Alvin Hays A Sailor's Life in World War II (Part 1 of 2)

Speaker 2:
0:11

Connecting the dots, Connecting his guests to the world, Creating more connections. Welcome to the Connection. Meet your host. Author, coach, Air Force veteran Jay Morales.

Alvin Hays:
0:30

Moving up and down.

Jay Miralles:
0:32

Okay, all right. Three, two, one. Okay. So, al, I have the privilege and the honor of interviewing you today. Thank you for having us in lovely Red Oak, iowa. We're going to do a lot of talking today. I'm going to ask you a lot of questions, but I just want this to be a conversation between friends, okay, and we don't have to be formal at all. The reason I want to share this story is I want to honor your legacy, I want to honor your values in life and I want you to speak to this generation. So keep that in mind as we talk. So, alvin Hayes, motor Mac third class and that's, that's Navy, correct? Right? So tell me, explain to me first of all, motor Mac third class, like that's not. That rank doesn't even exist anymore. I'm sure it doesn't, right? Right, because now it's, it's ensign and and Siemens, siemens, basic and things that nature. So tell me, 1943 is when you joined. You needed your mother's consent.

Alvin Hays:
1:41

Yes, yes, and my dad's.

Jay Miralles:
1:44

My dad's consent Okay, because you were 17 years old.

Alvin Hays:
1:46

Yes.

Jay Miralles:
1:47

Then you held up, then they held you and they used you in 1944, then you entered in 1944, actual entered till 1946. So take me back to the day you spoke to mom and dad about, because you volunteered, you weren't drafted, that's right. So tell me about that, al.

Alvin Hays:
2:05

Well, I wanted to join the army because my dad had been the army. Okay, and we're a war one, oh, okay, and he got knocked out in the Argonne Forest in France. Okay, and they left him for dead. Four days later they've come by and picking up the dead and they send him move his arm, and that's when they discovered that he was alive.

Jay Miralles:
2:38

Did you already get notified that he was KIA or Well?

Alvin Hays:
2:41

I don't know anymore.

Jay Miralles:
2:43

You don't know more than just what you said. Yeah, wow, so dad's moving.

Alvin Hays:
2:48

And dad wouldn't let me join the army. Okay, Because, he said he'd already been in so many foxholes with water trying to call it my bedroom at night. Yeah, that he said I don't want anybody to have to go through that again. So, Well, I had a school teacher that had two nephews that had they were twins and they had joined the Navy in 1941. And they were on the battleship Oklahoma when the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor on December the 7th.

Jay Miralles:
3:33

Wow.

Alvin Hays:
3:34

And it rolled there in Pearl Harbor.

Jay Miralles:
3:38

Yep Pearl Harbor Put down yeah.

Alvin Hays:
3:42

So they had to jump through the out into the greasy water, swim Through the fire. Keep the fire away from them.

Jay Miralles:
3:52

Yeah.

Alvin Hays:
3:54

And the school teacher says that they was coming home for Thanksgiving dinner in 1943.

Jay Miralles:
4:05

Okay.

Alvin Hays:
4:07

And would you like to go and talk to the boys, would I?

Jay Miralles:
4:13

Yeah, and how old are you? 16, 17. That's 17, right, yeah, okay, they talked to you. What do you?

Alvin Hays:
4:21

remember about the conversation. Well, for one thing is I had never met them before. Okay, and they were in the dress whites.

Jay Miralles:
4:30

Yeah.

Alvin Hays:
4:31

Oh, and they looked. I never seen anybody look so great as they did.

Jay Miralles:
4:36

Yeah, and their dress whites.

Alvin Hays:
4:38

And they started telling about what had happened to them in Pearl Harbor on December the 7th. Well, when I went home that night, from then on I start badgering my dad. You know, would it make a difference if I would you let me join the Navy? I don't want to hear any more about it? He says, wow, well, and I asked him that up until Christmas. And finally he says after Christmas I'll take you to Council Bluffs and see if they'll take you. So him and mom took me to Council Bluffs and I enlisted Sure, they'd take me. Well, and so, and now that was in 43, see, right, I wasn't out of school yet.

Jay Miralles:
5:34

You were just, yeah, you were 17.

Alvin Hays:
5:36

Yeah, I was a senior in high school.

Jay Miralles:
5:38

Yeah.

Alvin Hays:
5:40

And the middle of the about February I got a call the letter that says report to the place in Des Moines. So they kind of decided that that would be what was going to take place. It was supposed to be in May, see, or the last part of April.

Jay Miralles:
6:10

When? Was it like? Towards the middle of summer, but they called you in February. Were you done with school then at that time?

Alvin Hays:
6:17

Well, I already had enough credits to graduate.

Jay Miralles:
6:19

Okay, okay.

Alvin Hays:
6:21

And they sent me to from there right on after I got in Des Moines. We stayed overnight and from there they set us to Great Lakes, illinois, and started training.

Jay Miralles:
6:38

So you rode the train.

Alvin Hays:
6:41

From Des Moines to Chicago.

Jay Miralles:
6:44

Yeah.

Alvin Hays:
6:45

All day long.

Jay Miralles:
6:46

I can only imagine Because you know, I've done enough interviews that you jump from one little town to the other and picked up some more, you know. Yeah and Al, I've done enough interviews that I've been corrected about World War II that they said we didn't have no airports.

Alvin Hays:
7:03

Stood up all the way.

Jay Miralles:
7:05

What.

Alvin Hays:
7:06

Stood up on this train all the way.

Jay Miralles:
7:08

Wow.

Alvin Hays:
7:10

And when we got into Chicago we had to get on that elevated and take us north. You know it's about an hour from downtown or the railroad station.

Jay Miralles:
7:24

Yeah.

Alvin Hays:
7:26

And so we started training Well to me as a farm boy and done a lot of heavy work. It was like a walk in the park.

Jay Miralles:
7:39

Because you're used to the work ethic.

Alvin Hays:
7:41

The city guys are to kill them.

Jay Miralles:
7:43

The city guys.

Alvin Hays:
7:45

Well, I mean, they had done more than a few calcetics or high school basketball or something you know. And so that's when I found out that I weighed 130 pounds.

Jay Miralles:
8:02

When you joined, at 17 years old.

Alvin Hays:
8:04

And you had to be able to lift twice your weight 260 pounds. Wow, and be able to carry that mile on your back.

Jay Miralles:
8:18

One mile. Double your weight on your back. What that looked like.

Alvin Hays:
8:25

Damn tough to do. They couldn't do it, but I could. Yeah, because I used ordinary work. Yeah, ordinary work, he knows.

Jay Miralles:
8:36

Yeah.

Alvin Hays:
8:37

Well, anyway, I thought boot camp. We was there six weeks.

Jay Miralles:
8:44

Six weeks in boot camp okay.

Alvin Hays:
8:47

And the two mile run. Well, that was just walking the park too, and some of the others, it's totally exhausted. It was amazing, you know that went so quick. Well, when I got my out of boot camp. Why they give me five days off? Well, it took one day to get back to Reddick.

Jay Miralles:
9:14

Yeah.

Alvin Hays:
9:15

Took another day to get back in.

Jay Miralles:
9:18

So I hold three or four days yeah.

Alvin Hays:
9:20

Yeah, too bad. So we laid around there in outgoing unit. You know what that is.

Jay Miralles:
9:27

Well, when you OGU Okay, yes, yes, yes, yes. Outgoing unit, yes.

Alvin Hays:
9:33

So they divided this up. They took 24 out of 240. They sent us to Little Creek, virginia, on train. Okay, the rest of the 240 went to the west coast. Now, I never kept track of them after that, sure Whether they went to the fleet or whether they took more training.

Jay Miralles:
10:00

Right.

Alvin Hays:
10:00

But we started to take training in Little Creek, Virginia.

Jay Miralles:
10:06

Yeah.

Alvin Hays:
10:07

And it was small boat training like the Higgins boats.

Jay Miralles:
10:14

Yes.

Alvin Hays:
10:15

And that's the boat, the plywood boats, with the steel ramp that lets down in front.

Jay Miralles:
10:20

Yes.

Alvin Hays:
10:21

And we started training on those, okay, and I didn't know. I knew what a boat was, but that just about summed it up. You got that.

Jay Miralles:
10:30

You seen them. You seen them around.

Alvin Hays:
10:32

And so we got wet every day or two. I could swim a little bit enough to save myself.

Jay Miralles:
10:42

I want to stop you there, al. I want to ask you. So your job, though, was scouts and raiders. Is that correct? Scouts and raiders, which we know evolved into Navy SEALs. Can you explain to what that meant? Will Okay, yes, sir, I will wait for that, but that's how I got into.

Alvin Hays:
10:58

It was through the boat business, boat business, okay, and I was. I kind of knew how to change the battery and the motors. Yes, and after they get seawater, you know that cable rocks or it dissipates quite.

Jay Miralles:
11:23

Yes. Those will they rode away the copper, the copper, yeah.

Alvin Hays:
11:27

Yeah, well, and so you have to take them off and put them on, and I could do that because I'd done it on the farm On different things, oh, yeah. I wasn't exactly dumb you were handy. Change bolts and things.

Jay Miralles:
11:40

Yeah.

Alvin Hays:
11:41

And so they made me an engineer that I could do that. Well, I met another young fella that was from Gulfport, Mississippi. Yeah, yeah. When I was in boot camp and him and I started competing with one another On a two-mile run, we'd each one see who could be back first.

Jay Miralles:
12:07

Yeah.

Alvin Hays:
12:09

And we just kept doing that.

Jay Miralles:
12:11

Yes.

Alvin Hays:
12:11

Well, he was on this same bunch that was sent to Virginia, yeah, and so we trained together and we still did the calcetics and did a lot of the water characteristics around the boat. He'd lived on the Gulf so he knew all about swimming and boats and what have you. Well, I learned from him, but we still competed.

Jay Miralles:
12:43

Yeah, absolutely Every day. We competed, yes, and friendly competition Right.

Alvin Hays:
12:49

Yes, well, it didn't always end up that way. I'm sure Because from the standpoint after we got into the seals I'll skip that until we get back to the seals that we started out with a little four-cylinder gasoline engines in the boats.

Jay Miralles:
13:09

Mm-hmm.

Alvin Hays:
13:10

And they didn't have enough poop to put the ramp up on the beach every time.

Jay Miralles:
13:21

Oh yeah.

Alvin Hays:
13:22

Especially with the load on them Right. So they took grows out and changed the larger and everything and put in four-cylinder Buddha deshals. Okay, they had a lot more, but not really could use more. So getting back to our training area lasted about six weeks and we enjoyed the boat work.

Alvin Hays:
13:55

It was kind of fun at times, and yet it wasn't. And I wasn't quite used to being in the boats something like that over the year, right Until I got into the service. Well, all at once they told us that your training is finished here Four o'clock. Have your seatbags packed and you'll be taken to the train. We had no idea where we were going. We couldn't find out anything. We found this out by—they was a couple of the young gals that worked for the military. They were in the Navy Yard in Norfolk, virginia.

Jay Miralles:
14:53

Norfolk Virginia.

Alvin Hays:
14:55

And they told us that it was going to be a transfer and if we would get on to this real quick like we get—have a chance to go If you want to leave this area. Well, of course you don't know whether you do or you don't, but anyway, we got on the train at four o'clock and we headed out and we woke up in the morning. We had no idea what direction. We know. We couldn't go east. We didn't know that the train couldn't go east and woke up the next morning we was in Jacksonville, florida, watering up the old steamer see. And well, we thought, sure now we'll get off here. Well, we didn't know there was any Navy bases in Jacksonville.

Jay Miralles:
15:48

Right.

Alvin Hays:
15:49

Well, so we stayed aboard and see, we had a chief with us and he stayed right with us, just hung to us like we were good to him. And so it was long, about the middle of the afternoon or little later than maybe three o'clock, and we talked why the train stopped and everybody rushes to the windows or the door and looks out where we at. Well, you couldn't see nothing but the brush in Florida, undergrowth and all of that kind of a junk. Yeah, or in the hill, aren't we?

Jay Miralles:
16:31

I would have asked the same thing and he says off, boys, off, throw your sea bag out.

Alvin Hays:
16:36

And he says about a half a mile down here. He says there's a road that goes crossways here and there'll be some transportation to pick you up, take you to where you're going to go. Well, it was probably a mile and a half instead of a half.

Jay Miralles:
16:56

With your sea bag.

Alvin Hays:
16:57

With your sea bag on your shoulder and we took about five minutes. And then he says let's just double time a little bit yeah.

Jay Miralles:
17:06

Double time it huh.

Alvin Hays:
17:07

And carry that too Well. Of course, myself and Rudy Harden, him and I was in competition, and so Each one see who could outdo the other whole mile and a half With that over on her shoulder well. We got down there and there was a couple of trucks that looked like cattle, trucks with a high side, just like Anyplace else.

Alvin Hays:
17:38

Yeah it was a cattle truck, so throw your seat bag in one, then you get in the other. Yeah, and we drove through the brush for 20 minutes. We come to this little town called Fort Pierce, florida. It was a small town, look kind of like Small as Malvern or small as Malvern, that's small. Didn't amount to much then sure and we come to this bridge. Everybody was looking yeah and there was a sent. It looked like a brand new bridge and it was, and there was a sentry on each end of the bridge.

Jay Miralles:
18:23

Oh yeah.

Alvin Hays:
18:24

They had to stop and get permission to cross.

Jay Miralles:
18:28

Mm-hmm.

Alvin Hays:
18:29

We got on the other end. They had to stop and get permission to Go ahead and go through the gate and unload. Well, we couldn't see nothing but this brush. There was no buildings on it at all. We did see one big white tent, great large tent, and and what's the first thing? That some guy in the back didn't want to be recognized says where's the barracks? He says 15 minutes, you'll be issued one.

Jay Miralles:
19:07

Oh.

Alvin Hays:
19:10

Okay, what that meant. That means a tent right, right, a tent.

Jay Miralles:
19:16

You're not getting the barracks.

Alvin Hays:
19:17

He said well, where are we going to place them? He said you'll find out and they. Finally we grabbed your C bag and drill, marched up Several yards and there was a kind of a open way through the brush there, and Not a walkway, just kind of a opening so you wouldn't get scratched. And we went through that and he says your tents are laying there in a pile, your barracks are Put them together right on the beach. And we did right on the beach right on the beach, just above the waterline.

Alvin Hays:
20:04

Yeah on high tide, you could just with the wind in the east, you could end up. You wouldn't have to wash your feet that day.

Jay Miralles:
20:14

Well, that was convenient that way.

Alvin Hays:
20:17

That was a little different in the foreign country, let me tell you. Well, from there on he got more interesting all right and they told us that very same day.

Alvin Hays:
20:33

Uncle Sam owns you night and day, says this you're going to be down here and he says it's 20 hour days every day 20 hour days and you might get to sleep four hours and you might not get to sleep any, but still 20 hour day and he says Half of the time you'll be working at night studying. And he says first thing in the morning, at two o'clock in the morning, he said we're gonna do ten miles.

Jay Miralles:
21:12

Right, right in the morning, ten miles mark with, with, with a pack on. No, no pack, just just okay. Just ten miles full grass, okay, oh yeah, whoa and everything.

Alvin Hays:
21:24

And so five up, five back. See that give me a ten miles. Yes and he says I'm right now. He says there's gonna be a. Your director or teacher is gonna be with you Every minute of the day and night. He said you'll think it, he's part of your life. And we did. Every three out of the 24 of us, they had six instructors, wow, and they was with you. If that you went ten miles, they went ten miles. Okay, if you swim a hundred yards, they swim a hundred yards. You couldn't goof off.

Jay Miralles:
22:12

No.

Alvin Hays:
22:12

Well, it got so that with that ten miles, I'm one of those person that that Gulls in the crotch.

Jay Miralles:
22:24

Yeah, down the legs.

Alvin Hays:
22:25

Yes, yes especially if you got a little sand in.

Jay Miralles:
22:28

Yes, they had right and it would chafe. It start chafeing right.

Alvin Hays:
22:34

Understatement of the year. Sometimes, when we get back from that ten miles, why my shoes would be full of blood because it would bleed down blood just running right down your clothes, your shoes and Some of the guys start yelping. You know well, Rudy and I was ended up first and back again. Yeah and Old chief says to you. He says you guys look like you need some help.

Jay Miralles:
23:08

Go take a swim to wash that off, but that's salt water.

Alvin Hays:
23:15

So that's what you did yeah and and now that's just two o'clock in the morning.

Jay Miralles:
23:20

That's two o'clock in the. That's not during the day.

Alvin Hays:
23:23

No, that's not during the day, that's in the morning. You can't hardly see anything, hardly see. We were up every night most of the night, maybe four hours, wow, we would back even though it was dark and, by the way, we were all issued Night night glasses. Oh, okay, yeah, night vision yes and so that was one of the things he kept us in shape with running and we had classes in between and this big white tent it had everything you could imagine.

Alvin Hays:
24:05

That was the child hall, that was the Commissary, commissary, that was Didn't make any difference, what you wanted.

Jay Miralles:
24:15

How big was this tent? It was as big as a football field, half a football field, probably half half a football field, and had everything in it. Yeah, oh gosh.

Alvin Hays:
24:24

How many people were in the area at that time, you think well, that was the All the commissary, the pharmacy, everything was there, wow, and we had lessons there too. Yes and we had a place that was blocked off and they showed an awful lot of shows by, For instance, you had to learn every plane that was made in the USA yeah, Japan and in Germany yeah. England. You had to be able to identify that in one second from the ground, from the ground sometimes right on these, on these slides.

Alvin Hays:
25:09

Yes, and you. You got to where it was ships first, or one thing probably planes, first in ships and then In patrol boats. Wow, and they started showing us then About what the seals was up to okay so you got an idea of what you were doing. Right, you thought you did, and, of course, each one of us. They give you exactly one second On that slide and they click again, see yeah and then you had to record it.

Jay Miralles:
25:51

You start to write it down and you didn't write it down.

Alvin Hays:
25:54

You Put a dot on.

Jay Miralles:
25:56

I'll put a dot on, okay, okay.

Alvin Hays:
25:58

And what it was. And you had to be a before we left there. We had to be a hundred percent perfect of what you seen, wow. But that may be what you will see in one second, right where you're going right. And so we studied, you the ocean, we studied the skies, we studied the wind, everything you can possibly imagine. We studied Right and you got so good at it that you could almost tell the next one was coming up, whether what sort of a plane. Then, after we got pretty good at that, I told him. I said you know I can swim, but to save myself maybe.

Jay Miralles:
26:50

Maybe yeah.

Alvin Hays:
26:52

And he says good, he says you'll be able to swim 100 yards to start with football field.

Jay Miralles:
27:02

to start with, I said I think maybe you will In the ocean yeah, right in the ocean, out, yeah and back.

Alvin Hays:
27:12

Well, you got fresh water all the time there.

Jay Miralles:
27:14

Yeah, yeah.

Alvin Hays:
27:18

And it may be in the daytime, maybe at night, sure, and so, of course, rudy, he kind of protected me then because he knew how, see, living on the Gulf, yeah, and, but we still competed.

Jay Miralles:
27:34

Yeah.

Alvin Hays:
27:35

And so it wasn't very long until we'd learned one thing and then another, and it'd come to be on Saturday, I believe one Saturday, and the chief says you guys are doing pretty good, we own you, you understand, we own you, period. Yeah.

Jay Miralles:
28:00

And what did you think when they said that?

Alvin Hays:
28:04

Well, we signed up for it, I guess Right. And then he says I should have put this in before that. He says out of the 24 hours, he says we own you every day for that 24 hours, but you might get four hours of sleep, you might.

Jay Miralles:
28:26

You might.

Alvin Hays:
28:27

And he says on Sunday. He says from 10 to 12, that's your free time. You can write letters. You can't call because there are no phones.

Jay Miralles:
28:40

Right, right, there are no phones.

Alvin Hays:
28:42

Yes, and he says or you can take a nap, whatever you want to do, but he says, then there's church services on Sunday from 10 to 12.

Jay Miralles:
29:00

Did you go to a church services?

Alvin Hays:
29:04

And he says it's not required.

Jay Miralles:
29:07

OK.

Alvin Hays:
29:08

But let me tell you, son, you better be there. While you're going, you're going to need all the help you can get, wow.

Jay Miralles:
29:17

Wow, so that answers my question.

Alvin Hays:
29:19

And he says after he said that it's not compulsory but you kind of insist. He said you'll find out, and so from that day on every Sunday we look forward to Sunday we could sit down and listen to something besides your supervisor. Trying to fill our heads full, see, and then, oh, we took memory lessons too.

Jay Miralles:
29:55

OK.

Alvin Hays:
29:55

Completely memory lessons. Everything After they would teach us and tell us what different things were. You had to repeat it right back to him. Just this quick from you to him.

Jay Miralles:
30:10

That.

Alvin Hays:
30:11

Word for word. Wow, and you got good enough that you could do it.

Jay Miralles:
30:16

Word for word or nothing. Right Word for word, exact verbatim.

Alvin Hays:
30:20

You stayed with it till you got it. The next day would be the same thing.

Jay Miralles:
30:25

Wow, I can imagine how much training you got.

Alvin Hays:
30:31

And oh, it was absolutely out of this world you can't imagine. Anybody that's never been through it don't really realize. And then we got far enough along that they said today is the day that we're going to learn to swim underwater. Ok, I told him. I said. He said you'll learn or you'll drown. Now, just one and the other to make up your mind.

Jay Miralles:
30:58

Well, here you are.

Alvin Hays:
30:59

We could do 100 yards underwater, you know, as a football field.

Jay Miralles:
31:03

Yes, that's different than being on top of the water right, it's quite a bit.

Alvin Hays:
31:08

And it's in the ocean.

Jay Miralles:
31:10

Yes, and you can't see much. I mean, did you have the snorkel or the mask and all that? Yeah, and they're not like the masks we have today. Oh, no, no, those are probably the first ones ever invented. So tell me how that was.

Alvin Hays:
31:26

For one thing is you had to learn to run to get the mask wet.

Jay Miralles:
31:33

Yes, so that it wouldn't fog up.

Alvin Hays:
31:35

That's true.

Jay Miralles:
31:36

You had to spin in it, right.

Alvin Hays:
31:38

And then you had to learn to swim underwater.

Jay Miralles:
31:42

Yeah.

Alvin Hays:
31:43

You take a breath underneath your arm. Oh, the air that when you come up like that, you get through.

Jay Miralles:
31:49

Yes, and then you'd have to really.

Alvin Hays:
31:53

That's where we got our air to learn to swim underwater. You didn't snorkel.

Jay Miralles:
31:58

Wow, you didn't snorkel? No, they're even snorkeling Wow.

Alvin Hays:
32:03

So we were prepared for health. What came?

Jay Miralles:
32:07

Yes.

Alvin Hays:
32:08

And one day after we had had all of this training, you could almost tell that they were getting tired of us or something. And they told us one afternoon about 2 o'clock make sure you see bags packed. You're leaving tonight.

Jay Miralles:
32:30

And you didn't know where.

Alvin Hays:
32:31

No, we went on the train and we woke up at midnight and we was in Washington DC and the guy says oh my god, you mean to tell me we're going to be attache-save to some high up.

Jay Miralles:
32:47

Yeah.

Alvin Hays:
32:49

Airborne or something. And so, nope, the train stopped and I think they took on something else. And anyhow, we went there very long and we kept going north, kept going north, and about the middle of the afternoon we got up to Providence, rhode Island, and they said everybody off. Well, there's a lot of ship building and stuff up in that area. Well, they said, you will be bussed over to the island. Fall over Massachusetts.

Jay Miralles:
33:36

OK.

Alvin Hays:
33:37

And the ship will be in. It's at sea now, but it'll be back in when it comes in.

Jay Miralles:
33:46

Whatever it shows up.

Alvin Hays:
33:47

And so they put us up in the hotel About two days later when the ship come in, and they come over in one of the boats and took us back to the ship. And that's the first we'd seen it A brand new ship out on Shake Down.

Jay Miralles:
34:08

Wow.

Alvin Hays:
34:09

And it fired the guns and broke all of the glass mirrors and restrooms and everything and the big compasses that float in.

Jay Miralles:
34:26

Yes, in the globes almost.

Alvin Hays:
34:27

Like yeah, yeah, yes, ok, yes, it broke both of those.

Jay Miralles:
34:31

Wow, that's how powerful they were.

Alvin Hays:
34:34

That's how powerful. The guns shook stuff up so much, and so we spent about two or three more days learning to put those boats on the ship.

Jay Miralles:
34:49

The Higgins boats, higgins boats, yeah.

Alvin Hays:
34:54

Took us 13 hours to put them all on. We had 32 of them.

Jay Miralles:
34:58

Wow, how many of you were loading. That's fast.

Alvin Hays:
35:01

They was, let's see two, four, about eight places. They could load them.

Jay Miralles:
35:08

Right Wow.

Alvin Hays:
35:10

They had davits on the side.

Jay Miralles:
35:13

Yes, each side on a rail Right, and that would lift them up. Yeah.

Alvin Hays:
35:18

And then they had the booms that would swing over and pick them up, bring them in and set them down in their sockets.

Jay Miralles:
35:26

Ok, so we're talking about loading the boats and you have 32 boats and 13 hours. Keep going from there.

Alvin Hays:
35:36

We worked on that before we went overseas enough times that we could load them in 13, 14 minutes all of them, and ready to tie them down.

Jay Miralles:
35:49

Yeah.

Alvin Hays:
35:50

Couldn't tie them down. The ones on the davits you could, on each side, but the ones the boom would bring them up over the top you had to tie them down. Then they put another frame across and put another one on top of that. But it was all mechanical.

Jay Miralles:
36:11

Yeah, it's a lot of work. Still, though oh yes, dangerous too had to know what you were doing, right, because it's dangerous you could lose a finger, a hand, or those things can fall on you.

Alvin Hays:
36:20

And the cables do snap After especially this. They were all new because the ship was new, but then we sailed for Norfolk.

Jay Miralles:
36:36

OK, into Norfolk, Virginia. Ok, because I'm excited to learn where you went here. So that's where we're at right now. We're on the boat.

Alvin Hays:
36:46

We stayed there about three to four days to a week and they refitted everything that was broke, worked day and night on it. It was originally the Atlantic colors. The ship was, you know, light blue at the top, white in the middle. The lower half was dark blue. One night we went to bed. The next morning we woke up it was dark gray. The whole ship had been painted that night Dark gray. You got to remember in Chesapeake Bay there is submarines put up, every submarine, nets put up every day.

Alvin Hays:
37:41

Only from eight o'clock to eight o'clock is the submarines nets down that ships can go in and out of Chesapeake Bay. Otherwise the German submarines would be in there the next day. We put all new boats on brand new boats. They were 600 GM 760s. They had the stuff. You could put it up on the sand. So far you couldn't get back home. So anyway, we pulled out of the Navy Yard and had to wait there until the submarine nets had been dropped. So we crossed and then we headed south. We knew we were going through the Panama Canal and the same thing there the nets were up and down. You had to wait a certain time before you could.

Jay Miralles:
38:51

For the channel to fill up. So these were only places that you either studied or read about, right? All this is discovery. This is all new to you.

Alvin Hays:
39:00

Nobody knew a thing. No, I didn't know a thing about that.

Jay Miralles:
39:03

Until then, yeah, really yeah, not even in school, wow.

Alvin Hays:
39:09

Oh yeah, they told us in school, right?

Jay Miralles:
39:11

but then that was your first time to see it. First time to see it, yeah, it's different, right, like everyone's learned about it, but you've seen it first hand, so keep going from there and when our turn came up to go through the locks, they uh, you take off.

Alvin Hays:
39:30

we had to take off a certain amount of the Higgins boats. Because of the weight Because the was too wide. There's only about this much. On each side they got the mules, you know, on each side and, uh, and they're chained or not chained, but tied tight so that, uh you, they just keep you about that far from each side, and we had eight or eight of the power boats falling behind the ship and every time she raised.

Jay Miralles:
40:07

Yeah, yeah.

Alvin Hays:
40:08

Why then we could go into the next lock?

Jay Miralles:
40:11

To the next lock. Yeah, and that took forever.

Alvin Hays:
40:15

Took all day to get through the back of the volcano, oh my god. And then when we come out on the uh uh Pacific side, yeah. Why? It was the same thing. We had to wait till the lord sub-marine nets put the boats back on, and then we were ready to sail. We went from there to Pearl.

Jay Miralles:
40:41

To Pearl Harbor.

Alvin Hays:
40:42

Yeah 14 days.

Jay Miralles:
40:44

Wow. So that's your first time on a ship that long without stepping foot off. What's going through your mind, sharing all those bunks and living on a ship, and tell us what it's like. Explain to these people who are listening what is being on a ship like in 19. That was 1944. 1944. Do you remember the name of the ship or you don't remember?

Alvin Hays:
41:11

Oh yes.

Jay Miralles:
41:12

Oh, what's the name of?

Alvin Hays:
41:13

the ship USS Dolphin, ap 97.

Jay Miralles:
41:16

Wow, you the.

Alvin Hays:
41:17

A-U-P-H-I-N.

Jay Miralles:
41:20

What was the number at the end?

Alvin Hays:
41:21

97. Apa 97. Wow. Apa means attack, personnel assault or assault personnel attack. Yes, wow so that kind of tells you something, even though dumb, as we were trained and everything but no, what I love your sense of humor.

Jay Miralles:
41:47

I love it.

Alvin Hays:
41:48

Well, it took me out of my environment.

Jay Miralles:
41:52

Sure.

Alvin Hays:
41:52

I had no idea because I hadn't been around the sea. I'd never seen one of them big iron things, and they can imagine. You can imagine trying to make me believe they could float Right.

Jay Miralles:
42:06

I mean, in theory it should right. But again, these are things that you've either seen in books or things that as a kid, you probably just read about some things you know. But now you are on this big ship, on this big, I mean on this assault personnel attack. You know boat and you're you're headed to Pearl Harbor. Okay, tell me about that.

Alvin Hays:
42:32

The first three or four days out, the sea was just like smooth glass, you're like this is great and boring as a dickens. Yeah, you get no roll at all.

Jay Miralles:
42:46

Yes, yes, nothing Huh yeah.

Alvin Hays:
42:49

And then the wind picks up, you know, and you're starting to get some more movement of the ocean. Yeah, and so your time passes faster.

Jay Miralles:
42:59

Okay.

Alvin Hays:
43:00

We are in a little rougher water.

Jay Miralles:
43:02

Yeah, were you seasick.

Alvin Hays:
43:04

No, never got seasick once.

Jay Miralles:
43:05

Really, have you ever gotten like dizzy from motion sickness later on in life? No, nothing Good for you. Good for you, no. Okay, so no motion sickness. Where are we now, are we?

Alvin Hays:
43:18

at Finally got to Pearl Harbor.

Jay Miralles:
43:20

Okay.

Alvin Hays:
43:22

And so our first impression was all those battleships upside down, battleship roll, and that we were right in beside them, you know, and the carriers that left on Saturday before the Sunday bombing, how you, how unlucky, can you get so lucky? I?

Jay Miralles:
43:50

mean these are three years later. This is just literally. It's that fresh.

Alvin Hays:
43:54

Yeah.

Jay Miralles:
43:54

And you're telling me these boats are upside down. All people know today of that owl is just the museum. You said it when it was fresh.

Alvin Hays:
44:06

And you see it wasn't deep enough.

Jay Miralles:
44:10

Right.

Alvin Hays:
44:11

But once you could see half of the ship laid over like that.

Jay Miralles:
44:16

Yeah, yeah.

Alvin Hays:
44:17

And the reason the Arizona never. They put it right down the stack. The jeps dropped them right down the stack and blew the engine room apart. Inside out it blew up and the magazine and all of them were loaded with 16-inch powder cases.

Alvin Hays:
44:39

It was a sight to make you cry even if you didn't know a damn thing about it, and to think how many sailors lost their lives. So we stayed there about oh, I'm going to say five or six days and refueled, took on food and filled all of our ammunition storage completely full. We had three five-inch guns, five 38s and we had about 10 dual quad mount 40 millimeters. 40 millimeters, you know, they come up in cans. All of this is coming from the bottom of the ship From the hull.

Jay Miralles:
45:33

Yeah, yeah.

Alvin Hays:
45:35

And there's four clips to a can and there's five, six shells in each clip.

Jay Miralles:
45:45

Every fifth shell is a tracer, a tracer so you can see where it's going. Al your memory is so vividly sharp.

Alvin Hays:
45:56

And the five-inch guns. I was on a five-inch gun, by the way, too, and the five-inch guns were. Each shell come up different, I mean separate.

Jay Miralles:
46:11

Yep.

Alvin Hays:
46:11

You had to go on a elevator and the shell weighed 105 pounds. You had to pick them up.

Jay Miralles:
46:21

Put them in.

Alvin Hays:
46:23

And set them up on the fuse setter, and they would call you from the bridge and tell you how far to set the fuses on them. You turn the crank and that set the fuses. And so then the powder case. It was about 40, maybe not 40 inches, but it was longer than 36. Solid brass, yeah, and it weighed 56 pounds.

Jay Miralles:
46:53

So the reason why you set the fuses you would charge it, it would shoot projectile and then the fuse timed out to where, based on what the bridge was telling you.

Alvin Hays:
47:06

And that was they. Had it figured out how far the kamikazis were at 25,000 yards and they would bring it right down and you would set it for that, and then you'd keep setting them closer, closer, as the kamikazis come in. Yeah 30, 35 or 40 at a bunch.

Jay Miralles:
47:31

And you would have to fix the trajectory of your five inch right Based on. You know what measurements were they using Latitude, longitude, what was that what they're using? And they were telling you here's what the numbers are, and you waited for orders to fire that. How long would it take to cycle one shot?

Alvin Hays:
47:49

You mean from one shot to the other.

Jay Miralles:
47:51

Yeah.

Alvin Hays:
47:52

On a five inch gun it would take about three minutes.

Jay Miralles:
47:55

Three minutes because you have to put it 25 people working. Yeah, that's incredible Wow.

Alvin Hays:
48:05

And oh yeah, I've seen there's powder cases so thick on the deck that they have to kick them over out in the water.

Jay Miralles:
48:15

Yeah.

Alvin Hays:
48:17

And the turret wouldn't hardly turn.

Jay Miralles:
48:19

Because, yeah, that's, I can't imagine.

Alvin Hays:
48:23

And oh yeah, it would just melt the paint right off of the barrel of the gun, you know.

Jay Miralles:
48:28

Yeah, yeah, so this was no longer training, this is a real thing, this is a real thing. These kamikazes are coming in attacking Pearl Harbor, attacking your ships and you guys are firing back.

Alvin Hays:
48:43

Yeah, and you don't fire directly at them.

Jay Miralles:
48:47

Right.

Alvin Hays:
48:47

Because it's the shell burst Right and the flak is what kills the plane.

Jay Miralles:
48:58

Right so, and they were coming out of nowhere. Yeah 35 to 40 of them at the same time? How many people were battling or how many guns were at those kamikaze airplanes?

Alvin Hays:
49:09

Depend on how many ships were on the in the flotilla.

Jay Miralles:
49:13

Right.

Alvin Hays:
49:13

If there was 10 or 12 of them in the flotilla, the sky would be black with it.

Speaker 2:
49:21

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