David Kroenlein, Brief Recollections of a Navy Supply Officer

David Kroenlein, 1967

US Navy Supply Officers don’t have the exciting duties that many of their colleagues may have, or at least that is the way it was in my period in the Navy from 1967-1971.  Balancing the cash; maintaining supply inventory; maintaining food inventory; approving menus for the officers and crew and supervising the preparation and serving of the meals; supervising a laundry, ships’ store and barbershop – such duties don’t evoke moments of heroism.  I was able to convince the commanding officers I served under that I did not need to stand duty watches when we were underway or in port. This special treatment and being on a par with more senior officers who were also heads of departments required me to stay on good terms with the commanding officer and executive officer and be responsive to the requirements of those who were responsible for the operations of my ship, the USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. 

During the period when I was on the Joey P, other sailors were encountering much greater challenges.  Several of my shipmates commanded swift boats in the Mekong Delta before they came to my ship.  A young officer whom I met after our time in service, Uldos Kardons, was thrown into a maelstrom that became a Neil Sheehan book, The Arnheiter Affair (see the article initial written by Sheehan at https://www.ussvance.com/Vance/AAbook/ny_times_1968.HTM.

Going back over my time on the ship, I came up with a few recollections from my role as the Supply Officer and Legal Officer. 

Brief Recollections 

• Tolerating difficult conditions in a metal container (the ship, not confinement quarters) during the summer at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (GTMO); officers’ and chief’s quarters had A/C but the crew did not.
• My chief petty officer (cousin of Red Sox infielder Sibby Sisti) and I organized softball games during our GTMO summer primarily for our department with a controlled supply of beer so that the sailors would be able to conduct drills in the morning.  
• Having the wife of the ship’s captain present the wardroom (officers) with a highly appropriate palm tree in a party on the ship before we deployed to the Mediterranean.
• Going ashore in Naples where I was immediately approached by a fellow who looked like Marcello Mastrioanni, complete with white suit and hat, who wanted to come aboard to sell items to sailors (Absolutely prohibited).  My inducement was a weekend in Capri with a blonde sitting in an Alfa Romeo, looking very much like Monica Vitti.  Small change compared to the Fat Leonard scandal that is creating waves in the USN now.  See Wikipedia “Fat Leonard Scandal” and many articles in the Navy Times about Fat Leonard.  
• Leaving the ship every morning to purchase fresh food before the ship went to general quarters drills in a working anchorage in Souda Bay, Crete, and waiting all day in the shade with my feet up until the drills were over and folks on the ship were exhausted.  The price I had to pay for keeping the crew supplied with phenomenal fresh fruit and vegetables.
• Trying to conduct a cash payday on board a ship underway in rough seas and having to suspend it due to seasickness (mine), which was announced ship-wide on the PA system, heralded by “Now hear this….”  
• Dealing with a sexual assault by a first class petty officer on a seaman beside the forward gun mount in the middle of the night (well before “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”); quick ending of career for a fellow who was a few months away from retirement and who had a passel of kids.  
• Loan sharking aboard ship that also ended up with the end of a ten-year career for an otherwise excellent sailor.  
• Joy brought to me by the night baker on the ship — I always made sure I was up and around in the middle of the night to make sure the fantastic baked goods were up to snuff.  
• Writing off an entire inventory of condoms in the ship’s store inventory for resale that were handed out to sailors as they went ashore in Barcelona, then a VD hot spot; still ended up with something like 25% infection rate when we left port.  
• Helping to get a young first generation Italian-American from Brooklyn to the airbase and on a flight out before the Italian authorities identified him as the culprit who, in a drunken state in the morning, threw bottles from an overlook of a major road in Naples,
• Returning to Newport before my ship for shore duty and companionship with my wife.

The following video shows much of what I experienced in the Mediterranean. This US Navy film follows a Gearing class destroyer out of Newport, RI around the same time as I deployed from there.  A bit more romantic than the normal tedium when steaming at sea. Click on the following link to see the Navy’s presentation of day to day life aboard a destroyer: DESTROYERMEN – YouTube – Department of Defense, 1970.

David Kroenlein’s ship, the U.S.S. Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., a Gearing Destroyer

David’s other stories about his military service include Military Memories and A Tale of a Welcome Destroyer Visit.