Capt. Cliff Bekkedahl USN(Ret) 17 May 2001

Brian Shoemaker

Interviewer

(Begin Tape 1 - Side A)

(000)

BS: This is an oral history interview with Captain Cliff Bekkedahl taken as part of the

Polar Oral History Project conducted by the American Polar Society and the Byrd Polar

Research Center Archival Program on a grant provided by the National Science

Foundation. The interview was conducted at Capt. Bekkedahl's home in Mountainside,

New Jersey, on the 17th of May 2001 by Brian Shoemaker. Capt. Bekkedahl, this is your

interview and I think it's best that we start with where you're from, and a little bit about

your family life and who were you mentors before you came to the polar regions.

CB: I was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. I was the oldest of two sons of a

mechanical engineer, graduate of North Dakota University. My father met my mother

when he was assigned to the company office in Cleveland, Ohio, and that's where he

made his career and that's where we made our life. I'd had no experience in the past with

the military or any of that sort of thing, although I was raised during World War II, and as

a newspaper boy, I read avidly all the great exploits of our military heroes. I guess the

only other thing that would have influenced me in the military sense was Don Winslow of

the Navy. That was one of those 15 minute radio shows that you ran home at 5 o'clock to

listen to before Mom called you for dinner.

2

In any case, I graduated from the Public School System in Cleveland, and money

not being very plentiful in our family, I attended a state university - Miami University in

Oxford, Ohio. I worked my way through college by working summers, and by doing

dishes and hauling plates around in dormitory dining halls at the college. But, all in all, it

was not really an onerous situation.

At that time, any young man of good health was bound to be doing some kind of

military service and it was deferred while you were in college. But, at the end of it, you

paid the piper. So, one of the options was to join an ROTC unit while you were in school.

I joined the Navy ROTC unit. I thought that would be pretty exciting and it was not a

demanding program. One month before graduation, I received a set of orders to a ship

called the USS Arneb - AKA 56.

I was an avid reader and exploration and the great explorers of the world caught

my fancy. Geography was one of my favorite subjects in school. So, I was kind of setting

myself up, I guess. One of the people who I thought was a living hero was Admiral

Richard E. Byrd. I can remember reading his books and reading about his exploits when I

was probably in the 4th or 5th grade. I'm not quite sure exactly what the time frame of

that would be, probably late 1930s. Certainly the young men of my generation in

Cleveland, Ohio, all knew about Admiral Byrd and his exploits in the Antarctic - that

frozen, mysterious continent. Never did I have the wildest idea that I would ever set foot

in that marvelous place in my later life.

I'll have also to confess that while I was at Miami University, certainly Navy or

ROTC was not my top priority or my interest. I was barely getting by as a ROTC

midshipman, although I did find fascination with navigation and spherical trigonometry

and some of the mysteries of navigation. One of the officers there, Lieutenant

Commander Roselle, became my nemesis. He was always chasing me around, trying to

get me to do my homework better or correct my problems, but I managed to avoid him

most of the time. I only mention this now because later in life, I met a Capt. Roselle, he

3

remembered me, and at that point I was a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy. We met in

San Diego, California. He felt that I was one of his boys and he was pleased to see me as

a regular in the Navy at that point in time.

BS: So, you took Naval ROTC?

CB: Oh yes. I took the courses. We took a 3-hour course each semester and then between

our junior and senior year, we were sent on a cruise. I was ordered to the east coast to a

DER and they assembled a whole bunch of ships and they sent them down to Panama for

this 6-7 weeks cruise which was loaded with midshipmen from all over - ROTC and

some Naval Academy lads. That was the first time in my life I had ever seen salt water

and it was quite an exciting, ominous and awesome experience. But, I managed to

weather through it, got sea sick good and solid and had some second thoughts about the

Navy while I was going through that experience. But, then the joys of liberty in Panama

and the excitement of being that far down south - these are the things that appeal to a

young man.

(50)

Again, I didn't think too much about the Navy in terms of anything other than this

was going to be my military duty. And so with orders in hand, I dutifully said good-bye

to all my friends, girlfriends and family and with a set of awkward fitting uniforms, I

went marching off to Norfolk, Virginia, to report for duty. It was a Sunday. I remember

the very day, walking down this pier and straining my neck upward, looking at the bows

of these large ships - the carriers and the AKAs and all these ships and I finally found the

number 56 and went aboard. And that began my experience on the Arneb and the

4

beginning of my career in the Navy. What a fateful day. I never realized the impact of it

at the moment, but it certainly was the beginning.

Arneb had been outfitted, I believe, in 1948, for cold weather operations. It had

been ear-marked to be the flagship, or one of the ships in the IGY Operation Deepfreeze,

which was in the planning stage at that point in time. Those of us on board ship knew of

the modifications to the ship. There was a reinforced bow, there was some armor plating

along the hull at the waterline, there were special insulations inside the hull of ship, there

were special lookout posts that were insulated with windshield wipers to protect the

lookout from being exposed to the weather. We had a big boom as they called them on

the number 3 hatch which permitted us to carry very, very large vehicles and lift them on

and off the ship. All of our mike boats, our LCMs, were the twin diesel engine landing

craft that had been modified for cold weather operations - special cooling systems and

that sort of thing. And, in general, all these cold weather alterations only made our life

more difficult as we spent most of our time down in the Caribbean, conducting

amphibious assault exercises on Vieques Island.

BS: What's an AKA?

CB: The AKA was the amphibious cargo assault ship. This was actually a C-3 hull

which was a sort of a stereotypical merchant hull that had been modified to Navy needs

and standards - enhanced communications, living quarters and cargo spaces, safety and

that sort of thing. But, it was basically a merchant marine hull. A work horse of World

War II. It's sister ship would be the APA, which would be a personnel carrier and that

would be a ship that, instead of cargo, would be hauling the troops for an amphibious

assault. So, in an amphibious assault, we would carry trucks, vehicles, pallets of cargo,

food, drums of lubricants, ammunition, any kind of cargo. And we would use our LCMs

and our other small boats to run the cargo ashore. The first wave, of course, would come

5

off the APAs and the troops, the Marines, would take the beachhead and we would then

start sending in the vehicles, the tanks, and so forth.

BS: Could it drive on the beach?

CB: No. This was a deep draft ship.

BS: Deep draft.

CB: Yes, 19 feet forward and 26 feet aft, so we'd anchor out 3 or 4 miles in an assigned

position off the beach and work our boats from that point. It was an interesting operation.

You know, a lot of kids like myself were the officers. This was not the cream of the Navy

by any stretch of the imagination. In those days, enlisted men were not very high quality

fellas. They were pulled out of the courtrooms of the United States and offered jail time

or the Navy and that was the sort of crew we had. The officers were either outstanding,

which the captains usually were, or the dregs. The CO's were looking for their deep draft

command before being selected for Admiral, but the next level down could be very

questionable. It could be old World War II merchant marine guys who were hanging on

desperately to get their 20 years retirement - God bless'em! A lot of ex-enlisted who had

become officers - the mustangs. And they were trying again, of course, to put their years

in and get their time and a lot of them were outstanding individuals, personally and

professionally. And some of them were characters. It was a mixed bag of people and then

a lot of college kids. Rarely did we see a Naval Academy graduate except for the captain

on board the ship, if that gives you any indication of how the Navy felt about the amphibs

in those days. I know that has changed since then, but we were sort of the bottom of the

food chain, as you would call it today.

6

(100)

Nonetheless, we were great seamen. We learned. We had great deck chiefs and

first class petty officers, great quartermasters, navigators. Our enginemen were good solid

guys - the kind that took the cars apart and put them back together on Sunday back home

in the Midwest. So, we were not without skills and generally, if the ship's leadership was

copasetic with the crew, we could manage to work out a pretty good relationship with the

officers and crew. Good ships did a good job. Arneb was a good ship. We were a blessed,

lucky ship. I've been on a whole lot of ships in the Navy and I've seen a whole lot in my

subsequent years. Arneb was a lucky ship. Nobody got hurt. Things went well. Accidents

were prevented. We did luck out a lot. And there were other ships that you couldn't have

told the difference apart from us in any way shape or form, that had all kinds of disasters.

I think a lot of Naval officers will tell you about that. It might be superstition, I don't

know.

In any case, we were good seamen. That's my point, because the things we were

about to do in the Antarctic demanded good seamen. And even us young kids, officers

and enlisted, recognized that and we did our best to learn and we actually did learn and

we got the job done. We conducted these amphibious operations for almost close to two

years. Not much was ever said about our prospective opportunities for an Antarctic

cruise. We never heard much at our level about this sort of thing. And then, lo and

behold, one day a message comes in from BUPERS saying that the Arneb had been

designated as the flagship for Task Force 43. Admiral George Dufek and his staff would

be based on board our ship and we would be the flagship for the Operation Deepfreeze I,

which would be conducted in the winter of 1955-56. And, wow, what an impact that had

as it rolled across the ship and in the wardroom!

One of the first things was that we were asked by BUPERS if we wanted to

volunteer, because they were anxious to find space on the ship for the staff, for all of the

7

scientists and all of the Seabees who would ride the ship. There was obviously a problem

of bunkroom space to begin with. Normally, Arneb in the amphibious mode, I think

would carry about 34-35 officers in total. For the Antarctic cruise, we were cut to 15, and

that's counting the captain on down. So, clearly half of the officers had to go. That wasn't

too difficult. A lot of the married officers, young officers, didn't want to spend 9 months

at sea or away from their families, so they quickly made it known that they didn't want to

go. But, here I was, a single young man, but my problem was my active duty expiration

was coming due. So, I volunteered to extend for a year in order to make the trip. At that

time, I was a Lieutenant JG. I was the navigator of the ship. I had a small division of 6

men: a Chief, a first class petty officer, a second class p.o., two 3rd class p.o.'s and a

seaman.

BS: Who trained you as a navigator on the ship? I mean, I know you had some

experience at college, but that's not the same as getting out and moving the ship.

CB: When I first came aboard, I was assigned to the operations department and there

was a navigator on there and Henry Miller was his name. And Henry took a liking to me

and he said, "Look, if you want, I can have you fleet up to be my relief." I became the

assistant navigator and I learned how to use the sextant and there weren't too many other

navigational instruments to use in those times. The sextant and the pubs and a little bit of

LORAN-C. I became fairly proficient at sextant sights. I understood the navigational

triangles and all that sort of thing, so I guess behind the scenes, the chief endorsed me

and Henry Miller endorsed me. So, when Henry made it clear that he didn't want to make

the trip to the Antarctic, he recommended that if they go, they go with Bekkedahl. "He's a

good navigator." I also had the endorsement of both my COs, who previously had given

me pretty good write-ups as navigator.

8

(150)

We pared down the officers very quickly and began our preparations. I think this

would probably have been in the April/May time frame of '55, when we first got the word

and of course, as you do in the Navy, you mill around a lot before you really start doing

things. But, one of the first things was to pare down the numbers of people. Then we

began to think of what do we have to know and what do we have to learn in order to do

it? One of the things that we quickly learned was that there wasn't anybody aboard the

ship that had ever seen a piece of ice in the water, let alone been to the Arctic or the

Antarctic. This would have been a totally new experience. We did do the best we could to

go to the libraries and look up all the various sources - the hydrographic office

publications. We dug out all the old charts we could find and read some of the books. The

Shackleton and Byrd books. We tried to steep ourselves in as much of the lore and

experiences as we could, but believe me, this was pretty slim pickin's. We were really

pretty green operators going off as we were on a big adventure like this.

The Navy probably recognized some of this, so one of the first things they did

was assign us to an Arctic trip for the summer of 1955, in which we were to take cargo

and supplies to replenish a DEW line station that either had been built or was close to

being built up in the northern sections of Canada in the Baffin Bay area.

BS: Davis Strait?

CB: Well, Davis Strait, but there was island up there and the name's out of my mind

right now. It was quite a good ways north of the Arctic Circle. And that was really our

baptism and our training for our Antarctic experience. This was an interesting cruise. We

rounded Newfoundland and set course north and, of course, this is when we started to

find all the phenomena that happen to your magnetic compass and all the other things that

9

happen to gyrocompasses as you work your way closer and closer to the Pole. Arneb had

a Sperry gyro that never varied an inch or a millimeter off it's base the whole time. It was

the most beautiful piece of equipment you could ever hope for. We never lost a gyro

accuracy on both our North and South Pole expeditions. We were fully expecting at

certain latitudes that we would start to get wobble and develop deviations and so forth.

Other ships that had the same mark and model of gyro as we did had all kinds of trouble.

Perhaps our technicians took better care of it. I don't know what the answer was. But, we

never, ever had a problem. We had a lot of wild times with magnetic compasses, but we

always had the fall-back of the Sperry. And of course, when you have that, you have the

DRT - our Dead Reckoning Tracer. We could keep track of icebergs and maneuver

ourselves around in areas in which we didn't really have any charts.

Our operations in the Arctic were exciting. The weather was cold. We got a good

shot of the wind and weather and the change in weather that you can experience in polar

climates. You know, one minute the sun is shining and there's balmy seas and five

minutes later, you're whacked in some kind of a fog white-out with winds roaring out of

some place you've never seen. All of the optical illusions that can occur in the polar areas

where you can see mountains 200 miles away and things that are upside down on the

horizon. All kinds of weird and strange things that occur up there.

(200)

Plus, as I mentioned, we really didn't have charts that we were accustomed to in our

normal navigation in the more tropical climates of the world, and so we were making our

own charts and we were traveling over areas in which there were no soundings. It was a

good experience. It really was. Our mike boats worked well. We off-loaded our cargo.

We experienced some ice-pack jams. We did not have an icebreaker with us, but if we'd

10

been in trouble, we probably could have rustled one up in two or three days. But, we

didn't have the need.

BS: Did you push into the pack?

CB: We pushed through some pack ice at the entrance to the Baffin Bay, then we got

caught in there. It jammed up a little bit, but we were always able to maneuver. Our only

vulnerability was getting something into our screw or into our rudder. We would

deliberately use our reinforced bow to bang things around and then kick our stern one

way or the other to protect our vulnerable area.

BS: Where did you learn to do that?

CB: Just logic and good sense.

BS: Nobody on the ship had been into the ice before.

CB: Never. No. No one.

BS: So, you just learned how to break ice by yourselves.

CB: It just made good sense, that's all.

BS: Never clipped your prop?

CB: No, never. Lucky ship, lucky ship.

11

BS: Lucky nation. What if you'd screwed it up. Who would put Little America in?

CB: No. Credit it, again, to the officers. We didn't get all up tight about these things.

"Let's figure out how to do this," was kind of the attitude on the Arneb and we did. We

figured out how to do things. Our northern venture was a success. I think we were up

there two or three weeks and we did get all kinds of experience and we then we sailed

south. We felt pretty good about ourselves. We ran into the tag end of a hurricane that

had swept up the United States coast that year. I think it was a pretty good one. I'd have

to go look in the records, but in '55, there was a pretty good blow that came up in the

September period. We caught the tag end of that as we got out on the open Atlantic. But,

fortunately, we were out of the icebergs and bergie bit area. So, we bounced around there

for a couple of days and then finally made our way back to Davisville, Rhode Island.

There, the Seabees and the cargo had been prepositioned and we loaded the ship.

We may have gone back to Norfolk for R&R and then gone to Davisville, but my

inclination is to say we went directly from the Arctic to Davisville, to load cargo for the

Antarctic at the Seabee base there.

BS: Any staff come aboard then?

CB: No. We saw members of the staff who came up occasionally for meetings and so

forth, but no, the staff did not report. The staff never reported aboard the Arneb until

Christchurch, New Zealand.

BS: Tell me, they had all the Little America I stuff? Did they load that there in

Davisville?

CB: Yes.

12

BS: OK.

CB: There was some odd stuff that we picked up in Norfolk. Some vehicles.

BS: How about planes?

CB: Yes, we picked an Otter up in a crate - we deck loaded that in Norfolk. In Panama,

we got a couple thousand pieces of bamboo to split for trail markers and that kind of

stuff. But, fundamentally, the prefabricated huts, the vehicles and wintering over supplies

were loaded at Davisville, and we loaded it in a sequential order - last in, first out type of

situation. We then went to Norfolk, had R&R, some briefings and some public affairs

type of send-offs. And then, quietly one day in late October, we sailed independently for

Panama.

BS: Who was your first skipper?

CB: This was Lawrence Smythe at this point.

BS: Who was your skipper when you first were aboard?

CB: When I first came on ship? Joseph C. Wiley. Brilliant man. He's one of my heroes

and mentors. Joseph C. Wiley III, I do believe.

BS: And made Admiral.

(250)

13

CB: Oh yes. And he was one of the Wise Men that established our national security

policy in later years. He was a brilliant, brilliant man. Then a Ralph C. Johnson. He was a

much different kind of a man, but just an absolute wonderfully personable, solid, serene

and capable fellow who had a great World War II combat record. He was an inspiration

to us all, but in a different way than Joe Wiley.

BS: Later made Admiral?

CB: Yes, he later made Admiral.

Capt. Lawrence Smythe came aboard about two weeks before we sailed to the

Arctic. So, he was new to the ship, new to us, and he walked into this situation of taking

the Arneb to the Arctic. He'd had no experience at all and my inclination and my

observation (and I may be wrong in this), I don't think he had a whole lot of ship

experience. I was told that he made his fame as a staff officer in World War II. He was on

some Admiral's staff in the Pacific and that was where he really gained his fame.

BS: That's S-m-y-t-h?

CB: He was not a sailor. He was not a seaman. It was clear to me on almost my first

night out en route to Newfoundland on our Arctic trip, the man didn't know how to read

the chart I was showing him. I was trying to show him the position on the chart, and I

could tell by the way he was reacting that he didn't understand what I was talking about,

which shook me no end. Here I was, a Lt(jg) and Navigator of the ship and I'm talking to

the Commanding Officer - a Captain - who didn't understand the most simple proposition

of navigation. I have to have some sympathy for him. I think the day we sailed from

Norfolk, and for the next five days, we were in solid fog the entire time. The whole

14

Atlantic coast was socked in with fog. We arrived off Halifax, which was our first port of

call, and it was pea soup thick and we just went into the harbor at about 2 knots. And this

poor guy was literally petrified. He thought this was the end of his career before it even

got started and here was this kid navigator who kept reassuring him that everything was

OK. Never mind the fact that we put him within a mile of landfall, within a couple of

minutes of the time predicted and so forth. But, he didn't look at it quite that way. We

were pretty proud of what we did. He was petrified.

Of course, when we left Halifax and rounded Newfoundland to go north again,

the weather cleared, so he was a little bit more relaxed. But, he was not a ship-handler.

BS: Was he out on the bridge then?

CB: He would be out on the bridge, but he would always be asking, "What do I do now,

what do I do now?" or else he would turn it over to somebody else and then second guess

them. It was a little awkward. The man was not a seaman, not comfortable ship-handling

and took no joy in it. If you're going to be in the Navy that long and you don't take any

joy in the ship, then you're in the wrong business as far as I'm concerned. I learned that

later in life. But, people were happy to conn the ship if the captain didn't want to do it.

Some ships, the captain wouldn't let go of the conn and the poor officers stand there

forever waiting for their chance. That wasn't the case on Arneb. He soon became

confident that myself and my chief and my first class knew our business. We knew how

to pilot, we knew how to dead reckon, we knew how to navigate. Our star sights were

good and we had LORAN-C for a good bit of the way up north, so he finally gained

confidence in our navigation capability.

(300)

15

BS: How about when you went into the ice? What did he do? You said you pushed

through the pack.

CB: He was very upset and panicked and running back and forth, wing to wing, you

know. But, we just kept reassuring him that things were ok. Entering into a bay, you

could see open water there and see the ice was not packed too tight. So, we convinced

him to go ahead and push our way in. He was constantly afraid of ice glaciers breaking

off and ice falling down, which is a legitimate thought, but come on, we've got radar,

we've got watches, we've got people out here. We can get this ship underway in five

minutes. We're spinning engines almost all of the time, so it really wasn't as risky a

situation as he would make it.

In any case, we all thought let's give him the benefit of the doubt. He's not a bad

guy. He had some Jekyll-Hyde things about him and he would be pretty nasty to people

in public, but then he would turn around and put his arm around you, clap you on the

back and so forth. We also knew that he and the Exec were not getting along at all and

there was good reason for this.

BS: What was the reason? Tell me about that. Who was the Exec?

CB: Well, the Exec was a guy named Joseph Hulings. He was an ex-merchant marine

sailor with a first mate license who served in the Navy during the war and was trying

desperately to stay on active duty long enough to attain the 20 years for retirement. God

bless him for that. But, he was not a very nice man. He was alcoholic. He did not like

junior officers. Didn't like ROTC junior officers. He also didn't like Naval Academy

Captains and the man was a bitter and unhappy individual. He apparently tried to get

reassigned and they would let him reassign, so here was this unhappy man and he and the

captain - it was clear from the outset - the two of them disliked each other intensely. And

16

I think they tried to work together in the Navy structure for a little bit, but it very quickly

deteriorated.

I'll tell an anecdote, if I might. I might be a little crude but . . . while we were

anchored off the Baffin Island, an Eskimo Inuit came by with his son in a kayak. They

had a camp. We saw it over on the beach some ways away. They came paddling out to

the ship and we brought them aboard and did all the wrong things. Gave them boxes of

chocolates and cigarettes and the sort of thing we probably shouldn't have done in those

days. He, in turn, brought us raw fish and showed us how to eat char raw. The XO bought

a dog from him. He bought one of these Huskies. And everybody subtly mentioned to the

XO, that that's not a very good idea. We can't have animals on board ship and this is a

puppy. The XO was just a blustery, blow-hard and said, "Never you goddamn mind. I'll

do what I please." He got this little pup, I guess it was maybe 8 or 9 lbs., little wiggly tail,

cute as hell, with needle sharp teeth.

(350)

The XO gave the pup the run of the ship and that dog quickly found the three messes -

the officer's ward room, the chief's quarters and the mess deck - and the dog would gorge

himself continuously to the point where we'd find him laying on deck, bloated like he had

eaten a basketball. And he would excrete all over the place. Well, the charm of this dog

wore off very quickly because the sailors had to go around and mop up the mess that was

being made. And within a very short time, this animal grew, I don't know how long we

were up there - 3 or 4 weeks - but, this animal grew. And all of a sudden, you'd be

walking down a passageway and he would come charging out from under a ladder and

sink his teeth into your pants or leg and you got yourself a scare. He was a Huskie - one

of those damn wild dogs. They don't have any control over their appetite. Their Eskimo

17

masters feed them sparingly, beat them to control their behavior and work them to

exhaustion.

So, this beast had the run of the ship and people were getting awful damn tired of

this dog, but the XO wouldn't hear of penning him up or keeping him in an area. There

were plenty of places we could have put him - the cargo hold, for example. But, the XO

said, "No." One day, the dog went up on the bridge (that dog could climb ladders) and he

relieved himself just outside the door of the pilot house where you have to step over the

combing to go out to the wing of the bridge. As it happened, the captain came across the

bridge, stepped over the combing of this door, hit this excretion and went literally - (his

body - I saw it). It) went horizontal about 3 feet off the deck as he skidded in this stuff

and he came down flat on his back on the steel deck. He was stunned. I'm surprised he

wasn't knocked unconscious and if his head had been back an inch or so, it would have

hit that combing and it probably would have killed the man. And, of course, he laid there

and didn't know what had hit him and he finally dragged himself up. We ran over to help

him and of course, all over the back of his uniform, it was covered with dog doo.

Later that morning, we heard through the voice tube from the bridge to the

captain's cabin the screaming and hollering match that went on between the Captain and

the CO after that event. At that point, the dog was restricted to the XO's quarters, never to

be out on deck or any place loose on the ship. The poor stewards had to clean up the mess

in the XO's cabin and that was almost the final break. ( I'll explain later.) That wasn't the

final break, but the penultimate break between the XO and the Captain came when we got

back to Norfolk. The XO took the dog home because he just was an absolute wild animal.

His wife finally had to put him in a zoo, he was out of control. So these were the kinds of

things that happened that caused the Captain and the XO to be at odds almost from the

very get-go of this cruise.

If you want to talk about the ward room who sailed with this Arneb to the Arctic

and the Antarctic, there were the JOs and there were 4 of us - myself as navigator, Don

18

Renz was the Assistant First Lieutenant and Gunnery Officer, Spencer Irving III was the

Communications Officer, Eric Ott was the Second Division Officer on deck.

(400)

We were the line officers. There were a couple of supply types. Frank Meredith was the

ship's secretary and there was the Doc (I've lost his name). Now, when we sailed to the

Arctic, myself and Don Renz were qualified OODs. And there was one other fellow - we

called him "the Bear," Jim Bryant, who was an ex-enlisted NESEP graduate - a

wonderful great big burly guy. Former machinist's mate, an enlisted man who had gotten

a degree in engineering at Purdue and was now a Lieutenant JG. He was assigned to the

engineering department and he insisted, however, that the chief engineer allow him to

stand deck watches. So, we didn't see Jim a whole lot up topside except for his watch

period. Spencer Irving was still an Ensign, but bright as could be. Very perceptive, quick

learner and a great sense of humor.

BS: Qualified?

CB: Qualified as an OOD Underway very shortly because we developed a tremendous

amount of confidence in Spencer. His problem, of course, was a little bit . . . he was a

little apprehensive about his relationship with enlisted men for a while. They ran his case

pretty bad. In fact, they called him "tackline," and you know, tackline in the signalman's

flag bag was 6 foot of nothing - you know that spacer between signals and they gave him

the nickname "tackline." At first it was a demeaning name, and then it became one of

affection because the enlisted men began to realize what a neat guy this fellow was. He

was fair and straight forward did the job and learned quickly. He gained their respect

pretty rapidly. He also became a very good OOD.

19

BS: And Renz? Don Renz?

CB: Of all the junior officers, he had been aboard the longest. He was aboard about 6 or

7 months before I reported aboard. He was a LT(jg), and the Assistant First Lieutenant

and Gunnery Officer. He and I were roommates, and we got along famously. We became

very close friends.

The Chief Engineer was an ex-enlisted man. He was one of those cigar

chomping, beefy guys who knew engines upside down and could fix anything and "stay

the hell of our my spaces, don't bother me, I'll answer all your bells and make water."

And that was actually pretty acceptable to the Captain and he never bothered the Chief

engineer.

BS: What was his name?

CB: Archie Owens. Archibald Owens.

The First Lieutenant and head of the deck department was Robert Wheeler, ex-

enlisted, Mustang, Lieutenant, wonderful fellow, personable, hard working, respected by

the enlisted men and the chiefs and did a helluva job. He, literally, was the officer who

off-loaded the ship when we eventually got down to our real duties in the Antarctic. I'll

talk more about him.

(450)

In any case, we were loaded, fully manned and one blustery day out of Norfolk,

we sailed for what was going to be not only a trip to the Antarctic, but an around-the-

world cruise. Let me tell you a little bit about that.

20

BS: When did you leave Norfolk?

CB: For the Antarctic, we left probably the first part of October. During one of our stays

in Norfolk, between the Arctic and the Antarctic, our 5 inch 38 single gun mount which

was on the half-deck aft over the fantail was removed, literally unbolted and capped over

and in it's place they mounted a prefabricated hut - a weird looking thing. One door in, it

had a big air-conditioner and a lot of electrical outlets which we serviced from the ship's

service generators. With it came a young, handsome, very personable young German

student by the name of Rochus Vogt. He was a student at the University of Chicago in

their cosmic rays or radiation studies area. A young man about 21 years of age at this

point, but obviously one of the geniuses young who were somehow drafted out of

Germany after the war and brought to the United States for scientific education and so

forth. He found his way to the University of Chicago and was quickly making his mark in

the study of cosmic rays. His purpose was to ride the Arneb and to take cosmic ray

readings as we conducted an around-the-world cruise. We would go down to Antarctica

and take cosmic ray readings in the Antarctic regions, every place we went. These would

automatically be recorded by the equipment that he had on his hut.

BS: He had to calibrate it.

(500)

CB: He had to calibrate it, take the readings. I think some of the equipment was of

Rochus' own design and construction, so he was tending that at all times. And, of course,

temperature variations, vibrations and so forth caused him some problems from time to

time. And when he did the read-outs, I guess he was making some analysis of the

21

information he was receiving. He was an absolutely charming young man. A little bit

apprehensive, of course - a German national right after World War II coming aboard and

being plunged into this Naval environment, but all the junior officers took to him right

away. We adopted him, so to speak, and helped him with his English and we became fast

friends. In fact, I talked to him about 2 years ago and we had some real fond recollections

of our time together on Arneb.

So, I backed up a little bit on that one, but we headed south on to Panama. Here,

we went through the typical Panama experience. You arrive in Coco Solo, spend the

night, go through the locks and the Gatun Lake and everybody gets hosed down with

fresh water and you have a good time, then into the lock system over to Balboa and then

we spent the night there. Unfortunately, the Executive Officer didn't spend his night in

the right place and so, when we had the gonorrhea roll call two or three days out of

Panama, the XOs name was right at the top of the list. That was the final end between

him and the Captain. At that point, the Captain directed that he not come above the first

deck of the ship at any time for any reason whatsoever and that his duties were highly

restricted and so forth and so on. He was not to interfere with the navigation or operation

of the ship, or the junior officers. He was very much constrained.

BS: Not above the main deck of the ship.

CB: Well, the first deck was the officer's level, a half deck above the main deck. He

focused on training and reports and personnel diaries and whatever else. I don't know

what you did in those days, but that was he was doing. I think he was also drinking in his

cabin, so he was a pretty sad individual. We kept our distance from him. It just wasn't a

very healthy environment in the wardroom when the Executive Officer wandered in. But,

over time, he had at least good enough sense not to make too many scenes there with the

22

staff officers and with the scientists that we had. So, we were able to sort of buffer

ourselves from the XO.

BS: Did you eat together? Did he eat with you?

CB: Yes, he did and that was awkward. Those were mostly meals in silence. It was not a

very pleasant affair. That was evening meals. Noontime meal was kind of open, in and

out kind of thing. Breakfast was the same way. But, the evening meal was a pain-in-the-

butt.

(550)

BS: You have formal dinners?

CB: Well, we had neckties. We wore ties every night. That sort of thing. It was

awkward, but we got by. We'd sample the crew's mess if we were on watch. We kept our

distance because he was clearly a dangerous man to cross.

We arrived in Christchurch and were met by a bevy of local New Zealand people.

To set the scene, understand that in the Navy, when you make a landfall, it's usually 4,

4:30, 5 o'clock in the morning, then you mill around until it's time to meet the pilot, then

you bring the ship into the harbor and you get it docked and tied up and that might be 8 or

9 o'clock, and you've been up working 6 or 7 hours and are exhausted. But, there we were

and there were those New Zealanders, anxious to meet and greet us. The XO convened a

wardroom meeting of all officers and the New Zealanders told us of a whole array of

social events and activities that they wanted us to participate in. Who could say no?

BS: Important question. Were you the first Deepfreeze ship to get to New Zealand?

23

CB: Yes.

BS: So, you were the first, ahead of the icebreakers and others that came through?

CB: Icebreakers came independently. They never really came to New Zealand. I think

they were already out scouting the ice pack when we arrived in New Zealand.

BS: So, none of them had been there before.

CB: No. We were the first ships in Christchurch.

BS: Who was with you? Another ship?

CB: Nobody. We were on our own. Now, the Nespelen . . . I'm trying to think. The oiler

came in a day or two later, but she was a small . . .

BS: That was MSC though, wasn't it?

CB: Yes, I think she might have been an MSC. She was a small crew. It was a small

oiler.

BS: Yard oiler?

CB: I'd have to look her up.

The notion of the Arneb being the flagship came home to us when we hit

Christchurch, because it was there that Admiral Dufek and his staff were to embark or at

24

least establish themselves. They didn't necessarily embark and, of course, all the attention

of the press and the local officials was directed at the flagship. The Captain was in his full

glory as the CO would be in getting all this attention and we put on a good show. We had

plenty of time as we crossed the Pacific to clean up, paint, and polish the ship. We

looked pretty impressive with our deck cargo and we all had our uniforms spiffed up and

we were ready to meet and mingle with New Zealanders.

(End of Tape 1 - Side A)

______________________________

(Begin Tape 1 - Side B)

(000)

CB: On arrival in Christchurch, we were surprised to learn that we were the first

American military that had been to Christchurch since World War II. And, of course,

Americans were so highly regarded by the New Zealanders who believed, rightly or

wrongly, but rightly we think, that we saved them from the Japanese hoards by our 10th

Marine Division which had been stationed down there at the outbreak of World War II.

The 10th Marine Division was a very professional division of Marines and they

comported themselves with dignity and good order and married lots of New Zealand girls

and many of them came back after the war and settled in New Zealand themselves. And

so, we arrived highly recommended. Also, the world was beginning to wake up to the

American age in entertainment and music and movies and all the young people of New

Zealand were just so anxious to meet with us and ask us questions about American

lifestyle and so forth. I could go on for probably more tapes than you have, talking about

the social aspects of our being there. It was a wonderful time that we had with these

people. They were just so gracious and hospitable. And so like us, yet in many ways,

25

ahead of us in some respects, particularly the girls who were very free in their affections

and so forth. We had some wonderful experiences. Everybody fell in love. Not all of it

stuck, but many of our . . . I know, I'm jumping ahead, but many, many of our crew of the

ship, Arneb, came back the following year and married New Zealand girls and I know

that experience was replicated throughout all the Deepfreeze ships.

BS: Still going on.

CB: Still going on, I'm sure. In any case, we didn't know how long we were going to be

in Christchurch. We had some fueling to do, some sea voyage damage, the usual routine

that you have - repairs and upkeep. But, basically we were there just to rest up a little bit

and get ready to get briefed by the staff as to the existing conditions in Antarctica. Where

the polar ice pack was, what our destination was going to be in the Antarctic and just to

see if there was anything that New Zealand could offer us by way of charts or

navigational or ice experience and so forth. So, there were meetings with the New

Zealand Navy and with other interested groups. A lot of socialization, parties and dinners

and meetings for the officers and the enlisted. So, it was a good time. We had visitors'

day on board ship every day and we hosted the crowds of probably a thousand people

every day on the ship.

If my memory serves me, we were in port 5 or 6 days before the word came back

that the ice conditions in the polar pack were propitious for a penetration by the Task

Force. That meant getting under, I think, the following morning. So, during that 5 or 6

days, we just had a wonderful time in Christchurch. All the JOs ensconced themselves in

the local hotel where we were full-time guests and able to party around the clock.

The initial operation to start the program going south was for the ships to align

themselves with a sea-air rescue array to be beacons, navigation aids and potential rescue

points for several flights that were coming out of Christchurch. The R4Ds and I can't

26

remember the other type of aircraft that was involved, but we strung ourselves out and . .

.

BS: R-6.

CB: R-6, and the idea, of course, being that one, we were navigation points for them and

communications links as they transited overhead and secondly, in the outside chance that

something went wrong, the possibility of maybe doing some rescue work which was not

very likely. In any case, we arrayed ourselves in that order with the ships that were in the

area - the icebreakers.

BS: How many ships were there?

CB: Well, at this point in time, let me just go back to my notes here. We had Arneb, we

had the fleet tanker, Nespelen, we had the Greenville Victory which was the USNS ship,

civilian officers and crew, and we also had another AKA, the Wyandot, which was a

Navy ship. There was also a towable oiler, but to tell you the honest truth, I don't know

what happened to that. I think it was stationed in Christchurch. I don't know if it was ever

dragged down to the Antarctic or not. That's a point some historian is going to have to

determine.

BS: It actually made it down there on it's own power. It was towed to Christchurch.

CB: I wasn't part of that operation.

BS: What was the icebreaker?

27

CB: We had the Eastwind and the Glacier.

BS: OK.

(50)

CB: I hope I'm right on that. It says Edisto in the book here. Maybe I have these from up

north, I'm not sure. In any case, we had this flyover and then we all rendezvoused at a

point selected by the CTF 43 staff for making our penetration of the winter ice pack that

had broken free from the continent and was drifting north - the annual phenomena. The

ice pack at our time was estimated to be about 200 miles wide and the air flights were

being conducted daily, I think by the New Zealand Air Force as much as our own planes,

to find some kind of a reasonable lead where the ice might be thinner so we could,

hopefully, get the Task Force through. So, that point was located, we sailed for it and it

was estimated - this was about 24 hours in advance at the time - when we would first

make contact with the ice.

Then a very strange thing happened on board ship. A messenger came to me and

said, "Mr. Bekkedahl, the Captain would like to see you in his state room." I just thought,

well, this is some navigational thing and I hustled up to the Captain's state room, knocked

on the door and got the call to come in. I opened the door and I noticed right away that

the Captain's cabin was pitch black and I asked the Captain, "Is there something wrong?"

And the Captain said, "No, no, close the door and come in." So, I closed the door and I

was in the Captain's cabin, which was a fairly sizable space. A big diningroom table in it

and there was a couch. It was a very nice state room. And I could hear his voice. I can't

remember the exact words, but the "Good Lord had struck me blind as a test to see if he

could carry out his assignment through you junior officers" as a test of his religious

strength, or something, like that. I said, "Sir?" He said, "I'm blind." And I said, "Do you

28

want me to get the doctor?" I didn't know what to say . . . he was shocking me. He said,

"A doctor has already seen me. He's not permitted to tell anybody. I'm going to tell you to

go and tell the rest of the junior officers and I'll get the word around to the XO

somehow." He really felt that this was some kind of a religious thing that happened to

him. He said, "I'm Catholic." And I said I didn't know that, not that it made any

difference to me. He said, "But, this was a test and that now here are my orders. You're

the only one that's to come in my cabin. No lights, no flashlights. My steward already

knows how to maneuver around here. He'll cook my food and take care of my needs and

if I have to have any lights, I'll go into the bathroom and turn the light out and that way

he can clean my room or make my bed and he's already been told what to do." This was a

first class Philippino steward - wonderful young man. "And all the officers of the deck

will keep me fully informed as to what's transpiring on the ship through the voice tube,"

which was located above his stateroom dining table in his cabin and his bunk. There were

two branches to his voice tube and they both led up to a voice tube right next to the wheel

on the bridge. I think we could also use the wing voice tubes if we had to, but they

weren't very satisfactory. So, whenever we really wanted to communicate with the

Captain, we would run into the pilot house and open the voice tube next to the wheel

house and call him.

BS: Was Dufek and the staff aboard then?

CB: Some of the staff were aboard. Dufek was not. I think he either rode on another ship

or was on one of the airplanes that went down to McMurdo.

BS: OK.

29

CB: But, some of his staff officers were. And I think the Captain notified them of his

affliction. Well, of course, I stumbled out of his cabin. I really wasn't sure what I'd heard .

. . you know, I couldn't believe that the Captain's blind. That means he can't be up on the

bridge maneuvering the ship. "No, you guys will have to do that for me." "Oh, OK."

"And the XO is not to be allowed on the bridge?" "No, the XO is forbidden to come

above the first deck." "Oh, OK." "And Mr. Wheeler is the next senior Lieutenant." His

job is to off-load the ship. I will explain that to him."

(100)

And Wheeler never really showed much proclivity for ship handling or deck watch

standing, so it was clearly the four of us that I had mentioned earlier who were the

qualified OODs and that was the way it went. This was, as I say, less than 24 hours

before we hit the ice pack and by the time I gathered all my shipmates, my OODs

together and the Doc, and I explained this interview that I had had with the Captain, why

they were just looking at me like, "You've got to be kidding!"

We sat around our staterooms and chewed this one over and kind of laughed,

unbelieving, you know. We were cynics and skeptics and we said, nice timing on his part.

We couldn't go back to port to get some high faluting ophthalmologist to check out his

eyes. The Doc said there was no way he could tell when he examined him, and he said he

could be suffering from stress and it might go away in a very short period of time, or it

could be a permanent affliction. He said, "I'm not an ophthalmologist and the only way

we will really tell is when we finally come back into port and the Navy can fly a

specialist in to check him out. In the meantime, otherwise, he's in good health and I have

no reason to think that he couldn't function through the voice tube." That was the Doc's

view.

BS: Did the scientists know this?

30

CB: It came out within the next matter of hours, the next meal in the wardroom,

everybody knew. It had flashed around the enlisted people by that time.

BS: What about the German scientist?

CB: Rochus? I don't think I called him personally.

BS: Did you have other scientists aboard?

CB: Oh, yeah, there was a number of people from . . .

BS: Did they work aboard or were they just being transported?

CB: They worked on the ship as a base. Some, like Paul Siple, was aboard for a while. I

think he had an Army radioman who was working on an experiment with. Siple spent

some time on the ship. There were people from the Geodetic Survey. There were all

kinds of cats and dogs.

BS: How did Admiral Byrd go down there?

CB: Well, he was flown in and I think he was flown over to Little America for the time

he came aboard Arneb. We were in Little America, working on establishing the camp.

BS: But, he didn't go down with you.

CB: No. No. I'll tell you a little anecdote about Admiral Byrd's . . .

31

BS: The science that was being conducted was the cosmic ray experiments.

CB: On board ship, specifically the Arneb. The rest of it, we were just the host. We were

the base and they would operate off of us. The geodesic people operated off of the ship

because they were taking sightings with the theodolytes and so forth. So, they used the

ship as the base.

BS: OK, so you're on your way down there and you're heading for McMurdo?

CB: No, after we broke free of the ice and that took us, I think, three days to wend our

way through the ice pack and that was quite a wonderful experience for us, especially the

JOs when we were up there maneuvering this monstrous ship of ours 50-150 foot astern

of an icebreaker that was banging into the ice and we were trying to maintain ourselves in

the channel, backing and filling and moving these huge chunks of ice down the side and

trying to protect our screw and our rudder from any kind of damage, which was the real

risk that we ran.

BS: And the most experience you had of anybody on board was about 6 weeks up in the

Arctic.

CB: That's about it.

BS: Which was the icebreaker?

32

CB: Glacier for sure and it was either the Edisto or Eastwind. I can't remember which

was with us at that point in time. And the order of ships was the Glacier, then the other

icebreaker, then Arneb, Wyandot, Nespelen, and Greenville Victory.

(150)

That's the way we were spread out and, of course, we were trying to maintain an interval

of about 150-200 feet. It was a very close order maneuver, and of course, our speed, you

didn't want to measure it in any kind of knots. It was just go ahead, move ahead, try to

keep moving at all times so you wouldn't let the ice back in and pack you in and get you

jammed.

BS: Did you have any holes knocked in the ship?

CB: No, the ship's hull survived beautifully. We were fully expecting some kinds of

damage and we had damage control parties constantly roving the ship around the

waterline and so forth, but Arneb suffered no damage whatsoever.

BS: Was Captain McDonald on the Wyandot?

CB: I don't know. I think we were in there three days before we finally broke free and at

that point, the Task Force broke up. One of the icebreakers - I believe it was Glacier -

took Arneb and the Greenville Victory- and we headed to Kainin Bay, to establish Little

America V and to relocate Little America, would it be IV? I'm not sure if it would be.

That was our mission. The other ships were bound for McMurdo Sound. We made that

separation and off we went and, of course, it was amazing to us - lots of bergie bits and

some icebergs, but the sea was cobalt blue, gorgeous. The sun was shining in a way

33

which we had never really experienced in our life. The air is so crystalline and beautifully

clear down there and what an exhilarating experience it was to come out of the ice pack

into this calm, flat water that was established at that point in time and we sailed without

any difficulty down to Little America and made our landfall, our icefall, if you want to

call it that, along the Ross Ice Shelf.

BS: How high was the Ross Ice Shelf?

CB: The Ross Ice Shelf at the point we landed was . . . we were in . . . the Kainin was a

bay, as they had named it, where a huge iceberg had broken off in a semi-circular

indentation and the sea ice had built up gradually over the years. So, it was about 8 feet

above sea level where we tied up. And then it graduated up to the top of the Ross Ice

Shelf which, I'm guessing, was 400-500 feet above sea level at that point there. There

was an nice gradient that had been created by a drift of the ice and snow. It was explored

by teams of Seabees and some other specialists who marked out a safe road up this

gradient and at the top they established Little America V.

BS: And the Seabees were on the ship with you?

CB: They were on, but some party went in there, I think from either the icebreakers or

someplace.

BS: Somebody went in there first.

CB: To examine the gradient to make sure there wasn't too many crevices and that it

would bear a burden of heavy tractors and sleds. That was one of the delays while we

were backing and filling and waiting to tie up. In the meantime, the Glacier was carving

34

us a pier alongside the ice and trying to get a nice straight surface so we could tie up the

Arneb and the Wyandot, not too close to each other, but yet in the same proximity and so

forth. So, everything fell into place and they found a path to the top of the Ice Shelf.

BS: I'd like to ask you a quick question on the Glacier. How was she cutting a pier for

you? Was she cutting it out of the ice by ramming it, or . . .?

CB: She was running her bow along the edge of the ice and then would break off soft

chunks and bits; she was trying literally to carve a straight line.

BS: Along the sea ice.

CB: Along the sea ice of the bay. That was the idea. And she kept carving it until she

reached good solid black ice, so to speak, good hard, solid ice. The leading edge of the

bay ice was kind of softened up, of course, by exposure to salt water, so the Glacier went

in and kept carving it back until she got her bow right into good hard ice. Once that was

done, we sent deadmen crews ashore with the railroad ties and the wire straps and they

dug the deadmen. I'm sure your listeners would know what they are. As I recall, we laid

four for each ship.

(200)

BS: What was a deadman?

CB: Well, you dig a hole in the ice 3 or 4 feet deep, maybe 6 foot long, 2 foot wide, and

you lay a railroad tie in there with a one inch or a 3/4 inch wire strap looped around the

tie with an eye projected a little above the level of the ice. You fill the hole with water

35

and it freezes. Then, with a quick release attachment, you put your mooring lines for the

ship to these deadmen. The lines were stretched out, oh, I would say maybe 200 feet from

the side of the ship, long leads off the side of the ship so the ship would sit alongside the

ice and rise up and down and the lines would tension up and relax and tension up and

relax, but that effectively held the ship alongside the ice. And so, there were two - one

each off bow and stern - and then there were two spring lines, one leading forward and

one leading aft, to keep the ship from surging fore or aft while we were off-loading.

We had a long gangway that had been specially loaded on the Arneb that we

could lead out from the stern of the ship to the ice - I'd say 40 feet away from the edge of

the ship. It was a long, long gangway that was used to get people on and off the ice. Our

normal gangway which would have led down the side of the ship right to the ice would

have been dangerous with the ship close to the ice, but surging in and out, to and fro.

Once along the side, we didn't waste a whole lot of time. Let me back off a little

bit. The first thing we did was off-load our deck cargo which consisted of some vehicles -

a couple of these Sno CATs and the Seabees were hot to trot. They immediately began to

go up to the site and survey the site and determine where they were going to lay out the

huts and all the supply dumps and the depots and off-load the cargo and stage materials.

It was a great bunch of people, hard-working and knowledgeable guys. We had a lot of

admiration for the Seabee companies that were aboard - the battalion that was aboard our

ship.

BS: Had a whole battalion there?

CB: No, I'm sorry. The members of the battalion. It wasn't a whole battalion.

BS: Now, what did they sail down on?

36

CB: On the Arneb. They rode with us, so we had their officers and enlisted on board.

They were glad to get off the ship and the cramped quarters it provided.

BS: Seasick?

CB: Oh yes, seasick and it was kind of boring for them, you know, polishing their boots

and all that stuff to keep busy while we crossed the Pacific. Once alongside the Ice, we,

of course, began breaking open the holds and rigging our booms. We didn't waste any

time, and of course, now we were into the 24 hours of daylight environment and it took

us a while to begin to adjust to that. We worked without stopping for 18 hours and never

understood why we weren't tired. However, you quickly get your rhythm back. The ship

set up round the clock feeding schedule. We broke the crew into various components for

off-loading depending on their skills - deck handling, winch handlers, cargo handlers.

Once this was done, we then fine-tuned teams of people; those who liked doing what they

were doing or didn't like what they were doing and we let them kind of make their own

teams up and we got along very well. We had the big sleds. The off-loading of the cargo,

then, became the principle role of Bob Wheeler, the First Lieutenant, my friend Don

Renz, and Eric Ott. They were fully absorbed in that. That left myself and Spencer Irving,

the communications officer, as the bridge watch. We spent most of our days, whatever

our day was, spent most of our time, I guess, on the bridge just being ready for anything

that came up by way of communications or any problems that might develop outside the

off-loading activity.

(250)

37

We were permanent in-port officers of the deck. We made sure the ship's routine was

carried out, but in terms of our responsibilities, they were not as arduous as some of the

people who were involved in the loading itself. We spent time on the ice playing with the

penguins, going through all of that experience that everybody has when they first get to

the Antarctic, enjoying the antics of the penguins, and seals, and we took some ski trips

up to the Little America site and we did some exploring of crevices which was a fool-

hardy thing for us to do, but, we survived that like everything else. And then, we assisted

the staff in their communications, and message administration. One of the helos went

down after we were there four or five days. It was out searching for the original Little

America site and it went down.

BS: It crashed?

CB: It crashed, yes, but nobody got hurt. The guys walked away from it. Flying low,

they got into a white-out situation and slow crashed into the side of the Ross Ice Shelf

area. They were shook up a little bit and lost their radio communications. A few days

later, with full search going on, they were spotted trying to walk their way out to the

Little America site. Eventually, they recovered the helo.

BS: The helicopter crashed in a white-out, right?

CB: Yes.

BS: And the guys were out there. You didn't know where they were?

CB: We didn't know where they were. They had been off the radar scopes. We tried to

track them as much as we could on radar.

38

BS: How far away?

CB: Well, turned out they were probably about 20-30 miles away, even when they were

found. And a couple days went by and we searched. Of course, the weather conditions

were such that we couldn't search very well. There was no communications and we

naturally got quite disturbed and that got the whole Task Force up on it's hind legs,

wondering and worrying, and all of a sudden one of the search planes spotted someone

trekking along the coast trying to work their way back to the ship. They'd split up. I think

it was four men involved and two tried to make the walk back and two stayed with the

aircraft in hopes that either group would be sighted. And fortuitously, that's exactly what

happened. They picked up the two trekkers and quickly found the aircraft and evacuated

the two members. Except for a couple of bruises and bumps, they were fine. A good

landing, as they say, you can walk away from. They did recover the aircraft. It wasn't too

badly damaged, but it was out of commission for the cruise.

BS: What ship was it from? Was it from one of the icebreakers?

CB: Yeah, it was working off of one of the icebreakers, but I don't know . . . I'm not even

sure whether it was a VX-6 bird or not. I'm not quite clear.

BS: Well, it wouldn't have been.

CB: No. In any case, that was our only close call to any real disaster. We were about half

way through our off-loading when we celebrated New Year's Eve on board ship. We

stopped off-loading for about 6 hours and gave the crew a huge turkey and lobster and

steak dinner and gave everybody some time to sleep and catch up and enjoyed New

39

Year's Eve of 1956. Then, I think it was about 3-4 days later, we noticed that the ice

alongside the ship was beginning to deteriorate. On close investigation and probing with

steel rods, we began to realize that the ice alongside the ship had seriously deteriorated,

primarily from the warmth of the hull of the ship and the discharges from the various

overboard drains of primarily warm water. It was time to build us a new pier. We also

went over and investigated the situation on the Wyandot and found out that they were

very close to a dangerous situation as we were. The plan was simple. Call up an

icebreaker which was about two days away, and in the meantime, we ceased off-loading

operations, although the gangway was still felt to be safe and secure to move people back

and forth off the ship. We didn't think it was safe to bring the tractors and sleds alongside,

close enough to offload cargo. If I remember right, a lot of our sailors said they wanted to

go up to Little America to help the Seabees. We said fine and they went up to the Little

America site and were helping the Seabees muscle the cargo around, repositioning

materials, etc. Actually, this hiatus in cargo movement gave the Seabees a chance to get

themselves organized because we were moving cargo up there faster than they could

handle it. So, the fact that we were in a holding pattern down at the waterfront was a

blessing to the Seabees.

BS: Was the Wyandot there with you?

CB: Yes.

BS: Was it parked behind you?

CB: Parked behind us, yes. Seabees were off-loading her and the civilians were just

sitting around there playing gin rummy. We decided . . . let me try to get the sequence

order in my mind now. Once we stopped cargo operations, the toughest thing to do was to

40

get that long gangway back on board ship, but we managed to do it. We cast off our lines

and laid off anticipating that the icebreaker would arrive within a matter of hours. I don't

know whether that was good or bad, in light of what happened thereafter. For the first

time, the weather turned bad on us while we were down there. Up until this point, I think

we'd been in there almost two weeks, we just enjoyed pristine weather. Gorgeous sun 24

hours a day. The only problem was a couple days it got too warm and the ice got a little

mushy and hard to walk on. A little tough for the tractors and sleds to maneuver. We

preferred the temperature to be about 20-25 degrees Fahrenheit - that was ideal. And a

couple of days, it got up over the 30s, to 32, and it got a little mushy on us. But, basically,

there was very little wind and the sea conditions were very mild. So again, we were very

fortunate. In any case, once we got underway, laid off, went out and set up ourselves a

little racetrack pattern about 5 or 6 miles away, steaming in a box, it's called.

BS: This is before the weather turned bad?

CB: Yes.

BS: This was after New Year's.

CB: It was after New Year's and we had our mike boats tied up alongside the ice and a

watch crew on duty and we would relieve them every 8 or 10 hours and get them fed, but

we didn't bring the boats back on board. In any case, all of a sudden the weather did turn

on us. In a matter of less than an hour, all of a sudden, some kind of a storm descended

upon us and we experienced what we had been forewarned about many times over, that

was the whiteout. That's a situation where the heavy fog rolls over the area and then the

rays of the sun, depending upon whatever azimuth it might be at that moment in time,

that sunlight diffuses in the fog and you totally lose control of the horizon or your visual

41

reference. Your eyes just simply can't cope with some of the effects of this white. There's

no horizon, there's no top, no bottom. It's a pretty spooky event and we were worried

about the people on ice more than ourselves on the ship because we could orient

ourselves to some part of the ship, although we couldn't see a foot or two in front of the

deck house. But, we got the radios and told everybody to stay put. That these things

usually don't last too long, but it turned out we were in this thing I think about 7 or 8

hours. It was quite an experience. We were blown around and drifted off station. Were

we at risk? Not really. We had our radars and so forth.

BS: You could see the icebergs on the radar?

CB: Icebergs and the shoreline. We could see where we had moored. We kept track of

our mike boats physically all of the time and the people on the ice were the ones that

suffered the most, in the sense, the Seabees, because they were literally frozen in place.

They couldn't move. They didn't dare move, so they didn't get much to eat and it wasn't

very comfortable sleeping and that sort of thing for a period of 6, 7, 8 hours. Eventually,

the wind came along and blew off the fog and out of the mist came an icebreaker.

BS: Which one?

CB: This time it was one of the small ones. It was not the Glacier. It was either the

Edisto or Eastwind, so it was a small breaker. They carved out the decayed surface to

black ice for the Arneb and Wyandot and we went back in, planted new deadmen and I

would say within 10 hours, we were back in business, rigged and ready for off-loading of

cargo. Again, as I said, the hiatus helped the Seabees give them some time to get

organized, plus the fact that we had some of our crew up there to give them a hand.

42

I'm really hard pressed to think of anything of great moment. The life was

absorbing, the weather was beautiful, the setting spectacular. The fact that we had this

little blow added some panache to the whole experience Some of us, as I say, went off on

the ice and did some exploring and some skiing. We did some ice cave exploring. We

harassed some seals and took pictures and did all of that sort of thing. I've still got the

slides of those and have entertained generations of first graders since then - my children

and my grandchildren. We then completed the job. We off-loaded the cargo, the holds

were empty. We went up and made sure that the Seabees were happy with their progress

and their conditions and that they were ready to become independent of support from the

ship and once we established that, we notified CTF 43 that we had completed our

mission. We did have in a number 5 hold as I remember some cargo for McMurdo Sound

and it was not critical nature stuff, so the idea being that when we finished Little

America, we would proceed to McMurdo Sound, off-load this small amount of cargo

from there, we would take our departure from the Antarctic. And that is effectively what

we did.

BS: You went over to McMurdo.

CB: We went over to McMurdo and spent probably two days over there. We anchored in

the shadow of Mt. Erebus and I didn't go ashore.

BS: You unloaded on the sea ice?

CB: No. We unloaded on the mike boats and they ran it into the beach.

BS: What were your mike boats?

43

CB: That was our LCMs. These are the twin diesel engined amphibious boats - 50 ft.

long to haul cargo and personnel. They were built for the amphibious forces to run right

up on the beach, drop their bow ramp, dive your vehicles and your troops right out on the

beach. We had two of those on board Arneb for use on this Antarctic operation. They had

big cargo holds, so we could put vehicles or other boats in there or we could use them as

tugs. They were very powerful boats.

BS: So, they ran right up on the beach.

CB: They ran right up on the beach.

BS: Did they bounce off the ice?

CB: Oh yeah, they handled themselves very nicely in the ice. And like I say, they're twin

engine - you could spin them on a dime and stop them on a dime. Highly maneuverable

boats so there was not a real risk of the ice situation. I thought maybe they had some kind

of a pier situation, some kind of floating arrangement down in McMurdo, but I'm not

clear on that at this point.

BS: You were the flagship. When did Dufek and his staff come aboard?

CB: They were on and off. That was my experience. They were on and off, depending

upon where their attention was required. Much of the time they were in McMurdo.

However, one senior staff officer was with us all the time and I'm sure he kept ADM

Dufek apprised of our activity.

BS: When did they first come aboard?

44

CB: Well, when we went to Christchurch, they came aboard there and, of course, they

sailed with us down to the Antarctic. And then they split off from there.

BS: They sailed from New Zealand to the Antarctic?

CB: Yes.

BS: The staff was aboard when your Captain came up to you and . . . so they knew about

it.

CB: Yes. They knew about it and they made no overt . . .

BS: The staff was aboard from New Zealand all the way down to . . .

CB: All the way down to Little America and then there was a bit split off to McMurdo, I

know. The comings and goings of the staff really didn't call itself to our attention. We

were not career people, if you know what I mean. We were just trying to keep our own

little world intact and do what had to be done. And it was very clear to me, in retrospect,

that Admiral Dufek was fully aware of what was going on, as was his chief staff Capt

Ketchum and Capt Vince Thomas(US ). They all knew exactly what was going on, but

they saw that the junior officers . . . and the ship was performing, so they weren't about

to get involved. They had more important things to do and everything was going all right.

I'm sure that if any problems had developed on the ship, they would have immediately

stepped right in and taken control of the situation. And at the very end of the cruise, I

think it was in Christchurch the last time I saw any of the staff officers, Capt. Ketchum

came aboard and got the four of us JOs in the navigation shack and he said that the

45

Admiral was fully aware of what had transpired aboard the ship and his words to us were,

"Well done, young men." And "if there are any repercussions or any problems that might

come later in this cruise, we were to let him know."

BS: You must have gotten good fit reps out of it.

CB: In fact, I wrote them so I know that's the fact.

BS: You wrote your own?

CB: I wrote mine and wrote the other guys.

BS: And the Captain signed them.

CB: He darn well did.

BS: Good for you!

CB: I was learning fast. In any case, we sailed from Antarctica. It was anticlimactic, of

course. You sail north, you hit the ice pack which by this time had been pretty well

dispersed. We made our journey through it I think in like a day and a half and all the fun

and games had gone out of it. We were skilled ice sailors and pretty proud of ourselves

and we were beginning to think about all the fun and good times ahead of us to the north.

BS: Where did the Captain decide that he was gaining his eyesight back?

46

CB: Let me answer that in a moment. One thing I neglected to tell you was about

Admiral Byrd's brief visit aboard the Arneb . He was on an inspection tour. He was,

nominally, the head of the whole Deepfreeze operation and he was flown in to McMurdo

with a small personal staff where he did photo ops down there and then was brought to

Little America. He was flown out by helo to the Little America shack - the hut that we

had discovered and found, you know, intact and there was a loaf of bread on the table and

a newspaper still there from when he was there last.

BS: Were you there when he and Dufek raised the National Geographic flag?

CB: At Little America? I was there but I wasn't present. That was a ceremony we weren't

involved in. That took place, of course, and then they had a reception in the wardroom of

the Arneb on the occasion of his visit down there. And as so many other people, I guess,

have reported, he was the Virginia gentleman of just never-to-be-seen-again presence.

When he walked into the wardroom, the place just went silent in respect . . . clearly there

was a presence in the room - a slight, handsome, distinguished looking gentleman,

probably in his 70s at that time. I was a young man and I probably wasn't able to make

those kind of determinations as to how old anybody was. A living hero. Someone I had

read about in elementary school. And as he worked his way around the ward room and

came to the junior officers and it was my turn to say hello, and you know he had this way

of making you feel like you were the only person in the room and the only reason he

came to the Antarctic was to have a conversation with you. He asked exactly the right

questions and would listen, and of course, in my role as navigator, he instantly had some

very kind, generous words to say about the challenge and responsibility. It was an

experience I've never really ever forgotten. A slight, not very firm handshake, but again,

he was an older man. But all the while this reception was going on, I noticed

accompanying the Admiral was a rather short, dark-haired, stocky full lieutenant and I

47

noticed that he had a caduceus on his collar, which is the medical corps insignia. And this

was not a very happy looking young man and I just kind of casually slid over and I

introduced myself and he told me he was so-and-so and he was the doctor. And I said,

"Oh, are you enjoying your experience here in the Antarctic?" He said, "I'm hating every

minute of it." I said, "What?" He said, "I hate every minute of this." I said, "Why?" He

said, "I'm here to make sure the Admiral doesn't die. If the Admiral dies, my Navy career

is gone, shot, they told me that. That I was not to let the Admiral die while he was down

in the Antarctic." So, this guy was worried about the Admiral going up and down ladders,

going in and out of helicopters and all that sort of thing. So, this poor unhappy lieutenant

was following in the wake of this great Admiral and he was worried that his life was

going to be affected if Admiral Byrd passed away on him.

So, I forget how many days it took us to steam north to find the ice belt. One of

the icebreakers was escorting us and we went through with very little difficulty. Mainly it

was just making turns and following ice leads rather than banging channels through the

ice. Good sport and good fun and good ship handling experience, but not any where near

as arduous and difficult as our penetration of a month or so earlier. Wouldn't you know

the day after we're clear of the ice pack and we released the icebreaker and I think

Wyandot went on her way independently, the Arneb was steaming north to Christchurch.

I was on the bridge and I just felt this funny tickling on the back of my neck, you know, a

funny sensation . . . I turned around and lo and behold there was this apparition - the

Captain heavily ensconced with a scarf wrapped around his head and wearing very dark

glasses. He was sort of shuffling his steps and he starts to tell me that, " I think I'm

beginning to regain my eyesight. The Virgin Mary has answered my prayers," or

something to that effect. Everyone on the bridge was dutifully obedient and courteous,

but I tell you, the skepticism was at the high point at that juncture. And sure enough, as

each day went by and we proceeded north, the Captain was much more evident about the

ship with his heavy dark glasses on and reporting to us that his eyes were getting better ,

48

that he was able to read in his cabin now, thank the Lord, and this, that and the other

thing. Some of the sailors were pretty funny kids. From the bridge, if you look forward to

the booms nested on number 3 hold, there was a tripod-like four-legged mast and . . .

(End of Tape 1 - Side B)

_______________________________

(Begin Tape 2 - Side A)

(000)

CB: On the four-legged mast, there was a platform about 20 ft. above the deck. On it

were the controllers for the deck winches that the sailors would operate on signals from

the boatswain mate on deck when they loading/off-loading cargo. There was a railing

around the platform to protect them from falling off and around this railing was what they

called a wind-screen which was made of white canvas. Stenciled on the canvas was the

admonition, I believe it was, "Do Not Hump." That has something to do with winch

controls or something like that, but it was a kind of a "Do not, no smoking here, or do not

do this sort of thing." And you could see this very plainly and clearly from the bridge as

you were looking forward. The letterings were about 4 inches high and it was 3 words,

like I say, "Do Not Hump." - that was about as many characters as were involved.

Well, when the Captain made this revelation about his eyesight returning, some

clever sailor, probably during the night, had gone up with a can of paint and began to blur

the edges of these characters very subtly. He didn't do it all at once. And so for about a

day or a day and a half, you could notice that the words, "Do Not Hump," all of a sudden

became all kind of blurred together in the blob, anticipating the time or the moment when

the Captain came to the bridge for one of his "Gee, I think I can see better" strolls, and

49

who was going to be the lucky ones to be on watch when this happened? And sure

enough, our good friend Spencer was up there when the Captain came up and was

looking around and he said the Captain's face almost fell off. His jaw dropped when he

looked and he kept looking. His head was going back and forth like a turkey as you could

see he was trying to realize that his eyes were going bad on him or something had

happened because he knew that the word was "Do Not Hump," but for the life of him, he

could not read that word. And everybody else on the crew was playing straight faced.,

BS: So, you knew. It sounds like everyone knew that this was because he was afraid to be

in charge if something went wrong.

CB: I guess you'd have to say that. The man was clearly, I think unsuited for the

assignment that he was given. He indicated early on that he was not a seaman or a man

who took any particular joy or pleasure in operating a ship or being at sea and he was

highly distrustful of other people. He was a manipulator in a lot of ways, but, who am I to

judge. We were just a bunch of young kids and we were in such an exciting adventure

and we were actually the beneficiaries of his machinations. One can sit back now and go

through a Naval career and say this was a pretty tragic situation, but again, as I said

Arneb was a lucky ship. I think Admiral Dufek was a wise man to let this situation not

precipitate a crisis. I think there were enough other officers present from the staff at all

times to make sure that nothing was going to go bad or be able to step in, so there were a

lot more things happening that I knew about as a JO. Whatever the case, we had a

wonderful time operating this ship.

BS: OK, so you left New Zealand. Where did you go from New Zealand?

50

CB: From New Zealand, we went to Melbourne, Australia. We spent 11 days there. We

were hosted again with outstanding hospitality and warmth and genuine welcome from

the Australian people. We were the princes of the town. Several of us were favorites of

the local theater and we were given a free pass every place we went.

BS: Wear your uniforms?

CB: We wore them, yes and no. It depends. We tried not to, but we were Americans and

there was just no doubt about who we were - our haircuts and demeanor. We had the cast

of Kismet - it was a road show from someplace and they were on the ship taking pictures

and it was just a wonderful experience. The American-Australian Club, I guess it's called,

were great hosts and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. From there, we sailed to complete

the rest of our mission which was to continue on around the world. We sailed the south

coast of Australia, crossed the Indian Ocean, through the Suez Canal and our first port-of-

call was Naples, Italy. In Naples, much to our surprise, we were met by a rather stern

faced group of people waiting at pierside. There were a couple of admirals and a whole

bunch of staff guys and none of them had a smile on their face. We wondered what on

earth this was all about and they marched up the gangway as soon as we got it down and

said, "Tell your Captain to assemble all his officers in the wardroom immediately," and

this was said in a very unfriendly fashion. This was an order by a very senior Admiral

and who we had no idea who he was. "Yessir, yessir." We passed the word, "All officers

to the wardroom," and shortly we were all stuffed in the wardroom along with the group

that had been waiting on the pier.

(50)

51

The Admiral starts in and he said, "All right, why didn't you report the fire?" And we all

stood there and we said, "Sir?" And he repeated, "Why did you not report the fire and the

damage to the ship?" "What are you talking about, sir? Begging your pardon." He said,

"I have here your logreq and there's no way possible for a ship to have the requirements

that you set forth without having had a serious fire in your ship stores area. Now let's get

down to business." And we said, "Beg your pardon, sir." The Captain's chin is bouncing

up and down saying, "What are you talking about?" "Well," the Admiral said, "we've

never had to provide silverware and cups and saucers to a Navy ship paying a port-of-call

in Naples. We've never had to have a complete set of uniforms, insignias, belts, white

hats, officer's insignias, and all the other things that you people have listed on here as

required for your logreq. And he went on to mention two or three other items. And all of

a sudden it dawned on us and we all began to laugh. This didn't help, but at least we

understood what they were talking about! We were all down to our last bit of clothing

because we'd given all of our uniforms and our insignias and our belts, our belt buckles,

our wardroom cups and saucers and our silver service to all of our Australian and New

Zealand friends and girlfriends as souvenirs. Everyone of those people wanted some

souvenir from the Arneb and over the period of time that we were there, these things

would disappear daily. We were down to drinking coffee out of paper cups and so we

listed all our needs in the logistics requirements message to Naples and the staff in

Naples concluded that we must have had a fire in the living areas and had failed to make

the proper reports of the damage to the ship. They were straight faced and stern about it

and, of course, when we told them what happened, the whole thing did a flip and

everyone broke out laughing. Unbelievable circumstance. We were then welcomed to

Naples and all the courtesies extended.

That was kind of the end. We then sailed to Barcelona, Spain, for a four day visit,

then the passage through the Straits of Gibraltar, across the Atlantic and back to Norfolk,

Virginia. The only other item of interest was that we received one other message from the

52

Chief of Naval Personnel wondering what in the hell was going on aboard the ship

because over half the crew had offered to re-enlist with the provision that they stay

aboard Arneb. That was the largest re-enlistment by any one unit in the Atlantic Fleet for

years. In those days, the Navy had had a lot of trouble with re-enlistments and here was a

ship coming back from a 9 month service and everybody wanted to re-enlist. It was

incredible. Everyone eligible wanted to re-enlist. And BUPERS, honored those re-

enlistment agreements. We re-enlisted, perhaps 86 men or something like that on the trip

back. They stayed aboard and while I left the ship in July, I had had some contacts with

former shipmates over the years and many of them had stayed in the Navy, married New

Zealand or Australian girls and made the trip back and forth to the Antarctic many times

over. So, I wasn't the only one that was impressed with this part of the world.

BS: Talk about re-enlistments. How about Cliff Bekkedahl? You extended to go down

there and obviously hadn't intended to stay in the Navy.

CB: That's right.

BS: Was it the Antarctic that kept you interested or made you re-up, so to speak?

CB: I think it was.

BS: You were USNR then?

CB: I was USNR, and I was still a single man. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and

obviously I was successful in the first years as a junior officer and recovered good fitness

reports. I was encouraged by several people to stay in and the prospects back at home

were less than exciting. Like many young men, I'd seen my father spend some 45 years in

53

an office and God bless him for it, but I didn't want to spend my life at a desk someplace

for 45 years and get a gold watch. So, I did, indeed, get in touch with BUPERS and on

the stipulation that I would get a regular commission, which they were very pleased to

offer, I agreed to return to active duty.

And now, influences . . . yes, the Antarctic experience certainly was one of the

highlights of my life. Never mind just the Navy career, but my life. The influence of

Admiral Joe Wiley, again - I felt if someone as brilliant as that man could find

satisfaction and make a happy life out of this Navy career, then there must be something

in it for me. I think I've been rewarded in that respect. Every career has it's ups and

downs, but I had a very successful and very enjoyable career.

(100)

BS: Can you just briefly cover your duties?

CB: Obviously, when I went regular, it was time now to get out of the amphibious

environment into a more career oriented sector and I went to destroyers - to Air Control

School in Glencoe, Georgia. In the meantime, I had met my wife-to-be, Vickie, and we

married while I was at Glencoe. I then became OPS Officer on a DDR - the William R.

Rush out of Newport, Rhode Island, and before long, I was back at sea, banging around

on the North Atlantic on air defense exercises with the carriers and doing ASW work

with New London submarines. Of course, we made Med cruises on the Rush, and soon I

was made a full Lieutenant. I then was sent to American University for a Master's degree

in International Relations, and from there I went to the Pentagon to Op 61 which is the

political military branch. There, I met Jim Calvert who became, really, my mentor in the

Navy. Again, he was probably as close in persona, in intellect and writing skills and

many of the things that I admired as the Renaissance man, Joe Wiley. I look on the two of

54

them as my Navy fathers and I've always made them my measure of how I should

perform. Jim took a shine to me, I guess, because I was able to write concise messages

and briefing papers that kept the CNO happy. Jim was my division manager in the

political military affairs - he was a Captain at that time and by then I was a Lieutenant

Commander. George Steele relieved Jim Calvert in that office and that's how I met

George Steele, but my time together with George Steele was rather brief. Still, I enjoyed

a good relationship with him.

I jumped ahead and forgot one of the most enjoyable tours of duty. After I left the

Rush, I got my first command - the USS Utina - ATF 163 - a fleet salvaged tug. My God,

what an experience that was. 73 enlisted men and 5 officers and I was the Captain.

Wonderful, wonderful ship.

BS: You were a Lieutenant?

CB: Yes, I was a Lieutenant out of Little Creek, Virginia. I was married by that time.

Vicki and I had two little baby daughters, so we lived in the Little Creek area. Our duties,

of course, were salvage duties and target towing off the coast for the gunnery exercises.

Periodically, we deployed to Guantanamo, Cuba, to perform towing services down there

at the Refresher Training Command. But, I had a couple of great towing assignments that

were exciting and it was an altogether wonderful experience, being that young, being the

Captain and having a good crew of sailors and officers. Very professional deck type

sailors and fortunately because of my time on Arneb, I was pretty deck and seamanship

oriented and had a good operational background. It was from there that I went to the post

graduate school. I'm sorry I missed that link in my background.

BS: What did you major in there?

55

CB: At the post graduate school? That was political military affairs. My next sea

assignment was XO of a guided missile destroyer, the William V. Pratt, down in

Mayport, Florida. Viet Nam was all encompassing at this juncture and I made several

deployments to Viet Nam with the destroyer forces. I left the Pratt to take my first

destroyer command - the John R. Craig - DD-885, in 1967.

(150)

John R. Craig was a San Diego based ship and our whole Naval activity now was

focused around the Viet Nam conflict. I did a lot of gunfire support on the DMZ. Got

shot at a few times, but we managed to turn the right way at the right time and the enemy

fire fell harmless. I left John R. Craig in 1969 and rejoined Jim Calvert. At that point, he

was the Superintendent at the US Naval Academy and he selected me to be his Executive

Assistant. This was a bit unusual since I was the first non-Naval Academy graduate to

ever sit in that chair.

BS: But, he knew you from before.

CB: He knew me from before, he wanted me and he had a lot of confidence in me. We

put together a wonderful staff and we meet to this day, at an annual reunion with Jim and

Peggy Calvert. We're all old enough now to say we all love each other and we really do.

We were and I believe we still are an interesting and fine group of people. Husbands,

wives, even children, everybody, we all stayed together. It's a wonderful, wonderful

relationship.

After I left the Naval Academy, I went to the National War College - nice tour,

very exciting and energizing. I had a wonderful trip around the world with the War

College group. I then was eligible for command again and I was given a split assignment.

56

For a deep draft command, I had the USS Shenandoah, AD-26, a destroyer tender. I had

the good fortune of taking a destroyer tender and unhooking her from the pier and taking

her to the Mediterranean. I came back from that after about a year and a half of duty and

was reassigned to COMDESRON 15 in Japan, homeported in Yokosaka, Japan. I had a 6

ship destroyer squadron. I was the senior surface officer in the area. As such, it gave me

an opportunity to meet and work with the ROKN Navy and the Japanese, JMSDF Navy. I

was, "the ASW expert," responsible for training both of these navies in anti-submarine

warfare.

BS: What years were you?

CB: This was '75-'76 - a year and a half or so in that area.

BS: Do you remember Bill Rodin?

CB: Sure.

BS: I was his Air OPS Officer. Actually, I was his OPS Officer because he had an OPS

Officer who didn't know what to do and Admiral Rodin and the COS Capt Ed McKellar

bypassed him and came to me.

CB: Did he have the Worden?

BS: I don't know what his destroyer duty was, but he later on got . . . both Rodin and

Admiral Carter who followed Rodin, Ed Carter - fiery little guy. Red hair.

57

CB: It was a great tour. I loved Japan. My family was there, the yen was strong and my

wife and older daughters could travel and meet me at the various ports. Having this quasi-

official role as the liaison with the Japanese and the ROKN Navy, I used to be able to call

up the flag executive jet to fly back and forth to Seoul and other places for planning ASW

exercises. I've still got a basement full of souvenir plaques and cigarette boxes from all of

my association with the Japanese and the Korean Naval officers. Great people.

(200)

And then, it was back to Washington, DC. I became Aide and Executive Assistant

to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Manpower Reserve Affairs and Logistics - Ed

Hidalgo. Ed Hidalgo later became a Secretary of the Navy, sort of the rump Secretary of

the Navy after Graham Clater left at the end of the Carter Administration. But, Ed and I

became fast friends. And that was about it for the Navy. I missed the first early selection

opportunity and at that point in time, I had four grown daughters and I needed the money

for college. I thought I'd had all the great Navy experiences any man could ever hope to

have and it was time for me to think more about them than just staying in uniform and

looking for new assignments.

BS: How many years did you retire on?

CB: 26. The time was just right, and I had an opportunity to get a wonderful job here in

New Jersey and so everything just fell into place.

BS: What year was that you retired?

CB: 1979.

58

BS: Well, that's good. Tell me, you stayed in touch with Polar OPS on your own. You're

going to be the next editor of the Polar Times. What are some of the things that you'd like

to do with it that you can think of at first blush? That's so we can follow up on this and

see . . .

CB: Well, at first blush I see this as I would a Naval assignment in the sense that I've

stumbled on a wonderful opportunity and I have an obligation to make it that much better

for the guy who will relieve me. That's kind of the way I'm coming at this thing. I think

clearly, Brian, you have brought this thing from way back on your shoulders alone and

it's now time for someone else to move it up a notch, up a step or whatever you want to

call it. I think the opportunity of the Website is really the change that will hopefully

happen in my time. Not that I'm a great computer expert or anything like that, but I just

see that as the new dynamic in this Polar Times, American Polar Society operation. As a

reader, my general interest has always gravitated towards polar affairs . . . articles in the

New York Times or Science magazines, or books on explorers. I've a little bit of a library

of polar literature that I've kept up with. Now, I realize I'm going to be rubbing shoulders

and being in touch with people who have made multiple tours down there and have had

hands on experience, north and south. Expert I'll never be, but I hope to be a managing

editor that will keep this thing on a roll. That's really what I have in mind at this early

juncture.

BS: Why don't we end it there?

CB: OK.

BS: Good interview.

59

CB: Thank you. That was fun.

__________________________________

End of Interview