NWSA Historian

CDR Don Cruse, USN RET

NWSA HISTORIAN’S REPORT FOR 2004-2005

Also see: NWSA HISTORIAN’S REPORT FOR 2005-2006
Also see: OCEAN WEATHER SHIPS 1940-1980
Also See: LCDR ROBERT F. FREEMAN, USN (Ret), NWSA President 1981-1982
Also See: NWSA Historian COMMENTS May 2007
Also See: NWSA Historian COMMENTS August 2007

Source: Aerograph, February, 2009

WEATHER SHIP DUTY

This is another in our series illustrating the versatilities of Aerographers and Mates.  Very few people recognize the wide variety of duties that we were assigned.  Duty in weather ships was frequently onerous, even miserable on locations situated in northerly latitudes.  Some Aerogs loved the duty and some detested it.  And some barely survived.

The earliest weather ship duty involving Aerographers that I have heard of was begun right after Pearl Harbor was attacked, and that was in the North Atlantic .  Single Aerographers were detailed to several U.S. Coast Guard converted fishing trawlers based in Greenland .  Surface and pibal observations were made and transmitted to shore stations, hopefully reaching the Navy Weather Centrals then being established.

Frank Ivie (with whiskers) states that there was a similar team of Aerographers operating out of Iceland .  Attached is a photo of the Greenland Aerographers, the majority fresh from Primary Aerographer School on NAS Lakehurst.  Not pictured is Bob Griffin.

Since there was no way to create fresh water in those trawlers, the normal underway period was fifteen days.  The Aerographer on board joined the other twenty crewmen, carrying out various deck force duties such as helmsman.

Following the loss of USS YORKTOWN (CV-5), my Lakehurst classmate Aerog2c Bob Martin was reassigned to Suva , Fiji , and then to Navy Weather Central San Francisco for duty.  We met there in January, 1943.  Martin finagled a billet in the converted sailing yacht, ZACA out of Treasure Island on San Francisco Bay .  ZACA had been donated to the Navy and was assigned Bird Dog duty halfway to Honolulu , where she would spend a month on station.  Martin took surface and pibal observations and enjoyed the small boating  experience. 

As the war continued there were more and more Bird Dog stations established, some to provide flight safety for the increasing numbers of ferry flights of new military aircraft to Europe and the Soviet Union .  For more reliable weather data the Allies created a better network of weather ships in both the North Pacific and the North Atlantic .  At first these were referred to as “Guard Ships.”  Responsibilities and costs were shared with our Allies such as Canada and Great Britain .  Many Aerographers recall their northwest Pacific Ocean service in small weather ships out of Pearl Harbor classified as PCE.  To man the Coast Guard cutters in the Atlantic, which operated out of Boston , the U.S. Weather Bureau hired additional observers.  Three Navy AVP vessels were loaned to the Coast Guard to augment their available cutters.

The wartime ocean weather ships were identified first by numerals, then by letters according to the geographical point to which assigned.  Atlantic ships used letters A through H (U.S.) and I, J, K (European Allies).  Pacific ships used L-P.  Station B in the Atlantic was operated jointly by the U.S. and Canada .  But as users demanded more reliable weather forecasts over the oceans, ocean stations ultimately increased to a maximum of 22 Atlantic and 24 Pacific.  The original letter identifiers had to be changed to accommodate the increasing numbers of stations.  Military ferry flight routes to the European Theater shifted southward to Brazil-Africa.

As part of the war in the Aleutians , World War I four-pipe destroyers were pressed into service as small seaplane tenders.  Bill Burris related details of his Guard Ship assignments in these old buckets while he was assigned to Fleet Air Wing FOUR Aerology on Attu .  The ships were positioned on a station 300 miles southwest of Attu, which was the mid-point for Navy bombing missions to the Kuril Islands .  Bill was creative enough to experiment with the ship’s radar, and he claimed the first RAWIN sounding at sea was made by him in 1945.  His claim was never recognized.

An amazing number of Aerographers and Aerographer’s Mates have served in weather ships over many years.  When jet aircraft replaced the older aircraft types that reduced operational requirements for the Bird Dog stations.  Nowadays there are hundreds of fixed and floating ocean buoys providing all types of data over the seas.                  

By NWSA Historian Don Cruse

Don Cruse, Potomac Regional Chapter

Of the many activities on our Historian’s desk, there is one we have not publicized via this annual reporting medium. Since it consumes a significant proportion of my time, you deserve to learn more about it. I refer to the refurbishment of various shipboard Aerological Offices located in museum ships, and the involvement of NWSA.

If we were to begin a round-robin journey from New England clockwise around the coastal United States, focusing on the numerous large museum ships with Aerological Offices, we would begin with USS MASSACHUSETTS (BB-59) in Fall River, MA. To my knowledge, there is no effort underway to refurbish the space in that ship which functioned as the Aerological Office when a flag unit was embarked. The same applies to the USS INTREPID (CV-11) Air & Space Museum. INTREPID is moored in New York City, her location on the Hudson River is convenient, and she is extremely popular with tourists.

Not far away are USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) and USS WISCONSIN (BB-64). One is moored on the Delaware River in Camden NJ and the other is alongside the Nautilus Museum in Norfolk VA. So far as I know, there is no effort being made to open the Aerological Offices in these vessels to the public. There is, however, some budding interest within the METOC community in Norfolk. We hope this interest continues to bloom.

USS YORKTOWN (CV-10) is ballasted down into the mud of the Cooper River as part of the Patriot’s Point Museum in Mount Pleasant SC. That location is across the river from Charleston, a major tourist attraction if there ever was one. But in YORKTOWN the public does not have access to the Aerological Office. The same comment can be made about the USS ALABAMA (BB-60), which is part of a military museum layout in Mobile AL. After lying in the Mississippi River across from New Orleans for several years, USS CABOT (CVL-28) has gone to the ship breakers. USS ORISKANY (CV-34) is moored in Pensacola on a commercial pier while awaiting a tow out to sea where she will be scuttled to form a deepwater reef.

USS LEXINGTON (CV-16) has been made accessible to the public in Corpus Christi TX but there is thus far no effort to open the Aerological Office to the public. We find that the opposite is true, fortunately, with USS MIDWAY (CV-41), now that she has found her place alongside Navy Pier in San Diego. There is an excellent prospect for MIDWAY’s Aerological Office (undoubtedly referred in the new NAVY as “METRO”) to be refurbished. Working parties can take a lesson from the excellent job which was done in USS HORNET (CV-12), where the public is welcomed to a smart, clean working space. One drawback which impacts the HORNET Museum is its relatively inaccessible location among the reserve fleet vessels at former Naval Air Station Alameda. Members of NWSA were able to assist significantly with the job in HORNET by providing books and weather charts.

You may ask, “What about USS IOWA (BB-61), and what has become of her?” Nothing has so far come of the efforts centered in San Francisco to moor IOWA on the waterfront where the Bethlehem Steel shipyard used to be. Hence, IOWA remains moored in Suisun Bay along with other vessels in reserve. With her sister ship, there is a bright spot in this narrative. USS MISSOURI (BB-63), moored on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor HI, has an active METOC team from NPMOC/JTWC PEARL at work refurbishing the Aerological Office. Again, NWSA has been providing encouragement as well as historical artifacts.