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Navy Times Article Recaps1. Navy carrier Sea-trials F-35, JSF, jet underway.2. Unmanned X-47B jet makes carrier'stop and gos' and landings.3. Navy's LCS & Command ships seeshorter, overall, underway periods than other line ships from 2011-12. 4. Retiring USCG Commandant Papprelieved by Admiral Zuknuft.5. US to put more troops in NATO countries due to Russian military aggression. 6. Navy to push more fleet-wide command promotions for enlisted.7. After completion of hectic INSURV, DDG Ross heads to Rota aspart of BMD force. 8. Report says VA denies 4 out of 5 Gulf War illness claims.9. Civil War Union Lieutenant from Wisconsin posthumously awarded Medal of Honor.10. US and coalition air power continues to strike ISIL positions in Iraq and Syria.11. House backs 1.8% pay raise for FY 2015. Senate looks at 1% raise.12. Sub crew errors cited in 2012 collision with Cruiser. 13. Army Spec Ops helos could see more involvement with Amphib fleet..14. Twenty-two nations, including China, took part in RIMPAC exercises15. NAVSTA Mayport now home to full Amphib Readiness Group. 18. Ex-carrier Constellation to be scrapped in Texas, transiting via Cape Horn.19. DOD says curbs on military pay and benefits are lowering annual costs.20. US and Iraq agree on legal protection for US troops in Iraq.21. American Legion study shows little or no improvement for those whohad PTSD or brain injury treatments.22. Congress calls for increased mental health screening for troops andrecruits in an attempt to reduce suicides and violence.23. Navy starts computer tablet usage experiment at Great Lakes boot camp.24. Prince Harry took part in this year's International Wounded Warrior Games.25. US to increase military on ground in Iraq by as many as 1,500 more aftermid-term elections.

26. Southern Command commander says sophisticated criminal drug network poses threat to national security27. Navy pushing 3-D printing of parts from non-ferrous materials to metals.28. Navy, facing Congressional objections, to modernize carrier George Washington rather than inactivate the ship.29. Decommissioning plans will pull all frigates from fleet by end of FY 2015.30. US military turns over more bases to Afghan Army.31. As of September 1, command ballcaps make a return to the Navy.32. On paper, using a revised counting measure, Navy's 30-year plan calls for more ships in fleet.33. Retirement of frigates may leave Navy scrambling to fill some future missions. 34. Navy and congress still at odds over inactivating half of cruiser fleet.35. VA to contact some 8 million vets, living more than 40 miles away from VA facilities, about being able to make appointments at non VA clinics and hospitals.36. VA requests additional $18B for more medical staff and lease space.37. DOD looking for more reservists with real-world cyber experience.38. Circuit court judges dismiss sailors ERB lawsuit. Case may go to US Supreme Court.39. Data shows sailors with higher educational degrees advance faster than sailors without degrees.40. Lawmakers urge SecDef Hagel toallow names of 74 sailors, who died during a ship collision off the coast of Vietnam, to be etched into the Vietnam Memorial.41. Report states the average yearly cost for an active duty service member is $125000.42. A $12.5 million dollar gift will help restore Arlington House, which is located above Arlington National Cemetery.43. New VA Secretary, McDonald, promises big changes within 90 days of taking over from Gen. Shineski.44. According to reports, the Chinesesent spy ships to trail ships partici-pating in RIMPAC exercises.

45. New Chief of Naval Personnel says 'no more enlisted retention boards during his tenure'.46. Cruiser Cowpins CO reportedly spent last half of cruise, earlier this year, in his in-port cabin because of an illness that left him with partial facial paralysis.47. Ships with Black Sea duty to see new port calls in Romania, Georgia, Turkey and Bulgaria.48. After a backlash from the the Freedom From Religion Foundation and an unnamed veterans group, bibles are put back in rooms at Navy Lodges. A review is underway to determine if they should remain, 49. Opposition to vets access to online AAFES exchange to slow down decision.50. Navy to study ways of making women's uniforms better fitting.51. A Chiefs Continuation Board to determine if 7,500 to 8,000 E-7 and E-8 will be let go.52. A 32 year old active-duty Seal instructor at Great Lakes makes Northwestern University football team as defensive end.53. CNO Greenert's 4-year operationplan for Navy is to “grow the fleet's forward presence” by 15 additional ships in the Pacific and10 more ships in the Middle East by 2019.54. US and Indonesia divers find the sunken wreckage of the WW2 cruiser, USS Houston, in the Sunda Strait.55. New tuition assistance rule: course grade of 'C' or better, or pay back the Navy. 56. At least 34 sailors are being kicked out of Navy for cheating on nuclear qualification exams. 57. USCG posts first National Security Cutter to East Coast.58. New rules streamline process for firing VA executives.59. Navy accepts newest Virginia class sub, North Dakota. A 20% redesign has lowered cost and added more operational flexibility.60. Navy reinstates rules for purchas-ing command challenge coins.61. Hueneme commanding officer fires himself; stating he's the wrong man for the job.62. Recent Russian air and sea exer-cises harken back to 'cold war' era.

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Guest ColumnistLee Smith, GMG2, AE-2

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Due to the length of this article, it will be presented in twoparts)

I enlisted in the US Navy in October1942 in Seminole, Oklahoma. I joinedthe Navy after the recent loss of myfather who died from kidney failure. Iwas underage at only 16 years old. Myfriends signed my paper for me. I took abus with my fellow Navy recruits toOklahoma City and was placed us on atrain to Great Lakes, North Chicago.

The Navy was in dire need of personnelin October ’42 and our boot camp onlylasted three weeks before being sent toNorfolk and being assigned to the AE2Nitro. The ship was in dry-dock beingupgraded with 2 – 3 inch 50 caliber and 4single 5 inch 38 caliber armaments. Otherwelding occurred on the hull and in theholds to more safely accommodatemunitions. When the Nitro was donebeing refitted, my duty was to load andkeep track of the ammunition inventory,and to shore it up properly so cargowould not shift in rough seas.

We made multiple cruises to theCaribbean and South America. Ports ofcall included Guantanamo Bay in Cuba,San Juan in Puerto Rico, Trinidad, B.W.I., and two trips to my favorite port ofcall-- Recife, Brazil. In Recife, the Nitrosupplied arms for the US Fourth FleetSouthern Atlantic patrols. Some of thesesupplies ultimately were transferred forthe North Africa Invasion. This was myfirst encounter visualizing sunkenGerman ships, which were in the harborhalf submerged. We also experiencedBrazilian shop owners and bar girls.When we returned on our second voyage,one girl I had met during our first Recifetrip met our Nitro launch as we pulledinto the dock. She had pictures to sharewith me from our first trip. So much forsecrecy! The locals in Recife knew moreabout what ships were arriving than thecrew on board! During our return trips toBaltimore and the East Coast, we loaded

up 380 troops and filled the holds on theship with coffee, raw sugar, and freshfruit in the refrigerated holds. Largestalks of bananas were hung on our gunturrets. Our captain gave the order to “getsome use out of these troops on boardand not let them just sit.” We used themto perform daily duties on our voyage toBaltimore. Once we unloaded our cargoin Baltimore, our ship took the shortcruise back to Norfolk where our shipwent through more refitting.

On April 20th, 1944,we left Norfolk andheaded up thecoastline to take onour load ofammunition to Earl,New Jersey. Troopswere also loaded onthe Nitro. Themilitary used all

ships headed to Europe to carry troopsfor the defense of England and Scotland,and to prepare ultimately for theupcoming European invasion. The Nitrowas so crowded, many soldiers had tosleep on the weather deck. We were notpart of any large convoy. Five destroyerstraveled with us. It was difficult knowingour direction since we zig-zaged theentire voyage. On this cruise I had theopportunity to get to know our captainwell. His name was Captain FoyTrimble. He was from the Kansas Cityarea. After some discussions with him, Ifound out that he was a friend of our thenVice President, Harry S. Truman. Thecaptain had a dog named Rivets. Ibecame one of the shipmates on boardthat took care of his dog. I had grown upwith dogs, and I had trained and huntedwith them in Oklahoma. Captain Trimbleappreciated this and we shared huntingstories, stories about Kansas, Missouri,and Oklahoma as we had a great deal ofthings in common. Our captain had anickname-- Captain Nelly.

One of acquaintances who worked nearthe bridge with Captain Timble wasyeoman, John H. Meissner Y2c. Hebecame one of my best buddies on the

AE-2. There are pictures of CaptainTrimble on our AE2 website. I wasassigned helm watch on a regular basis,so I took control of the ship’s wheel andspent many shifts on the bridge onlookout. Approximately a week afterleaving Earl, New Jersey, I noticed thetemperature was getting noticeablycolder. After having a hard time sleepingone night, I got up early at approximately4 AM and climbed up on the bridge andviewed something that I had never seenin my lifetime growing up in Oklahoma.There were ice flows bobbing in thefrigid seas. One ice flow even had apolar bear resting on it. We were nearGreenland in the Arctic Circle, whichwas a dangerous area with roaming NaziU-Boats. There was a rumor that therewas a sea pack of eleven U Boats in thislocation. In addition, we were havingboiler problems so we were limited totravel at only a few knots an hour. Aftermore days at sea, we finally docked inBelfast, Ireland on May 2nd, 1944. OnMay 5th, we left Belfast for Plymouth,England. In England, the harbor entrancewas protected by a large minefield. It isnormal that a city’s harbor patrol wouldcome out and escort incoming shipsthrough the minefield. When our shipwas fully loaded with munitions, it wascommon practice to anchor at the far endof the harbor dock yard. This wouldlessen damage to the harbor in case of amishap. The British Navy harbor patrolin Plymouth sent out corvettes. Thesewere small escort boats that guided theship through the remaining EnglishChannel and into the harbor.Unfortunately, shortly after the escortboats arrived, fog and heavy mist startedto close in around us. When the escortcorvettes found out that we were anammo ship, they high tailed away fromus. They abandoned us in the middle ofthe minefield surrounded by fog. Thiswas my first incident for our crew to relyon our British allies.

Our captain gave the order to ring ourship’s bell to warn any other ships in thevicinity that were also navigating thedense fog. The ship “exec” gave orders

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to double the watch. When any mine wasspotted floating close to our ship, wepeppered them with 40 MM rounds. Wedestroyed a number of the mines as weinched our way into Plymouth harbor.

When the fog cleared, we were farenough out in the bay to get a greatperspective of the city skyline. Plymouthsits on rolling hills. A few of us climbedinto the Nitro gun turrets and trained theadjustable gun sights to look into the citylanes and park. To our amazement, weviewed other sailors and soldiers onliberty. While in Plymouth, our captainannounced to the crew that we would bebringing large helium balloons on board.These balloons would be inflated andtethered above our ship during theupcoming invasion. The purpose of theballoons were to cause incoming enemyplanes to explode if they flew over a ship.They were very large and looked likesmall blimps. Many of the crew andofficers on board, including myself, feltvery uneasy having these gas balloonsfloating over tons of ammunition. We letour captain know our feelings; and wewere concerned that if the ship wouldblow up, the ship would go sky high withall the ammunition we had on board. Onthe 3rd day, Captain Timble gave an orderto remove the balloons.

The immediate days prior to June 6th wasa very busy time. We loaded a fullmultitude of ammo onto three battleships—the Texas, the Nevada, and theArkansas. We also off loaded theremaining troops on board. Our ship wasordered to deploy to the rear area of theinvasion armada on the evening of June5th and on the morning of the Normandyinvasion. We found out later, that someof the ammo loaded on the battleshipshad been redeployed the day prior to theBritish 3rd infantry division for theirinvasion at Sword beachhead. Our shipwas still partially loaded after Normandy,and we were given orders to steam toOran, Africa.

We steamed for eight days to Mers-El-Kebir, which is the port of Oran inAlgeria. This ancient city had narrow

streets that looked like cobblestone goatpaths. We were in port for fourteen days.There were hundreds of army tents set upalong the beaches there. I happened to beup on the bridge after shortly pulling intoport. The captain said, “well Smitty, Igot some items I want to get rid of on theship.” We had a bunch of 45 caliberpistols, and he ordered me to get someother sailors to travel with me and deliverthem over to the US Army. Werequisitioned a truck near the wharf, andthe boxes of pistols were loaded onboard. We drove down through the townof Oran and swung into the desert. Oncewe delivered the pistols to the armyrequisition officer, we turned around anddrove back towards the city.

We got liberty every four days. Oran hadsome beautiful hotels. I went up to thebalcony in one, and saw a beautiful viewof part of the town and the entire bay.Our ship was off in the distance. Anotherthing about Africa…at that time they hada lot of beer but no glasses, so you drankit out of a can. The beer was made out ofsalt water. It was good beer and we reallyenjoyed it.

Our next destination port was Kasbah,Algiers. Kasbah had a lot of bars, it was agood place to barter for goods, and thewomen were beautiful. One man in ourcrew had the nickname--Tiny. He wasanything but “tiny.” When Tiny wouldcome into a port, he typically would headto shops to purchase more food. Thisman had an unrelenting appetite. Hewould bring back a large sack full offood and store it in his locker. He was ayoung guy, but he must have weighednearly 400 pounds. He was big all overand ate whenever he could. Tiny alsoliked to “tie one on” when he was onliberty. On one occasion, Tiny left theship even though the Starboard Port’srotation for leave was not planned. I wasworking up on the main deck, when lowand behold, Tiny rambled back from hisleave with a jackass in tow. The mule hadbinder twine around its neck. There wasan old man following the two as well.Tiny was saying, “come on buddy…

come on buddy.” I looked down the deckand said, “what in the ___are you goingto do with the mule?” The old manreplied back, “he thinks he’s going tobring it aboard.” Just then the officer ofthe deck overhead the commotion andasked was what going on. I filled him inthat Tiny had returned from liberty with adonkey and wants to bring it aboard. Theofficer snorted back- “hell no!... we haveenough jackasses in the crew already.”This Algerian old man knew damn wellthat he would get his mule back. So Tinyturned the binder twin rope back over tohim, and the old man meandered backinto town. Tiny was really smacked andcould not walk up the gang plank. Hestumbled to the ground. The officer ondeck inquired how we were going to getTiny back up on the main deck of theNitro. I replied,” I have an answer.” Weenergized the steam motor on one of thecranes, rotated it to the dock and lowereda cargo net. Once the net was laid out,Tiny was rolled into the net, scooped up,and dropped onto the AE-2 main deck. Irolled him out of the net, and we let himlay there until he sobered up. We reallycelebrated on the day in Algiers, when itwas announced that Paris had beenliberated. There was a German tank inthe wharf as well. We had a good timeclimbing up on it and crawling inside theturret.

On August 29th, 1944, the Nitro steamedto Propriano, Corsica. There we workedlong hours downloading munitions tomany ships preparing for the SouthernFrance invasion. Our crew and officersreceived a Battle Star as recognition forour involvement in this importantinvasion. This invasion helped open upanother front to attack the Germantroops..

Our ship returned to Oran for a secondvisit. Here we reloaded additionalammunition from a smaller Mount Bakersupply ship. There was a rumor goingaround that the Nitro would return to thestates.

Part II in January

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Chaplain's CornerBy Chaplain Donna Wise

WELCOME

It is a daunting and humbling task to bewriting my first Chaplain’s article for theNitro Blast. As many of you know fromthe previous newsletter or attendance atthe last reunion in Norfolk I haveaccepted the position formerly filled byChaplain Deanna Smitha. We will missher presence on these pages and wish herwell. We look forward to seeing her andCathy again as circumstances allow.

There were a few at the reunion whowondered why I was asked to fill thisposition, so let me begin by introducingmyself. I am a United Methodistclergywoman who served in pulpitministry in South Central Kansas foreleven years prior to retiring a year ago.I received my theological education atSaint Paul School of Theology in KansasCity, MO graduating with a Master ofDivinity in 2007. While my religiousbackground is Protestant Christian, Ihave great respect for people of all faithtraditions and hope that will be evident asI fulfill the duties of Chaplain.

I have attended most of the reunions withPhil since the Nitro Association wasformed. I already know many of youwho regularly attend reunions and lookforward to meeting many more. I amprobably not going to try to claim theNavy heritage that many of you share,because I did not serve on the Nitro andwould not want to diminish what thatmeans for you. However, I do knowmany of the stories after years ofattending the reunions and hope to hearmany more.

The leaves are just beginning to fall herein southern Kansas as we enter the fallseason. The changing of the seasons isone of the things I enjoy about living inKansas. When the seasons change it is areminder of our connection to the earthand all of creation. Sometimes we need areminder that we are not in charge! We

need to be reminded of our owninsignificance. At the same time, manyof us worship a God who considers us tobe worthy of love. For some of us theHigh Holy days have passed for this year,but may whatever the holy days of yourfaith hold in store for you in the comingquarter may you experience peace andjoy. Let us all pray that we– the peopleof God - may learn to live in harmony.

Grace & Peace,

Donna

A Final ThoughtBy Robert Eberlein,

They say with age comes forgetfulness,so remember, November 10th is the USMarines Birthday and November 11th,Veterans Day. Now you know.

The trees are a blaze with color, storesadvertising Christmas discounts and theCharlie Brown's Halloween Special hasaired, so it must be officially autumnWhere does time go? Next thing weknow it's the New Year! Like the jokestates, life is like a roll of toilet paper, thecloser it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

Any way, like Jim has said, thearrangements are well on the way andsometimes we must wait for returnemails, and phone calls for moreinformation. Mark your calendar for thethird week of June 2015 (18 - 21).Portland, Maine here we come. Lobstersand clams beware the USS Nitro clan iscoming your way.

I hope all of you will try to attend asmany Veterans Day activities as possible.It's the day for you to be recognized foryour service to the country. Besides,there are a ton of freebies for you toenjoy. At these ceremonies, our departedcomrades will be remembered for theirservice and sacrifice.

As the old year nears the end, please taketime to remember what is important inlife, family, friends and your health.Everything else can be replaced.

From the Association officers and ourfamilies, we wish each and everyone asafe and healthy holiday seasons and aHappy New Year - 2015!

See ya in Portland Maine.

Fair winds and following seas.

Bob Eberlein, Founder,USS Nitro Association.