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Robert Bury Remembers We were on shore the 4th of July in Manilla (which happens to celebrate a holiday just like the USA). They were having a parade and wanted military groups to march in it. We would do anything to get off the ship so we volunteered to march in the parade. When we arrived we could see Army & Marine groups marching & drilling, but there we were—all standing around—looking at the rifles and all that were
piled on the ground. We were to march in Roselle Stadium. None of us knew anything about marching so you can imagine we were the sloppiest group in the parade—but we were off the ship! I also remember Easter Sunday 1945 when a kamikaze pilot flew right over us & hit the cruiser next to us. We took some of the wounded out of the water to Okinawa—we were the closest to them! One time I heard them piping me o deck—I couldn’t imagine what I had done to deserve this summons. It turned out a friend of mine … was pretty drunk and they were trying to get him calmed down & back on board the ship. He just kept getting more angry & harder to handle. When I tried to talk to him, he really lost it and jumped right off the deck into Pearl Harbor! Our daughter was 6 weeks old before I received word about her birth and 6 months old before I ever saw her. After I returned to San Francisco, my wife June brought her (now a year old) to see me so I decided to take her on board the KARNES. The guys all laughed and told her they knew she was born before I did! Another remembrance was of a time they called us to battle stations. Since I was assigned to the Evaporators and thus damage control, I had the freedom to wander all over the ship. The bakers would have to leave the bakery
and go topside to man the guns at their battle station. I would go through the bakery and was by myself—it was too much to resist! I loaded up on rolls and goodies on my wanderings! I suppose one of my moments of fame on board the Karnes came when I found I had won the contest to name the ship’s newspaper. I suggested “The Late/Straight” and won 4 cartons of cigarettes. I didn’t smoke, but I was a very popular sailor and used them to pay for taxi rides, etc. when off the boat. “Hey Red, have a drink with us”. I didn’t really like to drink much but I went with the stewards that day and we managed to miss the liberty bus back to the ship. We were dressed in our whites and when we ran outside the only ride we could find was in the back of a dump truck. It took us to the dock, circled, and let us all off. We were milling around when the officer on board looked down and hollered, “I want the names of those men and their liberty cards”! (He was some Ivy-Leaguer or something). When we came on deck he took our cards and stuck them in the pigeon hole telling us we would have to come back tomorrow to pick them up. About that time someone called him and he left his post. I reached around the back and took our cards out of the hole and returned them to the stewards and myself. The next day when he saw me he said, “Hey weren’t you late coming in from Hilo yesterday”? “No, no, hell no, I was in church all day yesterday”! I replied. Robert Bury, MM1/C, A Division |
