The Rose and Me

[EssOne]

Just in case any of you guys were wondering where my avatar came from...............................

 

December 7th is always a thoughtful day for me. Not because of the Pearl Harbor attack, but because December 7,1961 was  the day the U. S Army decided that an 18 year old Private named me needed to take a boat trip to Europe. So, on that day 53 1/2 years ago, I hoisted my duffel bag onto my shoulder and walked up the gangway to one of the most memorable experiences of my life – crossing the North Atlantic in a howling December storm on the lowliest of lowly tubs, a troop ship…..the United States Naval Ship General Maurice Rose.

 

“The Rose,” as we called her, was 608 feet long, 75 feet abeam, displaced 9,600 tons empty, and carried 5200 troops in all the luxury of a camping trip to the Kansas City stock yards. First commissioned in 1945, the old ship could reach 19 knots in calm water, but was lucky to do better than 12 knots on our trip because of the ill tempered seas. She was owned by the Navy, operated by the Army Transportation Corps, commanded by Navy officers, had a merchant marine crew, and carried Army troops. What could possibly go wrong with a system like that?

 

"The Rose" was two football fields long.

 

At about 0900 hours that morning we started to move away from the dock and, as we reached the end of a huge warehouse at the end of the dock, our morale suffered its first real blow of the trip – painted on the end of the warehouse in 25 foot high letters was the greeting “WELCOME HOME .” The misplaced sign appeared without warning and had a stunning effect on a ship load of G.I.'s who were already aware that they wouldn't see home again for a long, long time. It got awfully quiet on deck until the sign disappeared from view, and it would be the last time any of us would be on the open deck until we were completely across the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Note the size of the men working at the water line.

 

Not long after the sign disappeared, the fun started in earnest. As soon as we cleared New York harbor we ran afoul of a nasty, boiling Atlantic winter storm that would royally knock us about for the next nine days. For the entirety of the trip to Southampton, England, and then to Bremerhaven, Germany, “the Rose” rocked, rolled, dove, climbed, and vibrated its heart out. We were in seas so heavy that the screws often came out of the water and flailed about in the air until the ship righted herself again. The violent shaking and vibrations of those huge screws churning the air made even the most stout hearted among us wonder where the devil we’d left our life preserver! Naturally the weather decks were off limits to us for the entire trip, and on the one occasion when a crewman opened a door looking out to the deck, we were looking UP at the Atlantic Ocean. I didn’t look again until we reached the English Channel – once was enough for me.

 

 Trying to eat while the ship was diving and rolling around in one trough after another was often a very humorous experience. The tables in the mess halls were long, rectangular affairs coming out of the sides of the ship and were anchored to the floor. They were covered in Formica and accommodated about a dozen men seated on each side of the table. We soon found out that stainless steel mess trays slid like crazy on the slick Formica every time the ship rolled, and usually wound up several persons away from where the sliding had started. Desperation being the mother of invention, some brilliant soul found that if one inserted a wet napkin between the tray and the Formica, the tray stayed put – but the food kept right on going. Oh well, try, try again.

 

She wasn't nearly as big on the inside as she was on the outside.

 

The most disconcerting part of the voyage happened as we stopped in calm water off of Southampton, England to pick up a pilot for the North Sea part of our voyage, and to conduct a lifeboat drill. Well, I guess that’s what they called it, because it took the merchant marine crew a full half hour just to get the first life boat off of its davits! A Special Forces Sergeant standing next to me watching the comedy of errors expressed all of our feelings when he blurted out loudly: “Boy, if this tub ever decided to sink, we’d have about enough time to say Our-Father-which-art-in-blub-blub-blub!” The frightening part is that he was absolutely right.

 

All things have to come to an end, and our trip ended at the Port of Bremerhaven, West Germany on December 16th. The trip through the English Channel had been quite calm, but the overnight sail through the North Sea was the roughest of the whole trip. And believe me, by this time we were bloody tired of “rough.”  On arrival we were no longer accustomed to walking on a surface that wasn’t pitching and rolling, so we staggered and stumbled off the ship to the waiting trains like the biggest bunch of drunks in history. It took most of us a week to learn how to walk again without lurching all over the place and grabbing anything we could find to steady ourselves. It had been one heck of a ride.

 

Mercifully, the Army flew me home when my overseas tour ended in 1964. The trip took nine hours instead of “the Rose’s” nine days. And I didn’t miss the old girl one bit.

 

Epilogue

 

“The Rose” was named after Major General Maurice Rose, United States Army, who was the only American general officer killed during the fighting in western Europe in World War II. He was killed in Germany in the spring of 1945.

The General Maurice Rose plied the Atlantic route from 1950 to 1965, completing more than 150 round trip crossings between New York and Bremerhaven. She sailed the Mediterranean run for a while, and then spent her final years of active duty ferrying troops to the Far East from the Pacific coast. The old ship was mothballed into the reserve fleet in 1967, decommissioned in 1997, and they scrapped her in 2000. I guess she was a pretty good ship. After all, how many people get to look UP at the Atlantic Ocean and live to tell about it?

 

The rose's biggest customer - the United States 7th Army. Looks suspiciously like my avatar, huh?  EssOne

 

[Trekbike]

First, thank you for your service and for sharing that story. I guess enjoyed reading it much more than you did going through the journey at the time.

[TGO David]

Great read!

[DMark]

My Dad was sent to the Korea War on a Troop Ship. 

 

He always told me that he figured it helped in getting everybody ready for fighting.  You were mad at everything and everybody after crossing the Pacific on that "Damn Stinking Boat" as he put it.

[bigun]

Great story. As an ex-sailor I really enjoyed it. Brought back good memories.

[Chazmr]

Great story.

Thanks for your service, and thanks for sharing your memories!

[crossfire]

I went to Vietnam on the Gen. Patch.The Rose was in the rotation along with the Darby.  We left Oakland on Dec.12, 1966 arrived Dec. 31, 1966. My avatar 9th Division  Army. Nothing like sailing the Pacific on a troop ship. LOL

Great story brought back old memories.

Edited May 28, 2015 by crossfire

[buck1032]

Nothing like sailing the Pacific on a troop ship. LOL

 

I am sure those Troop Ships had their own brands of Hell, however may I suggest multiple deployments crossing the Pacific back and forth and a Perry Class Frigate. I promise you the FFG's rock and roll way more than a flat bottom john boat. LOL

[hipower]

It's already been said, but please allow me to add mine as well...

Thank you Sir, for your Service. :usa:

[Mike.357]

best post ever 

 

You win TGO

[btq96r]

Awesome story.  My father spent a few years in the mid-late 60's serving in Germany and eventually made it to Vietnam.  I'll have to ask him if he was ever on a troop ship.

[analog_kidd]

Wow! That was a great post. Thanks for taking the time to share your story, and an even bigger thanks for serving.

[runco]

Good read.  I wonder if this is the same boat my dad speaks of when he went to Germany in 1960.  He tells of similar experience.  I will ask him.

[Grand Torino]

Hell of a story. :up:

[EssOne]

Thank you, Gents. It was my pleasure to write about the trip and an honor to serve in the same army that had liberated the death camps of Europe sixteen years earlier. The Seventh Army was formed on Sicily in 1943 by General Patton and remained a viable field army until the 80's. Sadly it has now been downgraded to about a brigade-size training command.

 

There were three troop ships that regularly made the trip from New York to Bremerhaven - the Rose, the Patch, and the Buckner. There were others pressed into service during emergencies, but these were the mainstays. I don't know how many hundreds of thousands of troops they took to Europe during the Cold War, but the seventh Army was our largest field army for many years and these ships were the sole providers of replacement troops.

 

The guys who were on troop ships during WWII and Korea had it a lot worse than we did. I really have to take my hat off to them - whereas we had mess halls and hot meals, the wartime troops frequently didn't and the guys ate C and K rations all the way across.  An uncle of mine who went to France in 1944 said the troops on his ship kept the tablespoon from their mess kits in their shirt pockets along with a P-38 can opener. At meal time they ate canned rations with the table spoon, licked it clean after every meal, and put it back in their shirt pocket.  The guys who went overseas during WWII were often on nothing more than converted cargo ships and boarded via cargo nets and got off the same way, whereas we had gangways and loaded and unloaded at docks.

 

It was one hell of an experience for an 18 year old kid and I'll never forget it.

 

Best wishes to you guys in return.

 

EssOne

[DWARREN123]

Always a better experience when telling at a later date, much later!!!   :rofl:

[Tncobra]

Awesome story, especially since it is first hand. What a privilege to read.

 

 

 

I tried to change my avatar several times and we can all see that didn't work. Remaining anonymous suits me so I stopped trying. 

[crossfire]

Thank you, Gents. It was my pleasure to write about the trip and an honor to serve in the same army that had liberated the death camps of Europe sixteen years earlier. The Seventh Army was formed on Sicily in 1943 by General Patton and remained a viable field army until the 80's. Sadly it has now been downgraded to about a brigade-size training command.

 

There were three troop ships that regularly made the trip from New York to Bremerhaven - the Rose, the Patch, and the Buckner. There were others pressed into service during emergencies, but these were the mainstays. I don't know how many hundreds of thousands of troops they took to Europe during the Cold War, but the seventh Army was our largest field army for many years and these ships were the sole providers of replacement troops.

 

The guys who were on troop ships during WWII and Korea had it a lot worse than we did. I really have to take my hat off to them - whereas we had mess halls and hot meals, the wartime troops frequently didn't and the guys ate C and K rations all the way across.  An uncle of mine who went to France in 1944 said the troops on his ship kept the tablespoon from their mess kits in their shirt pockets along with a P-38 can opener. At meal time they ate canned rations with the table spoon, licked it clean after every meal, and put it back in their shirt pocket.  The guys who went overseas during WWII were often on nothing more than converted cargo ships and boarded via cargo nets and got off the same way, whereas we had gangways and loaded and unloaded at docks.

 

It was one hell of an experience for an 18 year old kid and I'll never forget it.

 

Best wishes to you guys in return.

 

EssOne

Lets not forget about the first couple days out, when all the troops onboard are sea sick. :puke:

[MacGyver]

I am sure those Troop Ships had their own brands of Hell, however may I suggest multiple deployments crossing the Pacific back and forth and a Perry Class Frigate. I promise you the FFG's rock and roll way more than a flat bottom john boat. LOL

When I was a kid, our scout troop got to "go to sea" for a weekend on the USS Flatley (FFG 21).  While it was a weekend training exercise in the calm waters of the Gulf of Mexico - if I recall it was heading from Pensacola NAS back over to Mayport, FL. I'll never forget the slack-jawed look on my fellow scouts' faces as we got to watch the Phalanx CIWS in action. We all thought it was the greatest thing in the world.

 

I don't think that stuff happens much in a post 9/11 world, and that's a shame.  I know for a fact that the openness/access that various military installations gave our scout troop directly influenced several in our troop to undertake careers in the military later on.

[TNWNGR]

Enjoyed reading this story.

[EssOne]

Lets not forget about the first couple days out, when all the troops onboard are sea sick. :puke:

Oh yeah! Thank Goodness for soda crackers.

Edited May 28, 2015 by EssOne

[buck1032]

When I was a kid, our scout troop got to "go to sea" for a weekend on the USS Flatley (FFG 21).  While it was a weekend training exercise in the calm waters of the Gulf of Mexico - if I recall it was heading from Pensacola NAS back over to Mayport, FL. I'll never forget the slack-jawed look on my fellow scouts' faces as we got to watch the Phalanx CIWS in action. We all thought it was the greatest thing in the world.

 

I don't think that stuff happens much in a post 9/11 world, and that's a shame.  I know for a fact that the openness/access that various military installations gave our scout troop directly influenced several in our troop to undertake careers in the military later on.

When I transferred to SERE we would take Scouts and Sea Cadets out in the field to train them. I traveled all over SoCal training Scout and Scout Leaders. It was fun for all involved. I retired in 05 and I am sure you are correct, I doubt that stuff happens any more.  

[Links2k]

Great story. I could visualize every word that you wrote. I'm glad I wasn't there.

[Jonnin]

That is awesome, thanks for sharing!