THE NEGRO SAILOR

[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh sure is this old a meal Frank Robinson Oh is he in no thanks the boss a lot mr. Valda this is Frank Roberts I'd like to see you I think I have a great idea for a new column yes sir I'll be in right away you mean our Bill Johnson downstairs you make a good soldier soldier he wants to get in the Navy then he'll make a good sailor come in sit down thank you what's this great idea you know the servicemen's nose column I've been doing once a week yes I think this new idea will be better because it has a different slant a different slant what do you mean sports are pretty close to your heart aren't they mr. Wellman yes you know that what strikes you most about them I mean what's the one thing that most sports have in common I think any school boy could answer that one team would exactly teamwork teamwork in the complete democracy of it and the fact that a man is measured only by his ability and skill yes that's right now you've seen some great white teams and some great colored teams and some with both whites and Negroes as teammates yes I heard it well I want to write a column about a great team like that look I have tickets for something interesting this afternoon come on with me I'll show you what I mean better than I can tell you I'd like to Frank but I'm too busy mr. Weldon you're not that busy this is important well if you think it's important I suppose that could come in mr. Walden I got my induction papers so they're finally arrived we'll certainly miss you around here bill thank you if you don't mind I'd like a couple of days off there's some things I'd like to do for Mom before I leave take as many days you want thank you just a minute bill could you spare me a couple of hours I don't know I think you can help me sell something mr. Walden and I are going to a spot where three years better company than two I'd like you to be the third where's that secret tell you to a club [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] yes and a great team that's teamwork in action different kinds of men fighting together for one goal but I'm thinking of a much greater team one that's playing in the most important game of all that team is the United States Navy that's the team I hope to get on and if you make it bill you'll be right in there along with Bob and Olli Tony Pedro and Lee and Joe all of them fighting together now that's the kind of teamwork that I'd like to make the backbone of my new college that is an idea let's call it on the Navy team bill made the Navy team all right I got the column started right after that day of the game material came from many sources but Bill Johnson was and still is my best correspondent I wanted to see things through his eyes I wanted the column to be a sort of case history of what actually happened to bill his first letter came shortly after he arrived at boot camp he found that it wasn't easy when they take all your clothes away everything but your toothbrush and shipped them home and push you along in an assembly line and check you for everything under the Sun it wasn't easy for bill or for the thousands before him of other thousands of all races and creeds who will come after him and this isn't easy island ouch two down and seven to go he found shopping quite easy in the Navy in the old days it used to take him longer to pick a new suit it was hard to make up his mind whether you wanted the brown suit with the small check are the gray suit with the stripes but bill doesn't have to worry about that now here everything comes in standard colors and patterns blues with white stripes and whites with blue stripes and the salesman behind this counter won't take no for an answer probably never again in his life we'll bill receive nine suits of clothing and everything that goes with them in 20 minutes all right your members of a new company company 510 and brother look Sonny Company five tell us about the finest collection of knuckle has ever hit any boot camp you're here for this one and I'm here to see that you get it if you step out of line you'll think this building fell on you personally pay attention and obey orders first you shave and shower every day you keep your clothes washed and clean and rolled and your bunks made up and your bike is folded properly I'll show you how to do all that now get on the ball and stay on it company 510 got on the ball but had a little difficulty staying on it close Auto drill isn't mastered in the day whoop the man said to the rear shus out of line [Music] who's wrong those roles [Music] you've better learn to tie a square knot sailor most of these are grannies I'll see that he does sir what's an ensign well you are the flag both of you are it means a commissioned officer it also means a flag sir bill never worked so hard in his life to bed at 9:00 and up at 5:00 and every minute of the day on the go [Music] he soon found that the training for this team is tough it's got to be the game is too important to lose [Music] gradually company 510 got squared away and their chief stop calling them knuckleheads they begin to act Navy thanked Navy and look Navy [Music] [Applause] it wasn't all tough there was ship service with the biggest malts in the world for a time are a big hunk of cake in three scoops of ice cream for 15 cents and Norris you've never heard noise - you've been on a ship service [Music] there was ping-pong and the happy hour which wasn't so happy for some guys [Applause] and there was some work that wasn't so tough it didn't quite tie in with cargo nets and physical fitness in Marlinspike seamanship but there it was and who was built to refuse an invitation to the dance another thing bill found out was that the Navy has rules and Navy rules must not be broken furthermore these rules apply to everybody break the rules and land in the bridge that's Navy discipline and discipline is the foundation of team bill didn't exactly like swabbing dicks but he had company Bob the slob index - and Pedro had time to think it over while Olli got a course in sleeping and lead never forgot his painting lesson after that trip to the brig bill got wise he found by reading the articles for the government of the United States Navy that being a member of the Navy team means certain real responsibilities not only for him but for all the rest from the recruits right on up to the very top and he found out something else something that opened his eyes to real teamwork something about Stuart's mates and their place on the team Doris Miller stewards mate first class u.s. n for his distinguished devotion to duty extraordinary courage and disregard for his personal safety during the attack on Pearl Harbor December 7 1941 the Navy Cross [Music] Albert H Oliver stewards made first-class USN for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving aboard a United States warship during a raid upon that vessel by approximately 25 Japanese torpedo planes in the vicinity of the solomon islands on june 30th 1942 the Silver Star medal William Pinckney cooked third-class USN for extraordinary heroism while serving aboard the USS Enterprise during the engagement with enemy Japanese naval forces near the Santa Cruz islands on October 26 1942 the Navy Cross Leonard Roy Hartmann stewards made first-class USN for extraordinary heroism while serving aboard the USS San Francisco during action against enemy Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands area on November 12th and 13th 1942 the navy cross a fighting ship named for a fighting man and there are hundreds of others like this lad on the Franklin who had a job to do and he did it and I thought serious mates were just waiters well Johnson you might call them that but they're fighting men too between battles their work is rather dull if somebody has to be a waiter for a coup or storekeeper everybody can be captain on his ship but when you get the ship to where she's ready for the job she was built for when you're there in battle what you did before doesn't count anymore what matters now is what you do in battle like your ship that's your main job fighting you believe me when it comes to fighting the Stuart's made two right in there with the rest of them that's real teamwork sir you bet it is and because their primary job is fighting Stuart's mates instruction includes standard courses an airplane and ship recognition ship compartment ation and gunnery [Music] I'm glad you told me all that sir it makes me proud just to be anywhere on the team and Johnson don't ever forget this about Stewart's maids they may pour soup between battles but in battle they pour lead with the best of them and so company 5:10 now US Navy fighting men pass us a review for the last time bills recruit days are almost over those few crowded tough weeks have been lived through he and his buddies have learned the basic rules of the game now some will go direct to general service duty while others will specialize in enter service schools company 510 will be scattered far and wide as the men continue their various careers each to take a special position on the team for the big players ahead bill was selected for quartermaster training at the US Naval Training School Hampton Virginia he felt pretty good about Hampton because training for quartermaster was a step up on the team here the trainees a mustard in check then and receive a brief outline of the particular rules that happened this chance was something bill had hoped for but you don't graduate just for the hoping you have to earn it [Music] until now our boy was just something floating around in the water but bill soon learned that there were quite a few different types of boys each with a different purpose he had to become as familiar with them as with his own name but that was only a small part of it among other things they learned how to make compass deviation compensations how to navigate but dead reckoning [Music] and how to plot a course what a mercurial barometer is how to set it how to take readings for the barometer is the sailors watchdog they'll also learned how to use the engine-room Telegraph [Music] on this training ship bill and his shipmates put to actual use what they have learned in classes you're a little left running easy you know just to touch right rudder that's it easier that's fine so while bill is on his way to becoming a quartermaster other bills Tony's Bob's and Pedro's on their way to becoming radio men Aviation metalsmiths aviation machinist links donna's mates and other specialists and getting ready to take their places controlling signaling [Music] - we beat [Music] along with a thousand and one other jobs that go to make up the Navy team [Applause] [Music] this photographers mate who wears the Purple Heart has flown many missions over enemy territory in the Pacific doing map work under hazardous conditions [Music] but completed these mosaic maps furnished one of the most essential factors in battle planning this skipper commands a namely rll and this chaplain counsels and advises the boys on many subjects while these waves have released men for duty and combat areas the next time I heard from bill you wrote me that he had been ordered to duty aboard a destroyer escort man by a predominantly Negro crew right 10 degrees rudder right 10 degrees rudder daddies you go steady as you go sir [Music] come right to 0-8 4 right to 0-8 for sir [Music] Bill's on the first team now and ready to go into the game along with these boys on the number three gun [Music] and with lions and Johnson lookouts and with our snow bosons made first who is right on the job and will the dewfall signalmen first who can talk across the water with lights and with the radar gang who can smell trouble a long ways off and with radium and Coleman and Breanna electricians made bales chief motor machinist mate Smith and sound man Thompson who can listen and tell you whether it's a shark or a sub are just a lonely mermaid these are more on the same team of bill [Music] it may be a battle or it may be only practice you never can tell all engines ahead flank is ahead flank sir [Music] all engines ahead asset racer come right one one zero five two one one zero [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] bill and the boys on the de are throwing up a lot of stuff out there but lack the quarterback who kicks the gold [Applause] someone has to pass them the ball the Navy would only be a collection of harmless ships if it were not for the men who furnished the guns of our fleets their tremendous smashing power every ship at sea every plane in the air depends on the men of the Ordnance battalions these are the wrappings for the prescriptions about to be filled by the doctors of dynamite who mixed the first ingredients yes doctors of dynamite is a good name for them [Music] and their prescriptions come in all sizes and shapes men will do this make it possible to do this [Music] the teammates on some cruiser will welcome these 8-inch projectiles and speed them on their way while the 14 and 16 inch shells are destined for some battleship to help knock off the enemy yes every sailor plays a final position to make this team the greatest Navy in the world this is the result of teamwork here moving in for the payoff and the biggest game of all battle and invasion here on these ships on the a pas on the 80s on the AKS on the AOS and all the other great auxilary ships of the fleet here serve the Negro sailors like the bill Johnson's here serve Negro League Christians mates radio men stewards mates quartermasters yeoman and all the other ratings required to mend these ships that helped to make up the great team [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] after the landing come the Seabees and their planning Phil Johnston's in the Seabees building roads behind the Jets flattening out the jungle fighting with bulldozers and tools and putting down air strips in a hurry [Music] often they have to take time out to dodge death [Music] and descended back so the bill Johnson's made all the Navy teams they were there at the end of the first half when these German u-boats surrendered in the Atlantic and they were there at the finish in the Pacific yes they made all the Navy teams this one and this one too throughout our history Americans of all races and origins have fought side-by-side in defense of their country since the first battle of the Revolution when our country was born through more than 160 years through all our Wars colored Americans lacked the bill Johnson's of today have fought and died to bring victory to our eyes [Music] [Applause] [Music]