I went into the Navy because I didn’t want to go into the Army. Ships were more adventurous. I was sent to Great Lakes, Illinois, where they had a tremendous Naval training station, and I was there for about 10 weeks. There was snow on the ground nine weeks out of ten and cold showers for nine weeks out of ten. After I graduated from boot camp I was transferred to the USS Yorktown (CV 10) carrier. People who start a ship are called plank owners. They are the original people who helped commission the ship. I was a plank owner. I was there about three to four weeks before it was commissioned to help with work details and stand guard while they were welding. I helped get the ship ready for commission. In 1943 the ship was launched. Eleanor Roosevelt, representing the President, came down and broke a bottle of champagne across its bow. In her case it didn’t break, but the second time she had a good swing. The Japanese sunk the previous Yorktown in the Pacific at the Battle of Midway. The name was so prominent in the Navy that they immediately reassigned the name to another ship ready to be commissioned.
We loaded aircraft, supplies, ammunition, gasoline, bombs and other armaments for a long trip. We were then considered a task group. In this task group were the Essex and Yorktown (two large carriers) and a small carrier called the Independence, a heavy cruiser, a light cruiser and destroyers as escorts. Then we proceeded on the first carrier-based raid to Marcus Island. This island was about 1,000 miles off of the coast of Japan and the reason for hitting it (dropping bombs, strafing, destroying what was on the island) was because it was one of the Japanese communication islands. They didn’t expect any American ships to be that close to it. There is an expression called "hit and run". That means this group would go several thousand miles and hit an island overnight, then run to another island and hit it, and then to another island and hit it, go back into port, reload, and then go to another island, hit it. The Japanese couldn’t figure out where all these ships were coming from, but it was the same group. Our ship could go up to 30 knots as part of a group. A knot is a mile and an eighth, so it was about 35 miles an hour. Generally 25 knots is an average. The reason they kept it above 20 was so the Japanese subs could not torpedo us, and we zigzagged always so they couldn’t get a bearing. The crew capacity was 3,000 people. From the keel to the top of the mast was 12 stories, 12 floors. The length of the Yorktown was about 872 feet long and 133 feet wide. In the Navy you had more than one job, you had a major job and a minor job and other jobs depending on the circumstances. I worked on the flight deck where the aircraft sit. You had people along each side, the port and starboard. Forward, along the outside were ten 20-mm guns on each side. Aft, you had ten more on each side of the flight deck. On one side, the starboard side, in the middle of the ship, was a superstructure. It held the operations: the bridge, radar, communications, all the different brain systems of the ship. Forward of the superstructure were two 5-inch quad guns.
Our ship was on duty 24 hours a day. We used the 24-hour clock, like 0800, 01000. The other method to tell time was the bell system. There was one bell on the ship and it rang every half hour, 8 bells every four hours. The crew below decks never saw daylight, and they would go by the bell system to know what time it was. We had round-the-clock crew shifts, alternating between crews. My first assignment was to a flight deck crew. There were ten flight deck crews with ten men in each one. The purpose of each crew was when a plane came in to land a crew would stand by. The plane would park and then that crew would push the plane into a spot. Every time a plane moved on the flight deck you had to push it by hand. You had to tie down the planes. My first job was as a leader of one crew. The Yorktown carried up to 85 aircraft. The reason I was picked as a leader was I had been a Boy Scout and I had received my Eagle Scout Award two months before I went into service. And in Scouting you learned leadership. You had people coming in from all parts of the country and so you had to learn how to deal with them. I always tried to talk to those on the crew when we were waiting for a plane to come in to find out more about them. I wasn’t taught these jobs. I had jobs assigned to me. On a ship you have several jobs. If they couldn’t land airplanes, my next job was to go to the forward starboard side and mount the Number 3 20-mm gun and be either the loader or the shooter or the swinger. My third job was in case there was an accident or a fire. I helped carry CO2s or helped carry people on stretchers. Can you imagine being 17 and never being out of the state of Missouri and all of a sudden traveling all over the globe? We traveled almost 100,000 miles during 18 months. We’d hit and run, hit and run, hit and run, hit and run, constantly. During the 18 months we were back in port at Pearl Harbor several times. That means we were at sea for 100 odd days at a time. (The YORKTOWN launched attacks on additional islands during Joseph Cox’s tour, such as: Tarawa Island, Ebeye Islands, Enubuj Islands, Truk, Saipan, Tinian.) We only got hit one time with a 500-pounder on the aft. We were fortunate. We had bullets hit and anti-aircraft just miss us and everything else. I’d see 100 planes in a day, coming at us from all directions. What do I think about death? We saw people die because they were hit by the enemy or burned or in accidents. We’d have burials at sea. We were in action all the time and kept busy all the time. During free time they always had things for us to do to keep our minds occupied. Because things happened so fast and I was so young, I just accepted it as the way it was. I lost some good friends. You worked side by side. You grew up awful fast. And it affects everyone differently. You never know what circumstances will be and that’s probably good. I always liked the Navy because I always had a bunk. I had been in ROTC and had had a touch of Army. I really wanted to be aboard ship and see islands. When I thought about the Army I always thought walking and carrying. (Joseph Cox was transferred to Oceana Naval Base in Virginia on September 15, 1944.) I remember some things when we weren’t in action. One of the experiences at sea was in what is called a low pressure area. You can’t see land. When you are about 1,000 miles from land the sea is so calm it is like a mirror, and the only thing you see moving is the wake behind the ship, or flying fish. The sunsets were beautiful. One of the most exciting things was when we crossed the equator. I found there was an old ritual that any time a ship goes across the equator. It is considered a special event and they have a ceremony. They lower the whale boats and they have people dressed up like King Neptune. Anyone who hasn’t gone across the equator is called a "pollywog". Anyone who has gone across becomes a "shellback". The biggest event was one time, after a year in the Pacific as a task group, we were heading to the Solomon Islands. We crossed the International Dateline where it crosses the equator diagonally. That is called a "Golden Shellback". It is very rare, so I am a "Golden Shellback". One time we went to New Hebrides Island to take in some injured crew, but it was also time for us to have some R & R. Most islands of the Pacific were the same – coral, hilly, coconuts, rough terrain, hot, humid, rainy, beautiful sunsets. My father saw the Yorktown in New Hebrides. This was a post card my father sent after he saw the ship in New Hebrides. It reads, "To my good son J. Matey. A Very Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year. Stay in there, kid, and pitch, for you are doing a good job. Your Dad & Pal" My father had joined as a Seabee. My father, who had been in World War I, missed Ironically, my older brother was in the Army Reserves when the war began and was called in right away. I didn’t see him from 1941 until 1946. My father was in the Seabees, I was in the Navy. My next-to-youngest brother was in the Navy, and my youngest brother was in the Army. My mother stayed home and worked. I never saw my father for about three years. My father came back in 1945 and I was stationed on the east coast. He was discharged, went to Kansas City, picked up my mother, traveled to Oceana to pick me up and the three of us then traveled to New York City. We went on tour, to Radio City, Empire State Building. We went to several The Yorktown is now in Charlestown, South Carolina as a permanent museum for aviation and represents the Medal of Honor winners. I went to Charleston for the 40th reunion in 1985. About 1,000 people attended. I’d kept in touch with several people and I was able to recognize others by looking at the album they produced. I looked at the pictures as they were and then I could place the people that were there. People changed a lot. submit your Yorktown Sea Story Join the USS US Navy click here |