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USS Corporal SS346

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Interesting recollections by Corporal Vets

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Note from Terry Whitfield - Mar 05 - re: Chief Cookman

He's in dress blues. That is Chief Electrician James "Cookie" Cookman. His wife was at the reunion. Unfortunately, and I don't know why, I seemed to be the only one she could find that remembered him. Hell of a nice guy. Some of us went to his house a couple times to watch pro football games. We called him "Cookie" and his wife said that after he retired, he and another guy (maybe two guys) went into partnership in a bar. One night, when he was closing up, a guy came in to rob him and he was stabbed and killed. I really felt bad for his wife that no one else seemed to remember "Cookie". I think Machen had already gone to Tygrone when Cookman came aboard. Red Winnard may have been gone also. I'm going to email Walt Dalessio to see if he remembers him. His wife had that picture at the reunion. Terry Whitfield

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Note from Bob Machen - Feb 05

Spotted the new pic of Chet Powell and Gene Ramsey (SO1SS). You don't have any way of knowing this, but Gene Ramsey hardly ever rode the boat. He was the star pitcher for the SubLant softball team, and naturally the Squad Dog kept him ashore so that he could continue playing ball. SubLant lost very few games, and none when "Gino" pitched. The guy could make a softball dance. I never learned to hit him, and I played a lot of ball with him. When we played the 6th Fleet team in Naples, 64 (?), we kicked their ass good. I think they got 2 hits in 7 innings. We played a lot of other boats on Springboard Ops, and never lost a game. They finally brought another SO1 aboard to replace Gene, since they wanted him ashore. The new guys name was Paul Waters. He came from whatever boat was sunk by the Stickleback. (Silversides?) He was married to a Hawaiian lady named Mildred. She was an attorney, and the great granddaughter of Kamehameha the 3rd, King of Hawaii. Paul was on watch when Thresher went down, and told our skipper that he believed she was having problems, then told him that he heard sounds like eggs popping. Our CO sent the SubMiss/SubSunk message to SubLant. You can not believe the feelings of grief and sorrow that went through the boat. Just like when Kennedy was killed in Dallas. Disbelief was the first emotion, then anger, then shock. I had the battery charge in Maneuvering when the IC watch came back and told me. Funny how shit like that sticks with ya.................

Another short tale, different sport. We played a "touch" football game against the Enterprise CVA(N)-65 in Naples. They had a guy playing quarterback that was as good as I'd ever seen, and he seemed to have a favorite receiver that had hands of glue. Naturally we were gettin' our asses whipped. As sailors are prone to do, as more beer was consumed, the game progressed to a pretty rough game of "knock the shit out of the ball carrier", and "kick the quarterbacks ass". Wasn't very long until their QB went to the sidelines and quit the game. Naturally we got to some rowdy namecalling of that big pussy. His receiver came over and explained that he didn't want to get hurt in a pickup game of football, cause he couldn't afford to be hurt longterm. We all thought they were sailors, and I suppose they could qualify as being sailors, BUT..............they were both senior year midshipmen. The receiver was Pat Connolly, and his QB was none other than Roger Staubach!!! Roger showed us all that he damn sure was no pussy. I understand that Gerry Conrad was lucky enough to keep in touch with him in later years.

I'm enjoying the pictures, especially the ones from 61-66. Did you know Chief Hicks? He came aboard about a year before I went to Tigrone. He was a great guy, everyone liked him. Wayne Oney told me sometime back that Smilin' Jack Teller died not long after he left the Navy. Too bad, he was a great officer. He came aboard with another Ensign, and I'm damned if I can find anyone that remembers the other Ensigns name. He was a real asshole. I really appreciate all the e-dresses on the crew list. I've been looking for Bill Schiable for years. Many thanks, Bob

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Note from Bob Machen - Sept. 05

Here's the story I promised you................

As sailors are also soldiers, Corporal sailors were required to qualify on all the smallarms aboard. That included the Thompson .45 caliber submachinegun. So........ try to envision probably 20 of the crew standing topside, forward of the sail, underway far from land, calm seas, beautiful sunny skies, and best of all warm, fresh air!!! Our "instructor" that day was due to be the COB, but while he was getting topside we had a Chief Sonarman named LeCroix, that got there first. Now to be brutally honest, old LeCroix wasn't the most popular shipmate we ever had. The man knew everything about everything, and that just naturally rubbed people the wrong way. It would have been OK if his overflow of knowledge would have been kept to himself, but he couldn't help himself when it came to butting in with all his knowledge. Anyway, you get the picture.

So..................we were up there banging off rounds with M-1's and .45 Colt ACP's, waiting for a chance to fire the Thompson's, and old LeCroix decided that there was no need to wait for COB to get up there. He announced that he had been an instructor on the Thompson MG and he would go ahead and start the activity. He got a weapon from the armorer (might have been Frank Nowicki at that time) and proceeded to show us how to load it, and insert the clip properly. We got through that part alright, so Frenchy decided to go ahead with the live fire exercise. He loaded the weapon and fired a short burst off the starboard side, impressing everyone in the entire Atlantic Fleet with his ability. Directly he let a couple of the crew fire it, and then he took it back, and reloaded it. Now pay attention here...........

By this time the Skipper's on the bridge, along with the lookouts and OD. Cap'n standing at the front of the bridge watching the crew training going on. Ya with me here? LeCroix decides that he has a solution for the "barrel climb during firing" problem, and pronounces: " now men, if you will rotate the weapon ninety degrees to the left, just before you squeeze the trigger, the weapon will not climb on you". By this time he had moved around so that he would be firing over the port side. As he finished his statement about turning the weapon on it's side, he pulled the trigger for a long burst, and the weapon (which obviously had no knowledge about supposedly not climbing) began to shoot right up the front of the sail. Needless to tell you, the Skipper was not real happy or impressed by rounds zinging past his head, and called the game right now!!! I never heard about any communication from CO to LeCroix, but I feel certain that the old man's Irish temper made it perfectly clear that there would be no further live fire training by his Chief Sonarman. LeCroix didn't remain aboard Corporal very long. I really don't think the machine gun deal had anything to do with it, I think it was more his personality and inability to get along with the crew or Goat Locker. Didn't mean to bore you Tom, but I always thought that was a great injection of humor (not at my expense) into some otherwise boring ops.

Best regards, Bob Machen

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