MAJORITY OF CREW FIRST ORGANIZED
AND TRAINED IN NORFOLK, VIRGINIA

Commencing as long ago as October 1959 enlisted personnel of the TOPEKA balance crew began to arrive in Norfolk for pre-commissioning training. The first man to arrive was Seaman Apprentice Thomas D. Ramos. Pre-commissioning training started with fire fighting, school and basic damage control school and developed into the more specialized schools required to train the balance crew, many of whom were inexperienced in shipboard life, for their particular jobs in TOPEKA. During the course of training approximately fifteen thousand man days of training were received. Most of this was obtained at the Fleet Training Center, Norfolk, under whose direction the pre-commissioning training was conducted.

Among the schools attended and the training received were such diversified subjects as boat handling, sound-powered phone procedure, radio operation, pistol firing, motion picture projector repair, pump maintenance, signaling and electronic equipment maintenance.

In addition some of the instruction was undertaken by TOPEKA personnel. Almost all of the men received first aid instruction from the team made up of Hospitalman First Glass Donald E. Kastner, Hospitalman Second Class Arthur C. Hargis, and Hospitalman Third Class Hector Cornejo.

Crew's Berthing Spaces

In January the twenty-two officers assigned to the balance crew began to arrive. They undertook the task of preparing the mountain of paper work and organizations that it takes to operate a ship of the size and complexity of TOPEKA. Ship, department, and division organization books, regulation manuals, watch quarter and station bills, all were prepared by this group while the clatter of every typewriter available evidenced the mounting pile of mimeograph stencils being cut by busy typists.

The task of assigning men to departments and divisions required a delicate balance between the man's qualifications and the needs of the ship. For non-rated men every effort was made to assign them to a position where they could learn the duties of the rate of their choice. In some cases this was not possible because of lack of vacancies in the billets assigned a particular rate.

The crew was screened to eliminate those whose value to TOPEKA was questionable. Several men whose previous record indicated that they would not measure up to tile required standards for a newly commissioned ship were transferred to other duty. Every effort was made to assure that the crew would serve together for the next several years in TOPEKA was a crew that could work and play together for the furtherance of TOPEKA's mission and for the best interests of tile national defense.

When time permitted, athletics were encouraged and the athletic director of the balance crew, Signalman First Class Richard D. Johnson, made arrangements for use of the Naval Station Gymnasium.

Inspections were held to assure that every man had a complete and well marked set of uniforms. Other inspections were held for the purpose of teaching proper military performance and to train then in the habits of cleanliness so necessary when large numbers of men are living in a ship.

Mess Deck Dinning Facilities

While in Norfolk, the balance crew was billeted in barracks A'14 and A'15 of the Naval Receiving Station, Norfolk. In mid-February a representative of the Naval Station fire department inspected the barracks and found them outstandingly clean and free of fire hazards and commented that they were in the best condition that they had been' for fifteen years--sure proof of the efficiency of the barracks detail headed by Boatswain's Mate First Class Andrew C. Besker, and evidence of the hard work put out by a large painting and clean up detail which renovated barracks which the TOPEKA detail occupied, as well as a barracks reserved for Allied Naval Personnel in Norfolk for training, The monumental task of reviewing service records and establishing the ship's, personnel handling procedures grew with machine like precision under the skilled guidance of Chief Personnelman Gino P. Marrinucci.

Although some men were transferred to New York immediately upon completion of basic training, the majority of the balance crew which numbered over six hundred men in total, left Norfolk for New York a week before commissioning.

FIRST TOPEKA WAS COMBAT VETERAN

The first TOPEKA, a gunboat, with a hull designation of PG-35, was a combat veteran of the Spanish American War. She participated in the blockade of Cuba from 11 July to 15 August 1898. While engaged in these maneuvers, she assisted in the capture of the Spanish sloop, Domingo Aurelio at Nipe Bay, Cuba, on 17 July 1898. Four days later on 21 July she took part in the action which resulted in the capture of Port Nipe and the sinking of the Spanish cruiser, Jorge Juan.

The PG-35 was built under the name DIOGENES by G. Howaldt of Kiel, Germany, in 1881. She was purchased by tile Navy on 2 April 1898 from the Thames Iron Works of London, England. Her over-all length was 259' 4"; beam, 35'; normal displacement, 2255 tons; mean draft, 17'8"; and main battery of six 4-inch guns. Her complement in 1899 was 14 officers and 153 men.

TOPEKA was commissioned on 15 August 1900 and departed New York on 27 September on a cruise to the western Mediterranean. She returned to Hampton Roads on 4 March 1901 and underwent repairs in the Norfolk Navy Yard. On 25 May 1901 she arrived at Port Royal, South Carolina, where she first served as station ship. She subsequently became a training ship and made a cruise to the Caribbean in the late spring and summer of 1902. Returning to Norfolk, she sailed on 10 December 1902 for duty with the Caribbean Squadron, returning to Charleston, South Carolina, 1 March 1903. She was assigned duty with the Training Squadron of the North Atlantic Fleet, conducting tests of wireless telegraphy equipment with cruises along the Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean until 23 April 1905. She then joined the Second Squadron of the U. S. Atlantic Fleet for duty in Dominican waters, protecting American lives and property during a civil disturbance in the Dominican Republic. On 21 August 1905 she returned to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, being placed out of commission on 5 September 1905. Thereafter she served as a prison and station ship at the Portsmouth Navy Yard. In June 1916 she was towed to New York.

TOPEKA was commissioned on 14 July 1916 and assigned duty as receiving ship at New York until placed out of commission on 14 September 1916. She was taken in tow by tug UNCAS on 28 September and arrived at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on 30 October 1916.

With her engines removed, she was used for the training of recruits in the First Naval District. On 7 May 1918 she was ordered to be towed to the Boston Navy Yard :for installation of engines and fitting out.

TOPEKA was commissioned at Boston on 24 March 1919. She departed on 28 May to join the American Patrol Detachment at Charleston, South Carolina, 9 June 1919. The next day she sailed for Tampico, Mexico, where she commenced patrol of Mexican waters, returning to Charleston on 23 October 1919. She was placed out of commission on 21 November 1919 and put up for sale. Satisfactory bids were not received and she was again commissioned in July 1923 for use as a Naval Reserve Training Ship in the Fourth Naval District until decommissioned on 2 December 1929. Her name was stricken from the Navy list on 2 January 1930.

"REBIRTH"

Out of the deeps that split eternity from the here and now,

The infinite eye of fate peers from the velvet reaches that mock
the accomplishments of man

And pointing its light-years long finger at a minor cluster of ships
on a minor planet, it says

"Come TOPEKA, come and rise from the limbo of slumbering ships,
come from the certain death of ionization. I will resuscitate you with
the breath of life that is crew and stores, and send thee on thy way
once more to take thy place in the long gray line of ships that comforts
the Western World with its quiet potent power".

And TOPEKA hears this call; rousing herself from the long lonely days
spent in idleness, she returns to live again.

And today is her awakening.

by MORRIS, PN1