Captain Recalls demise of USS SALT LAKE CITY

"They pumped 50mm shells into her. Then they followed with rockets. Next came the bombers, first with 100 pound bombers, then with 500 pound bombers, finally 1,000 pound bombers.

She still stood there, mauled but not beaten. Then the destroyers came and shelled her with their five-inch guns. She took it for two and a half hours."

Capt. E. J. MacGregor studied the bell of the cruiser USS SALT LAKE CITY.

It hangs in front of Utah naval reserve headquarters at Ft. Douglas. Capt. MacGregor is deputy chief for the Naval Reserve, 12th Naval District, San Francisco, here for a seminar with Utah Naval Reserve officers.

But in 1948 he was at Bikini Atoll on the bridge of a ship watching calculated destruction. The USS Salt Lake City already a survivor of an atomic test blast, was now getting a "progressive" battering.

But even after the destroyers had hurled hundreds of shells into her, she was still afloat.

Capt. MacGregor had been a submariner. They called for a submarine. The under seas craft slid into position 1,000 yards away. It was like taking the challenger out of the ring in the 12th round and substituting a fresh fighter. The torpedo hammered home. Whoomph! The Salt Lake City heeled over and died.

"Everybody walked off the bridge with tears in his eyes."