January 4, 1942 - Sunday - 80 years ago today

NOTE: This post has two pages.  Click on "Read more" below to see last part of the post.

Status - John Skinner - USS O'Brien: 

On January 4, 1942, O'Brien was still in port, undergoing a refit and awaiting its transit to the Pacific which was to begin on January 15.

Background - U. S. S. O'Brien - Events of 1941

In the early months of 1941, O'Brien continued on the Neutrality Patrol.  There was also a Fleet Landing Exercise in early February at Culebra, P.R. that lasted for 10 days and involved the whole Atlantic Fleet.  March 2nd was the one-year anniversary of the commissioning of O'Brien.  Below are some pages from the ship's fantail newspaper - called the Little Giant Scoop - from about this time.  Some of the references are hard to figure out, although bean jokes are universal.

Some notes:

• It seems that there had been little or no liberty during the Neutrality Patrol judging by the cartoon on the second page.
• The play on words regarding "strikers" on page 2 refers to two things - the large number of strikes happening in the war industries in 1939-1941 - these were very controversial with war material needing to be built up.  The other reference is to Navy "strikers" - these are sailors who are working toward a rating in one of the  general occupation fields in the Navy (such as airman, fireman. signalman, etc.).
• Culebra-atic in the third page is in reference to the base at Culebra, P.R  This was where the recent fleet exercise was held, and also was probably a common port of call during the Neutrality Patrol.
  

There is also a page summarizing the events of the first year after commissioning.

O'Brien had been in the Carribean for about 6 months at this time.  Caribbean duty may seem relatively easy, but tensions were high even though the United States was not in the war, and as above, there wasn't a break from constant patrol.  It appears that everyone was looking forward to getting back to the States.

Returning had already been set in motion.  In the spring, Admiral King, then in charge of the Atlantic Fleet, had reorganized the fleet into 10 different Task Forces and issued the corresponding orders.  O'Brien was assigned to Task Force 4, and ordered to Newport to begin intensive training in anti-submarine warfare.  Although Britain had turned away the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain the previous year, it continued to suffer from lack of supplies due to the German Navy's success in sinking transports.  It was clear that the U. S. Navy would need to begin escorting transport convoys soon; in fact, bases were already being readied in the British Isles for use by the Navy convoy escorts and tankers.

 

Before beginning any convoy escort duties, O'Brien was reassigned to Task Force 1, the Ocean Escort Force, on July 1.  Ocean Escort Force covered any amphibious operations as well as convoys.  In the first week of July, Iceland was occupied.  O'Brien escorted the carrier Wasp in late July as it delivered planes to Iceland, made an additional trip to Iceland later, and later in the fall, escorted a convoy from Newfoundland to the Mid-Ocean Meeting Point, before going to Norfolk for repairs and upgrades.

 

O'Brien was likely at Norfolk on December 7 when the message was received "AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR X THIS IS NO DRILL".  The nation passed Sunday mostly in stunned silence, but after President Roosevelt's speech on Monday, frenzied activity began.  O'Brien, despite the need for convoy escorts in the Atlantic, would be sent to the Pacific as soon as repairs were done.  

 

On December 13, there was another change - Captain Espe (Lt. Cmdr. C. F. Espe), who had been the captain since commissioning, was replaced by new Captain Thomas Burrows.