At some point during 1958 Salt Water Carpenter, a good man indeed, was relieved by Captain Francis Rydeen, an odd ball in my view. We took his 1957 Thunder Bird on board all the way to Japan and back. On the first trip to WesPac he criticized me for having changed the clocks without asking permission. He was a great one for learning the signal number of the commanding officer of another ship which we might encounter underway. If the CO’s number were lower, he’d appear on the bridge casually attired with a ball cap on, if the reverse, he’d be in full regalia uniform. During the stewardship of Captain Rydeen the Vega performed quite admirably in all the fleet exercises in large part to the leadership of Bos’un Freshwater, who was one heck of a man and a real seaman.

My final Rydeen story is of interest for after release from active duty I graduated from The University of San Francisco School of Law and have practiced as a civil trial lawyer in Sacramento since passing the Bar in August 1961. I was appointed Vega’s legal officer when they found out I was going to attend law school. As trial counsel I prosecuted a sailor who got drunk and beat up a bar girl in Sasebo, allegedly. We had a special court martial presided over by the CO of an LST tied up near us in India Basin. The accused was acquitted since no one would testify that he saw the sailor strike the girl. Everybody’s back was turned, fortunately for the accused.

As we left Sasebo several days later, I was the officer of the deck when the XO, Commander Hoskins, relieved me to attend a meeting in the wardroom of all officers. In came Captain Rydeen with smoke coming out of each ear bearing a message for us all. When he passed on Captain’s Mast punishment and ordered a Special Court Martial, he expected his officers to dish out an appropriate amount of punishment, not an acquittal. I wonder if that might be thought to constitute Command Influence, or at least a stab at it?

Another Naval Justice story. While Captain Steffanides was in command we had a storekeeper striker, former 2^nd class, with a bit of an alcohol problem, who ran amuck in Subic Bay. The captain ordered him discharged as unsuited for military life. Flash ahead to my time in the active reserve at Treasure Island and JFK the president. JFK issued an executive order that all officers and men must be trim and in shape. Ergo, we once a quarter would report to the fleet gym Treasure Island to perform sit ups, jogging, etc. To my surprise one such Saturday morning, here was the fellow that Captain Steffanides had surveyed out of the Navy dispensing the locker keys and towels, sporting 2^nd class storekeeper stripes on his sleeve. Turns out that when he had arrived at Treasure Island for discharge, the Commanding Officer had been the CO of a cruiser when the fellow had been on the cruiser’s boxing team. Small world category story.

I am compelled to relate two additional stories of interest. Lyle Hildebrand, the keeper and founder of this web site, was a 1^st class ET during my tour on the Vega, and when asked to fix the malfunctioning Loran set, he worked it over while we were anchored in Subic Bay and ever afterwards it worked with perfection. Upon my inquiry as to what he had done, Lyle reported that he did not know and surmised that upon removing the set from its moorings and setting it on the chart table, probably the jolt of hitting the chart desk was what had remedied whatever was ailing the Loran. Lyle claims he doesn’t remember the incident, but I sure do.

We turn now to Ensign Fox, a musician of some note from Montana and the Black Hills. He and I became pals and had a mutual taste for Dixie Land music. The XO permitted him to purchase an old piano, organize a band and entertain the destroyers and other lighter ships on the starboard side during replenishments. When Foxy joined the Vega he had a mission to memorize over a thousand tunes from his banjo music book. I think he did it. He used to sit in with the band at the Red Garter in North Beach, San Francisco and regularly attended the Monterey Jazz festival. I introduced him to Burt Bales and his Dixie Land piano at the Pier 23 in San Francisco. While at sea off Singapore in 1958 the XO got permission to drop down and cross the equator, which we did. One time while Foxy and I were alone in the chart room I confided in him that I thought we had actually missed the equator by about a mile or so, which was a falsehood perhaps revealed to him only now. Having had my ensign leg pulled a few times, I felt it fair to reciprocate.

While at San Francisco Naval Shipyard on the trip where the chief engineman left us, the captain's launch had some work done on it, or perhaps we got a new one. Regardless, when delivered it was hoisted over the ship and on to the davits on the outboard side by a crane crew that accomplished that without so much as a scratch to either the davits or the hull of the launch. Several times when cross examining a crane operator whose handling of the hook has injured my client, I have related the captain's launch story and added that the scuttlebutt at the time was that a skilled operator could actually crack walnuts with his hook. Without fail each time the witness's ego steps in and he assures that he can crack walnuts. To the jury or arbitrator I then argue, if a skilled operator can crack walnuts, how come "Bonehead", the actual nickname in a railroad case, broke my client’s back. Every time I used that ploy, I have had a good trial result.

In closing, I have not mentioned too many names, for to omit some would not be fair. I had many good times while on active duty and have merely tried to highlight some of them in this stroll down memory lane. Some of the pictures which I previously supplied to Lyle Hildebrand reflect images and names of some of my former quartermasters and signalmen. Omitted would be Tobias, Divers and radarman 1^st Wade of CIC, none of whom were present when I was doing pictures. I have always wondered what happened to signalman Raymond Earl Jackson of the El Paso Gas Company, Quartermaster Ray Laferriere of New England, as well as soft ball team members, Holt & wife Jane and 2^nd baseman Duderrar (sp?) of Baltimore.

One regret which I have is not having viewed the site of the second A Bomb at Nagasaki which was not too far from Sasebo. Whether or not that would have been permitted, I do not know, but too bad we did not at least inquire.