My worst memory occurred in Naples, Italy.  The Dirty “D” was tied up at the pier.  I had the 1600-2000 watch and was standing in the throttle station area.  I looked up and there was smoke coming through the DC generator room door.  I flew up the ladder and across to the generator.  I quickly tripped the switch shutting it down and setting off the alarm in the process.  Needless to say, it wasn’t long before a lot of gold showed up.  As it turned out, the generator was fine.  A train with a coal burning steam engine had pulled along side of the ship.  The Dirty “D”s air intake sucked the smoke into the generator room.  The engineering officer was very happy that things had turned out the way they did and they assured me that I had followed the correct procedures.
 

I was assigned to the Denebola when it was commissioned and I have many great memories of my time aboard.  We were fortunate to have Commander Ramey as our skipper and the Executive Officer was Lieutenant Commander Frady.  At that time, the Dirty "D" had a total personnel compliment of 221.  It as a great crew and we got along very well.  Unfortunately, at the present time I am only in contact with 3 members of that original crew:  Charlie Veal of St. Joseph, Mo., Conrad Dyer of Shreveport, La., and Don Clancy of Gastonia, N.C.  Thanks to the ship's internet site, I have become acquainted with many others who served on her over the years, and it has been a pleasure to get to know them.  However, I would love to hear from others who were aboard her when I was.
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