USS BAYA "WAR" STORIES

Always have my favorite story about Horace. After coming off a two week upkeep in Fremantle with all that fish and chips (washed down with Aussie beer), our stomachs were not in the best of shape. When we started getting those heavy seas in the Indian ocean, all that time on the beach caught up with us. I stood topside lookout, and Horace, being a QM, was always walking around aft of the shears. Very inopportune time for him to come wandering around there about the time that the nausea got to me. All those crackers that were supposed to help with being sea sick didn't work, and Horace got the brunt of it. What a great guy, never complained and a great QM.

Harold W. Mosman

I was away from the boat for the day and the crew gave a guy a bottle of 3 Feathers rotgut to paint the snark on the front of the BAYA. The guy got so drunk he ended up falling off the stageing three times. I came back, liked what they had done and said "let's go."

CMD Ben Jarvis

Commander Jarvis also told a story of the Baya's mascot, a cocker spaniel, named TORPEX, for the explosive used in torpedoes. He said that they had to eventually give the dog away because he was scared of all the depth charges and the shots the boats medic gave her wasn't doing the trick anymore.

When the Baya came in to Perth, West Australia, after its second patrol, I was part of the relief crew on the tender that did the refit. My training consisted of four years of Naval ROTC at the University of Washington in Seattle where I was commissioned ensign, followed by submarine training in San Diego and the submarine school in New London. The skipper Cdr. Holtz was relieved by LCdr. Benjamin C. Jarvis who was the first man in his academy class (1938) to get a wartime command. LCdr Holt, whose nickname was Skillet left the ship and later became skipper of the Bullhead which was the last boat lost in the war. You show Charles Close as an ensign on the commissioning crew, but this is incorrect. He was a chief torpedoman who was commissioned ensign after the second patrol and stayed aboard which was not an effective assignment and he left after the third patrol. When I heard that the Baya was looking for another junior officer I applied to the new skipper and made the last three patrols as communication officer and later torpedo and gunnery officer. Jarvis was a great skipper and provided plenty of excitement and good leadership. The submarine patrol reports must be de-classified now and available in the naval archives which will provide you with the details. We were in Subic Bay when the war ended and returned to the US about two weeks later with a stop in Pearl Harbor. There were 21 submarines in three columns following the tender to Pearl, and the Baya was the fourth boat in the centers column. We had always operated by ourselves with no running lights so this was our first experience with other ships and it really kept us on our toes when we would have preferred to have been more relaxed. After returning to San Francisco we eventually wound up at Mare Island and put the Baya out of commission and into the mothball fleet. I appreciate your promoting me to commanding officer, but when I returned to inactive duty I was a Lt(jg). However, I stayed active in the reserve in submarine and surface divisions and later was assigned to the Supervisor of Salvage and Diving in Washington DC, and my later promotions were as a reservist. The Baya was recommisioned during the Korean war and later converted to an electronic test platform for new equipment, and was scrapped in the early seventies. There has never been a ship's reunion but I think all of us keep in touch with a shipmate or two. I have a limited photo record of the past and would suggest you contact Capt. Jarvis, l9334 Spring Drive, Sonoma, CA 95476 who has an extensive collection of photos, but I don't know if he is on e-mail as I forgot to ask him that when we spoke last weekend. There seems to have been a surge of interest in WW 2 from Tom Brokaw's books on The Greatest Generation, but submarines were not mentioned. There were some careless comments made during the war that had adverse effect on the boats, so they just kept their mouths shut and became known as the silent service. The boats went out and did the job, and while the crew was proud of the ship's accomplishments, they didn't consider it a big deal and were thankful to make it back in one piece. I remember your grandfather but did not know him well as he wasn't in my part of the crew, but am glad his navy experiences were so positive that they were your inspiration to serve. Thanks for you interest and efforts on behalf of the Baya and I will see if I have anything which I can copy and send you that might be useful.

Robert C. Gilardi

Based upon the dates revealed on you pages, your grandfather and my father served on board the Baya at the same time... My brother and I have been working toward a web page ourselves but are still in the information gathering phase (and have been for a while now.) We will be glad to share any information that we might possess that you do not already have. We are not looking for any credit on a page... We just feel that it is important that the story of the Baya be told. We do have some nice aerial photographs of the Baya, both in wartime trim and in its post-war electronics research trim. I will be glad to scan them and send you e-copies upon your acknowledgement of this e-mail. My father, William Stanley Sanders, was an electrician's mate on board the Baya. He always got a very distant look in his eye when he spoke of the depth charges, and evasive maneuvers executed. He would never watch a submarine movie with me - I guess somethings were best left in the past for him. He passed away in 1993 at age 65. I know that if you do the math on his age, you could question the validity of my statement that my father served during wartime operations. The situation was this: at age 16 he forged my grandfather's signature and joined the US Navy. When the navy found out, my grandfather was notified. His response was, "Is he doing his job well? If he is, and he wants to stay, I will sign whatever you need for him to stay..." I have both of his ID cards - the one issued to him marked "minor", and the replacement issued to him by the skipper of the boat with a birthdate showing him to be old enough to buy a drink. My father told me that the skipper, when handing him the new ID, said "If you're old enough to be on board my boat, you're old enough to have a beer." Along with the IDs, I have all of his paperwork. I was lucky enough to be able to tour a sister boat to the Baya, the USS Drum, with my father when he was 63. It was as if he was a young man again - he could remember every board, pipe, valve, and fitting. He showed me every nook and cranny of that sub, and could swing through the hatches as if he was 40 years younger (I don't recall, in all of my life, having ever seen him move with such precision and athletic ability - he seemed much younger and in better health for several weeks after that visit.) I'm really excited by what you are doing with your site, and look forward to hearing from you.

Michael A. Sanders

My uncle John Zilinski (Troy, NY) served on the USS Baya (SS318), but do not know exactly when. According to Fred Pando, a plankowner. My uncle worked for him as an oiler in the engine room, when he didn't say. My uncle may have been the youngest crew member since he entered the Navy at age 16 in 1943 (lied about his age). He later served on the USS Blueback (SS326) and an unknown sub-tender in Freemantle. Enjoyed your site, great job, and looking forward to see more on the patrols. Any information that you can share with me would be appreciated. Need info for family history.

Hank Deskewies

Your Grandfather and I served out the war together.We were plank owners on the Baya. We were together on the 1st and 2hd patrols. Then we were transfered to the sub tender FULTON. We spent quality time together in Perth ,Australia. He and another friend,I have Forgoten His name, would go over to this Australian family,s home.The lady would play the piano and Horace would harmonise with the other fellow and the children in the family would join in . They would try to get me to sing with them but my voice would not cooperate.They always complained about my singing. WE had a great time even if we did come close to geting killed! Both of us was put back on the BAYA for the 4th patrol.

Joseph A. Rollins

I was stationed on the Baya from Dec65 thru I believe it was Mar66. I was injured and missed the world cruise of 66. The Baya was my first Boat and I came to her without sub school. On my very first dive in Jan 1966 I was handed the head phones in the crews mess. The chief cook told me to repeat to him what ever was said. When I said to him "Passing 400 feet" He turned pale white, which is hard for a Philapino. To this day I do not know what caused us to lose the dive like that but we stopped it at 600 plus feet.

Alvin L West

Served on BAYA for my first class summer cruise from July-September 1962. We spent Labor Day weekend in CAtalina and had to leave with some pleasure boat anchor chain wrapped around ours. Had to wait until daylight while transiting the SantaBarbara Channel to cut it off and get the anchoe heaved in.

Hayes Jameson

The only real bad memory is the loss of Jesse Gentry. After getting thru the war without any personal casualties, we returned to San Francisco. We received orders to report to Port Townsend, Washington to celebrate Navy Day (October 1945). On the way up to Port Townsend, we encountered very rough seas. It was so rough that only the duty officer and one lookout was allowed on the bridge. The lookout was changed every 15 to 20 minutes. Jesse relieved the man on the bridge and when his replacement went topside to relieve him, Jesse was missing. He was washed overboard. We searched four hours without success. As I recall, Jesse was from Georgia. We had a great crew including the officers. We were in Subic Bay getting ready to go out on patrol again when the war ended. Our Captain (Jarvis) was asked if he and the Baya would like to participate in the Peace signing. He turned down the invitation and said that he and the crew would rather return to the States. We returned to San Francisco. When Admiral Halsey and the fleet returned to the States, we went out to meet them and joined in the parade under the Golden Gate Bridge.