USS Slater - Destroyer Escort at War: Episode Four - Lower Decks 

Videos like this one, covering the human side of war service, fill an enormous gap in the customary was histories. Thanks to the volunteers for all their efforts in preserving an important bit of history.

My father-in-law spent 2 years on a DE in S China Sea during WW2.He was an Ensign and had to board vessels to search for Japanese,had to shoot one that attacked him,that always bothered him. Also had his legs smashed by a launch in rough seas! Never got a Purple Heart or any recognition for his armed combat! A GRATE MAN AND I MISS HIM DEARLY!

Served on a Carrier during Vietnam, air wing. We had a couple of DEs as escort ship (plane guard) but most of the escorts were DDs or DDGs. Never went aboard any of the smaller ships while in port. It takes a special person to get used to life at sea, I never did well. There is constant noise especially on a carrier. Pumps running, arresting gear noise, cat noise, equipment clanging & banging, never slept well but glad I never served on one of the smaller ships. Thanks for the video.

Great job guys! 22 years in our good ole Navy! DD-783,DE-1067,DDG-5…etc…etc…

Makes me appreciate how good we had it on the USS Nimitz as a culinary specialist.

My father (age 16) served in the pacific on a destroyer escort during WWII. USS Fieberling.

I served on board two WWII-era tin cans, the USS McKean DD-784, and the USS Bordelon DD-881 - after engine room on both. They were slightly larger versions of this, but what you are showing is completely familiar, except that we never had tables with benches in our berthing areas - you wanted to sit and write or play cards, you had to go up to the galley. Never used bread to hold my tray to the table. Instead, had a lanyard on my coffee cup attached to my left hand, which also held the tray while I wrapped my legs around a table stanchion, and ate with the right hand. Always ended up in the bottom bunk - the bunks also came with straps that you could use to keep from getting thrown out in bad weather; what he didn't show is that to get to the lockers underneath, the guys in the upper bunks would lift the edge of my bunk - with me in it - and hook my bunk to the chains holding the bunks up. When they got what they wanted out of their locker, they'd unhook my rack and let it fall back into place. Had a first class sleeping above me on the McKean. He'd get roaring drunk ashore, then come back and wet his rack in his sleep, and the piss would work it's way through the fart sack and the canvas, and bead up just above my head. I hated that guy, but with his rank, there was nothing I could do about it. Had a seam work loose once crossing the North Atlantic, so that when weather hit at a certain angle, it would spray icy salt water across my bunk and the bunk above mine. Since the deck was awash the whole time in JP5 fuel and sewage from the holding tanks that would squirt out from below, mixed with vomit and sea water, and we managed to sleep maybe four hours a day, being wet just added a negligible measure to the miserable conditions, and yet, oddly enough, I miss it.

great clip!!!!!!!

Aft berthing was the best place to be in case a larger ship cuts your ship in half. The aft section tends to stay afloat. USS Frank E Evans was a good example..

It's the first time I've heard that called a seabag, in the UK it's generally called a kit bag. In the RN during the war and for quite a while after that, seamen would sleep in hammocks, bunks would be for the officers.

Brilliant.

I was stationed in Mayport FL on a WW2 era ship, the destroyer tender Yosemite (AD-19), from 1978 to 1980. Our bunks were also three high but our lockers were directly beneath each rack. We went up and down the east coast, out to the Bahamas and made a Med Cruise while I was aboard.

Queen of the historic fleet. Slater is perfect.

I did a number of TAD to various ships in my career, but my only permanent party was the USS Nassau, commissioned in 1979. Its odd to watch this and see how much the p-ways and doors still remind me of a ship built much later, even though there was much more modern equipment than this. Still, this was a great video tour.

I was told by an old Sgt there are some people that you don't want to piss off . Yes the cooks is one of them . And others include payroll, medics , MPs ,high ranking people . I know its obvious but you can't emagine how many people who did

Even in WW 2 Stewards..Bakers..Culinary Cooks used Armed Forces Recipe Cards.. Had a 3 week menu plan..all of that was approved by Supply Officer n Either E-7 0r E-6 In Galley Division

People you don't tick off, Cook, pay master, and Gunners mate. The GM because he determined what you did for watch.

When I was in we worked 8-hour days and stood 4 hour watches, depending on the rotation, if your watch was during the work day it usually meant you'd have another watch later or earlier in the day or during the night. 12 hour days was the norm, it was why you could learn to sleep on or anywhere, and in almost any situation.

I'm a chef at sea, the cook thing hit home 😂😂. If we don't have chips and pasta there's always people complaining

OUTSTANDING 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 New sub 👍🏼

Really good

Served in the early 70's De1026 and DD869 and ultimately CVA19 in engineering. Thanks for your video.

You should start the videos with an introduction what is the Slator where the museum is at. I have been there with the scouts nice trip. The scouts had a blast playing with the bofors. BTY everyone sleeps head toe to slow the spread of air born illness.

Rocking and Rolling like a rowboat in a storm ; but as my Tank Commander friend said at least they were warm 😇

4:34 In the early 1980’s my WW Navy Veteran grandfather took care of us kids after my mom suffered a complicated broken arm. He fought in the Gilbert’s, Carolina’s and Marianna’s. He was also part of Guadalcanal. Unlike specific Marine divisions, the Navy was everywhere with the same ships companies. Papa made us WW2 Navy oatmeal or SOS for breakfast. The SOS wasn’t our favorite because we were too young to appreciate it but we thought the oatmeal was great. It was made sticky in a loaf pan. Then you’d slice it, plate it and bore a hole in the middle of your slice with your spoon while it’s nice n hot. Into that hole went the butter, sugar and a little milk. You’d then macerate it into typical oatmeal consistency from the hole outward. But papa liked his with butter, salt and black pepper. He laughed and told us that all the Oakies and Arkies shipboard ate it that way and that shipboard oatmeal was a company favorite. As an adult I now realize that in 1930’s rural Oklahoma folks like Grandpa Weaver’s family couldn’t afford to let their kids put several table spoons of precious sugar onto hot cereal. Especially eaten almost daily (also why creamed chipped beef on toast was considered excellent.) I remember those mornings in 1982 like yesterday. Not 42 years ago. We lost papa three years later when I was week shy of 13. The non filtered, rowdy ports of call lifestyle caught up with him at age 59.

I like that, people are people. Great video guys.

Glad the initial guide is wearing something VERY close to dungarees. I did 12 years aboard various vessels - mostly frigates (DE equivalent) with 4 years aboard the carriers. LOL - and I started back in the days pre-email, TV, or such out on the boat... as a helicopter crewman I was loved because I brought the Mail from shore or the carrier

My dad was a yoaman on the USS Chatelain when it engaged the U-505 .

My first ship was a WWII Destroyer Leader, DL-2, USS MITSCHER, later converted to DDG-35.

I can recall the long delayed mail ... That was 60 years ago in Vietnam. Got a bunch of letters with smeared ink and found out the helicopter went down, Now I was worrying about the mail guys too so later when i got the chance, I volunteered for that part time also. I had to, recently, study for Navy electrician. I did not find the exams difficult. The reason is that I found no other way to be sure about details such as if there might be resistors phase to ground (there might) or that there was no neutral (delta config) or what the heck the repair electrical plugs might be and what to find in a repair locker (it's slightly different the bigger the ship and least to degree). I am EE designing new equipment. I knew O5 and O6 officers (they should retain their specialties as opposed to like O7) but I could never find one who knew even if their was a 440VAC ground or neutral (there isn't). I found a CPO who knew the course materials were on line and I could get at it. ....and he also knew there was no ground or neutral for good reason and the rating of the 110VAC sockets etc. I got to spend time with this retired CPO but sure would have liked to go on a ship and talk to the ratings. We do have one fellow with that privilege. So I came away impressed about how much thought and experience was put into the ship design and operating procedures per condition. I never found info like that in the Army base library way back when.

USS Slater is sister ship to USS Cavallaro The Galloping Ghost Of The Korean Coast

As an old sailor from the 1970s I always want to see, on every ship, where we ate, slept, and crapped.

Great! Bravo!!! Thanks!!!!

Gotta work your way up! Dad started washing dishes and cleaning the head, in that order. 😮

those letters on the doors and hatches. x (X ray) is shut all the time, y (yolk) is always shut when underway and Z (zebra) are shut during General Quarters.

HOT SEAT! Red Kraper. 😳

My father served on DE338 in 1945 He would have loved to see this

BERTH ;) otherwise, fantastic video!

You should attach metal sheeting to the underside of the wood chow tables and use small magnets to stop the trays from sliding. Sitting with your elbow in the tray for the entire meal sucks.

Those trays were still in use in the 80s

SOS is good as hell😊

In damage control, I saw the low expansion firefighting foam applicator nozzle (donkey dick) for use with "blood & guts" foam concentrate. That stuff was terrible, did not age well and would leak if the cans rusted (and they did).

US N 1969 and my SHIP L. S. T. was commission in 1945

You mention that the crew very often were guys out of boot camp and had never been to sea, or even seen an ocean. The ship is in constant motion = seasickness. How did crew and the Navy deal with what can be a debilitating state?

No explanation for the Hot Seat?

I have all of my Dad's letters he sent home, but none of the letters from home to him. Being in New Guinea and the Philippines with all of the rain and humidity they just did not survive.

I still have my father’s Navy seabag, pea coat, and a (stolen?) 100% woolen blanket. They’re high quality, tough, indestructible! The blanket I put on my bed as a bottom sheet. I use over me a goose down comforter covered with an Army (stolen by my Uncle?) blanket. Both enlisted in 1945 and were deployed to the Pacific theatre, ready to invade Japan, just in time for the Japanese surrender.

I'll bet the Stewards were just happy as clams to have to scrape up wet, smashed bread off the tables.

5:48 That Photo looks like Steve Mc Queen ? the Actor (Bullet , The Great Escape) Le Mans Race car Driver

Racks, only 3 high! That is a luxury I did not have. (6 high and No storage locker! You hung a single bag on the end)

Wtf is that guy in the middle of the thumbnail doing on the mess decks with his cover on?!

OMG, the enlisted head (toilets) look just like modern toilets in China. I think in Chinese, they even sit on each other’s laps if there is not enough room for all of them.

Curious on how they were paid.

Explain the red seat in the toilet

Anyone Remember 90 Day Mess Crankin ???

These can’t be military personal.

red toilet seats were for those who had VD

Funny they failed to tell us about the “red” toilet seat. Some sailors came off liberty with all kinds of groin funk and were required to use that seat until cured. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Unless the sailors are newborn infants, they sleep in berths not births.

I'm 70, ex navy (Aus) and I think the messdeck is primitive

Gambling is not allowed. 😅

20 mins to eat !! What if the food is too hot ?

No gambling with money.....uh my Navy experience belies this statement, but OK

That picture you show are NOT U.S.N. Sailors.

Interesting video but these guides are putting out a lot of incorrect information. Small things but simply not true. However, perhaps they believed the sea stories of older tin can sailors and believed it.

Miserable

aside from the technology, the look of the inside of a navy ship has changed very little