The Key West Citizen Newspaper, October 4, 1952, Page 12

Page 12 Roanoke’s, Skipper CAPTAIN HERMAN OLLIFF PARISH Flagship Cruiser Roanoke Like Floating Community By DOROTHY RAYMER | A second title for Capt. H. O. Parish might be “Mayor of Roanoke.” The big sleek cruiser of which he is commanding officer is a floating community. Although the huge flagship is known as a “‘light cruiser’ that sounds like the understatement of the year. It carries 75 officers, 1300 men, weighs 17,000 tons and cost over thirty million dollars. The power plant could service 40,000 people in a city. The Roanoke’s beam is 70 ft., she’s 680 feet long and departments include all sorts of shops: cobbler, « tailor, machine, laundry, bakery, | clothing, barber, printing and a blacksmith shop. This last is puz- zling. There isn’t even a dog mas- cot aboard let alone a horse! A hospital, cold storage plant, ice house, post office, arsenal, radio center (television equipment ‘op- tional?) and six galleys. All this and quarters for officers and crew, too. And as a final homey touch, the captain’s gig and the officer's mo- tor launch have crocheted scallop- ed point trimming with fancy tas- sels aléng the overhead. It’s the handiwork of the crew, although we didn’t spot any gobs busy with hooks and whiteline and can- vass, They were “tending to their knitting,” okay, but the work rang- ed from s' bing and polishing through painting and regular ship's | maintenance interrupted only when another ship or sub passed the bridge on the port side, and by | security drills. These last are first time it sounded I looked | around to see if a delegation from | Hialeah had arrived. We came up the side on a ladder. | Lt. Comdr. James Foresman in formed me three times, and I had | THE KEY WEST CITIZEN Saturday, October 4, 1952 | to believe him since he ts head of Public Information Office, that we were not “swarming up the side”, | a phrase used in describing the visit to the Monterey recently which brought no end of ribbing. Anyway, the ladder on the Roanoke is not a perpendicular hazardous affair, It’s more like a real stair- way with canvas backs to each step and solid handrails. Judging by the progressively better means to go a- board, maybe a visit to a battle- ship will mean mounting a la es- celator? Ensign Robert Bowen who hails | from Washington, D. C. provided escort to Capt Parish’s cabin. We found “the doors are guarded by United States Marines.” There are 42 in the Marine Detachment on the Roanoke. According to some terse comments in the ship's news- paper, “‘The Look Out” Leather- necks are not exactly elated to be all at sea. Excerpts: “It’s good duty, but I didn’t want to be a sailor.” “You wouldn’t ptint my | of the crew were getting ready to mer commanding officer of VX-1, NAS here was. nicknamed “Rags.” “When we were youngsters my brother used to play a record with a ragtime tune on it over and over. On one side there was ‘Oh You Great Big Beautiful Doll’ and on the other, "Raggety Rag.’” Capt. Parish said his athletic career mentioned in his personal history record was just youthful letters in football, basketball, and baseball. At the Academy he was captain of the basketball team dur- ing his last years. “We have a fine basketball team-and both hard and softball teams on this ship,” he beamed. “I went to Georgia Tech for one year before entering the Naval Academy,” he said. “The year I wanted an appointment, it seems every boy in Georgia wanted to go to Annapolis. I had to wait a year.” He was graduated in 1926 and for the following two years was as- signed to destroyer duty. His re- cord continued and when World War II broke out he served in raids on the Gilberts, Marshalls, Marcus and Wake, Tarawa, Kwajalein, Bougainville, Guam, Hollandia, Morotai, Leyte, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, This last was the time, April, 1945, when 100 feet of the , stern of his ship, the USS Sigsbee (DD-502) was shot away, yet he managed to keep her afloat. Capt. Parish has 10 decorations, but he didn’t. mention them, Before assuming eommand of the Roanoke, Capt. Parish was Chief of Staff of the Naval Operat- ing Base, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Sometime before the end of Octo- ber, he will become Chief of Staff at Norfolk, Va. The change of com- mand will take place in Key West waters. H By the time we bid adios a lot | go on liberty, so we couldn’t tour | the cruiser, but we did stand on j; deck and were properly awed by | the big guns and the terrapin like turrets, | Disregarding a sign that sald, Admiral’s, Passageway, ‘““No thoro- fare,” we stepped on sacred cor- ridors and went to the big com- fortable wardroom for coffee and fresh pears. Excellent watercolors of the USS Hornet and the sub- marine Narwhal are part of the decoration, There is also a fine reproduction of a Reubens Nativity scene given the ship by the people of Antwerp, Belgium, Last April, the shi publication came out with exciting stories and pictures of activity in Europe which included a wild boar hunt in Turkey and in 1951 the per- sonnel got a look at Marseilles, Venice, Tangiers, Genoa, the Riviera and Oran, Who said join the navy and .see the world through a porthole. These boys went ashore and even posed with disdainful camels for which they didn’t have to walk a mile, Ship’s protest possesion fs a magnifieéfit. and eomplete set of silver from smalh? bowls and answer.” “After 22 months I ‘sho’ USMC again,” and “‘After I get out of this navy, I'll be gla¢ to do duty with the Marines again any place, any where, any time.” Capt. Parish just laughed and | puts it all down to loyalty to their own outfit. He was playing solitaire when we entered. Asked if he had plan- ned any activity while here he chuckled and in soft Savannah, Georgia, accent, replied, “I’m too fat for swimming and too lazy for | golf. After seeing King Farouk in heralded by a bugle call and the | @ bathing suit I gave up beach ap- | gunnery, etc, They got a thorough pearances.” He cleared up the deck, of cards, that is, and ordered a. cooling lemonade for all hands. He also cleared up the mystery of why his brother, Capt. Elliott Parish, for- Safeguard Your Valuables— We now have available for you a safety deposit box where you can put those U. S. Savings Bonds, those Insur- ance Policies, your will, jewelry, deeds, and other valuable papers and know they are safe. THE COST IS NOMINAL See Us About A Safety Deposit Box Today JHE FLORIDA NATIONAL BAN AT KEY WEST K| With Banking Facility at the Key West Mawel Station Mecaber of the FDIC Member of the Florida Nationsl Greup of Banks the State of Vir, on the elabo- rate craftsm! » a gift trans- ferred from the old battleship, Vir- ginia, which was given to that ship in 1906 by the commonwealth of Virginia. During this past summer’s cruise to Antwerp, Lisbon and then to Cuba, there were 350 ROTC mid- shipmen aboard from 30 schools all over the nation. Capt. Parish said, “The midship: stood watches and they went into every department in rotation, engine, insight into how we operate.” The final question was whether or not the skipper allowed his men to grow beards. It came about over a cartoon in “The Look Out” en- titled, “Hair Today--Gone To- morrow.” “Well, T’ll tell you,” Capt. Pa- rish drawied, “I found out how to | settle the beard question up in the Aleutians. A man with flaming red hair asked for permission to grow a beard, and I gave it. Came the day when he had leave to visit his wife. Then he wanted to shave. I reminded him of our bargain. . .| when I let him grow a fine set of whiskers he also had to get my permission to shave them off. He | spent several uncomfortable days.” | And that’s the way to beard a sea lion in any den, | UTO enthusiasm. In high school he won | » | War Roundup By STAN CARTER SEOUL, Korea # — The U. | Sth Air Force said U. N. jet pilots blasted a North Korean coal mine into flaming ruin and downed two more Red MIGI5s today. On the ground Allied infantrymen recap- tured three Wester Front outpost _ including blood-soaked “Big Nori.” Sabre pilots reported shooting down the MIGs and damaging five others as they protected F84 Thun- derjets bombing the coal mine, northwest of Kunu and near the | Chongchon River. | Forty-eight B29s hammered the | plant—on the south bank of the Yalu River—with 425 tons of bombs in a 2% hour attack. Air Force experts said the power | plant and 10 transformers. a cal- cium cyanide plant and five ad- ministration-type buildings were re- Citizen Staff Photo THERE ARE MANY GRAVES AMONG THE WEEDS shown in this picture. Nature has made the place a potentially beautiful site by providing three luxuriant trees. Key Westers interested in their cemetery should visit the place and try to arrive at some means of taking care of the now neglected lots. One Entrance To Cemetery Sicily. § through an enormous punc * will be glad to do duty with the pow! set with cups with the seal of | © THE WINDING PATHWAY SHOWN ABOVE leads from the gate on Olivia street-one of the entrances to our City Cemetery. Weeds are growing higher than a man can reach. Is this the way we want the place to look? “This Rock of Ours” discusses the subject in today’s paper. Hoke Holcomb Enrolled At Duke DURHAM, N. C.—Hoke Smith Holcomb, Jr., the son of Mrs. and Mrs. H. S. Holcomb of 540 Bahama St., Key West, Florida, is enrolled in the largest Duke University freshman Naval R. 0. T. C class at Duke University since the war, Captain John M. Ocker, command- ing officer of the Duke unit an- nounced today, Of the group accepted, 98 are | contract students who will be cand- idates for Reserve commissions. | TOP RIDER FOR GULFSTREAM HALLANDALE, Fla. (®—Antho- ny De Spirito, the nation's top | | ranking rider in number of win- Citizen Staff Photo | stream Park meeting which will | run from next March 4 through | April 21. The 19-year-old jockey is under contract to J. H. Carr who | has applied for stall space for | nine horses at the track by the | ners, will ride during the Gulf- isea. } Let us give you MEASURED The other 29 are regular midship- | men who have reported to the Duke | unit and have been assigned to first year Naval Science courses. The number of regular freshman is slightly smaller this year tha in years past, because some of th students qualified for courses above the freshman level, TOPS EXPERT BODY AND FENDER WORK— AUTOMOBILE PAINTING FREE ESTIMATES GLADLY GIVEN (WE FINANCE) WILSON'’S AUTO TRIM G. E. SCHMUTI, Mer. Cor, Greene and Simonton Sts. Prone 628 ° . SUNLIGHT HE JUCT ATAU, } I PONE CHA TCEAAEAAEAAEAATA ee The Sabre pilots’ victories raised the Fifth Air Force’s October bag of MIGs to six destroyed and 12 damaged. The Air Force said the Thunder- jets left at least five buildings in flames at the coal mine. > The Far East Air Force reported today that the big Superfort raid on the sprawling Namsan chemical plant in North Korea Oct. 1 ren- [ ‘ i it “completely unoperation- duced to rubble. The Supetfort bombs also destroyed the plants calcium building and knocked out calcium ore electric furnaces. The Fifth Air Force said six Al- lied warplanes were lost over North Korea during the week ended Fri- day. A Sabre jet and an Australian Meteor jet fell in air combat. Red antiaircraft guns shot down an F84 Thunderjet and a propeller-driven Skyraider. Another Thunderjet and @ Sabre were lost to other causes. Big Nori Hill, a bitterly-contested height le: but then abandoned. but the nabandoned. U.N, infantrymen returned to the crest today but had to drive off two enemy squads to reach it. A U. S. Eighth Army staff offi- cer said Allied troops still were on the shell-pocked hill late this after- noon. U.N. infantrymen recaptured two of four hills seized by Chinese cyanimide production than a week ago, was eliss i ts it ise i i [ EEE 8 CORDELL HULL NOW 81 YEARS OLD WASHINGTON #—Cordell Hull, the former secretary of state whom the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt once called “the Gather of the United Nations,” ob served his 8ist birthday Thursday, The retired statesman is recup- erating at Bethesda Naval Hospi- tal from a stroke suffered last August. Critically ill a month ago, he now is able to take’ short auto- mobile rides with Mrs. Hull. Reds Thursday night. One of the Positions, north of Korangpo, was retaken in a bitter night counter- attack. The other, south of the truce town of Panmunjom, was re- gained in three hours of .heavy fighting. But another outpost south of Pan- munjom was lost Friday. About 1,200 Communist troops at- tacked on hill south of Panmun- jom as Red artillery dropped 10,000 rounds of mortar and high explo- sive shells irto the sector, a front- line report said. The Eighth Army reported South Korean troops killed or wounded 1,359 Chinese Reds on the Central Front from Monday to early Fri- day. ee Your Grocer SELLS that Good STAR * BRAND AMERICAN COFFEE: end CUBAN -—TRY A POUND TODAY—< Sinclair Pete —3y J. O. Hamilton “Hardly realized I was towing that car’’ We realize that our service te you is an important part in the life and operation of your car. Make us prove it! U. S. No, 1 Terminal Service Station Key West, Fla, Phone 1512 at much less than you'd expect to pay? $6.95 CHAS. ARONOVITZ "sic" KEY WEST'S LARGEST STORE