Sep 21, 2014

Sun, Sep 18, 1944: questions

"Lieut Commander Maxwell, captain, had the bad habit of asking midshipmen some of the most unexpected questions about the ship [during a training cruise on Lake Michigan].  'How many loaves of bread does the crew eat per day?' 'Where is it stored?', "What is a mil?' are examples.  This gruff old mustached fugitive from a Walt Disney comic strip scared more than one middie; so I took the precaution of checking up on answers to his most frequently asked questions.  And apparently for good reason.  One boy, acting in the capacity of navigator, couldn't give 'the old man' (as all Captains are referred to by their men) the expected time of arrival in the target area; consequently he drew the assignment of finding the rate of each of the 70 crew members aboard...."

-- Letter from my father, Notre Dame, Ind., to his family, Bloomington, Kans., September 18, 1944.

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