August 24, 1998

It is an honor to contribute to the verbal history of the USS H.J. Ellison during my short tenure as a planker from commissioning at the Brooklyn Navy Yard June 23, 1945 till March of 1946.

"Shakedown" took on a literal meaning when flank speed forward to flank speed back shook off one screw. Time at the Brooklyn Navy drydock fixed us up.

Ports of call included Newport, RI in the dead of winter, Gitmo (second trip), and screen duty with the Tarawa and her Marine Corsaire group. One pilot landed hard on the pitching deck, got covered with gasoline from a ruptured wing tank and jumped overboard. His rescue was in doubt.

Duty also included daily training trips out of Norfolk for future crews and a special memorial for Ens. H.J. Ellison steaming to Cape Henry October 21, 1945 with flowers and a TBM flyover. Movietone News covered the event but used footage of a destroyer out of New York.

We docked accress from the "Mighty MOE" in Norfolk upon her return from the Japanese surrender in the Pacific. That was memorable for me but the one thing that fixes the time of the end of WWII best in my mind was the song Sentimental Journey playing repeatedly in the Ward Room.

Thank you for this opportunity.

Sincerely,

Lloyd W. Dale (then) seaman l/c, fire control