Talk:USS Glendale

Crew report: J West

first hand account by crew member J West, as narrated by family member:

Ship requisitions had apparently gotten deal on canned corn, as there was a large supply of it on board. The cooks tried to get rid of it by using it in a variety of dishes, and several were sick of canned corn by the end of the voyage.

As a means to pass the hours at sea and supplement meals, crewman fished from the deck and managed to catch several large tuna fish. The fish were reportedly cleaned and stored in the freezer, but had accumulated over time as they were not cooked for some reason. The fish were still in the holds when PF36 was transferred to the Russians, who presumably ate them as they were quality deep sea cuts of meat.

Occasionally the crew got to shore. Drinking was forbidden on board ship, but the crew were issued two beers a piece when it came to off ship recreation. A few times the crew came upon a white sandy beach on one of the many Islands of the Pacific Ocean.

One of the crew reported blindness after one of these shore excursions. J West researched the symptoms, and determined that the crewman had been exposed to extreme bright white light from being on the beach, and began treatment for snow-blindness. The crewman wore a blindfold for 24 hours, and afterwards his sight was restored.

The ships engines apparently ran on a more unrefined type of oil, which burned after being heated to a sufficient temperature and were used for steam turbines. Crew in the engine room had shorter shifts due to exposure to oil vapor.

As a submarine hunter, PF36 was equipped with depth charges as it's primary offensive weapon. Japanese submarine and U-boat combat was one of it's primary tasks as it supported the fleet. Canisters of explosives were ejected out of the boat, and were sufficient to destroy undersea craft. Fortunately most of the Japanese aircraft targets where the larger aircraft carriers and large battleships, which put The Glendale in a good position. Enemy aircraft few overhead several times during battles in the pacific.

Once, a Japanese pilot was shot down, and pulled from the ocean. The man was treated well and kept on board but Navy intelligence arrived quickly to retrieve the prisoner.

US -> USSR

How many ships after World War II were sold or given from the US to the USSR? (And back?) Some context would be useful in the article; it's rather surprising without context. Tempshill 22:16, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

Lots of ships were leased to the USSR immediately following WWII. This is largely because very near the end of the war the USSR declared war on Japan, however they had relatively few ships at the time. 28 Tacoma class frigates were loaned to the USSR, but I'm sure that others were also loaned from other classes. The fact of the matter is that the US was not yet at war with the USSR, and frankly the US Navy had a significant surplus of ships already built for a war that was now over. -- malo (tlk) (cntrbtns) 18:24, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Strange Opening Sentence

"USS Glendale (PF-36), a Tacoma-class frigate, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Glendale, California."

Does this mean there were many airships named for other U.S. cities--a dozen Los Angeles? Six Pennsylvanias. Eight New Yorks? Fifteen Chicagos? Why not simply say it was named after Glendale, CA? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.180.44.133 (talk) 23:58, 24 April 2012 (UTC)