USS SLC...Officer...George Lott, CPC
George Lott passed away on Dec. 11th, 2006 at the age of 93
Grandson Christopher Hendricks was very happy to report that George was honored with a burial at sea onboard USS Paul Hamilton DDG-60 in the Hawaiian op area in January and he was honored to have been able commit his remains to the deep on a beautiful evening as they approached Pearl Harbor.
Nov. 1, 1943 Roster of Officers Restricted Records:
Div. "S" - Duty: Commissary, Coding Board
Battle Station: Sif. Aft. - Aft. Coding
Feb. 6th, 2003
The following letter, dated July 14, 1997, was found in the SLC Association Memorabilia
Collection
Dear Commissary Department Men:
I had made warrant in April of 1942, reported on board the SLC in late June that year and was
promoted to Chief Warrant. The departure of Andrew G. Davis,
CCstd in July for new construction made room to promote W. C.
Dooley, CCS. Dooley had taken the commissary course offered by NTS, San Diego. he
suggested that we hold daily classes for off duty cooks and bakers. That is where I learned
the nuts and bolts about commissary work.
In addition to passing off the knowledge imparted by the NTS school, the cooks and bakers
were motivated in improving the weekly menus which was an almost impossible task because we
were at sea for extra long periods and had limited refrigerated spaces. When ship hit port,
we would have visitors come aboard to sample our meals that the crew told their friends on
other ships about. That was the proof that the crew was telling their friends that we had
the best feeding ship in the Pacific. Our wartime doctor told me at a reunion that there
were no visits to sick bay for food contamination.
I have to give Dooley credit for being a good leader. When we headed to Pearl harbor for
repairs after the Savo Island action, he asked me to make an all out effort to get
replacements for half of the galley equipment that had been turned down by the Pearl Harbor
Navy Yard earlier. Sure enough, we were turned down again. Captain Rogers told me to go
ahead if I could get a midnight requisition without any publicity. A week after the turn
down, we had a new range, new bake oven, new deep fat fryer and a new exhaust fan. But the
best is yet to come in talking about Chief Dooley.
He came to me with a long face and said we had some excellent non-rated men we could not
promote because the men could not read or write and they had to take written tests. None of
the many schools in Hawaii had text books for illiterates. There were none in the San
Francisco area either. After that bad news, Dooley did not give up. He comes up after
getting a haircut and says, let's try comic books. The non-readers spend a lot of time
looking at them in the barber shop. We picked up quite a few copies at barber shops and
exchanges. After we had success with common words we prepared lists of words that would be
used on promotion tests. We used M. Gonzales, RM3c and L. C. Celentano, CCS to draw necessary sketches. We got
our few New York City men promoted. This technique was used again when I reported to NAS,
Seattle and had to train 120 blacks from Harlem to become a stevedore battalion. 120
illiterates could not get Washington state drivers licenses to drive off base. Luckily we
had two CSKs from the Seattle area who had friends in local schools. We still had to use
comic books and we got 120 men drivers licenses within four months.
I never saw Dooley after I left the SLC, but I thanked him via ESP. My tour on the SLC
really helped me during a tour with CruDesPac in 1949-52. Without any guidelines, I had to
inspect all cruisers and destroyers for supply efficiency. That included galleys and bake
ships in addition to the many functions handled by storekeepers.
Sincerely
George Lott
Information from other sources:
Tidbits from 1944 Saltshaker
Tidbits from
Bon Morgan
Tidbits from
Roy Glidewell
SLC Deck Log Officer's List
SLC Deck Logs
Sep. 1942
Oct. 1942
Ship's Storekeepers at 1989, Denver, CO. Reunion
Attended the following SLC Reunions:
1983
1989
1993
|
