Destroyer Escort USS Dealey DE-1006

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Peter Gutterman said:
My Dad served aboard one of these ships, the USS "Eisner" in the North Atlantic, winter of 1944. I'm not sure if she was of the same class. She was named for a Marine killed at Guadalcanal and completed in a matter of months. ( I looked her up at the Naval Academy)Dad said she was exactly one and one half wave lengths long. So when she was sitting on top of one wave crest, the next would come crashing down on the bow. He also said he was seasick the whole cruise. They were testing a sonic detonating device for depth charges that my dad, a physicist, helped design. It proved very effective and they mortally damaged a U-Boat that was forced to surface and was abandoned. The Eisner crew fished most of the U-Boat's surviving crew out of the drink. My Dad said they were mostly kids, some no more than fifteen years of age. At this time in the war most of the experienced U-Boat crews were all dead. He also said that her skipper's hair turned gray overnight.
Being the only one aboard who could speak German (something I never heard him do, nor would he purchase a German or a Ford automobile, as a non observant but unapologetic Jew), he was tasked with interrogating the German U-Boat crew.
I especially like the diorama presentation. Very well executed and dramatic!


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Peter, we have similar stories, my father spoke Yiddish, Russian, and a few Polish phrases. His mother from Konotop, Ukraine spoke 8 languages. Both would almost never speak anything but English when we were around. My father did have moments when he’d utter some Yiddish but never Russian. In 1974 I bought a BMW 2002 and my father went apoplectic! He would never buy any German product. While my grandmother was alive and living with us for a period of time… we kept kosher… when she went to live with an aunt… we went back to eating bacon and shrimp. Oy!
 
My grandmother, ditto after my grandfather died of a second heart attack in'52. We had her for seven years. Then cancer got her. She was thoroughly American, and assimilated like the rest of us, but the old world spirit was there.
 
Peter Gutterman said:
Thanks! And I am very proud of his many achievements, which include an Academy award in1959 for best scientific achievement for the design of an ultrasonic motion picture film cleaner, which could process a three reel feature film in 15 minutes and be operated by a sixth grader, without ever actually touching the emulsion on the film or leaving a scratch. A process which heretofore took hours by hand in a carbon tetrachloride bath and was carcinogenic at best, and at its worst caused liver failure. He accomplished more in his 68 years than I could ever have hoped to achieve even now that I've out lived him by nearly ten. There's a partial list of his many patents on line. All I know about the depth charge detonator is what is cited in the award. Oh yeah, and he was a really great dad!
Thank God that your dad survived that dreadful experience. I am not surprised that he did not speak of it. This was not uncommon with veterans ,who have been loathe to relive the horrors of war, or care to burden their children with such graphic descriptions of the depths of depravity to which we humans can sink in the name of patriotism, God, country and greed, since, I suppose, time immemorial. Thanks, also for identifying the class of the Eisner. Your work and obvious interest in history is evidence, once again, that model builders are artist- story tellers, of which your wonderful little model is highly exemplary and inspiring. It certainly stirred my own memories of my father's war experience. Evidence of your diorama's effectiveness as a wonderfully evocative work of art!Thumbsup

Pete
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Amen!
 
Peter Gutterman said:
I've worked there as a volunteer model shipwright working on museum restorations for the last14-15 years. I've been wanting to post a little virtual tour for awhile, but I haven't been able to go for a couple of months with my coronary arteries in the shop. Took a couple of tries, but a pair of really good mechanics finally got the right one unclogged. Carburetor functions much better with two. Thumbsup
I posted a thread of "Scenes from a restoration" It's on here somewhere, I think under build logs.
The Curator of Models gave me theThumbs-Up. He said: "You can take as many pictures as you like, except the ones on the wall". Visitors can visit the shop when visiting the museum. One of the long standing model shipwrights of some 20 years or more (a USNA grad'63; Marine Artillery; forward spotter in Viet Nam) Just LOVES to button hole visitors who wander in and give them the extended tour in granular detail.:D
The Museum's worth the trip for marine model lovers. Someone recently posted a virtual tour on the SOS forum. And the model shop is fun to see, accessible from the lower street level entrance. If you go in the front doors you'll miss it. Saturdays are best.
It will take awhile to curate and organize the photos. Maybe next week.

Pete
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Pete and Peter, my dad also served in the Navy in WWII on the USS Los Angeles (CA-135) a Baltimore class heavy cruiser. Magic Mike
 
My grandfather kept a photo of a warship on his wall, but I was too little to ever ask him about it. Still, I remember the photo and have always wondered what ship it was. A few weeks ago I was doing some family tree research and found his USN service record, and learned he served on USS South Carolina BB-26 in 1917-18. I'm happy to know something about the ship. From Wikipedia:

1920px-Uss_south_carolina_bb_(cropped).jpg
 
I'm constantly amazed by what Wikipedia has to offer. The class and history of my Dad's little DE, the "Eisner", Canon class, named for a member of the crew of the " San Francisco" heavy cruiser, defending Guadalcanal in 1942, killed in a ferocious sea battle.
Thanks for sharing this with us! I'll see what info I can glean from the USNA museum about her, next time I go.
I think my Dad's service records got burned up in a fire in St. Louis (?) Post War Anybody with better info let me know.
 
In mid sixties I visited many U.S. Navy vessels in the port of Rotterdam. Carriers like the Essex, Wasp and Randolp but also DE John Willis and DD Rich.
Those were the days that the sailors went on liberty in their blues. I loved their uniforms and I wanted to join the US Navy !
That never happened because of the Vietnam war.
I remember they played music of Victory at Sea on the hangar deck of Randolph.
Still a USN buff after so many years !
 
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