HOME PORT CHANGE

The USS TOPEKA (SSN 754) will change home ports from San Diego to Pearl Harbor in February, 1996.

REMEMBER WHEN... ?

While a junior in high school in Spokane, WA. I, along with several of my classmates, joined the Naval Reserve and began attending regular drills which lasted until graduation in June, 1960. Right alter graduation, prior to going on active duly, a "special detail" was made available to anyone who wanted to go.

A new ship, or rather a converted WWII cruiser, the USS TOPEKA, was just coming out of the yards on the east coast and was to be sailed from Norfolk to Long Beach by way of the Cape, and we were invited to be part of the crew for this trip. I jumped at the opportunity, never having been out of the city of Spokane.

We were flown to Norfolk, about 30 of us I think, and boarded the almost completed missile cruiser just in time to set sail for San Juan. As an untrained Seaman, I was assigned to the deck division under the watchful eye of a First Class Boatswain Mate named Butler. I will never forget that man as long as I live, and not for just his array of tattoos. Among other things, he taught us the joys of sunrise holystone parties, how to paint "battleship gray" in a stiff breeze so that it doesn't ripple, and more importantly, how to tell a "good" San Miguel from a green one before it was too late. This lesson failed me in San Juan, and I paid the price for two days. I still have the local newspaper from Curacao, in the Dutch West Indies, which shows TOPEKA tied up to their pier, the first Naval warship to visit in 11 years.

When a hurricane down around the Cape caused us to be diverted through the Panama Canal and we thought that our Equator crossing was going to be canceled, I was among the renegade pollywogs who threw most of the trappings overboard. Then, when we were told that the Captain had obtained an enroute delay in order for us to make the crossing off the coast of Ecuador, I was among the troublemakers who began kidnapping Shellbacks and storing them in a compartment below the mess deck. We were found out, naturally, and our victims took great delight in seeking us out during the crossing ceremony.

Speaking of the ceremony, guess who was awarded the role of Neptunus Rex - - you guessed it, Bos'n Butler. The shampoo he gave me with a quart of mustard almost cost me my whole head of hair. I don't remember the name of the Chief whose belly button I had to kiss but he enjoyed it much more than I did, and thanks to the "Royal Doctor," I haven't been able to eat oysters since. It took several days to heal and the in-port time in Acapulco certainly helped.

On arrival in Long Beach, we were "detached" from TOPEKA and flown back to Spokane. A month later, I started two years of active duty. After two-months at Treasure Island, I was sent San Diego and reported aboard USS BENNINGTON (CVS-20), where I transitioned from SN to AN and entered into what would become a 20-year career as a Navy Air Traffic Controller, ending with my transfer to the Fleet Reserve in 1980.

My memories of TOPEKA and our brief time together are among the very best of my Navy career. I still have the photo album of the equator crossing, and my official Shellback Card.

Bob Williams

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