WWII Mountain Memories:
Home Front to the Frontline
Testimonies of WWII Veterans and Civilians from Western North Carolina

Supply Clerk, US Navy

Pacific Theatre

In 1935 Walter Ashe was in art school in Los Angeles when a friend suggested that they join the Navy “for adventure”. Mr. Ashe thought this was a good idea since he had dreamed of visiting China. They went to the recruiting office to sign up and Mr. Ashe was accepted but his friend was not!

He then traveled to San Diego for training and after training was assigned to the battleship Pennsylvania, where he was a Seaman low rate. He was part of the deck force and his main job was cleaning the large anti-torpedo blister that ran the length of the side of the ship. He was on the Pennsylvania for one and half years, during that entire time the ship was stationed with other battleships on the West Coast. Later on the ships were moved to Pearl Harbor.

He had joined the Navy to see China and after experiencing some obstacles in getting a transfer he asked his sister to have a word with the ships Executive officer (second in command). She was able to persuade him to transfer Mr. Ashe and in 1936 he was sent to China.

He traveled to China on board the transport Henderson, sailing by way of Guam and the Philippines. While in Manila, Mr. Ashe had a very frightening experience when he and some shipmates were caught in a suburb of Manila by some Filipino thugs. He thought they were going to be robbed or worse until a man in a white Palm Beach suit appeared with a pistol. He was a Filipino secret service agent who happened to be in the area and intervened to save Mr. Ashe and his companions

From Manila the Henderson took Mr. Ashe to Hong Kong and from there he took a steamer up the Pearl River to Canton to join his new ship. During the trip up the river Mr. Ashe marveled at the fact that he was actually in China at last! His new ship was the gunboat Asheville which Mr. Ashe describes as one of the best loved ships in China despite the fact that it was old and slow. The role of the Asheville was to patrol China’s extensive rivers and coastline to protect American lives and property.

When he arrived in China he had decided to become an Electrician’s Mate, unfortunately when he boarded the Asheville he was told he was assigned to the fire-room as a Fireman 2^nd Class. This ended his plan to become an Electrician’s Mate!

Mr. Ashe’s job in the fire-room was to clean the burners on the boiler. It was a very hot and dirty job. He also learned that there were lines that enlisted men could not cross when he tried to cool off next to a ventilation blower only to be told it was for petty officers!

Very soon Mr. Ashe moved to the Supply Department for what was supposed to be a temporary assignment. However he found that he enjoyed the work and when the time came to move to an Engine Room assignment he requested to stay in Supply.

In the Supply Department he managed the ships stores and found the position to be one of great responsibility since he was in charge of supplying the rest of the ship with needed items. He relished this role and, as he puts it, decided he had “found a home in the navy.”

During his two and half year tour on the Asheville Mr. Ashe sailed through China’s rivers and coastal area, he visited Tsingtao, Shanghai and Chefu among others. Shanghai being the favorite liberty call for the ship.

He was discharged from the navy after his service on the Asheville and returned to California to work at the Lockheed aircraft plant in Burbank. He missed the navy life terribly and in 1940 when the navy offered him a chance to return at the rank and pay grade he was when he left he re-enlisted.

His first assignment was on the battleship Mississippi as a Storekeeper 3^rd Class. Later, in 1941, he transferred to Brooklyn, New York to commission the new fast battleship North Carolina. He found the North Carolina to be a much more habitable ship that earlier ones. It was designed to have better living conditions than older ships. As an example the men had bunks instead of the hammocks they had on the old ships. The North Carolina was also faster, more heavily armed and armored than previous battleships like the Pennsylvania and the Mississippi. She represented what Mr. Ashe called the “new navy”.

When the war started with the attack on Pearl Harbor the North Carolina was still in New York getting ready for sea. In fact Mr. Ashe was at the Polo Grounds watching a football game when he found out about the attack. The North Carolina commissioned in January 1942 and set sail for the Pacific.

Upon arrival at Pearl Harbor, Mr. Ashe witnessed many sailors on shore cheering the ship as it entered the base. The navy had been hard it during the initial months of the war in the Pacific and saw the North Carolina as one of the first of new ships to reinforce them and subsequently defeat the Japanese. He recalled that the North Carolina was “a real morale boost” for the navy in the Pacific.

In August the North Carolina was the only battleship to take part in the Guadalcanal invasion. During this operation the North Carolina was part of a task force that also included the aircraft carrier Wasp. This force had been operating in the same are for repeated days and many on the North Carolina, including Mr. Ashe, felt they were vulnerable to a submarine ambush. In fact they were attacked by a Japanese submarine that fired a spread of five torpedoes at the force. Three of these struck the Wasp, while one struck the North Carolina and one the destroyer O’Brien. The North Carolina was not seriously damaged and returned to Pearl Harbor for repair. Unfortunately the Wasp was badly hit and sank. Mr. Ashe remembers coming up to the deck on the North Carolina and observing the Wasp on fire, “opened up like a furnace.” Mr. Ashe recalled that is was very unusual for all five of the torpedoes in the spread to hit.

The North Carolina was able to radio ahead to Pearl Harbor to advise the repair yard which parts needed to be replaced so that they could be fabricated for installation when the ship arrived. Consequently she was only in the repair yard for about two weeks. Later in the year when the vessel was a Noumea, New Caledonia she received a request for a supply clerk for a “new construction” in the United States. Mr. Ashe and six others in the supply department drew names out of a hat to see who would go. Mr. Ashe won and soon found himself in Quincy, Massachusetts commissioning the new aircraft carrier Wasp. This new aircraft carrier was built to replace the one that Mr. Ashe had seen sunk at Guadalcanal. It was part of a newly designed class that was the largest class in the world at the time. By the time he reached the new Wasp, Mr. Ashe had reached the rank of Chief Petty Officer. 

Mr. Ashe was on the Wasp for two years. During that time he was promoted to Pay Clerk, which was a warrant officer rank. During his tour on the Wasp saw a great deal of action. During a mission to bomb kamikaze bases in Kyushu the ship was attacked by a Japanese bomber. They had gone to action stations at 2:30am in expectation of an attack but none developed so the crew was released from action stations at 5:00am and many went to the galley for breakfast. Unfortunately unbeknownst to the crew a Japanese bomber had evaded the ships radar by attacking from directly overhead.  The attacker dropped one bomb that pierced the flight deck, the hanger deck and one other deck before exploding in the middle of the galley. 103 sailors were killed by that bomb and many more wounded. In fact everyman in the galley was killed or wounded. The ship ultimately returned to the United States for repair.

Upon return to the states Mr. Ashe was transferred from the Wasp to Baltimore to commission another ship. With the end of the war that ship was cancelled and he traveled to the Portland Oregon to commission another aircraft carrier, the Badoeng Strait. The Badoeng Strait was an escort carrier, a smaller design than the Wasp and built on the hull of a merchant ship.

After the he commissioned the Badoeng Strait he transferred to Philadelphia with his wife. She was experiencing health problems they wanted to move nearer to her family.

When asked about the dropping of the Atomic bombs that ended the war he related that it was an unexpected shock to him but that he felt it was necessary. He and the rest of fighting men wanted the war to end and if took dropping atomic bombs he was not opposed to it.

Later, during the Korean War, Mr. Ashe served on the heavy cruiser Rochester and still later on the aircraft carrier Coral Sea. After 30 years of service Mr. Ashe was compelled to retire and did so reluctantly.

After retirement he was a banker in Florida for a short while and took an art career, traveling the world and painting for nearly 20 years. He opened galleries in Florida and in Asheville in 1981. In 1983 he was instrumental in organizing a reunion of U.S.S. Asheville veterans in Asheville. The reunion was a great success and motivated Mr. Ashe to get involved in other navy and veterans organizations and led to his creation of a newsletter that focuses on navy veterans from the Pacific in the pre-World War II era.

Mr. Ashe recalled that he very much enjoyed his career in the navy and did want to leave. He had been promoted to Lieutenant and was one month from making Lieutenant Commander when he was forced to retire.

He did recall that during the war times were tough on sailors in that they were deployed for long periods of time at sea. He himself was at sea for an entire year in one stretch. The occurrence of hypertension was high among sailors because of the stress of being at sea. However the living conditions and food were good, especially when compared to the army and the navy provided entertainment for the sailors. He remembered Bob Crosby coming to play for the ships crews at Ulithi Atoll in the Pacific. The men were able to enjoy two cans of beer each while watching the performance!

The navy life was also tough on the families of navy personnel. His wife had to take responsibility for raising his family while he was at sea. He related that for a long time his son resented the navy life because Mr. Ashe was away so much of the time.

In the end though, Mr. Ashe was proud of his service in the navy and during the war. He stated that every young person should get a chance to travel abroad as he did with the navy, as this gives a person a good perspective at an impressionable age.

Return to Top         Oral History Collections      WWII Mountain Memories Home