Charles Grant

U.S. Navy
Pacific Theater

“Like everybody else you had a duty you felt; you all honored your country and you wanted to do something to participate.”

Charles Grant proudly served in the Pacific Theater from 1944 to 1946. This is his retelling of the events he experienced in those two years. Grant served on a Navy tanker—the U.S.S. Chotauk—and his highest rank achieved was Signalman 2nd class.

Graduating class of 1945, from Signal Men School, featuring Charles Grant and fellow Signal Men. (1945)

I was approximately 15 when the war started, and at the age of 18 I decided to enlist. My father was in the Navy so I decided to join too. Plus like everybody else you had a duty you felt, you all honored your country and you wanted to do something to participate. My brother was also in the military. Because there were two of us, my brother and myself, I guess my parents were quite apprehensive as to what could possibly happen. Of course, not hearing from either one of us for probably weeks at a time made them that much more. The only time we had contact with our family was through letters. As we fueled different ships, they would bring mail to us and we would offload mail to them. I guess every other week maybe I got a letter or two but that was the only communications I had.

I hellaciously remember my first days in the service. I went into New York City to the general post office; there I enlisted in the Navy. I went back home and was called about ten days later to go back for a physical. I went through the physical, went back home again for approximately two weeks, reported to Pennsylvania Station, boarded a troop train, and went to Sampson, New York, for boot training. The next day we went through the rigorous medical where you walked down the aisle and there was a medic on the right side and a medic on the left side and each one of them jabbed you. You had a series of I believe of six needles. I spent twelve weeks in recruit training, was issued a thirty-day leave, went back to Sampson, and went to Signalmen school, which was another twelve weeks. From there we shipped out after leave, on a train to Treasure Island, California. Five days later we landed in Treasure Island. They took us off the train, they stripped us, and they made us take a shower because after five days on a train, you needed a shower. We were then issued clothing and had a sandwich and milk.

The U.S.S. Chotauk, which Charles Grant was stationed on. (1945)

From that point, we did nothing really until we waited for a troop ship out of San Francisco, which took us to Pearl Harbor where I was assigned to the U.S.S Chotauk. We loaded on fuel and we took off to the Pacific. From there, we probably refueled at Pearl [Harbor] twice to go back out and we refueled Destroyer Escorts and Destroyers, which were small war ships. We saw action twice, once after fueling. That was the second trip out. The third trip out was when we went to Okinawa and we were just off Brown Beach where the Marines landed. We went through a typhoon there, we had to leave ship because we were half empty, and when the ship is empty, she rides high in the water, with a tendency to roll if the depth is very precarious.

One of my instructors was a Chief Petty Officer, the other was a Quarter Master First Class. Their job was to naturally get us all fit and everything else. At five thirty or six o’clock in the morning you got up, you made your bed; you squared your locker, which in Navy terms means everything has to be exactly square. If it’s not, then the C.P.O (Chief Petty Officer) will pull stuff out of the locker and you have to redo the whole thing, same with your bed. I think it was more discipline that they were teaching at that time then anything else. We then went to breakfast at the mess hall. When we came back we went through calisthenics, full pack hikes, guard duty—well, we didn’t have real weapons, they had wooden guns that they used. Afternoons we did more calisthenics. Evenings you went to the movies or a concert, or anything that the U.S.O might have in the camp at that time. Went to bed at eight-thirty or nine o’clock [until] the next morning. It went on that way for twelve weeks. The highest rank I achieved (which was during World War II) was Signalman 2nd class. Signalmen are communications people, along with radio and sonar, things of that sort. We did semaphore(flag code) between ships. Also light direction between ships, which were all coded. Duties that were in the general headquarters were in the machine gun turret, which was adjacent to the flying bridge where Signalmen did their work. As a matter of fact in the communications group there were myself and another Signalman, a Radioman, a Quartermaster and a Boatswains Mate. We pretty much remained the same. We were quartered differently than the rest of the crew, we were on the bridge above where the captain would steer the ship. We had quarters there and of course that was adjacent to the signal bridge.

Charles Grant (right) standing with his friend William John Chapmen on the deck of the U.S.S. Chotauk. (1946)

On the U.S.S. Chotauk there were only 79 people aboard, nine of them were officers, so 70 were crewmen of different rank. We became very close with each other. After hours we had no duty, there really wasn’t anything to do but sit and talk. Again you became very close with the people, and I still am close to the few that are left. You ate with pretty much the same group every day—morning, noon, and night. The food we ate really wasn’t bad, we were kind of privileged because we had a lot of canned chicken breast. We had a lot of fresh fruit and we had milk too. I would have to say that my favorite meal was breakfast—once we had fresh eggs.

Eventually we went back to Pearl and the war was over. We went to Algiers, which is an island off of New Orleans. We did what they call degaussing, where they took all the ammunition and all the guns of the ship. We then went to Mobile, Alabama, where we decommissioned the ship; it was put up the Mobile River in junkyard fashion, I guess. Then shipped home to Flushing Avenue Naval Station and from there we were discharged.

On Staten Island, in 1946 a “Get your picture taken” was held to commemorate the soldier’s service days. This picture was later framed, accompanied with the medals that Charles Grant had been awarded during the war.

After the war I joined a group called Sampson Navy Vets—Sampson World War II Navy Vets. There are approximately 5,000 of us. They have a meeting once a year in September at Sampson, New York, which is now a State Park. The remnants of the training station are nothing but concrete foundations and slabs, nothing else left. We opened what was [the brig]. It’s now a museum. I contributed my uniform and my chevrons; other people contributed memorabilia. They have training pictures of all of the 300,000 people that attended Sampson [Training Camp] during the time that boot camp existed. You can go and look at that. Looking back on the war I’m glad that I joined the Navy. No elation or anything of that sort, just glad I did.