Rulon J. Alder
WWII
Interview on March 30, 2011
by David Alder

My brother Dean decided he wanted to go in the marines. It was during the depression and jobs were hard to find. We went down to salt lake and we went to the requiting office and had a complete physical. We spent all day there and when we got through they turned Dean down because of his teeth. I passed the physical but I didn’t sign up. That was a really good decision because of the timing being a marine would have been dangerous. So that way I avoided that. So then I decided to join the Navy instead and Dean went into the army, because the army had less restrictions. Marines required a 4 year commitment and the Navy 6 years but I still decided on the Navy. I don’t really know why I choose the navy but my Dad used to talk a little bit about being in the trenches in France so I think that might have affected my decision.

I joined the Navy in October 1940. So then I went to Boot camp in San Diego. I was there for about a month then I got assigned to the Trenton. It was stationed in Pearl Harbor. In order to get to Pearl Harbor we had to go on a Cargo ship out of Vallejo. I was in Vallejo working on the cargo ship until it was ready to go to Pearl Harbor. That was until about January of 1941. Then the cargo ship went to Pearl Harbor and dropped us off and we went aboard the Trenton. Right after I got on the Trenton it was assigned to escort a cargo ship to the Philippines. Then we went back to Pearl Harbor. In September 1941 the USS Trenton and the USS Concord which were sister ships were assigned the task of going to the west coast of South America to look for German raiders. We had orders from Pres. Roosevelt to do this. We operated out the Balboa Navy Yard which is a very large Navy yard by the Panama Canal. The first trip we went to look for the German Raider we went clear down to Cape Horn and stopped at the most southern City in the world, Punta Arenas. The water is really rough by Cape Horn, I mean really rough. The water is always rough there but it was really rough. We just went down and looked and then followed the coast back up to Panama. We stopped in Anafagasta, Chile on our way back to Balboa. We got back to Balboa about November 1941. I was in the Balboa Navy Yard when Pearl Harbor was hit in December of 1941. The Balboa was operated like a US City. The US had control of the Canal Zone and the Balboa Navy Yard. There was a little town there with a recreation place and a theatre. I went to a movie in Balboa and in the middle of the show there was an announcement for all Military personal to report back to your ship. So this is when Pearl Harbor was hit. When I was going back to ship I saw there were great big balloons flying above the canal to protect the canal zone from low flying aircraft. So then I went back on the ship and all the scuttlebutt (rumors) was that Trenton and Concord were going to stay and protect the canal. The Trenton was an older ship and they had to prepare it for war. They had to upgrade the anti-aircraft guns to get it ready for war. Chile was not an American Allie. The Trenton got assigned to host diplomats. It was a flagship so it had accommodations for diplomats. So then they converted it to a ship that was in charge to cement diplomatic relations with Chile. So then Chile ended up being friendly with the US by the end of the War. The first part of 1942, all of 1943, and part of 1944 I was assigned to the USS Trenton. I started out as Seaman and then you automatically get Seaman first class and then you have to choose and I choose to be quartermaster. The quartermaster takes care of the navigation stuff. There are three steps in quartermaster. In April of 1944 I got transferred to a naval station in Long Island, New York. I was assigned to the substation training center which is on land. Then I got assigned to a substation training center in Miami Florida. Now that was kind of interesting because they didn’t build a base in Florida they took over hotels and a good size garage to feed the people in. We went and trained on small ships. After that I got assigned to a tug that was being built in Galveston, Texas. I went to Galveston and stayed there until the ship was finished being built. The first thing we did was go through the Panama Canal to get to the Pacific Ocean. The tug didn’t have a name it just had a number. We went to Pearl Harbor and after I got to Pearl Harbor I got assigned to a Tug named the Gear. It was more than just a tug it was also equipped to do minor repairs. That was at the later part of the war. As soon as I got on the Gear we were going to Iwo Jima. We headed to a base in the Philippines first. They were building up a landing for us in Iwo Jima. The Philippines was just a waiting spot before we headed to Iwo Jima. The tugs duties is to if necessary repairs ships. There were 4 to 6 transport ships and 4 or 5 personnel ships that headed out to Iwo Jima from the Philippines. We were going with them and had a couple of destroyers as escorts. We didn’t get there at the first part of the landing we were just a few hours after. We were supposed to go right by the beach right where the flag was and we were supposed to help a ship that was in trouble. The flag was not up yet, this happened before the flag was raised. We got pretty close, with a pair of binoculars you could see what was going on the shore. We could see the raids. I sat there and watched them for a while with a pair of binoculars. That was the action that I got involved in. I saw the flame throwers flushing out the troops. There was a ship that had mechanical problems and we were going to pull it out but it ended up getting itself out. We sailed for Iwo Jima overnight and there were ships from many places there were arriving at the same time. When I looked around there were ships everywhere. They were around the whole Island. It was not too long after that the United States took control of Iwo Jima. That was the end of that day and then we headed back to the Philippines.

Then they were going to hit Okinawa.

While I was an Okinawa I saw a plane flew right over, I mean close, it was not too high. It was a courseair. There was a whole row of LST that had dropped off troops at Okinawa. The LST was shooting at the airplane they thought it was Japanese plane. It was a US plane and one or two of the shots ended up hitting the aerial on our ship. The courseair was trying to land at the airstrip they had just taken over at Okinawa. The plane came down in the trees and disappeared so I didn’t see if it had got hit.

They establish a base in Okinawa and they pretty much had the island captured. So we stayed at Okinawa for several days. There were all kind of ships there. Hospital ships, cargo ships. Right after dark if it was clear kamikaze’s would come right over and dive right at the destroyers that were enforcing the 60 mile perimeter around the island. One evening after they had established the base I saw a kamikaze fly right over the base and run right into a hospital ship.

Then went back to Pearl Harbor and then I went to Long Beach, California. Then the war ended. I still had time in my 6 years left.

They De-commissioned Gear. I got assigned to a LSM, the ship was called Epping Forest, that ship carried the Bikini Bomb over to Bikini. I was on that ship.