Touring Dad’s old battleship
Firsthand look at young sailor’s life below decks.
My father, Edward Carll, served in the Navy from 1942 to 1946 and was a crew member on the USS Massachusetts, deployed to the Pacific. He was on the crew for a 16-inch gun, the largest weapon on the ship. Since Edward was only 17, his father, Charles, had to sign the papers that allowed him to enlist, much to the distress of his mother, Ethel.
Edward was very skinny and could easily fit through the small hatches, so he was stationed way down on the lower deck where the powder and shells were loaded and sent up to the gun on the top deck via elevators. Being on one of the lower decks meant that he had little chance of survival if the ship was hit.
Dad met my mom, Ann, at Old Orchard Beach, Maine, when he and a Navy buddy were on leave. My parents married in 1945, while Dad was still in the Navy.
When my dad returned from the service he tried his hand at a few things, and eventually learned steel rule die making. He was one of the few people still practicing the craft in the ’60s and ’70s. One of his last jobs was assembling CNC milling machines at a company in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. He helped me get a job there, which launched my career as an engineer.
Dad always spoke proudly of his time in the service. In 1965, our family was present when the Massachusetts was brought out of mothballs to be restored as a memorial and a museum—I was 9 and remember being so proud. My wife and I have taken our children and grandchildren to see the ship docked in Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts. Recently I watched a Navy training film that must have been like what Dad saw when he was trained. I imagined him as a teenager, sitting with other recruits, learning about his assigned role on the ship.
Throughout his life, my dad kept in touch with a former crewmate, Jack Becker. They got together every year or so until my dad died in 1996.