The New Year’s entry in the ship’s log – January 1, 1945
For the progress of the war We are steaming twenty-four,
In company with thirty-eight point one;
And the Massachusetts, screened By the Taussig-Maddox team,
Has departed ‘till all repairs are done.
The Yorktown has the O.T.C., [OTC—Officer in Tactical Command]
The radar search is “Able”;
All boilers on the line for we, While logs in verse are fable.
The heavy ships on seven-oh As axis do remain,
While one-two-oh the carriers Consider as their claim.
The base course now is two-nine-five, And so we set our helm;
Though Yorktown as the guide, Can meander in her realm.
With radio and radar Set in Condition Two,
The planes are in an awful state Indictive of the crew.
For on this great eventful day When New Year’s feels its birth,
And celebration’s been the way For years and years on Earth,
The aircraft are, and so the crew, As dry as dry can be,
For planes are in Condition Nine, As de-gassed as are we!
New “Yoke” is set, and batteries Are in Condition Three;
The ship is darkened fore and aft, To keep us fighting free.
In disposition Roger (five) We steam into the night,
And changed to new course three-oh-five At thirty past midnight.
At forty after one o’clock The engineers made known
Their need to start the New Year clean, And so our tubes were blown!
At ten past two the T B S [TBS—Talk Between Ships radio]
Came forth with something new,
And changed our course to three-one-oh, And speed to twenty-two.
Came Admiral Halsey on the air— His words, they rung out, crying
“The best of everything to come, And keep the bastards dying!”
As with this watch the year came in—We helped it to arrive!
So hope we the war will end In 1945!
J. C. Hill II
Lieut., USN
The Poet
John “Jack” Clayton Hill II was born August 30, 1919, in Newport, Rhode Island, to Harry Wilbur Hill and Margaret Harwood Hall. Like his father in 1911, Jack graduated from the Naval Academy in 1942. (His father, now a vice admiral, served as Commander Fifth Amphibious Force at Okinawa.) Ensign Hill boarded USS South Dakota and served in the gunnery and fire control divisions. During South Dakota’s time in the Atlantic, Hill earned the Bronze Star Medal with “V” device for his actions in the ship’s gunnery division. During his time in the Navy, Hill commanded three ships. USS Sturtevant (DE 239), USS Parle (DE 708), and USS Mullinix (DD 944). He retired from the Navy in April 1969 at the rank of captain. In the 1950s and 1960s, Hill joined the editors/authors of Dutton’s Navigation and Piloting, one of the most widely used textbooks on navigation. He contributed to several editions, a testament to his proficiency in navigation. The early 1970s found him employed as Director of Planning Services at COMSAT, an organization that developed commercial and international satellite communications. John Clayton Hill II died January 19, 2003, in Washington, DC, and is buried at the US Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis, Maryland.
Thanks to Dave Johnson of the Midwatch In Verse Project for this submission.