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Ramblings From the Editor! I write with great regret, the passing of an old shipmate and good friend; Jack DeWitt!Below is the obituary for Jack as per the Sacramento Bee: Commander Jack Rodney DeWitt, USNR (Ret.), died October 12, 2006. He passed away peacefully in Folsom with his family present. Commander DeWitt was born in Nebraska on May 6, 1922 to John and Oravina DeWitt. He attended Los Angeles area schools through Glendale Community College. He enlisted in the Navy in early 1942. He returned from the Solomon Islands to attend the Navy V-12 Program at USC. He was commissioned in March 1945 and finished the war on a destroyer. He was in business in Los Angeles when the Korean conflict started and was called to active duty and served for 26 months on a submarine, the USS Spinax, SS 489. Commander DeWitt stayed with the Naval Reserve until retiring as a Commander in 1982. Most of his civilian career was in agriculture. He first owned a cattle ranch in Northern California and later worked as a crop production and pest control advisor for Occidental Chemical Co. His last two years with OXY were in new product development and marketing at the Lathrop plant near Stockton. Here, close to the Delta, he could finally indulge his long interest in boating. Commander DeWitt enjoyed many years cruising the Sacramento River and Delta area with his family. He served as the Commodore of the San Joaquin Power Squadron. Jack is survived by his wife of 61 years, Dorothy, his sister Audrey Payne, and his five children: Kathleen (fiancé Tom Spiva) of Folsom, John of Lake Tahoe, Jan (Shirley) of Gold River, Jim (Marie) of Sacramento, and Paul (Jeri) of Rocklin. Other survivors include his grandchildren: Elizabeth Metcalf of Arizona, Jennifer Metcalf of Rocklin, Jana of Gold River, Christopher and Michael of Sacramento, and Jaclyn of Rocklin, and numerous nieces and nephews. There will be no public memorial service. Family service will be held at Trinity Episcopal Church in Folsom. In remembrance donations may be made to U.C. Davis Medical Center, 2315 Stockton Blvd. Sacramento, CA 95817. Jack served on Spinax from 1951 - 1953. I first met Jack when I moved to Stockton and discovered that he lived a couple of miles from me. We got together often in those days. Later he and his wife Dorothy moved up to Folsom, CA. Jack was a talker. He loved reminiscing about his days in the service, and could go on for hours! I will miss him greatly! Pecos
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More Bering Sea Tales From: Jack R. DeWitt The last paragraph of Glenn Duncan's story "memories of Spinax" reminded me of the mysterious cruise to Hawaii that ended up in the far reaches of the Bering Sea. So here is another tale to add to Glenn's. This was in September of 1951. We had a young red headed seaman on board who had extremely high ARI/GCT scores. So high that Capt. Lundgren was considering recommending him for Annapolis. We were about half way to Pearl. I, being new to the ship, was on the bridge as JOOD. The Captain came to the bridge and remarked that we should heave to for swim call. The red headed seaman, duty messenger, asked permission to lay below. TMC Rich, the COB, was on the foredeck with the escape hatch open with some of the deck force. We were still doing about 16 knots when the redheaded seaman came up the hatch in his swim trunks and immediately dove over the side. Captain Lundgren said "What the hell was that?". Needless to say, we performed the Williamson turn evolution to pick up a man overboard. The sea there was 2,000 fathoms. We did have a great swim call. In regards the storm that Glenn mentioned: Coming back south, through the Aleutions, out of the Bering Sea and into the Pacific we encountered a huge storm coming from the southwest. On the bridge we wore some survival suits that we were evaluating. Green water came up thru the deck boards as we headed into each wave. On OOD bridge watch at that particular time, no lookouts, the hatch to conning tower closed and a line lashing me to the radar mast, I felt pretty small. The waves were huge. I believe that heading into the sea we lost 5 miles per day for about 3 days. The crests of the waves were 1,800 feet apart on the radar scope. I later heard from a Norwegian sailor on a troop transport on its way to Korea with a load of Marines, in that same storm, that he had never seen such seas in his 45 years at sea. To finalize the tale of the redheaded seaman. When we were operating off of San Diego, Capt Lundgren was up on the bridge. He mentioned that a mug of coffee would be good. The redhead, again as messenger, laid below to fetch coffee. When he brought it up, the Captain took a swallow and immediately spit it out. Red had picked a mug out of the galley sink that had some pine oil in it and topped it off at the coffee urn. Needless to say, he was assigned to the tender when we came back in. Red was given the duty as coxswain of a 40 foot liberty launch which he promptly ran under the dock at Fleet Landing (With a full load of passengers from the tender.) As this did not help his popularity on the tender, he was further assigned to shore duty. Likely not at the Naval Academy. Crew members on that cruise North will also remember the recording often played over the announcing system "Cool, Cool, Water" by the Sons of The Pioneers, I believe. As the sea temperature was near freezing, the temperature in the boat was at 40F for a month. (Except in the engine rooms when charging batteries.) There was an extra air conditioning unit between the tubes in the forward room. The crew up there had down comforters for their bunks. It got a little frosty in those bunks most forward. The A/C was needed to dehumidify the air in the boat and minimize condensation in the electrical equipment. Jack DeWitt
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Changes of address, phone numbers and emails. If anyone has a change let me know ralarsen@comcast.net Updated: Chuck Wilson, 11351 Haswell Dr. Parker, CO.
80134 Final Patrol: Commander Jack DeWitt, 1951-53 |
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