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James L. Measom (bio)
I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in the month of February 1944, while still
in High School, and was put on inactive duty status until graduation.
I graduated May 19, and three days later, May 23, I was on my way to the
Great Lakes Naval Training Center with five of my friends. I went to the
hospital for a hernia operation before starting training so I was separated
from my friends. After a month in the hospital, I began my boot camp training.
I attended Pre-radio school at Wright Jr. College in Chicago for a month,
then was transferred back to Great Lakes and attended Basic Engineering
school at Great Lakes. This school taught the basics needed for working
in the engine rooms aboard navy ships. I completed this school January
1 1945. On completion of the Basic Engineering course, I was sent to Richmond,
Virginia for further training as a diesel technician. This training was
to prepare us for operating and maintaining LCVP’s, the landing craft
used in the amphibious landings. I completed the school the end of February
and was assigned to the amphibious fleet in the Pacific and had orders
to go to Shoemaker, California for assignment.
There was a need for fifty men to serve in Atlantic convoy duty aboard
Destroyer Escort vessels and they asked for volunteers. A friend talked
me into signing up for this duty. I was the forty-ninth man to be accepted
to this assignment and was sent to Norfolk, Virginia for assignment. I
was assigned to the Commander of the North West African Naval forces and
boarded the troopship General J. R. Brooks in Norfolk and sailed in convoy
across the Atlantic headed for the Mediterranean area. The third night
out a German U-Boat torpedoed one of the ships in the convoy. On March
13,1945 we arrived in Naples, Italy and I was assigned to the Naval Detachment
there. It was there that I got my first view of the devastation of the
war. Both the Allied forces and then the German forces bombed Naples.
From Naples I was assigned to the Naval Operating Base157 in Palermo,
Sicily. I arrived in Palermo, March 22,1945 and was assigned to the ship
repair unit. We serviced the ships that were damaged in combat. I worked
in the diesel repair unit and had experience working on many different
types of ships. It was a much better than going to the Pacific. I was
very grateful that my friend talked me into volunteering.
When the War ended, and the ship repair unit was closed, I did not have
enough points for discharge, so I was transferred aboard the U.S. Providence
CL82 a light cruiser that was the flagship of the Mediterranean fleet.
Naples was the homeport. My duties aboard the Providence were maintaining
the emergency diesel engines and engineer for the boat crew. We had several
vehicles aboard and when in port I was a vehicle driver.
While aboard the Providence I had the opportunity to visit many interesting
places, such as Cairo and Alexandra, Egypt, Beirut, Lebanon, Nice, France,
Tangiers and Algiers in North Africa, and Gibraltar. One interesting event
was when the Providence was escort to the U.S.S. Missouri across the Mediterranean
to visit Istanbul, Turkey. The Providence ran aground in Alexandra, Egypt
and had to be returned to the U.S. for repairs. We sailed up the Delaware
River and arrived in Philadelphia on the 25 of June 1946. I was past due
for discharge and was sent to Shoemaker, California for processing. I
was released from the Navy July 5 1946.
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