USS YUMA ATF – 94 1944
Leon Emerson QM 1/c

Sixty years ago, we had on our ship an interesting man, Clancy. Everyone has different memories about him and the cause of his leaving us. We each saw and remember it from a different perspective. I will relate what I remember.

When the war started, he went into the navy. He was a very good carpenter and they gave him a rating. He came aboard our ship as First Class and he soon made Chief Carpenters Mate.

He was a very big man, about six feet three inches, weight about 250 pounds, ruddy faced, sandy hair, often smiling and good natured but had a hot temper. He would sit in the Chief’s quarters hours on end and play cribbage with one or more of the other chiefs. He liked to drink, play poker and work out a lot on the fantail. I understand that he had been a professional wrestler at one time. He had spent 27 months in the Pacific before being assigned to our ship. He was very bitter about not getting a state side assignment. He sometimes said that he would go nuts if he could not get off this ship. He was a nice guy when he has feeling good but a nasty drunk. When drunk, if you had any sense, you got out of his way. I usually avoided him if I could. He slept in the next bunk from me in the Chief’s quarters after I made first class, but we were not close.

When he went ashore, got to a bar and started drinking he often ended up in a fight. It would take three or four policemen and shore patrolmen to take him in, because he seemed to like to go the hard way and they would accommodate him.

Before entering service his routine was about the same. Each time he got arrested there would be a big fight. The Desk Sgt. told him one day, “Clancy, if you like to fight so much why don’t you join the police force and you can get all the fighting you want. We have plenty to go around”. He joined and they assigned him the tenderloin beat, the toughest part of town. He was smiling when he told me this story.

When we were on shake down cruise in San Diego he got drunk ashore and I understand tore up the bar at the U.S Grant Hotel with several cops and shore patrolmen being beaten up. It looked like Clancy got the worst end of that deal. A similar thing happened in Oakland.

Once, when he and a boatswain mate were in San Francisco, they went into a Chinese restaurant in China Town. When they finished eating Clancy told him, go outside, I will take care of the check. The next thing he knew Clancy came running out with the check and told him to run. They outran the Chinaman.

One night we were anchored in Espirtos Santos, New Hebrides Islands and Clancy got drunk. He got a gun from the gun locker, for which he had a key and was waiving it around in the Chief’s quarters and talking about killing the Skipper and/or the Executive Officer.

We all cleared the Chief’s quarters to get out of the way. The Chief Pharmacist mate was trying to calm him down. It wasn’t working very well so he cleared out too. Being armed and drunk the Shore Patrol was called from the Flagship.

A Chief Boatswain Mate, rather modest in size and stature came aboard from a launch as a result of the call. We briefed him on what we had seen and heard before he approached Clancy. I was standing at the top of the ladder leading into the Chief’s quarters taking it all in, but at the same time staying out of the way.

The Chief Shore patrolman was a medium sized man but he had five gold hash marks on his sleeve, which indicated 20 years of good conduct, always admired and respected in the navy. I observed the contrast between the sizes of the two men. The Chief seemed about half of Clancy’s size but appeared calm self-assured and without fear.

He calmly went down the ladder into the Chief’s quarters and sat down across the table from Clancy and just stared at him, then said, “Clancy give me that gun. We are going to stop this nonsense. Clancy stared for a moment and then casually handed the gun to the chief, butt first.

Clancy, you are coming with me. They walked up the ladder, out to the gangway, down the ladder and got into the launch with the Chief Shore Patrol sitting beside him. We were amazed at how meek and docile he seemed, so much in contrast from his recent taunts and threats.

As the launch pulled away from the ship, Clancy took off his Chief’s hat and sailed it across the water saying, “Well that’s gone forever”. (He had only recently made chief carpenters mate) The launch disappeared into the night headed for the flagship.

What happened to Clancy no one seems to know? We heard rumors that he was given a mental discharge. He never returned to the ship. No one was hurt. There was no court martial. Maybe he got his wish to return to the states.

I have recently talked to several shipmates about this incident with Clancy. It is amazing what memory does to all of us after 60 years. Each remembered Clancy and the incidents quite differently. But Clancy, none will ever forget.


February 3, 2004