Standing Watch In A Spud Locker

USS Valley Forge

June 2, 1951

Scan of Jim's stationery, circa 1951

Hi Norma,

Got your letter today.  I was real glad to hear from you.

This leaves me O.K.  Hoping you're the same.

Well, another weekend rolls around but I can't go any place this time.  I've got duty.  Guess I can catch up on sleep and shoe shining.  HA.

The captain held an inspection today, but I didn't have to stand it.  I was on watch down in the spud locker (potato bin, to you).*

You asked me what my duties were.  Well, to be honest, I don't know.  Right now I'm pulling fire watch and there is nothing to it.

But when we get out to sea, I'll be working on the flight deck helping to land planes and to catapult them.  

Norma, I started this note about one hour ago but we started fighting the Civil War over again and I had to knock off to fire a few shots.  And it ain't over yet.

You asked me why Phyllis and I broke up.  Well, I guess you will have to ask her because she did it all.  I'm glad she did now, but then wasn't so glad.  "Ah, well," forget about her and talk about more pleasant subjects.

But now I've run out of subjects to talk about.

I'm not sitting out in a gun-tub now, so I've got nothing to inspire me.  And taps have been sounded already, so lights out pretty soon.  So for the time, I'll sign off.

Answer soon.

Your admiral,

Jim

*Editor's note: One story Jim told on himself was that when he was a kid, he wasn't too good with following directions.  Early on at Boot Camp, he took a multiple choice intelligence test with others who recently entered the service.  Because he wasn't paying attention to the sergeant explaining the test and didn't read the directions, Jim used the space for the "Sample" question at the top of the answer sheet to enter his answer to the first question. The test took hours.  When the sergeant announced time was up, Jim circled his answer to the last test question and noticed that he had an extra space at the bottom of his answer sheet. That's when he realized throughout the entire test, each answer was off by one. Jim pleaded with the sergeant, told him what he had done and asked to take the test over.  That didn't happen.  

While the results of the intelligence test weren't routinely distributed to the men, Jim was mortified to learn from one of his officers that he had the second lowest score on the intelligence test.  Depending on which family member was telling the story, it was either the second lowest score in the history of the test, or it was the second lowest score of all men serving in the Navy at that time.  Regardless, the test score followed him everywhere for the entire time that he was in the service.  When reporting for each new assignment, each new officer would greet him with, "Parker, huh?," glance down at their clipboard, grimace, and shake their head.  Then he would be given an assignment that the officer believed could cause the least possible damage to the crew, the ship and himself, such as watch duty in a potato bin.  

I always wondered if Jim got the second lowest score, who got the lowest?

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