Here is the next Chapter of my Memoir/Novel, Lost and Found.

I’m still dealing with the back problems. Turns out I have some crushed vertebra and am still taking the heavy duty medication to help with the pain. However, those meds also make it hard to think clearly. Not a good place to be if you want to write something meaningful. Hope to have some better solutions this week.

Be well — be in peace,

Ron Rink
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We were originally scheduled to do a port call at Pearl Harbor, but at the last minute we were ordered to escort an ammunition ship, an AE, to Japan. An AE is a ship designed to carry ammunition supplies to back up the needs of other ships at sea. So, instead of a visit to Hawaii, we spent four hours at Midway Island to refuel and proceeded to Japan. We refueled and replenished there before proceeding to the east coast of Korea.

Over the past months, Jim, Ralph and Joe had been pestering me almost every day about the importance of getting an education. I had only attended classes in high school up to the ninth grade before my troubles started, so thoughts of college had never entered my mind. I had no clue about what I was going to do with my life after I did my time in the service, and had begun to entertain some thoughts about just staying in the Navy. It seemed like the simplest solution at the time.

However, these three friends were so persistent. They explained how the G.I. Bill would work to pay for a college education – or at least, a good part of it. They showed me some literature about the G.E.D. (General Educational Development) tests I could take to get a high school diploma. They showed me where I could get study manuals for taking the tests. All three of them had taken some college before signing up for the Navy. They offered their help getting me prepared to take the G.E.D. Tests.

One of the times they were “working on me” about taking the G.E.D.tests, we were all sitting above deck on a beautiful, sunny day when I asked, “If you guys had already started college, why did you decide to quit and join the Navy?”

Jim answered, “I can probably explain for the three of us. We’ve been good friends for years. We went to high school together. Joe and I were friends even before high school. We figured that between us we could probably make some pretty good decisions about life if we put our heads together and thought things through.”

Ralph piped up, “Yeah, and we also learned that if we wanted to stay out of trouble with Jim’s parents, we better listen to them too!”

“Ralph’s only saying that because he likes their cooking and wanted to be sure he was invited whenever my folks would decide to have us together for dinner,” said Jim with a huge grin on his face. “But he’s also right to say my parents did offer good advice about life, not only to me, but to Ralph and Joe as well.”

Joe nodded his head and said, “Yeah, that’s true. They were more like parents than my own parents were sometimes. My parents were good to me, but they never got into talking much about life.”

Jim lit a cigarette as he shifted his position so he could lean his back against Ralph’s and said, “It’s true. My parents did have a talk with the three of us at dinner over at my house. The war was picking up steam and it looked like the draft process was going to be accelerated. The draft was excluding guys in college, but my parents were pretty sure those exclusions would end soon. Since none of us wanted to be drafted into the Army, we decided it would be smart to put college on hold and enlist in the Navy.”

Ralph, who was always looking to avoid any serious talk, broke in and said, “So here we are, but if we’d known we would have to bring Rollo into our lives, we would have stayed right where we were!” He followed that up with a good poke in my upper arm.

Jim went on, “One of the reasons we’re harping on you about this is because you have the chance for a decent future. Getting into the Navy was a huge break for you. The other alternative, prison when you reach eighteen, would have ruined your life. This way, if you do this right, you get out with no criminal record – and if you get a high school diploma the door is open for you to go to college. A college education is really important if you want to get good jobs and make a fair wage. Without it you could end up pumping gas or finding some other mediocre way to provide for yourself. You may want to get married and start a family someday. It will be a lot easier for you to provide for a family if you’ve got some education behind you. In order for you to eventually get into college, you need that high school diploma. So, what do you say, Rollo?, will you take the G.E.D?”

I got a smile on my face as I nodded and Jim said, “Good answer! We’ll get you the study manuals. I asked the Exec about it yesterday and he thought they might have them on board as long as nobody else is using them.”

Once I began the study for the tests I realized I would definitely need some help. Once again, the guys came through. I did alright with the practice tests on the reading, writing, grammar, basic math and social studies, but the algebra and geometry threw me for a loop. Fortunately, Ralph was a wizard with these topics and dug right in to teaching me what I needed to know.

We continued our cruise to Korea and were busy being trained in the finer points of our jobs on our way, especially the guys who were on the guns. Jim, Ralph and Joe were among those gunners. However, when we were almost ready to go to our assignment we were ordered back to Midway Island for some repairs. By the time we arrived at Midway, I had taken all the GED tests and passed with good results. I would soon be receiving my high school diploma in the mail. I was surprised at how elated I was to complete this project successfully. It was like learning a piece of music so well that I could play it all the way through in my mind.

I still didn’t understand fully what it would mean in the long run, but I was feeling tremendous gratitude to Jim, Ralph and Joe for being as stubborn as they were to get me to take this step.
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Here is the next Chapter of my Memoir/Novel, Lost and Found.

As you can tell, my schedule for getting these Chapters up on the web isn’t following much of a pattern lately. I also feel rather strongly that I need to accelerate the writing to finish the book. As you know, I’m writing several Chapters ahead of where you’re reading so I will always have more to post waiting in the queue if I should have to skip writing for a larger period of time.

But, it’s time now for me to be writing the conclusion. I’m physically tired and my health is going downhill more rapidly than I’d like. In the coming Chapters there may not be as much “showing” and more “telling”. It takes a lot longer to write dialogue and I’m looking for ways to save some time.

Thanks again to all of you for hanging in there with me. This has been quite a project and I’ve truly appreciated knowing you all were there reading and commenting on my efforts to talk about my life.

Be well — Be in peace,

Ron Rink
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It was in May, 1952 when we departed Newport for Korea. We did some more combat exercises in Guantanamo Bay before going through the Panama Canal on our way to a four-day layover in San Diego.

One of my father’s brothers, my Uncle Sam, lived in San Diego so I decided to contact him. I had met him a few times at family reunion events before I was twelve. He didn’t seem to be anything like my father and both he and his wife were nice to me and the other kids. His wife reminded me of my Aunt Dorothy. As far as I knew they had never had children of their own. I didn’t have any ideas about how to find him, but I knew he was a well-known architect in San Diego. He was involved in developing some of the buildings in the downtown area so he’d most likely be in the phone book.

When we tied up in San Diego I went to the PX (Post Exchange) which was located right on the base where we had docked. I found a San Diego phone book and looked up the number for my Uncle. Fortunately, there was only one Samuel Van Buren in the book. His wife, Mary, answered.

I said, “Hello, Aunt Mary. This is Roland Van Buren from Detroit. I’m your nephew, Henry’s son. I’m in the Navy now and we just docked here in San Diego. We’re going to be here for about four days and I wondered if I might be able to see you and Uncle Sam?”

“Oh Roland,” she said excitedly. “Of course we can. Your Uncle isn’t here right now but I’m sure we can work something out. When will you be able to leave the base?”

I told her I had to stand watch that day, but would be on liberty for the next two days.

She said, “Call here again as soon as you’re free in the morning and we’ll make some plans.”

When I called Aunt Mary the next morning, the first thing she said was, “When did you have your last home-cooked meal?”

I laughed as I answered her, “I don’t know the exact date, but it sure has been quite a while!”

“Well,” she said, “I have a nice dining room table that will seat ten people besides your Uncle and me. Do you think you could round up some of your fellow shipmates for a nice dinner later on today? We have two cars, so between your Uncle Sam and I we should be able to pick up five sailors in each car. We were thinking we could all do some San Diego sightseeing this afternoon and then came back here later for a nice meal. How does that sound, Roland?”

After we worked out the arrangements and timing for them to come and pick us up, I got busy getting some of the guys together. Jim, Ralph and Joe all wanted to go. I asked one other guy who I worked with in the Radar shack. Jim, Ralph and Joe each asked two guys, so we had our ten in no time. Once the word was out about what we were going to do that day, we could have had thirty or forty guys with no problem.
My Aunt and Uncle were going to pick us up early that afternoon, so we all dressed in our whites, spit-shined our shoes and were ready and waiting when they arrived.

What a day we had. To our surprise, and to the envy of all our shipmates who saw us getting picked up, my Aunt and Uncle, instead of bringing two cars, had rented a limousine so we could all ride together. Not only that but they were the best hosts for a bunch of sailors. We went to the San Diego Zoo, to Sea World, the Air and Space Museum. We also took the Coronado Ferry over to Coronado Island. We ate lunch at the Hotel de Coronado – and none of us had to reach into our pockets for money for anything. My Aunt and Uncle paid for everything. I learned many years later that my Uncle was quite wealthy due to the success with his architecture projects in the city.

Later that evening we went to their home for dinner. Their home wasn’t a mansion or anything like that, but it was sure larger than any other home I had ever been in. The only other large home I had seen from the outside was Miss Thomas’s parents’ home. I don’t have a memory of what we had for dinner, other than it was delicious, but I do remember their dining room table sat twelve of us with no problem.

Both my Aunt and Uncle were so gracious to my shipmates and made them feel at ease right from the moment we all crawled into the limousine earlier that day. It was also interesting to see how well behaved the guys were. I’d seen how some of these same guys behaved aboard ship and their good manners that day was a real eye-opener for me as well as a relief. I don’t know how much my Aunt and Uncle knew about my life and my relationship with my parents, but they never said a word about it nor did they ask any embarrassing questions.

It was a wonderful day and evening and I will remember it fondly all my life.
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Here is the next Chapter of my Memoir/Novel, Lost and Found.

My posting schedule is sort of all screwed up this week.

Be well — be in peace,

Ron Rink
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As the final deck work was nearing completion we were divided into separate groups and work assignments. Jim, Ralph and Joe were all assigned to the gunner’s mates group and I was assigned to work with the radar-combat-information group. As the three of us talked about these assignments later, we realized there was no particular rhyme nor reason to the way it was done. The three of them had more education than me, in fact, Jim and Ralph had started college work before they volunteered for the Navy. Joe had graduated from high school. Why they were assigned to a more physical work function and I was assigned to learning about plotting and reading a radar scope was beyond our comprehension.

Ralph wasn’t disappointed, though. When we were talking about them being gunners, he said, “I really like the idea of shooting big, five-inch-round bullets at the enemy. I’d rather be doing that than sitting in some dark room and not being able to see what was going on!”

Joe joined in, “I learned yesterday that those five-inch bullets weigh about fifty-four pounds each and we can just lob them at the bad guys nine miles away. Gives you a feeling of power, in a way.”

On our ship there were two of these five-inch guns forward, one on the main deck and one on the O2 deck. There were three more aft, one on the main deck and two on the O2 deck. Jim, Ralph and Joe were all assigned to the same gun, the one on the O2 deck forward. We also had quad 40 mm’s, 20mm’s, 10 torpedoes and 2 dozen depth charges that could be dropped port, starboard and aft. We were a floating arsenal.

View underway - also view of 5-inch gun

Soon, there were civilian electricians and welders on the ship every day laying miles of wire to get us ready for re-commissioning and our first shake-down cruise.

Finally, the day came, Everyone on board had to be up early and decked out in our dress whites. We stood in formations on the main deck for the ceremony. There was a lot of officer talk which I didn’t hear because I was horsing around with one of the guys who was next to me. What I did know was we were finally sea-worthy and ready to set sail.

Re-Commissioning Ceremony

When the re-commissioning ceremony was over, we got underway for our first sea trial. Heading down the Cooper River to the open sea was more exciting than I thought it would be. It was my first day as a sailor on a destroyer. Writing about this some sixty-one years later makes it clear that it was an unforgettable experience. I can still muster up the feelings I was having on that day.

We did our first shake-down cruise in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It lasted for about seven days while we discovered all the miscellaneous problems needing to be resolved before we could be ready for action. The next several months were a combination of extensive training in anti-submarine warfare, other types of gunnery training and extensive training in the radar room learning how to plot our own courses, locate other ships and plot their courses and speeds, find ways around big storms, and send out identification signals to other ships to determine if they were friend or foe. We also learned how the radar-men fit into the overall Combat Information Center functions via the use of headphones with a microphone device hanging in front of our face. This device was connected to the Officers on the bridge.

We also had some great liberties in places like New York city, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and French Martinique. Our home port was Newport, Rhode Island where I developed my love for jazz. During the times we were in Newport I began to do whatever I could to go to the clubs where the Dave Brubeck Quartet was playing. Jim, Ralph and Joe shared this love with me and the four of us would go as often as we could. Brubeck was just getting started in those days and his saxophone player was Paul Desmond. The way those two men related to each other musically was unbelievable. They seemed to literally be able to read each others mind.

Since the four of us were often present at the clubs where the quartette was playing, Dave Brubeck would sometimes come and sit with us between sets. He liked to joke around with what he called “The Four Sailors”. Brubeck was also brought up in the classical piano world (his mother was a classical pianist), so we would share memories of our growing up days. He told some great stories about how he had a terrible time trying to read music. It just didn’t make sense to him. When he was in college, he was sent to the music department even though he wasn’t able to read music. His natural talent with counterpoint and harmony brought him to graduate with a degree in music. He laughed when he related that his college professors made him promise never to be a piano teacher.

Those times listening to The Dave Brubeck Quartette and having the chance to sit and talk with him were the high points of the time we spent on liberties in Newport.
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Here is the next Chapter of my Memoir/Novel, Lost and Found.

Be well — Be in peace,

Ron Rink
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One event during our process of taking the USS Rice out of the mothball status and into re-commissioning status was to make sure it was sea worthy in every regard. On our ship there were two smokestacks which also needed to have the paint stripped off and be repainted. I soon discovered sailors rarely use ladders for accomplishing tasks up high – they use what is called a “bosun’s chair”. A bosun’s chair is a device used to suspend a person from a rope to perform work aloft. It consists of little more than a wooden plank and a set of ropes to raise a person up or down. Some bosun’s chairs have the necessary gadgets which allow the person in the chair to raise and lower themselves. The chair we were using didn’t have those gadgets so a second person would be stationed on the deck to control the ropes to lower or raise the person in the chair.

On one of the hottest days I had experienced so far in my time in Charleston, the Chief picked me out of our lineup for morning muster to do some wire-brushing of the paint on the rear stack using the bosun’s chair. Another seaman named Blair was assigned to be the rope man with me. Blair was a big guy. He was tall and had a build which I felt could hold my weight easily. Chief Thatcher spent time showing us how to use the chair – and gave us time to practice raising and lowering me. The Chief explained that he picked Blair to handle the rope because he would need to be strong enough to pull my weight up and also be able to hold my weight to keep me from coming down too fast. The practices went well and the Chief gave me an air-powered wire brush to do the paint removal. Blair raised me to the top of the stack.

The noise of the wire brush wasn’t so bad, but it was heavy. The main noise came from the large gasoline generators which powered what we called “deck crawlers” which supplied the power to the wire brush. I spent one day handling the “deck crawler” and it was the most exhausting work I had ever done. They were noisy, chattering tools which required lots of strength to hold while kneeling on a steel deck in ninety-to ninety-five degree weather. The dust they created was immense and I tied a bandanna around my nose and mouth so I could keep breathing. I also put goggles over my eyes to cut down on the amount of dust getting into them. I was happy when someone else was assigned to do this the next day. Some time later I learned that most of the guys working as deck hands had their turn with the “crawler”.

The process of wire brushing the paint off the stack wasn’t difficult. The hardest part was holding myself on the chair while I was putting so much pressure on the stack body. As I pressed on the stack with the brush, there was a tendency for my upper body to want to move backwards and my feet to swing forward. I could feel my balance shift. I eventually figured out how to put my arms around the ropes of the chair to hold me more upright.

It was hot that day. On other hot days I was working on the deck and had a ready supply of water available. Up on the bosun’s chair it wasn’t so easy. I did call down to Blair a couple of times to lower me so I could get a drink. The lowering and the raising of the chair was a hassle so we didn’t do it often. It had been a couple of hours since I had any water when I noticed my body feeling much hotter than it had been. I had also stopped sweating and my stomach was upset. About the same time I had begun to feel dizzy so I called down to Blair to lower me. I felt the chair start to move when everything went blank. I woke up flat on my back on the deck, with Blair holding me by my head and telling me to drink from the water container he was holding to my lips. He had dragged me into the shade of the stack and there were several other sailors standing around me.

Chief Thatcher appeared with a large container of water in one of the tubs from the galley. He called out, “Move away you guys. I’m gonna dump this cold water on him!”

The guys moved away and the Chief poured the entire tub of water on me. I started to shiver almost immediately.

“Somebody get to sick bay and get the Doc over here,” the Chief yelled. He looked down at me and said, “Do you hurt anywhere, Van Buren?”

I was breathing hard and I had trouble getting my brain to comprehend what had happened. “Yeah, my head hurts and my back is killing me!” I said.

A few minutes later the ship’s doctor was kneeling beside me and telling the Chief, “Let’s get him into sick bay where it’s cooler so I can check him out more carefully. Use a stretcher in case his back is hurt!”

A few minutes later I was on the table in sick bay. The Doc had taken my temperature and was putting cool water-soaked towels on my chest and head. When the thermometer wasn’t in my mouth he had me drinking cool water. He said, “Your temperature is up around 104 to 105 degrees. We have to get it down to around 100 degrees before we let you go down to your sack and get some rest. You didn’t fall that far so there aren’t any broken bones we have to worry about. We just have to keep you hydrated and get your temp down.”

My temperature did come down after a while and, thanks to the Doc’s orders, I was able to spend a lot of time in my rack and resting in shady spots on deck for the next two days. The Doc gave me some meds to help with the headache and the soreness in my back. Jim, Ralph and Joe were checking on me every chance they had, either all three of them would show up after work, or they’d sneak down one at a time during the day. They also helped to keep the other guys in our quarters reasonably quiet so I could sleep. I was surprised at how sleepy I was and the Doc told me that was one of the reasons they called it “heat exhaustion”. He also said the pain meds would make me sleepy.

The work continued with the sanding and priming. The hull of the ship became a patchwork of red – red lead primer. After the major work was completed, like cutting, welding and other structural refinements, the ship’s color gradually evolved. From red lead to drab gray and deck gray. The transition of readiness began to appear.
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Here is the next Chapter of my Memoir/Novel, Lost and Found.

Be well — be in peace,

Ron Rink
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The next couple of months were devoted to removing paint and adding paint – and a helluva lot of both. There was also a bit of education. Ralph, Jim and Joe all chose to learn about gunnery. The three of them were really enthused about manning the big five-inch guns on board. I never questioned their motivation, but I made the decision to see what I could learn about radar. At the time I didn’t clearly understand why I chose not to follow along with the three of them. I just knew I would be more comfortable at a job which required a study more in tune with the type of study I did with my music. Learning to plot courses for the ship, seeking out other ships and storms sharing the ocean with us was, in many ways, as exciting for me as I’m sure shooting the big guns was for the guys. It was quiet work as well as mental work. I also liked being such an integral part of the ship’s information center. It felt vital and useful – something I could take pride in accomplishing.

One day, as Jim and I were finishing our morning chow, Jim said, “Rollo, you never talk about home. You didn’t go back to Detroit with us when we had our leave. Who you are and why you’re here is a mystery. You are getting to be as good a friend to Joe, Ralph and me as anyone. Maybe if we knew more about you we could all learn to trust each other more. Shit, we’re going to be in a war soon and we’re going to need that trust. How about it, is it time to share?”

“Yeah, I guess it is.” I said as I looked at Jim and then looked down at my empty food tray. I sat for a moment or two more thinking of how to go about revealing my past without losing these new friends in the process. Since nothing clever came to mind I just blurted out, “I’m in the Navy as part of my sentence for being involved in a murder in Detroit. Since I was only sixteen at the time of the murder, I was tried as a juvenile and being in the service is the last part of my sentence. I was in juvie for about three months until I turned seventeen. I have to stay in the Navy for four years and get an honorable discharge. If I do, then my juvenile record will be hidden. I will have a clean record and be able to find work when I get out.”

“Is that the murder that happened last fall at the fairgrounds?” asked Jim as he looked behind me and motioned for Joe to join us.
As Joe came over Jim asked, “Where’s Ralph. He has to hear this!”

“He’s late as usual. He’s coming out of the chow line now with his tray.” Joe stood up and waved over to Ralph.

“What’s up?” asked Ralph as he sat down at the table.

Jim related what I had told him to both Joe and Ralph. Joe’s mouth fell open and Ralph began to scratch his head, a habit he had when he was thinking hard about something.

“So, what happens if you screw up in the Navy?” Ralph asked.

“I guess it means I go back to Michigan and serve out my time in Jackson Prison,” I said. “I don’t know if that means the rest of my four years, or if I have to go back to court and get a new sentence.”

Joe was sitting at the table like he was frozen in place, “You mean I got into a fight with a guy involved in that murder? I read about it in the paper and that was one nasty killing!”

“I didn’t actually do the killing – that was one of the guys in my gang, the State Fair Dukes. Along with a couple of the other guys I helped stop the guy who was doing it. But since I was there, saw it happen, and stayed with the guys after, I was an accessory to the murder. All the other guys were over eighteen so they got sentenced to prison at Jackson.”

Joe looked like he was going to pass out as he looked at me like I was a stranger, “You were in the State Fair Dukes? Cripes, Rollo, they were the meanest, toughest gang on the east side. I sure am glad you’re with us and not pissed at us for beating the shit out of you back in boot camp.”

Ralph chuckled as he said, “Yeah, and just think, when we go to fight us some Koreans, we’ll have experience on our side!”

Jim didn’t laugh at Ralph’s joke and he put his hand on my shoulder as he asked, “So, what’s the story about why you were in a street gang and why didn’t you go home when we had our leave?”

All three of the guys were sitting with their eyes glued on my face as they waited for more details about my life. Ralph had finished eating his chow and the four of us went up on deck and sat behind one of the five-inch guns on the rear deck, the fantail, hoping Chief Thatcher wouldn’t spot us and put us to work. There was a locker room storage space bulkhead right behind the gun so we could be out of sight. I told them about working in the bowling alley, the beatings from my father, running away from home as often as possible, joining the State Fair Dukes, street fighting, rumbles, piano studies, living at Sally’s, and ending up here.

“When Sally and I were together just before I went to boot camp, I could see how what I got involved in with the murder and being in the Navy for four years was likely more than she would be able to understand. Even though we parted with good words, neither of us made any promises. Going back home so soon after didn’t seem right to me. Plus, where would I stay? Sally is a couple of years older than me, but she lives with her Mom. It’s her Mom’s house and I can’t just pop in whenever I feel like it. I sure don’t want to live with my parents ever again, so it just felt better to stay here.”

Ralph was scratching his head again, so he would probably have some words of wisdom when he got his thoughts in order. Joe was still shaking his head. Jim smiled and said, “Well, Rollo, the next time we get a leave you’re coming home with us. You can stay at my house with no problem. I’ll bet the same goes for Joe and Ralph. Joe, Ralph and I have been like brothers since we were little kids and, I don’t know if they agree with me, but you’re like our new brother. We need to stick together as long as we’re on this ship together.”

Ralph stopped his scratching, reached over and punched me in my arm. He said, “Yeah, you’re okay Rollo! Shit, I like the idea of having a brother as good looking as you. Having you around means we’ll get more women when we’re on leave as long as we keep Jim hidden. Whenever he’s around the rest of us don’t stand a chance.”

Joe was nodding his head as he lit another cigarette. “I know you’re a little younger than me,” he said, “but I always wanted a big brother who could beat the shit out of anyone messing with me. I got a feeling you’re that big brother, Rollo. I like having you around. I especially like that you’re on our side.”

The four of us broke out laughing as we looked up and saw Chief Thatcher coming around the corner of the storeroom.

The rest of the day was focused on chipping and wire-brushing paint off the ship. The fact we didn’t get right to work after morning chow prompted Chief Thatcher to extend our working day a couple of hours longer than usual. We ended up missing evening chow completely.
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