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U. S. S. NORTH CAROLINA BATTLESHIP COLLECTIONJerry S. Gonzales Interview

June. 25, 1975

[Jerry S. Gonzales]I am Jerry S. Gonzales and I am from Houston, Texas. I joined theNavy on April 18, 1942, right after Pearl Harbor. As soon as my brothergot out of the hospital, I joined it right away. I went to boot camp inSan Diego, California. From there I was assigned and commissioned to theminesweeper U. S. S. Conflict at Portland, Oregon. I was a plank ownerat the time on that. We had a shake down cruise and immediately wentover and took the first floating dry dock to the Solomon Islands, theARD-5. Then we got the fleet assigned to the New Hebrides Islands justsouth of the Guadalcanal. We got off that ship because men were criticalin the South Pacific, and they would try to get as many men as they couldoff every ship. I got off the minesweeper Conflict and spent six monthsin the New Hebrides Islands. When you are young you want to see action.So I asked for a battleship, and after six months in the New Hebrides I wentto New Caledonia and I was assigned to the battleship North Carolinawhich was the newest. I was a right proud man when they told me that.

[Interviewer]Do you remember which day you were assigned?

[Jerry S. Gonzales]It was approximately July. I was assigned around June of 1943, butat the time I went to New Caledonia she was out. In the meantime I heardshe was torpedoed and was in Pearl Harbor. So I waited approximatelytwo months in New Caledonia, Rs 131 Receiving Ship. When the NorthCarolina came up alongside I was a proud man. Incidentally, when I gotaboard the North Carolina , I went aboard with a new draft just in fromthe states. I was the only one that had a sun helmet, dress and khaki

pants, big old clodhopper shoes, and needed a haircut. Among all theclean-shaven crew coming aboard the ship, I was the only one who stoodout. Right away I caught a new name. Someone yelled, "Hey look, JungleJim is coming aboard." I was assigned to A division at the beginning. Iwas a machinist mate and I was in the room with Mr. Bar and Mr. Gerber.To me this is a joke, I'm not being radical or nothing, This reallyhappened. When I first got into the Navy with a bunch of yankees, myname was Gonzales,.an old Spanish name from Texas and all the yankeescalled me Gonzeles, Gonzeles. So after a few months time I answered tothe name Gonzeles. On the minesweeper a new division officer took over;he was from Louisiana; he was a Frenchman; he called me Gonzoleus,Gonzoleus. When I went on board the North Carolina , I answered toMr. Bar and Mr. Gerber and Mr. Gerber says, "What is you name?" I can'tremember whether I said Gonzeles or Gonzoleus. But he was from Arizonaand when I said Gonzoleug he said,"Your name is Gonzales. Say Gonzales."So I said, "Gonzales,'' and he answered in Spanish "hablas Espanole?" AndI said "Si" So he said, "Don't you ever let me hear you talking thatMexican. You are an American on an American ship." I said, "Yes Sir,Yes Sir.'' Now I laugh about it, but at the time I was probably confused.Now I'm just proud of it, proud of my heritage too because we are allAmericans.

[Interviewer]Was Mr. Gerber?

[Jerry S. Gonzales]My division officer.

[Interviewer]Your division officer

[Jerry S. Gonzales]Yes. He and I, he liked me after that, he just told me that to putme straight to begin with. In the old Navy we obeyed the rules and wewere proud of it. When I was assigned to after diesel generator room,

and things I recall back there; first off, everyone had to serve threemonths mess cooking which is the same thing as KP in the army. No mat-ter where I went, I had to get the three months over with. I got themess~cook duty off and I was assigned to the after diesel generator room.The people I would like to remember, who stand out, Pat Pasqualivella ,they called him Pat Vella, from Rockport, Illinois; Dragma from NewOrleans, and Eagleburger from Utah. I remember when I met Eagleburger,he kept saying "I'm not a Mormon, I'm from Utah but I'm not a Mormon."He was Paul Richard Eagleburger. Incidentally we wrote each other andlately he is a detective in Arizona. I believe it is Farmington, NewMexico or Mesa, Arizona, one of the two places. Patrick Bondaclairberryfrom L.A. I remember him well.

I made a wooden ship inside of a bottle. Incidentally I have one ofthem at home and I'm going to send it over here one of these days. Thefirst one I made, I constructed it and put it in the bottle and put waxto keep it in place. I got a little wax and no one has ever, ever knownthis, and this is the first time that I'm going to put it in the record.If it had happened thirty years ago, I would have been shot in the fan-tail. But once I put that wax in a bottle and I got some on the sail.After that it didn't look good so I figured I'd put it all on the sailto make it look even. I had a cold iron watch, which meant that every-body on the forward diesel generator didn't have any duty. We'd juststand by. I was a machinist mate then, and I had a fireman and he wentout somewhere by coincidence. I put the bottle on the hot plate tomelt the wax, and it clicked, and the whole thing set on fire. I gota blanket and smothered that and the fireman came back there and said"what has happened?" "Oh nothing." Incidentally the fireman is justlike a deck four seaman on the lower rate, machinist mate. No one

ever knew that, and I thought about it. There I was in a_ battleship inthe middle of the war zone with aviation gasoline above us and turretthree gun powder in the back and I would have gotten a general courtmartial and been shot.

[Interviewer]Were you on board when the ship was torpedoed?

[Jerry S. Gonzales]No sir. I came on board that's why You see I was at New Caledoniahere waiting for it and it got torpedoed.. After that we were in everybattle of the Pacific. We bombarded Majuro, which everybody knows wasthe first battleship bombardment of Jap territory, the Gilbert Islandsand the Marshall Islands, Tarawa, Saipan, Peleliu, Yap, and all the wayto Tokyo Bay,

[Interviewer]Your battlestation was aft?

[Jerry S. Gonzales]Number forty millimetre, I was the gun fast.... Number forty milli-metere on the fantail, on the port side, the last one.

[Interviewer]Do you recall anything about any of the air action?

[Jerry S. Gonzales]At one time I was passing ammunition in a little cubby hole andthey told me, they said a Jap plane just barely missed us. He said ifhad been just a few more inches, we would have been dead because itwould have blown the whole fantail off. They said they don't know why.Whether it was a smokescreen or fall but something. He said the Jap planecame all of a sudden. They could see his face real good and he lookedlike he was scared and he looked down and they looked up and they didn'tshoot at him. Another time on my forty millimetre we had to have generalquarters every morning and every evening at sundown. One time I re-member, me and another guy, he said "What kind of plane is that?" Itold him "F4 stupid." He said " that ain't no F4. That ain't no F4,that's a 6..." All of a sudden the ships started opening up and it wastwo Jap planes coming in. They dropped two bombs on the carrier and

barely missed it.

[Interviewer]You thought it was an American plane?

[Jerry S. Gonzales]That's right. And another time there, we had sunk this freighter.It was in a harbor, I can't remember which it was. They said there isa ship in the harbor, so they were firing at ease and we were watchingthem bombard. I can remember you could see the flashes and you couldsee the three or six shells of ours go real slow like orange going fur-ther and further. Then I noticed three balls getting bigger and biggerin the same spot, getting bigger and bigger; and then there was anotherthree balls coming getting bigger and bigger. Then all of a sudden, itcame over the speaker,"'take cover, take cover. They are firing, they arefiring back." And I saw some splashes way off. They couldn't reach us.But man they opened up with everything. It was sunk in, to me it lookedlike thirty minutes flat. They sunk it and they also sunk a sanpanwhich is a little smaller than a shrimp boat. We all laughed about itbecause we wanted credit for two ships.

[Interviewer]And were you in the forty millimetre at that time?

[Jerry S. Gonzales]That is right. One thing I could always remember, we were way downbelow and the sound effects to us were a little different because I couldalways tell when the Jap planes were coming. First of all you heard thefive inch go boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. After awhile you hear theforty millimetre cut in boom-boom, boom-boom, beside the boom, boon,boom. Then you hear the trill, trill, trill and then they are going tobe right overhead and all of sudden it is quiet.. Then about ten or fif-teen minutes later all of it will start again, boom, boom, boom; then yougot that boom-boom, boom-boom; trill, trill, trill all of a sudden it isquiet again. That is the way the battle went.

[That's how it sounded below deck?]

[Jerry S. Gonzales]Below deck, yes, below deck. They would start firing five milesaway, about five miles away. Then they would get closer and they wouldopen the smaller guns. As soon as owe heard the trill, trill, man weget up there and pray.

[Interviewer]Did they require quiet and silence in there, were you talking?

[Jerry S. Gonzales]That's right. I remember the Siapan turkey shoot, I get nervouswhen I think about it. The first time I ever threw up; from then on Inever got nervous. Something happened. I was between the diesel engineroom and I had the sound power telephone. All day long the bogey keptcoming in there 90 miles and bogey coming in at 80 miles. They wouldget closer and closer; and then they would go away and come back and goaway and come back; and I remember the boogies coming in in all directions,and I remember I felt real faint; and I wanted to vomit and I wanted togo to the dressing room and just vomit. I was shaky. And I felt realweak, I never had fainted in my life and I felt like I was going tofaint. But from then on, I don't know why, but I always think about that.That's when you are really scared, and you are prepared to die.

[Interviewer]It was your first time?

[Jerry S. Gonzales]No, it was just over and over and over. There was just so much ofit. I remember that real well.

[Interviewer]Do you remember anything else unusual that happened to you on lib-erty or anything of this sort?

[Jerry S. Gonzales]One time I remember , in a way I laugh about it now. I was comingfrom mess cook duty and had to bring the laundry back. One of the mainreasons I went up for rate was to keep from getting laundry duty.Right somewhere close to forward diesel, I fell with a big old bagof laundry. I slide all the way down and fell straddled one hand bar.

It was on a Friday, and I remember they drug me off. I had a big swelledup bruise on my left leg. I went up there and they drug me to sick bay.Someone said "this man just fell off a ladder." I don't want to use noprofane language but they said, you get that SOB out of here. This isa field day and we got captain's inspection tomorrow. Bring him backMonday," If you recall this was war time conditions and up there a manwas just another man. Now we laugh about little things like that. Afterall, I lived, so I don't think it was too bad.

In 1942, everything was spam, spam, spam for breakfast, dinner andsupper with eggs. Then they had powdered eggs and dehydrated spuds.Then they got a little bit better and a little bit better for a while.Now that I'm old and think about it, they had the finest food ~but we wereyoung and criticized the cook and everybody else. There was a chiefsteward, his name was Jackson and for awhile he started giving nothingbut bologna. I remember everybody making their "Oh horse collar Jackson."Somebody starts calling the captain, everybody, and they are going tothrow him overboard. If I recall right they had an orderly with himfor awhile I believe and followed him around for a few weeks and theyfinally changed the menu. Actually it was just a rough time for every-one. But we were just young kids and I remember everybody talking aboutit and then everybody going to the captain. Everybody went around andand they said if anyone gives the name of who it was, they would get thirtydays leave when he gets in. Nobody knew who it was. I remember that a-bout the food, but it was just rough in those days. See, I came on boardaround June or July 1943 and I stayed all the way until the war was ended.I had, soon as the war was ended, I got off. Everybody west of the Miss-issippi had to get off at Pearl Harbor. I begged to stay with the ship,but the only way I could stay was to sign on for four years.

[Interviewer]You didn't want to do that?

[Jerry S. Gonzales]No, I didn't want to do that. I caught a BE to St. Pedro.

We changed captains ever so often, I can't remember all the namesbut one captain and I believe it was Captain Dunlop. I remember theyhad general quarters and I was laying on my bunk way down in the cat-a-combs down in the third deck. I remember they said, "set conditionone on the A battery, set condition one on the A batteries." And thenhe said "expedite setting condition one on the A battery." I had neverheard of that word, neither had a whole bunch of guys. We got confusedand I remember some of them went back to the bunks. We didn't knowwhat expedite meant. Suddenly we heard that boom, boom, boom. Then itcame over the speaker, "Hurry, hurry, put in condition one A battery,hurry.'' I always remember what that word "expedite" means.

[Interviewer]He was a new captain right?

[Jerry S. Gonzales]He had just come on. I'll always remember that, "expedite." Wenever did hear that word anymore.

I spent some time on after steering. That's another thing at thetime, I guess we were all the same way. We were young and the Navy wasreal short of men and they just made them as brave as quick as theycould. I remember when they told me I was going to be in after steeringand they also had that for a watch, They said "look, you have a red but-ton and a bush and after steering in case you get disabled up forward youcan steer the ship from aft you got one starboard and one port. If youare disabled from up forward and they get a hit on that side then youcan steer from this side, so what you do then is you open this valveand close this valve and open the other up and push this button." Theytold me twice and I started asking. They said "are you a machinist?"I said "Yes", and they just told me that I should know that. I was

ashamed to ask and I thought every time I would go down there I'd bescared and there would always be a quartermaster, a electrician and me.There would always be a different one. We never let the other check.I often wondered now, I'm an electrician I've been to engineering andindustrial engineering studies, now all I know is the hot rod of the unit.What you do is turn off one valve and just open it but at the time I didn'tknow and I always wondered. Should I push this button or that one orshould I open that valve or that one. I used to say that to myself overand over and over. Since then I joined a reserve in '55 and stayedeight more years; and now in the new Navy they have little old pamphletstelling you where everything is, how to do it and all that.

[Interviewer]You don't have to worry about anything.

[Jerry S. Gonzales]No, but in the old Navy, man you learn the hard way.

Let me tell you when I got off in San Pedro, another man from Texas,his name was Alex Sander, was from Corpus and got off with me. I thenwent to Houston and he spent two days with me in Houston. I never haveheard from him since but every now and then there is a dog tag with hisname and address on it. Alex Sande one of these days I might send itover here to the museum and maybe he might pick it up himself.