Biography of Robert Decker
Sailor, USS Hurst DE-250 & USCG Cutter Sebago & USCG Cutter Ingham & Nantucket Light Ship & US Merchant Marine
I joined the Coast Guard in June 1945. I didn't finish high school because the war was still on and feeling very patriotic felt I needed to get in the mix. I lost a few older close friends in the neighborhood and felt needed to do my part. Those were the days with the small gold star flag in the window of a fallen soldier or sailor blue for in service. On some corners they had a big sign up with the names of neighborhood guys in service..gold star for the fallen. My friend Andy Frollin the son of a policeman 2 houses away a Marine was killed at Iwo Jima, my friends brother Ken Jorgenson pilot of a B29 killed over England, Bobbie Blafield soldier killed and on and on it went and all within a few blocks of our house.
I still think about it today. As a kid I watched the tanks and army supplies on the rail cars headed for New York harbor to wait for the convoys to Europe. The German subs were not far off the entrance to the harbor. The lights from New York made silhouettes of the outgoing cargo ships prime targets. Finally they wised up and made the city turn down the bright lights. All houses had to have black shades on all windows, my grandma Sophie thought was so the Germans couldn't look in. Every house had to have a bucket of sand and shovel on hand and during any air raid warning the wardens would walk up and down the streets making sure your lights didn't show outward. My friend Ed and I always hoped they would have an air raid drill when we were on a date with our girl friends hoping we could sneak a smooch!
Near the end of the war the US Coast Guard had its cutters docked next to the Staten Island Ferry to Manhattan, I was always fascinated just seeing them never dreamed I would be serving on one someday. Going to high school I always wore bell bottom sailor pants and black sweater like the merchant sailors. This was for me .When I turned 17 I sent in a form to join the Navy and the Coast Guard at the same time thinking who ever calls first is where I am going, signed the permission paper for my Dad who had no idea and said nothing the day I left .Gave me 10 dollars and said good luck. Off on the bus to the ferry and trip to Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn I went to the USCG beach training center.
My first ship was the destroyer escort USS Hurst (DE-250). The worst rough seas I ever saw was in the North Atlantic while in the USCG Cutter Ingham. We did a weather patrol up between Iceland and Greenland and there were many days of real heavy seas over the bow. The Ingham was only 327 feet long, not too comfy on stormy days up in the north Atlantic. The Ingham is still in good condition in a floating museum in SC. I also served on a relief light ship 9 months up off Nantucket. I served 3 years 3 months and 13 days, yep 13 days.
After the coast guard, I was a merchant marine sailor and sailed for Esso on the tankers up and down the coast and West Indies. Back around 1951 I sailed twice on the Rose from New York to South Hampton England and Bremerhaven, Germany and one other trip on the General Blatchford, different ship same assignment. We took displaced persons one way and troops the other. I still have an old news paper, with news of the day with location and distance to port, printed on 20 April 1951. The head line is MacArthur policy. The master of the ship was C. J. Powers. The paper is looking pretty old like me today. I always liked that ship. It was a smooth sailing ship. I don't remember any rough crossings as described by others, nothing like the seas I had seen on weather patrol off Iceland and Greenland.
I do have some fond memories of those times. I looked thru my old sailor days and pictures and found three copies of the Maurice Rose ship news report. Its like the daily news of each day at sea, distance to go and a tiny bit of world news along with daily ship activity. A bit old and frail condition but interesting. Went to my old trunk of sailor days and they were. What a proud ship it was and how proud I was to be a crew member at that time. I am 87 yrs old now and still would love to sail on her again.
Some humorous times, sharks story on the lightship 106 off Nantucket, destroyer Hurst in Florida, the USCG cutter Sebago and Ingham on the North Atlantic, rescued a merchant ship off Norfolk in a hurricane, sea sick sailors. Real old Esso Tanker Aruba with one propeller blade broke off at sea, etc.
Then I got married and that was the end of my sailing days. Most people are getting tired of hearing about my old sea going days, Your welcome anytime. My sea going days will always be with me, I am happy to say I was able to serve the last days of WW2 and stayed until 1948, then on to merchant marine days till married in 1950. From there to the Metropolitan Police department in Washington DC and retired in 1968 after being injured by a DWI driver.
--- Bob Decker. MPDC retired.
Email: thesnowbird07 AT verizon.net
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