Thomas M. "Tom" Brennen, QM1

I enlisted in the US Navy in Buffalo, NY on 1/21/43 I was twenty-two days past my seventeenth birthday. My dad and I had come down from Canada so I could go in the Navy. They told me they were not taking any seventeen-year-olds at that time. I told them I'd made the trip down to enlist and I wouldn't be back. They told me that a group from Erie PA was due in tomorrow and if one of them failed the physical they would put me in his place. One guy had a case of boils and I got in.

I was sent to Boot Camp at Sampson, NY. It lasted 8 weeks. I didn't get too excited about that training but I remember I how cold it was with Lake Seneca nearby. The lake didn't seem to freeze over and if you screwed up you were sent down to the lake to keep watch out for enemy submarines. After Boot Camp I was assigned to Quartermaster School at Newport, Rhode Island for 16 weeks. They trained us in navigation, visual signaling with semaphore and Morse code using signal lights. They also ran our buns off with daily physical training. We stood watches on a bridge built on the shore where we watched submarines going in and out of the New London area. The submarine service was strictly volunteer and they were interviewing us to join their fleet. I went to the recruiting office and applied but I had a cold and couldn't pass the hearing test because of stopped up ear canals. They told me to come back as soon as I got over my cold and they would take me. (By the time I got over the cold I was on the USS Kennebec, AO-36 doing convoy work in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean)

After I got out of QM School I got a leave and went home to Midland, Ontario, Canada. I had a great visit with my family then reported to Norfolk, VA Navy Yard to pick up my new assignment. I asked some old salts what the Kennebec was and they said it was a Fleet Oiler or a sea going gas station. It was anchored out in Hampton Roads and I got a LCVP ride out to the ship. My rating at that time was Seaman First Class. (I learned later we had a number of new recruits assigned to the ship who flailed to come back from liberty. They waited until we sailed and then turned them selves in hoping to get assigned to a different kind of ship).

I reported aboard the Kennebec in Hampton Roads, Va. on September 17th, 1943. We joined a convoy on 9-25-43 and we arrived at Casablanca, French Morocco, Africa, on October 13th. The harbor entrance was strewn with sunken vessels jutting from the water that had been sunk during the invasion the previous November. The French battleship, Jean Ban (sp?) was still tied to the pier where she had been hit by the USS Massachusetts, BB 59 during the invasion. The ground swells in this harbor were large and made ship handling very dicey. We left Casablanca on 10-19-43 and headed back to the States. The weather was very rough on the trip. We fueled a destroyer, the USS Borie, DD 215, a flushdecker. They had not had any hot food for several days due to the rough weather. They took black oil, bread and other foodstuffs including pogie bait. A couple of days later the Borie depth charged a German Submarine that surfaced right alongside the Borie - so close they couldn't depress their deck guns to hit the sub. After jockeying back and forth, the sub passed the destroyer and the Borie tried to ram it. A wave dropped the bow of the destroyer on the deck of the sub and they were locked up. When the Borie finally broke loose the sub was sinking. Other destroyers picked up the German crew. Later in the day. the Borie had so many holes in her hull from the collision she had to be abandoned. The following day the Borie was awash but still afloat and the carrier sent planes to sink her. There went our Pogie Bait. This action resulted in an Allnav instructing all ships to have automatic weapons on the bridge for use in close quarters. When the Borie was trying to ram the sub and keep the Germans from getting to their deck gun they couldn't find the keys to the small arms locker. They ended up throwing coffee cups and firing pistols into top of the conning tower. Another destroyer, USS Turner DD648 had some sonar contacts and dropped several depth charges but results were not determined. (A couple months later on January 3, 1944 the Turner was anchored outside New York harbor when she accidentally blew up and sank.)

We arrived in Bermuda on 11-3-43 and then went to Norfolk. We left Norfolk 10 days later and went to Beaumont, Texas for a load of oil and then went back to Norfolk. We then headed for Bermuda. Two days later we went to Aruba arriving on Christmas Day. The prevailing winds down here is from the west which made ship handling a problem as we were unballasted and sitting high in the water. We picked up a Dutch pilot offshore and he kept adjusting one engine turn at a time. He finally got us to the critical engine speed where vibrations looked like we would snap our antennas or worse. Captain Mullen was watching us drifting towards a large concrete breakwater and he looked like he wanted to take the con away from the pilot. We made the turn around the end of the breakwater and into the harbor where we tied up to a Shell Oil Refinery pier.

We left the next day and headed for New York and got there on New Years' Day. We were in New York for 18 days and I got a week's leave and went home to Midland, Ontario, Canada. I had a great visit and when I started back there was a huge blizzard. I couldn't get connections due to canceled flights and slow trains. I wired the ship and told them of my problem. I got a copy of a Toronto newspaper verifying the weather problem. I was due back at 8:00 am and I arrived back at 8:00 PM. I had to face a Captain's Mast, a tribunal conducted by Commander Mullen. He acknowledged that I had advised the ship of my problem with the weather, etc. However I was twelve hours late and he sentenced me to confinement to the ship for ONE YEAR for being late!

We sailed in a convoy on 1-18-44. We had 120 merchant ships and eight destroyers. We formed eleven columns with about ten ships in each column. The center column had one ship, the Convoy Commodore's ship and we took the spot directly behind him. The rest of that column was left empty to allow destroyers to come inside the convoy to refuel and then go back to their stations around the convoy. The spacing was 1000 feet between columns and 500 feet between ships in the columns. We zigzagged across the ocean. We arrived in Bangor (east of Belfast) Ireland. I looked at my ancestral home through binoculars. We then went to Scotland. We left Scotland on February 3rd and got back to New York on Valentines' day. A few days before we got to New York we had an interesting happening. With large numbers of ships arriving at one time there would be a lot of ships that would have to anchor out until there was wharf space for them to dock. A Norwegian tanker astern of us started closing in on us and our five-inch gun crew reported it to the bridge. He pulled out of the column and started passing us. We radio telephoned him and asked if he was having engine trouble. He said, "no, I'm going to New York" and steamed out in front of the convoy. The Escort Commander had heard the transmissions and he left his station and pulled along side of the tanker and told him to get back in his station. The Norwegian said he was going to New York. The escort Commander then moved MS destroyer slightly ahead of the tanker and fired a shot across his bow. The Norwegian stopped his engine and quietly went back to his convoy position

Several incidents that occurred during convoy duty. We had a doctor on board so we were used as the hospital ship for the convoy. On one occasion we got a call from a liberty ship, the SS Joe E. Brown telling us they had a man who had not urinated in several days and was all cramped up. Our doctor gave them some things to see if they could remedy the problem. All suggestions failed and a decision was made to bring the patient on board the Kennebec. We maneuvered both ships in a parallel position and fired shot lines to rig a cable between the ships. A heavy sea was running and was requiring a lot of adjustment to hold position. We used the wheel on the signal deck so we could better watch the distances between the ships. We sent over a breeches buoy and the patient was tied into it. We started pulling him toward the Kennebec. A large wave swirled between us and we moved apart so that the cable was pulled taut. This yanked the patient high into the air and then we slipped off the wave and moved closer together. The patient dropped about 25 feet before we caught the slack in the cable just as the top of the wave hit the patient. Our doctor was on the well deck watching and said, “if that doesn't scare the pee out of him there is nothing I can do". We brought him aboard, dripping wet and it wasn't all seawater. He stayed on the Kennebec for a day while the doctor checked him out and then we transferred him back to his ship.

Convoys heading back to the States often were loaded with prisoners. Those Liberty Ships were not designed to handle so many people. They didn't have heads to accommodate the prisoners so they rigged plywood boards over the side of the ship and put a hose pouring water on it. The prisoner would climb over the rail and do his defecation. This was risky in bad weather and a number of the prisoners fell into the sea. Finally, the escort commander told them he was not going to pick up any more prisoners out of the ocean. The solution was they had to have a buddy hold a rope tied around the guy hanging onto the rail while attending to his needs. It worked.

On one of our Atlantic Convoy crossings, we were in a heavy fog during the night watch. A gun crew lookout reported a sub along our starboard side. We went out on the wing of the bridge and looked over the side. T here was a long dark object about 50 feet away and moving at our speed. Our gun tubs prevented us from getting our 3 inch guns to bear on the unidentified object. We eased to port to get our guns able to train on the object Just before we were ready to fire, the fog lifted slightly and the object turned out to be a Merchant Ship which had drifted out of position in the fog. We had been aiming at the lower part of his hull. We didn't have surface radar at this time and the blips on our equipment were not too reliable.

Once when we were traveling unescorted we spotted something in the water ahead of us. We usually would swing by to check to see whether there might be anyone in the water. We were headed directly at the object that we finally decided was a huge whale. We hit it with our bow and then it slid by our starboard side. It was very dead and looked like it had been depth charged. T he stench filled the ship and especially the engine rooms for quite a while.

We left New York on March 11, 1944, picked up a load of oil in Houston and headed back to Norfolk. Our trips to Texas were unescorted and German subs were offshore of Florida. We stayed as close to the coast as was safe as we made those trips. One thing that irked us was as we went by Florida at night the whole coastline was lit up and we could feel our ship silhouetted against the coast for anyone outboard of us. We left Norfolk with a convoy bound for Casablanca. We arrived there April 9th and headed back to Bermuda on April 15th. From Bermuda we went to Norfolk to join a convoy heading east on May 23rd. We left this convoy on D-Day, June 6th and headed for special duty with a Submarine killer group. T he task force consisted of: the USS. Guadacanal (CVE 60), a baby carrier and five Destroyer Escorts, the USS Pillsbury (DE 133), USS Pope (DE 131), USS Flaherty (DE 135), USS Chatelain (DEl 49) and USS Jenks (DE 665). They had forced a German submarine to the surface and captured it when the German crew, thinking their ship was sinking all jumped into the sea to avoid going down with it. The sub was down by the stern from damage done to the after torpedo room but stayed afloat. A prize crew boarded it and secured it from sinking and found code machines and documents on board. These were transferred to the carrier as were the German crewmen. The Kennebec refueled the carrier and the destroyer escorts. The carrier was towing the sub while we were refueling it. The Admiral, Dan Gallery, had a flight of planes in the air that was running out of fuel. He asked if we could make a 90-degree turn into the wind without stopping the fueling. We could and did! Then we watched the planes come aboard the carrier. Some of them almost hit the crash net but in the end all landed safely. A seagoing tug, the USS Abanaki (AT-96) came out from Casablanca to tow the sub to Bermuda. The Vice Admiral didn't want to take the sub into Casablanca because the Germans would learn of the sub's capture and render the code-books useless. Note: The Submarine U-505 is now a part of the Museum of Science and Industry in downtown Chicago. The Kennebec received a Presidential Unit Citation for our participation with this activity.

We left the task group and went into Casablanca. All hands had to sign secrecy papers and were not allowed to tell anyone about the capture until it was published in The Saturday Evening Post a year later.

My first special sea detail and General Quarters battle station was in the steering engine room. It was located in the very aft of the ship and down just above the keel. It was filled with machinery to move the rudder and the propeller shaft ran thru there also. It was about 25 feet below the water line and was noisy and smelled of grease and oil. I was the only one there and I was supposed to be able to steer the ship from there if something happened to the bridge. I had a set of ear-phones but I had no idea what was going on topside.I spent most of my time gazing at the ladder that was my only escape route. I figured I could jump past the first four rungs and be up to speed then if I was getting out. When I got to be second class QM I got transferred to the wheel on the bridge where I knew what was going on and was a lot more comfortable. We left Casablanca on June 24, 1944 and went back to Norfolk, VA. We left Norfolk on July 28th in a convoy headed for the Mediterranean Sea. We arrived at the port of Oran, Algeria on August 9th. The invasion of Southern France occurred on August 15th. We left Oran on August 21st, passed Gibraltar and got back to Norfolk on the 31st and went into the Navy Yard for some overhaul. After repairs were completed on September 22nd we headed back for the Mediterranean Sea, passed Malta on 10-12-44 and arrived at Augusta, Sicily. The convoy we were in had twenty merchant ships and was escorted by British Patrol boats similar to our PT-Boats. We were leading the center Column. We got a signal from a escort that we were heading for a floating mine. We ran up some flags which said “Disregard my actions, maintain course and speed”. When the convoy acknowledged the signal we moved between the columns and dropped back to a spot behind the ship that had been following us. We 1942-70 tell anyone about the mine. Fortunately the mine passed through the convoy between the columns with the escort vessel standing by it. After it was clear of the convoy we watched the escort attempt to detonate the mine with rifle fire. The last we saw of them as they disappeared over the horizon astern they were still attempting to blow up the mine. We arrived in Augusta on 10-14-44. The harbor had sunken ships and at least one aircraft sticking out of the water. We left Augusta on 10-16-44 and headed back to Norfolk and arrive there on 11-6-44. We headed for the Azores Islands 11-11-44. On 11-20-44 as we neared the Azores we got orders to return to Bermuda... We ran into heavy seas on the way taking blue water over the bow, which tore loose the fire control tower on the bow. It1942-70t collapse but half of the welds had been broken where it was attached to the deck. We also had a steam line break in the engine room about the same time. We arrived in Bermuda on 11-26-44. On 11-29-44 we had a change of command. Commander Mullen was leaving to have some medical treatment and then was scheduled for his fourth stripe and would take command of a new hospital ship. Our new captain was Commander Everett H. Browne. USN. (Mullen was USNR having come from the Merchant Marine service). We spent most of December working out of Bermuda teaching destroyers how to fuel at sea. We left Bermuda on12-28-44 to go to the Navy Yards at Norfolk for repairs. We left Norfolk on 2-6-45 and went to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and then on to Aruba, DWI for a load of oil from a Shell Oil Refinery. We got back to Bermuda 2-17-45 and left two days later to fuel a Task Force of Cruisers USS Savanna, USS Quincy and USS Atlanta. We fueled the first two but the AtlantQuinsy’t stop and the others had to catch up. The Atlanta carried President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who was returning from the Yalta Conference. We returned to Bermuda. We left Bermuda on 3-1-45 and went to the Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba where we spent a week training destroyer crews how to fuel at sea. Then we went to Aruba for a load of oil and then back to Norfolk. On 3-28-45 we headed for Oran in a convoy that arrived there on 4-7-45.

We left Oran on the 9th of April arrived at Horta Bay at Fayal in the Azores Islands on the15th. We operated out of there, fueling escorts with convoys in our general eastern Atlantic area. We left the Azores on May 9th and arrived at Bermuda on the 15th. We left Bermuda on the 26th and went into the Norfolk Navy yard on May 28th. We sailed from Norfolk on June 26th and went to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Did some more fueling training. On July 14th we left Cuba and went to Baytown, Texas. We were there two days getting a load of oil and then left on the 20th and headed for the Panama Canal, arriving there on July 25th. After passing through the Gatun Locks we anchored in Gatun Lake, the first time we had been in fresh water. We opened up all hoses and cleaned out all the salt in our pipes and had one heck of a water fight. On July 26 we proceeded through the Canal and out into the Pacific Ocean. On August 9th we arrived at Pearl Harbor. We underwent an inspection and then left on August 12th and headed for Adak Island in the Aleutian Island chain. We arrived there August 20th.I went to Loran School in a Quonset hut for a week. During that time three old flush deck destroyers, who had been loaned to the Russian Navy, arrived in port. One tied up to a pier with the other two tied-up out board of the one at the pier. All hands moved to the outboard ship and then they left two destroyers and sailed away. I don't know if any Russian came ashore. On August 31st we left Adak with Admiral Fletcher’s Task Force for the occupation on northern Japan. We crossed the International Date Line on September 1, 1945.

On September 9th we arrived at Ominato Naval Anchorage in Northern Honshu, Japan. I recall that the task group did not anchor that day but sailed around Omanato Ko while air patrols from the carrier were checking the area. One Grumman TBF torpedo plane missed a landing and crashed into the bay. The pilot and gunner got out but the radioman TB. There were some float planes at the naval base, which were stripped by souvenir hunters. We got to go ashore and civilian adults would turn away from us and not look at us. Three of us were looking around when a jeep with an officer and two enlisted men roared by. We followed and they stopped at a school where someone had hoisted a meatball flag up a flagpole. When we caught up with them they had the principal of the school taking down the flag. The Jeep left with the flag. We went over to the school, left our shoes inside the door and walked around in the school. Some adults were in a laboratory and they ignored us and we did the same. Several little girls stayed about one hallway ahead of us, giggling and hiding as we walked around. We were given rifles for enlisted men, swords for the officers and large binoculars for the skipper and the executive officer from an armory on the naval base.

We left there on September 29th and arrived in Tokyo Bay on October 1st. We went back to Omanto Naval Base on October 8th. We stayed there twelve days fueling the task group and then went back to Tokyo Bay. We left Tokyo Bay on October 20th and made two round trips to Shanghai, China and back. We left Tokyo Bay on December 17th for Nagaya, Japan and Kura in the Inland Sea, Not too far from Nagasaki. We went back to Tokyo, loaded Oil from an American merchantman and went back to Shanghai on February 4th and got back to Tokyo Bay on the 14th.

We left on 2-17-46 and arrived in Tsingtao, China on the 21st and went to Taku, China. Two days later we went back to Tsingtao and left there on 2-28-46.We went back to Tokyo Bay, visited Kagashima and then back to Tokyo Bay. I had more than enough points to get my discharge but Commander Browne declared me essential to operations and told me he would not let me go until he got new orders for himself.

We left Tokyo on March 15th and went to Shanghai, Staying there four days and the leaving on 3-22-46 for a load of oil from Bahrain. We stopped in Singapore on 3-30-46 and left 2 days later. We arrived in Ras Tamura, in Bahrain, Arabia on April 12th, loaded and departed the next day. We stopped in Columbo, Ceylon on 4-19, left on the 21st and arrived back in Tokyo Bay on May 5th, 1946.

Commander Brown received his new orders and he gave me my release. I transferred to the USS Tazwell (APA 209) which was loading personnel going back to the States for discharge. I found a hideaway on one of the lower decks and planned an idle trip back home. On the way out of Tokyo Bay the skipper of the Tazwell got mad at his navigator and kicked him off the bridge. A navigator from the Kennebec was in the vicinity and told the captain he would navigate the ship back to San Francisco. The skipper accepted the offer. The navigator told the skipper that I was on board and he'd like to have me on the bridge. When I heard my name over the PA system I wondered what was going on. I reported to the bridge and I was told that I would be the Quartermaster for the trip. I did the navigation, star, moon and sun shots and plotted the course back. While I was plotting our position one-day I noticed the Executive Officer watching me. He asked if I liked doing that and I told him “yes”. Then he told me that there was a position of Chief Quartermaster available on the Tazwell that was mine if I would ship over. I told him I as getting out. I was careful to avoid the Executive Officer from then on.

When we got to Treasure Island, CA, went on a 24 hour liberty in San Francisco. When we came back we checked to see when we shipped out. I he'd see my name on the list so I planned to go back to San Francisco. Then I just happened to look at the top of the list of people shipping out and saw that I was the senior right arm rating and was in charge of a train load that was leaving that day. I was given all the records for 450 sailors and boarded a Pullman car that had a separate bedroom and john. I locked all the records in the john and took over the bedroom. I picked the senior guy in each Pullman car and put him in charge of that car. We left San Francisco and went south to Needles, California and the headed east out into the desert. Every time the train stopped some of the guys jumped off trying to find a bar or a place to buy beer. When the engineer decided to roll he dihe'ding a bell or toot his horn, he just rolled. I watched from the rear and saw guys trying to catch the train without dropping their case of beer. This happened several times. No one ever reported any one missing and I felt if they were dumb enough to miss a train taking them to their discharge, so be it. When I turned the records in at Lido Beach, New York they asked me if everyone was there. I told them no one had reported anyone missing. Through the next three days while I was getting processed I kept expecting to get a tap on the shoulder asking where so and so was. It didnhe'dpen and I happily left on a train for Midland, Ontario Canada.

Some Comments on the USS Kennebec Commanders…

Commander Reynolds was regular navy and a Yale Graduate. He was the original skipper of the Kennebec when the navy took it over and converted it from a merchant tanker, the SS Corsicana to the USS Kennebec. When we were at sea he almost never left the bridge. He slept on a cot in the chart room behind the bridge. He Corsican shave or change and got to be looking pretty seedy while we were underway. When we were returning to Norfolk and looking for the first marker buoy, he would disappear and about the time the pilot boat was sighted he would show up on the bridge, resplendent in his beribboned uniform all shaved and cleaned up. He was ready to hit the beach.

Commander Mullen replaced Reynolds about the last of 1943.Mullen was ex-merchant marines skipper who came into the Navy. He was a good seaman but loud and boisterous when we were at general quarters or navigating in close maneuvering areas. His attitude made all bridge personnel uncomfortable. One time we were moving from an anchorage at Mers el Kabeer to a berth in Oran and he had a guest aboard, a military Nurse. They stood at the front of the bridge and he explained to her everything that was happening. It was the most peaceful move I ever remember having under his command. When we were moored and I could leave my post at the wheel I went up to tell her how nice that her presence had made our move. As I started towards her, she turned towards me and she had an industrially ugly face. I was dumb struck and Faber say a word.

Another time under Mullen’s command we were caught in a hurricane at night off Cape Hatteras It tore our 40 foot motor launches out of their cradles and smashed one upside down over the catwalk. This effectively shut down any passage fore or aft. The captain’s Gig was hanging from it’s davits. The stern hook tore loose allowing the Gig to hang vertically and it kept smashing into the side of the ship. Cdr. Mullen CD like the noise and wanted the gig secured. In the hurricane it would have been almost impossible and possibly fatal to anyone trying to do it. Lt. Cdr. Banks, Executive Officer, went down and secured it by himself.

Note: This was submitted by Tom Brennen who is totally responsible for its contents.