the Japs, and not one man pulled away from his post during the engagement.
Lean, bold and humorous
The skipper who has been the subject of these observations volunteered to me from all over the ship is not an impressive-looking man. He is lean, like most fliers, and very bald. He has humorous, blinking eyes, and a rather slow, drawling speech.
Perhaps a part of his success is due to his exceptional experience in this war with carriers. The captain was executive officer of a carrier operating in the Atlantic. Then he was given command of the first carrier to be converted from a cargo vessel. Then he was chief of staff to an air command, and most of this tour of duty was spent at sea. Under that particular command, air cover was provided for the Casablanca phase of the North African invasion.
Thus at 47, after 24 years of flying, he has had experience in this war on both big and small carriers and as a chief of staff.
He is prouder of this ship than of anything else that will ever come to him. Last summer he was able to anchor it in a river almost in front of his home.
He said:
I couldn’t help showing my ship off for the family.