Other then the depressing almost continuous foggy weather, and rough waters of the Bearing Sea and North Pacific, it wasn't bad duty. We were always tied up to a dock when we were in port. At Dutch Harbor we had use of the shore naval facilities and could spend time at the little civilian village of Unalaska, located close to the base. Movies and an occasional USO show were our main entertainment. We had 4 movie theaters to choose from; Navy, Army, The Village and the forward hold of our ship where we showed movies. Other services and activities were steam baths, sun treatments, canteen, pool and basketball.
We had been told about the vicious WILLIWAW storms, caused by the collision of warm Japanese currents with frigid waters of the Bearing sea, which would sometimes sweep over the area. This caused the unleashing of erratic powerful winds going up and down, east and west. One description of a WILLIWAW was: bursts of air that surge across the tops of peaks and down steep slopes, which can tumble an airplane like a fly in a washing machine and overturn large boats. Anyway on October 16, 1944 we knew what a WILLIWAW was.
We departed Cold Bay near dusk with a load of net gear bound for Dutch Harbor. It was about a 200 mile trip which should have taken about 18 hours. It took 3 days.
I had the midnight to 4am radio watch, so turned in early. I woke up about 10pm and the ship was rolling and pitching wildly. We all knew that we were in a violent storm. Before going on duty I checked the Clinometer on the bridge. It indicated rolls as high as 52 degrees. At midnight I relieved Ray Hall. He had just copied a message and was trying to decode it. (All messages during wartime were sent in 5 letter code groups instead of plain language). He would no sooner get the decoding strips lined up to interpret the message when the ship would roll and slide the strips out of place. I took over. Ray wished me good luck and was glad to get out of there. I had the same problem as he did, but finally got the message decoded.
I had no sooner gotten settled when I heard a ripping sound behind me. I looked back and saw that the huge wooden cabinet, alongside the transmitter, had broke loose from the bulkhead. The ship rolled to port and the cabinet shot to the other end of the radio room. I knew it was coming back my way, so jumped up on the radio telegraph table. The cabinet shot back and crushed my chair and stopped when it came to the telegraph table. I called the bridge on the ship phone. Before long two seamen, Pete Miranda from California and big powerful Earl Nutt from Mississippi came with a heavy line. We finally got it lashed down and secured to the bulkhead again. It was a mess with paper, books and ink all over the deck of the small radio room. I was glad when Fred Kline relieved me at 4am. I knew I wouldn't get any sleep, but could at least lie down on my bunk.

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