We sure missed you at our reunion in Reno. I was hoping to meet you. You have done a marvelous job in setting up the SLC Website. There is a tremendous amount of information about our ship. I'm not sure I can add much more, but for what it's worth, I can tell you I spent 3 years of my life aboard her during the war.

I was born and raised in Toledo, OH. I went through high school, and then got a job at Haughton Elevator Co. where I worked in 1941 as a draftsman in the engineering department. Then the war came along and the Navy sounded good to me, so on Sept. 8th, 1942 I joined. I was sent to Great Lakes Training Center where I received a good 4 weeks of learning "Navy" ways. After 8 days leave, our Company was rushed out to the west coast and then to Pearl Harbor for further assignment.

On Thanksgiving Day, our group was split up to three different ships. As luck would have it, I went aboard the SLC, which was in dry-dock.

I have many great thoughts about the next 3 years on ship from the Battle of the Komandorskis through the end of the war.

I was assigned to the Engineering Division "A". Our battle station was in the mess hall where we waited for problems during battle requiring fire-fighting and repair duties.

Some pleasant thought are: We got to see a large part of the Pacific Ocean [with 2 cans of warm beer or coke on a sandy atoll somewhere out there].

We made lots of fresh water in the evaporators everyday needed for the ship's boilers. The evaporators were quite warm, but French fries and eggs were tasty [not always available].

I will always remember the great liberties we had on Attu. A barge would pick up liberty parties from each ship anchored in the harbor and then take us ashore to a Quansot Hut where we could imbibe in all the beer we could handle within a limited amount of time. Can you imagine the fun we had on that barge going back to our ships?

I received 9 battle stars and the Unit citation for the Komandorski Battle. The SLC is the only ship I served on, but I did spend 5 days on the SJ South American - Great Lakes on my honeymoon.

Some of the shipmate's I remember are:

• William F. Stewart, MM2c
• John F. Doyle, Lt (jg)
• Bernard J. Mussmann, MM3c
• Arthur Amos, MM2c
• W. C. Knapick, MM1c
• T. H. Terrell, Lt.