A Sudden Turn for the Worse

They say that for every combat-weary hero who fought or died in World War II, there were nine other US servicemen who stood behind him, performing the chores of war. These men, too, were often taxed to their limits and just as uncomfortable. They, too, missed their families and were hungry for home; they, too, did what was asked.

On December 18, 1945, shortly after World War II had ended, the USS Straub crossed the International Date Line in the midst of her second weather watch in the Pacific. The ship was en route to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, with its full running crew of 220, plus twelve weathermen aboard. The Straub's previous weather watch, in November, had already logged 7,500 miles in the vicinity of northern Japan and the Aleutian Islands; but this "baby carrier" was too fresh from a recent overhaul to be called out of service, and the US ships traversing Japanese waters as they traveled home to the states needed up-to-date weather reports to ensure their safety.

These weather service trips were a nasty duty. The Straub was small, and the roiling Pacific seas were continually storm-threatened. Every day was a rough day! A number of the men had been so affected by the constant tossing up and down that their stomach muscles and inner organs were painfully sore. Some men were so stricken, they had to be strapped as still as boards to their bunks to rest their bodies and ease their pain. The weather couldn't have been less cooperative, either! The Straub hit one bad storm after another and, despite her recent spruce-up, was looking more and more beat up on the topside as the days passed.

Robert Ellershaw had been aboard the Straub for just a week short of a year; and while the turbulence affected him less than it did some others, the discomfort was getting to be a real nuisance and there was no escaping it. Like all the servicemen aboard the Straub, however, he also realized that someone had to do this duty. It was important, and somehow they had been elected. Each day, Bob and his fellow electricians worked in the engine room while the 12 weathermen released their four foot balloons into the atmosphere, took their readings, and then radioed the news to other ships in the area.

The Christmas of '45 came and went aboard the ship without much fanfare. The electricians and engineers had fashioned a tree out of heavy wire and decorated it with the paper poinsettias, sleighs, and Santas they had cut from their greeting cards. A thinner wire, twisted in the machine shop into a corkscrew curlicue, served as a garland. That tree and a turkey dinner were the only markings of the day, and the work continued as usual. Everyone was ready for home.

The day that Bob and his fellow serviceman would most remember, however, occurred the day after New Year's when the Straub ran into a hurricane. They were somewhere out off the coast of Japan when the storm hit. By midnight of January 2, 1946, the swells had grown to forty and fifty feet high. The wind was so strong, raging almost 90 miles an hour, that it whipped the top five feet off each wave, spraying it across the Straub's deck.

Bob was on duty in the engine room, when the ship lurched violently and threatened to roll. The captain, fearing he had missed a perimeter, had tried to turn the Straub around. But the ship had been caught sideways, and, like a toy boat, was riding up the side of an enormous swell. Just as she was about to be turned upside down, the wave fell out from under her, and the ship flopped back down in the water and was righted.

In the engine room, his heart racing with adrenaline, Bob muttered, "Whaaaat happened?" to himself, but there was no time to wonder. The captain's voice came through loud and clear. "Full speed ahead!" Bob responded, and the Straub straightened out her course quickly, now taking the swells "stern to" as she should. If they had missed a "leg" the ship had been scheduled to take, the captain would have to wait until it was calmer to turn her about.

The USS Straub had rolled 60 degrees. Enough that, by all the laws of physics, she should have gone over. But she hadn't; and in less than thirty seconds, the near disaster was over. That night she was blessed with a New Year streak of luck!