Immediately after settling our men on board ship the officers, at my suggestion, agreed to the postponement of troop payment to a time no sooner than 24 hours prior to our arrival at the U. S. Port of Debarkation. We considered this action necessary in order to prevent ten percent of our men from siphoning one hundred percent of all pay-roll funds via dice and card games. We further agreed to begin dividing the payroll funds into the exact amounts allotted for each soldier and to place such amount into his own personalized envelope...such action to begin the following morning. The Ship's Executive Officer, Lieutenant McCarthy, had volunteered to-secure all Individual pay envelopes, as we complete them, in the ship's safe until signed for by me or my Executive Officer, a West Point Captain.

I have always been an early riser and, before daybreak the next morning, December 13, I stepped out on deck and was instantly and deeply concerned with the great velocity of the wind and the apparent struggle of the little vessel as it mounted and plunged over and through the angry looking waves. I finally shrugged my shoulders in a gesture of reluctant acceptance, and stepped from the deck into the brightly lighted mess hall as I pondered this thought: "What in the hell is a drouthy old West Texas cow-puncher, accustomed to less than 14 inches of rainfall per year, doing in a God-forsaken spot like this where the nearest contact with land would be, perhaps, about two miles and its direction from us would be STRAIGHT DOWN?"

We had arranged for all experienced mess personnel that were attached to our Unit to assist the Ship's complement, which was rather small in number. We were fortunate in having a surplus of good mess sergeants and other experienced mess personnel in our contingent and they now appeared to be well organized and to have the mess situation well under control.

It is now 06:30 on a windy, cloudy and threatening December 13. 1945. Many of our enlisted men and all of our officers appear to be enjoying an early breakfast...a rather unusual coincidence since a G-l's intense Iove for "sack time" is well known throughout the world and I am quite positive that no order has been issued to require such early rising.

Could it be that the severe weather conditions are causing a slight tinge of concern? Yesterday we agreed on the time of 10:00 this morning to start dividing our payrolI funds. Since we have planned to pay within the last 24 hours prior to debarking, we want to be sure that all arrangements are in order for rapid disbursement when the time arrives.

We started promptly at 10:00 and soon thereafter had payroll personnel properly placed around the tables with ALL of each denomination of currency or cash for which each man is responsible, placed directly in front of him. The Ship's Executive Officer, Lieutenant McCarthy, who is well experienced in payroll matters and who happens to be available at the time, is seated on my left to help if needed. I hold the original payroll which contains a list of names of all men in the contingent with the exact amount each man is due to receive. About an hour ago, I called the first name on the list and started the line to functioning.

At present we have approximately $50.000.00 spread out along the tables from beginning to the end of the counting line...the currency in seperate stacks of 100, 50, 20, 10, 5 and 1 dollar bills; the coins in large bowls of halves, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies and an estimated $15,000.00 to this point, has been accurately counted, rechecked and placed in the personalized envelopes which are now the responsibility of my Executive Officer at the end of the line. From that point he will continue to make the final count of the contents of each envelope coming to him, compare it with his copy of the payroll list and call his count of the contents with the name of the recipient back to me for final verification. This exact procedure will continue until the last man on the payroll list has been properly provided for.

The preparation of a payroll for 300 men is a tedious and painstaking task particularly when, as in our case, much of our help is inexperienced. All except payroll and mess personnel, approximately 25 to 30 men, were cleared from the mess hall long before the 10:00 starting time.

At the beginning of the payroll count, we thought that the action of the wind and waves had slightly moderated and had assumed, perhaps carelessly, that their action would, at least, remain constant...another likely assumption since there was nothing that we could do about it, anyway.

Actually, however, the stormy conditions have become more violent. Shortly after beginning the count, we were notified that a large Aircraft Carrier Moving in our same direction had passed us on our starboard side at a fairly close range but that the waves were high enough to obscure her passage during a great portion of the passing time. We were further told, however, that in spite of the rough ocean surface, she sliced through the waves while maintaining an almost even-keel throughout the Passage. Our little vessel is quite incapable of such a course...on the contrary, it twists, dips and bounces from wave to wave in a courageous effort to accept what providence may have in store for us.

We were also informed by Lieutenant McCarthy that the two Victory Ships that were in sight and following us as we steamed out of the Port of LeHavre yesterday have turned back into port because of "dangerously severe weather conditions". (I feel confident our men in earshot of this piece of information have all asked themselves this question "Why didn't our ship turn back, also?")

We are all soldiers, mostly infantry, and therefore strangers to the ocean's behavior, Even though, almost since the beginning of our payroll count, we have, due to violent weather, been forced to Improvise means and methods of holding our sums of money in place on the tables, we have accepted the inconveniences philosophically as something slightly beyond normal, but bearable, and have become so thoroughly engrossed in our payroll responsibilities that we have allowed ourselves to become oblivious to the state of the weather and suddenly and without a split second's warning the bow of our ship swerves sharply to starboard as it seems to rise straight up from the ocean's surface then, in the same tempo, swings back to port as it plunges downward. A brief moment later, a deadening THUMP is felt throughout the ship, accompanied by a terrific and almost simultaneous explosion which bursts from the port bow as though both arise from the common impact of a gigantic blow. The helpless little vessel careens sharply back to starboard having thoroughly created panic, havoc and bedlam in its wake...and then, a relative quiet prevails as though a degree of stabilization is in progress.

The ship continues its rather sharp reaction to the angry waves but the impetus underlying the almost tragic occurrence seems to have dissipated as suddenly as it began. Even though the total elapsed time for the extremely dangerous portion of this nightmarish incident was no more than 90 seconds, it was a most horrible experience for us all.

I was supposed to be in command so I arose on shaky knees with that gutless "butterfly" feeling in my middle and began moving around ... apparently still feeling the effects of shock. Others followed suit and in a few moments we were shuffling around from group to group and very grateful to be alive! We began exchanging opinions in modulated tones as though unnecessary noise would invite disaster. I checked out each of the various groups and found no one with serious or even painful injury ... just a few bumps and bruises The thought suddenly flashed into my mind for some purely inconsequential reason. "If the Lord has chosen to let us live, we're going to require a means of subsistence..." then, suddenly, another connected but more rational thought. "Where is the payroll money?" I then noticed that I held, clutched in my right hand, the original payroll list (my subconscious had taken over as my consciousness faltered).

Our first constructive course of action was to place M.P. sergeants, who were also members of our unit, at each of the two mess hall exits in order to hold present personnel in the mess hall until we had obtained some positive answers regarding our payroll problems. Fortunately, none of the payroll personnel had left and my first stroke of real good luck came when I learned from my Unit Executive Officer that he had survived the ordeal with his copy of the payroll list and ALSO the personalized envelopes, containing an estimated $15,000.00, which had been processed and correctly represented full payment for the approximately 100 men who had passed through the payroll line prior to this near tragic incident.

The ship was originally designed and constructed with the capability to withstand and survive a MAXIMUM ROLL of sixty degrees. The roll that it took at 12:00 today when it expelled all of us here in the mess hall from our seats and scrambled men, money and materiel throughout the entire ships area, was recorded at FIFTY SEVEN DEGREES.

The morning Pilot's steerage tour expired at l2:00. As fate would have it, the storm had reached its peak velocity at 12:00. When the 12:00 relief Pilot reported for duty, it was the sole responsibility of the morning Pilot, under any set of circumstances and, particularly, those in effect at the time, to maintain a tight hold on the steerage until his relief had actually taken PHYSICAL CONTROL. Instead, the morning Pilot released his hold prematurely and completely as he turned away to remove his coat from a peg located a couple of steps behind him. The ship, undergoing terrifically adverse conditions at the time, was momentarily out of control in unusually rough and stormy water. It had been following a prescribed course headed directly into the waves; the momentary release of the steerage allowed the ship to drift instantly to starboard leaving the entire port side exposed and vulnerable to a severely damaging attack from the angry and vicious port side waves. This set the stage for the 57 degree roll and the blow that struck, fortunately, lacked the infinitesimal amount of extra force to roll the ship another THREE DEGREES and dump a minimum of 350 soldiers and sailors into the coldest and stormiest North Atlantic 0cean in seventy five long years!

The morning Pilot was immediately placed under arrest by the Captain who is preparing charges against him for Gross Negligence of Duty during a period of Severe Distress and Danger. Said Pilot will be summoned to appear before a Court Martial Board immediately upon arrival at our U.S. Port of Disembarkation on or about December 20, 1945.

The coin, which constituted only a very small percentage of the payroll net worth, presented a rather complicated problem. Having been placed on the tables in large open bowls, it was very difficult to contain even during the mild ship movement but, of course, at the time of the 57 degree roll, it was scattered all over the mess hall area like sewed wheat in the farmer's fields. However, with the superior cooperation received from all men in our unit and from many of the ship's complement in addition to the very limited results from my mild and unenforceable threat to hold everyone responsible until "the last penny is found", we were most successful in our near total recovery. In fact, from an accurate accounting of our payroll funds conducted on December 18 for payment on December 19, we had a grand total of TWELVE DOLLARS MORE than I carried up the gang plank at the Port of LeHavre on December 12, 1945.Of course, this resulted from a few little, heart-warming shenanigans like "passing the helmet liner" to HELP THE OLD MAN (meaning me), who was finally responsible for it all, or turning in a "buck or two" or their own funds and reporting it as found. I was familiar with such gestures since I had seen it before in the antics of men who were supremely happy and thankful just to be alive.