I received an email today and it got me to reminiscing. This is an old email, but wanted to share and get this blog some exposure.
I stumbled across you website by accident.
I served on the Mitchell in the early 50’s, about 1950-1952. I can give you the name of one of our commanding officers at the time, CAPT J. V. Query. He was a WWII submariner and a very good skipper.
The Mitchell was one of the first ships to bring reinforcements into Korea after the start of hostilities. We loaded up at Fort Mason , CA and unloaded in Pusan when the defense perimeter was just miles outside of Pusan . We later participated in the evacuation at Hungnam after the Chinese bought into the war. Our first trip out was with much of the 1st Cavalry Division and its ROK attachment, I think we had somewhere around 8,000 troops aboard with the ROKs sleeping on the weather decks. The second trip was harder, we loaded most of what was left of the Marines who were trapped at Chosen and fought their way back to the port. We brought LCVP and LCVP of litter cases out and hoisted them aboard. The Marines came aboard with their weapons locked and loaded and left them behind. On our passage through the Strait of Moji we were busy dumping GI cans of weapons and ammunition over the fantail. We spent Christmas Eve that year anchored out in Yokohama Harbor cleaning troop compartments.
I left the Mitch in 1952 to transfer to the USNS General Simon Bolivar Buckner.
Interesting sidelight. When first assigned to the Mitchell I was assigned to D2 Division where I worked for what must have been one of the very first black BM’s in the Navy, BM2 Vincent Rudolph Bates. The guy was something else – 6’ or thereabouts, strong as two bulls, one of the best small boat handlers I’ve ever seen and a great leader and motivator. Raised in strictly segregated Texas it was an eye opener for me but I quickly grew to admire and trust Bates. When the division went on liberty together anyplace which wouldn’t serve Bates served none of us and we might well leave some wreckage behind when we exited.
