The Lord Sailed with Us

By Paul Boos

Sitting on the ditch irrigating and waiting for the water to come around, one has a lot of time to think. There is not much out there except cattle grazing and open land, I call it God’s country. He is out there with me as he has been for the last 67 years, even though there have been times I would have questioned his availability.

It was back in 1956 and I was a 2nd class NCO on independent duty on the USS Ponchatoula AO148. She was loaded with aviation gas, bunker oil and a full load of ammunition in the hole. This ship was the largest Navy tanker at that time, she could do 30 knots or more. She had a crew of 217 men and officers.

We were anchored in Long Beach harbor, not far from where the Queen Mary is today. The Captain gave the order to pull the anchor and get ready to go to sea. We were on our way to Korea and Japan. The anchor detail was secured. A lot of the men went to the stern to smoke, this was the only place smoking was allowed.

I was down in sick bay securing anything that might fall or get knocked over at sea. I could hear the two screws picking up speed, we were on our way. I was getting ready to go topside to say good bye to the good old USA when there was a loud metal crushing, vibrating, bang. After getting up off the deck and trying to figure out what had happened, I heard the Captain sounding general quarters over the innercom instead of collision.
All the men from down below were going top side to man the 3 inch and 5 inch guns.

I got up, grabbed my medical bag and went topside. Coming out of the hatch to the main deck, all I could see was a Richfield tanker, the Robert E. Day, listing about 20 degrees. Two of her tank hatches had sprung open and gasoline was running out of her scuppers and into the harbor all around us. The men on the fantail had flipped their cigarette butts over the side and were running to general quarters.

I did not have time to ask God for a safe trip but I knew he was on the ship with the rest of us. I heard other crewmembers thanking God that we did not blow up. If we had we would have probably taken out most of downtown Long Beach. After repairing a 20 foot gash in our hull we got to sea a month later.

This occurrence was never in the news because the Captain had us sign a confidentially paper before we could go ashore.
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Paul writes from Montague, California