The Reminiscences of Elda Elwood Logue (1921-2003)

The Great Depression of the 1930s created a great many hardships, as Logue describes in his story of growing up in California and Kansas. The Navy proved to be a salvation. He enlisted in 1940, attended boot camp at Great Lakes, Illinois, and then machinist’s mate school at the Ford Motor Company plant in Dearborn, Michigan. The bulk of the transcript deals with his experiences as an electrician’s mate on board the battleship New York (BB-34) throughout World War II. He describes the ship’s convoy escort roles, participation in operations in Europe, shore bombardment as the Pacific campaign wound down, and eventual return to the United States for Navy Day in New York City in October 1945. Logue remained on board after the war as the crew dropped dramatically in size during postwar demobilization. Throughout his discussion of service in the New York, Logue provides a great many descriptions of what shipboard life was like for enlisted men. Includes are interactions with fellow crew members and recollections of various liberty ports the battleship visited. He wound up his service in the ship when she was a target for the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in July 1946. He had brief service in two other ships before returning to Kansas to resume life as a civilian.