February 25, 1944

- After six days of fitting out, loading stores, fuel and ammunition, conducting drills, and getting organized, we moved to the dry-docks at Galveston, Texas. Most of the crew, being green, became seasick on the short voyage on perfectly calm seas. There intensive preparations were carried out for the shakedown training. This was my 25th birthday, yet I was older than probably 95% of the officers and crew. On this mill pond trip, mostly river and intercoastal waterway, we got our first evidence of why the DE was labeled the ship that rolls "in wet grass".

March 10, 1944

Left Galveston, Texas for the Bermuda shakedown area. We encountered a storm on March 11 and suffered a power plant failure in the heavy seas. Outside Galveston Bay entrance ran into heavy seas, squall and reduced visibility. At 1345 reduced speed from 15 to 12 knots to lessen the pounding from the seas. Chain locker commenced flooding and had to be pumped out intermittently. At 1710 number1 engine lost oil pressure and had to be secured until repairs were completed at 1825. Speed 10 knots during this interval. At 1950 again increased speed to standard, 15 knots. Ship tossing violently from the wind and seas all night, rolled up to angles of 45 degrees. 2000 Position: 28-00N, 94-30W.

March 11, 1944

About 0500 tubes in number 1 boiler failed and number 1 fireroom and number 1 main engine were secured. 0515 - number 2 boiler lost steam pressure due to failure of the fuel oil service pump. Ship lost all headway, all power. 0800 Position: 27-44N, 92-28W. 0920 - With Number 1 engine room secured, underway at 10 knots for return to Galveston, Texas, for repairs. Seas and wind abated during day. 1200 Position: 27-57N, 92-50W. H. Green's comment - "Hit a bad storm. Quite an experience, fire room blew-up its tubes and had to turn back into Galveston". Ed Legum's comment-"In regards to the boiler problem, it happened about 0200 -- I had the watch and heard the explosion with "half" the boiler coming out of the stack. It seems the water tender on duty goofed and shut the water off to the boiler -- everyone panicked and shut down everything -- we were dead in the water -- no lights, etc. Fortunately Graham pulled it together so we were able to proceed to Galveston." John Palm's comment - "The storm, right at the start of our seafaring, was too much for our green crew. We limped back ignominiously into Galveston on limited power. This casualty was investigated later in Bermuda. Most of the crew, especially those with wives and girl friends in Galveston, enjoyed the extended 17 days of fun in this popular liberty port ."

March 12 to 29, 1944

In Galveston for repairs. It was while in Galveston shipyard we first became acquainted with female shipyard workers, "Rosie the Riveter." A memorable story had Konopka, himself a shipfitter striker, leaning against a bulkhead, accosted by a lady welder saying: "Get of my way, Sailor, or I'll weld your ass to the bulk-head".

March 30, 1944

Underway again for Bermuda.

April 5, 1944

Arrived at Bermuda. The remaining part of the month was devoted to training exercises which consisted of torpedo firing; anti-submarine attack drill; fueling-at-sea; anti-submarine screening drill; formation steaming; night illumination; night firing; day surface and aircraft firing; and general shipboard drills. At the end of our month of shakedown training, H. Green commented in his diary: It was an unpleasant experience. The whole shakedown cruise was wearing and uncomfortable. At night we were too tired and anchored too far out to go on liberty. As one sign of our tiredness, and maybe wimpiness, a group of us officers went on liberty one night and partied with a group of nurses I'd made contact with from my bachelor liberties there from the Yorktown and Ranger 2 1/2 years earlier . We were so tired we must have been poor company, and when one of the nurses tried to liven things up by proposing a nude beach swim, (really daring for 1944 especially for conservative British nurses ). We all sheepishly declined and said we had to get back to the ship! (Townes, Smith and Turner - the Girls called him Dreamboat. - were bachelors then ). On my recent visit with the Captain, he recalled the funniest experience for him on the Weeden was here in Bermuda, when one evening at anchor the OD gave the fireroom permission to blow tubes. The result, very heavy deposit of thick soot descended on everyone, including the Captain, assembled for the evening movie on the fantail. Everyone there was a black mess; hair, faces, clothes. As I wondered whether that OD was still hauling garbage out of Point Barrow, Alaska, the Captain laughed off the incident, charitably commenting that we were all learning our jobs! (The OD probably wondered why the fireroom was asking his permission!)

May 1, 1944

The Commander of Shakedown Training at Bermuda came aboard with an inspection party and held a departure inspection. The Weeden then weighed anchor and steamed for Boston, escorting a damaged minesweeper to Chesapeake Bay, en-route.

May 2, 1944

Leaving Bermuda, we had an exciting and unnerving experience, going to General Quarters at night on radar contact that could have been a German U-boat on the surface. Ed Legum and I recall, in our haste to get to our battle stations, we became tangled up in a narrow passageway, had trouble breaking free. Guns at ready, we circled the target, not sure what to do. Though it violated doctrine and invited a torpedo attack on us, the Captain finally briefly had us illuminate the target at about 1 mile with our powerful searchlights. To our surprise it turned out to be a sailing vessel, pleasure type, with no signs of life aboard. We finally left it and proceeded, not sure whether to treat it as friend or foe. Rose Tillinghast responded to my question on this mystery as follows: The vessel was a Coast Guard schooner on patrol. The brother of a dear friend of hers served on such a vessel. His sister has entrusted us with letters in which he describes his schooner and their modus operandi. Only when he read that did Charles know for sure that what we encountered was just such a vessel. "I just turned the searchlight on her, saw what she was and went on our way. It never crossed my mind to fire on her. War Diary 's 2000 position; 34-30N- 69-35W. At 2249 made radar contact bearing 335T, distance 7 miles. Ship went to General Quarters and maneuvered to close contact at full speed, 20 knots. Target tracked, indicating it was maneuvering radically. At 2330 sighted target and recognized it as sailing vessel broke off chase, secured from General Quarters.

May 6, 1944-

Arrived at Boston, Mass. and underwent repairs and alterations at the Charleston Navy yard. Boston became our regular home port, shipyard repair site, and a very popular liberty port. Strangely, considering my navy and post navy travels, I've neaver been back there these 47 years since 1944. Boston was Engineer Bill Graham's home, and he especially relished it.

May 14, 1944

Sailed to Provincetown, Mass., where we served for a month as a target ship for the Atlantic Fleet Torpedo Squadron Training School. I'm one who especially pushed for the 5th Reunion to be In Provincetown, for I have the most pleasant, nostalgic, striking memories of the month we spent there. We were the only military and largely the only males in this escapist Cape Cod village. We formed our own shore patrol in conjunction with the police chief and had little disciplinary problems. The Shore Patrol rode around on bicycles. The romantic Flagship restaurant served great steaks by candlelight. Our only duty was to steam around in lazy circles and let the fly-boys drop dummy torpedoes at us --though the Captain especially hated this and maneuvered vigorously to avoid the torpedoes once he found out how erratic the torpedoes ran, and that the pilots took bets back at their club as to who would succeed in sinking us. We were actually hit 3 times by torpedoes, with our hull punctured. The wives would watch us from the ocean beach and bike back to tell everyone when we had started back to port, so that wives and girl would be waiting on the dock when we arrived! Another memorable incident occurred one afternoon as we came in to anchor and a small sailboat began to close in on our ship. At. first we took alarm mindful of war time rules for keeping unauthorized vessels and persons away. Then we discovered to our surprise the"two man crew" consisted of the Captain's and my wives, trying to meet the ship in this unusual fashion. The crew dashed from side to side but the sailboat managed to miss us on several passes. Finally, irrepressible Ed Legum passed this word over the ship's loudspeaker," Stand by to receive a small boat at any part of the ship ". And during this idyllic, pleasure boating type of life, I've always felt sort of guilty, as D-Day in Normandy occurred, with so many fellow Americans suffering and dying. War Diary summary : The 3 torpedo hits were: 15 May, amidships, port, waterline, bent a beam. 19 May hit starboard bow, surface, frame 11, 10-inch hole, 2 compartments partially flooded. Moved weight to cause list of 7 degrees to port, in order to weld a plate across the hole. We limped back that way to Provincetown until the plate was installed and proved to hold. The 3rd hit was 1 June, a glancing one, no damage. Konopka & Malin repaired the punctured hull temporarily. In Provincetown there was a sub doing the same kind of duty as we. (Per War Diary, this was USS SS 78 (R-1). According to Hal Knight there were a few fights between their crew and ours -- and he being single pulled Shore Patrol often there. John Crane says Hal Knight got to ride the only bicycle and the two crew SPs had to walk.

June 12, 1944

Returned to Boston and underwent further repairs in the South Boston Navy Yard; we then reported for duty in Escort Division (CortDiv) 56.

June 26 to 30, 1944

Casco Bay.

July 2, 1944

Yorktown Va. It was here that was the scene of one of Bill Warners horror stories.While loading depth charges aboard, the strap on the davit hoist slipped and the depth charge fell some distance into the bottom of the hold. With much trepedation,Bill says that it was quickly disposed over the side with nothing said!

July 2 to 3, 1944

Norfolk, Va.

July 4, 1944

Departed Norfolk and joined ComTaskFor 61 in escorting a 65-ship convoy to Bizerte, Tunisia. ComTask 61 consisted of Cort Div 5(USS Evarts DE 5, USS Wyffels DE6, USS Decker DE47, USS Dobler DE48, USS Smart DE257 & USS W.S.Brown DE258): Cort Div 56 (USS Underhill DE682, USS Kenyon DE683, USS Gillette DE681, USS Gunason DE795, USS Major DE796 and the USS Weeden DE797) , an oiler, USS Escalante AO70 and the command ship, USS Campbell. Off the coast of North Africa, German planes from Southern France were encountered. Weeden laid down a smoke screen coverage for the convoy and the planes did not attack the convoy. The same group escorted a 53-ship convoy back to the United States. At last we were in the War ! This brief report covers a lot of excitement and experience, from July 4 to Aug 18, with our first real convoy duty in dangerous areas of the Atlantic and Mediterranean. I well recall the miserable night of July 3, as we tossed around sleepless and seasick in the Hampton Roads anchorage. I felt concerned and unready and not very powerful, knowing German U-boats probably had little respect for our combat ability, especially our 3-inch popguns. But we got these convoys through without damage, and we learned the German planes could not find us, perhaps at least partly because we laid down a smoke screen.

July 23 to 30 ,1944

In Bizerte, Tunisia. According to Howard Green, crossing was uneventful and he was not particularly impressed with foreign countries. Bizerte was very much bombed out and desolate. Bizerte must have been miserable even in peacetime, and in the wake of liberation from desert warfare, it was really shabby. I well recall "Sonar" Smith's disgust at his Shore Patrol duty, keeping order in a Bizerte cathouse entrance line!

August 18, 1944

Re-entered Boston and underwent voyage repairs.

August 30. 1944

Departed Boston and arrived at Casco Bay, Maine, and conducted training exercises.

September 8, 1944

Left Casco Bay, Maine. I recall this and another Casco Bay visit as very unpleasant. The training personnel, BBB's in our opinion (Beach-Bound Bastards) treated us with condescending, caustic criticism, no matter what we did or tried to do. Hal Knight has at least one positive recollection. He remembered the USO in Casco Bay taking a bunch of us out to an island for a lobster roast -- good eating.

September l0, 1944

Arrived Norfolk, loaded ammunition in Yorktown

September 11, 1944

Left Norfolk with CortDiv 56 escorting another convoy to Bizerte, Tunisia. In mid- Atlantic, CortDiv 56 received orders to have us part company with the convoy and head for Plymouth, England.

September 29, 1944

Arrived in Plymouth, Many of the crew spent a liberty in London, which was under V-bomb attack during that period. I too made a trip, alone, by train for a couple nights in London. Blacked out and subdued after 5 years of war, I didn't find it much of a fun place. I do recall some people dancing in an open square to "Lambeth Walk." Hal Knight remembers some of the crew danced the "Hokey-Pokey" in a bombed out church basement in Plymouth -- a USO of sorts.

October 5, 1944

Left Plymouth escorting a convoy of LST's to the U.S. Stopped at Fatal, Azores Islands, I don't recall much about our stop at the Azores. I do recall the Captain being frustrated in communicating with the Portuguese pilot, calling on our trusty Portuguese interpreter, Gil Oliveira, only to be more frustrated in finding, on top of the handicap of navigating in the strong wind and waves, the pilot and O1iveira spoke 2 very different dialects of Portuguese. We went into Horta to fuel and then rejoined the convoy. In the Azores we tied up to some Portuguese or Greek ships and there was some movement of "Dago Red" from ship to ship

October 11, 1944

Encountered high seas resulting from the aftermath of a storm on this return voyage, with waves measuring over 40 feet from crest to trough.

October 25, 1944

Arrived at Boston and underwent voyage repairs and the annual military inspection.

November 5 to 17, 1944

Left Boston and arrived at Casco Bay, Maine where we conducted anti-submarine training exercises and anti-aircraft firing exercises. These extensive exercises included this one, under date of Nov. 15 in the War Diary: At 2000 commenced search and illuminate exercise with Campbell , ships illuminating each other. Completed exercise at 2050, having expended 28 rounds 3"50 starshells. And so the record remained for 41 years, with the Captain very pleased that we had "won" the exercise, by illuminating the Campbell before they located us, The Captain heartily congratulated Bill Warner and his gun crews. It was only at our 1st Reunion in 1985 that Bill confessed what a "hollow" triumph this was. The ammo expended in the War Diary is not a correct count either, for Bill found that his gun crews, in the dark, having used up all the ready starshell projectiles, continued to fire all the other shells in the ready storage, including armor piercing ones . So we might well have hit and sunk the Campbell, not just illuminated her !

November 17, 1944

Left Casco Bay.

November 19, 1944

Arrived Norfolk, Va. Loaded ammunition again at Yorktown.

November 20, 1944

Left Norfolk as part of a 75-ship convoy to Gibraltar, on completion of which we sailed on to Oran, Algeria . This was our 3rd convoy trip. John Palm reluctantly recalls the tale of a man who recently came aboard and who left us in Oran, Algeria. Name forgotten, post war fate unknown. He reported to John shortly after coming aboard, expressing worried misgivings as to whether he should have been drafted into the Navy, and especially our type of ship. He explained that he was extremely inclined to motion sickness, even in streetcars, cars or even elevators. Though I wondered at his draft board's wisdom, I nevertheless tried to reassure him that we all tended toward seasickness, but got over it after a short time. But as soon as we got underway, the draft board's stupidity was confirmed. Our hero became not just sea sick but hysterically so, crying all the time, useless for any work or watch duties, demanding of anyone and everyone that he be taken off the ship (difficult to do in the middle of the ocean), and threatening to jump over the side. This threat worried us a little, till we noticed he never took off his life jacket, night or day, awake or asleep. He became an object of scorn and something of a morale problem, for our most obvious solution, to transfer him to a shore base stateside, would reward him for avoiding what all the rest of us were enduring as our military and war responsibility. We found a happy solution in Oran, where someone located a small obscure Army unit deep in the desert willing to take our sea sick victim. And so he was transferred there, His reaction to this turn of events is not recorded, subsequent fate known. Should we feel guilty about our callous lack of sympathy and derision at his plight, Ed Legum suggests one possible outcome in which our hero may have gotten his revenge on all of us and the ship. Maybe he married a rich sheik's daughter there in Africa and now owns a good share of middle East oil. Don Nelson's (Supply Officer) favorite story, recounted at the 1st Reunion, was of the Thanksgiving celebration feast on the trip across. The seas were rough, and on one pitch or roll the stove doors flew open and the cooking turkeys fell out and rolled out on the deck. Undaunted, the cooks dusted them off, put them back in the oven, and they were served, hoping no one would be the wiser ! (My favorite Aunt used to say you're going to eat a peck of dirt during your life anyway)

December 8, 1944

In Oran, Algeria. Crew enjoyed the hospitality of the Free French. Arrival was an unsettling experience for the Captain, when the incompetent pilot damaged our side in bringing us into the Mers-El Kebir Pier, resulting in the Major, DE-796, tied up ahead of us, being required to do an investigation of the mishap. The captain recalls that there was a huge wood block, 10' x 8', on the pier. It was blowing a gale. When we slowed to bring her alongside, the wind slammed the Weeden into the block, damaging her side and some internal machinery. Before attempting to dock, I had requested that the block be moved. The Convoy Commodore said to come on in anyway, and he took full responsibility for what occurred. Liberty did seem to be popular with the crew here, a pretty wild French African port. Ed Hansen reported that a good number of the crew (himself included) taped a carton of cigarettes to the inside of each leg and wrapped a bedsheet under their uniforms. Price in Free French Funny Moneys $10 per carton (Our cost 50cents), $30 per bedsheet and $70 for a peacoat. Great liberty town - lots of bars and other establishments to explore. The well-dressed Arabs converted the bedsheets into robes. It was amusing to see a native walking around town with "J.R.Jones, U.S. Navy" stenciled on his white tunic. On a recent phone call to Arna Seibert, he recalls that he got drunk in Oran, came back to the ship and tried to attack everyone in sight, including Gunnery Officer Warner, but especially BM Webber ,whom he hated. As a result, he got 14 days in the brig in Boston. GM LePage escorted him to serve his time after our return to Boston. He recounts with relish how LePage let him stop in Scully Square at a bar to tank up prior to enduring his sentence, This story has a poignant ending. Despite their roles here as jailer an jailee, Seibert and LePage have remained close buddies all these intervening 47 years. On a call to Arna recently, I found him broken up at the news that his buddy had died of cancer in North Carolina.

December 13, 1944

Left Oran, Algeria, with a returning convoy. In way of remembering Christmas Day, on the return voyage to the U.S., the Weeden and other escorts sang carols over their bull horns to other ships of the convoy.

December 30, 1944

Sometime about here we learned we were to be sent to the Pacific, to finish the War there, as it was winding down in the Atlantic. Mixed feelings. Good to be a part of winning the War, sad at leaving wives and families on the East Coast to sail so far away "in harm's way," as John Paul Jones put it. Returned to Boston, Mass., and went into dry-dock at the Charleston Navy Yard to complete various repairs and alterations. During this time they removed the torpedo tubes and replaced them with a 40mm. Captain Tillinghast and gunnery officer Warner were delighted to be rid of the torpedo tubes since they did not relish the possibilty of having an incident similar to that of the William D Porter - DD579 when escorting Franklin D Roosevelt and the Battleship Iowa to the Tehran conference.