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Interview Subject: Raymond Stone Producer: Jessica Williams Date of Interview: 06.14.13 Location: Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum Complex Transcriber: David Dzendzel Date Transcript Approved: 08.22.13 Project Number: OHP 007 (00:43 – 01:03) Jessica Williams: Today is June 14, 2013. I’m Jessica Williams, and we are here at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum with Ray Stone, who served as a radarman 2/c on board Intrepid during the Intrepid’s service in World War II. So thank you again Ray, for, uh, for being willing to share some of your stories with us.

(01:03 – 01:06) Ray Stone: It’s my pleasure to be here Jessica.

(01:07 – 01:16) Jessica Williams: Excellent, so I’m wondering if we can start before your time on Intrepid. Can you tell me a little bit about your childhood, where you grew up, any memories you have?

(01:17 – 04:56) Ray Stone: Well, a quick synopsis would be I grew up on, mostly on Long Island, and, uh, my teenage years were spent there in Cedarhurst, Long Island, uh, and I was, in high school I was an art major, and I was on Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941, I had just finished a poster that I was working on. It was a sample hoping to eventually get a scholarship to Syracuse [University], I was 16, and I just put the last brush stroke on the lettering, which I hated lettering, but I didn’t make any mistakes and my art teacher Joe Page (2:08) was there, and I said to him, “Wow, I’m finished,” and he said, “Boy, you made it without your usual smear.” And I yelled, let out a yippee, and my father said, “Quiet please.” He was listening to the music on the radio in the living room, and he said, “Something important has happened.” That’s when we got the first indication of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Well, the poster was due for the contest the next day. I had to drive it to Jamaica post office, and my friend Bob Lavery came with me, and we went in and got the poster there on time and were walking out and was going by a Navy recruiting office so we went in and said we want to become pilots in the U.S. Navy. He found out how old we were and told me to come back when I was 17 with a note from my mother. So, I did come back eventually when I was 17, and I did enlist in the Navy, and then from there to boot camp, and from there I was fortunate, they sent me to the Cavalier Hotel, which was a fine resort hotel, still is, in Virginia Beach. The Navy had taken that over and it was now a radar school, so I went there, and I was fascinated and really got into radar, and was one of the best students, cause I was so obs . . . involved with it you know, uh, I, really got to me and I, uh, they offered me the chance to stay as an instructor, and I said no, you know I’m

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18 years old, I wanna go fight, I want a ship. So fortunately I got transferred to something called the USS Intrepid. So, on the ferry ride over to Newport News I asked an old sailor what’s the Intrepid, he said, “Oh, it’s a new navy garbage scow.” I said, “Garbage scow what?” Well when I finally saw the Intrepid I was just so overwhelmed standing on the dock and looking up at this big mighty ship. My buddy Smitty and I, we climbed aboard, we got lost, for the first day never knew which way was fore or aft if you got down below decks, and just fell in love with this ship, love on first sight.

(04:57 – 05:20) Jessica Williams: That’s a great, um, summary of how you ended up, uh, serving on Intrepid. I wanted to, um, back up and ask you a couple questions about things that you just mentioned. So you said that when you were…, or that your father had said that something important had happened after the attack on (Ray Stone says, “Yeah.”) Pearl Harbor. Once you knew, once you learned what happened, um, what was going through your mind at the time as a 16 year old?

(05:21 – 06:07) Ray Stone: Well, people who know me know my expression, I wanted to kick ass. I wanted to get in the, get in the battle, and defend my country, fight for it. I, you know, I’ve always, uh, been more or less a patriot, but I was a real patriot, and my blood was boiling, and, but I didn’t even know where Pearl Harbor was. I said to dad, “Let me go get a geography book (laughs a little) try and find Pearl Harbor.” So I did, but I was truly, truly angered and ready to go fight.

(06:08 – 06:20) Jessica Williams: And you, um, you also mentioned that after mailing your poster you walked by the Navy recruiting office. Is the reason you joined the Navy just because that’s what you walked by or did you think about the Navy? [NOTE: Ray Stone notes that he wasn’t mailing the poster; he dropped it off at the post office.]

(06:20 – 07:06) Ray Stone: No, I, uh, immediately thought what, when the war, when I knew that we were at war that I wanted to be in the Navy not the Army. I, uh, I don’t know exactly why, I liked small boats and sailboats and things like that, uh, but that, I don’t think that was the reason, I just, uh, I think the reason was that I didn’t, I was a bit lazy, and didn’t wanna go to and learn to march, but that’s what, exactly what we did in boot camp it seemed all we did was learn to march with the rifle (laugh), so, but anyhow there, uh, I can’t really tell ya, but I did have a feeling for the sea.

(07:08 – 07:26) Jessica Williams: So training, a little bit too, I’d like to talk a little bit about your experience with training. So you mentioned, you know, joining the Navy maybe not learning how to march even though you did a lot of that. What was it like when you first joined boot camp, did you have trouble adjusting to military discipline?

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(07:28 – 09:01) Ray Stone: Not all of it, the only ,uh, I had problem with was the morning calisthenics. And they would, we were in, uh, a, the boot camp was up at Sampson [Sampson Naval Training Station near Seneca Lake, NY] in, in a new unit which had barracks all around and a big drill field, and they would get you up in the morning and you would get out there and do jumping jacks and all sorts of calisthenics, which I found revolting, and still to this day do, and, so I was a bit of a wise ass, and I was able to put the blankets over me and the pillow on top of it so it looked like the bed was empty, and I missed calisthenics in boot camp quite a bit, and got away with it without being caught. (Jessica Williams says, “Wow.”) And the rest of boot camp, uh, they tried to, they found out that I was an art major in high school, and they sent me up to a, some place where they were making big speedball lettered charts, and I had never done speedball lettering and I made sure I was incapable of doing it, and when I brought up my sample board to them I made sure I spilled the India ink bottle all over it, so they decided they didn’t want me, and thank God that I was sent to radar school.

(09:02 – 09:18) Jessica Williams: And so, um, that’s great by the way. It sounds like it’s a…, you’re trying to figure out how to fit in and, uh, work within the military environment, but also it sounds like you were able to get around things a little bit, to, to get where you wanted to go.

(09:18 – 09:40) Ray Stone: Yes, you learned, uh, how to do that very quickly if you, uh, you know had been astute about your environment and everything, and, uh, I think a lot of being in any service was give and take, and learning how to get around things, and how to acquire things.

(09:41 – 09:50) Jessica Williams: (laughs) Um, so you mentioned that you were sent to radar school. So by saying you were sent did that mean that the Navy assigned you or did you have any choice in the matter?

(09:51 – 12:23) Ray Stone: I didn’t have any choice, uh, we uh, got on a troop train up in Geneva, where Sampson was located, and the memory of that is that they paraded us all into a long counter in a boxcar, and they served us spaghetti, and we didn’t have a knife or fork, you had to eat it with your fingers, which was sort of, uh, amusing, and confusing that, but when we, apparently somehow they had tested us, and certain, uh, people they found might make a decent radar person, and I was, uh, the thing that amazed me was that math was not my skill in my high school geometry and algebra, but that my mind worked like a computer, which helped when I became a radar operator. I could do EGM [Note: Ray recalls that EGM was a mathematical triangle based on Earth Ground Movement], whatever they, uh, or triangle problems in my head. I didn’t have to use paper to do ‘em, and, uh, so there was something that, uh, it amazed me that I found out I had this because, I think I had it because I was so interested and so involved, and fascinated by radar, which as you know it was brand new, you know, it was a secret weapon too, and, uh, the Brits had discovered it, we then turned it over to

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a bunch of guys up at MIT, and they made improvements in the basic units, which worked, and, uh, we took the lead in developing new and better radar as we went along. And, uh, it was always good, you were part of a team, you worked as a team, operators, plotters, and fighter direction officers, and pilots, so you were a, you did a job that . . . you used your mind, and you became skillful at what you did.

(12:24 – 12:35) Jessica Williams: When, um, when you were sent, when you were sent to radar school you ment… you just mentioned how it was a secret technology. What did you know about radar? Did you know anything?

(12:36 – 13:42) Ray Stone: I didn’t know anything except that, uh, they had like a television tube. I had learned when television came out I took a, a adult education course to see if I could find out how they got those pictures on that tube and anodes and diodes and all of that stuff, and all I realized was that these were radio signals that went out in waves and could be measured as they were reflected back, and, uh, if you know that, uh, you got the basics of radar. That they are radio waves that bounce off something and return, and then knowing the speed of the waves you can calculate the distance, and having a sector isolated you can then determine the distance, uh, the bearing, the relative bearing.

(13:43 – 13:52) Jessica Williams: When, um, so you didn’t know a lot about radar you went to training, what, um, what was your experience like in training, what sorts of things did you do?

(13:53 – 19:47) Ray Stone: Well every day you learned a different, first the basics, naturally, they were explained to you about how the sets works, which I just tried to articulate, but, uh, first you worked with different sets, there were two, one was air search, the other is surface search. That’s exactly what we had on the ship. The SG model was called, was for surface search. That range was along the water, which out to the horizon according to how high the antenna was, 25 to 28 miles. Well this was very important because when you were a ship in the Navy you were part of the fleet, and the fleet had groups, like when we were 38.2, we were a carrier, along with another big carrier, maybe with a baby carrier, two battleships, couple of cruisers, and we would be in the center, then the, surrounding you in a circle would be all of the destroyers, the destroyer screen. So you had to keep station and keeping station you were never just sailing straight in one way for a long period of time you did a zigzag course, so it was like a ballet, everybody had to go one direction and then the other direction, and all in unison and precisely, otherwise you’d be hitting another ship. So this was very important, SG was important for maneuvering and picking up any ships on the surface if you got that close to enemy ships, which you usually didn’t. The air search was different and that had different sets that we used, SK, SC2 were basic air search. You could see a plane 150 miles according to the altitude, 200 miles according to the altitude, and the weather conditions a bit, and then we had one, my favorite baby was called an SM. That was a, one that instead of sending out waves of

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radio waves, it sent ‘em out in spiral fashion, which meant it sorta hugged the water too more as it went over the horizon, and also you had the benefit with that set of an R scope, which was a little scope where say I could, had a target, a plane out there, or a group of planes 50 miles out, I could then switch on the R scope, and I could see that expanded picture of that sector right there, which you’re interpreting something called pips. These are the signals that go up and down, and the, you can count better the number of pips, and you can check ‘em to see if they’re friendly or foe. You, that was your IFF system, all you had to do was click on the IFF while you have the target on, and if you got a negative pip down below the horizon line then you knew you had IFF that was signaling you back that it was a friendly. So, uh, you learn these things and these techniques and they certainly helped you in your main job of C.I.C. was once the planes took off you knew where they were going, and you kept track of ‘em, you kept track of ‘em coming back, and if any pilot had to ditch on the way back and you knew where he was you plotted that and marked that down so that a sub or a rescue plane or a destroyer could hopefully get them and rescue them, uh, the main thing though was working with the planes. You, a radar operator, a plotter, and a fighter direction officer, who was contacting the pilot and giving him direction, vectors to intercept an enemy plane or enemy planes coming in, and that was the thrill of being sort of part of that kill that the pilot was gonna make, and it would be, you’d be in there, and you’d be watching the progress of the raid coming in and the track of the friendlies, your fighter planes approaching ‘em. Then when you heard that “Tally-ho,” which meant a pilot could see ‘em, the hairs on the back of your neck stood up a little bit until you heard “Splash,” and we all celebrated and we were kept doing this, you know, it was going on all day when you’re in battle, and, uh, it was always, you felt like you were doing something almost like you were in the front lines, but you weren’t, you knew you were back here.

(19:49 – 19:54) Jessica Williams: Um, did you have much contact with the pilots that you were helping?

(19:55 – 23:17) Ray Stone: Yes, because their ready rooms were right across the passageway, and you had ‘em with both the ones that came in out of curiosity that watch you, I mean not you, but, uh, watch the operation in C.I.C., which they felt would help make them more kills when they were up there maybe if they reacted a little differently, especially the night fighters, working with night fighters was most interesting because usually the fighter direction officer was right at your side, he wasn’t sitting over at a chart table because you could read the pips, like if they were throwing windows to confuse the radar when, uh, night fighters’ radar was on them that would give multi signals their following, you could tell when he was diving, and a lot of it was second guessing, but good guessing, and so that was always interesting to work with them, and to hear, then to hear, always to hear the pilots, uh, “Tally-ho” and then “Splash” made you feel good. Well, being close with the pilots, yes, I think I mentioned, which is one of my favorites that we had a good medical officer, and he would issue, have medical alcohol,

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which was scotch, issued to the pilots whether they had a good day or a bad day (quick laugh), so they were very generous in sharing it with us, they’d come over and with a tumbler full of scotch say, and ask you where you were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, you give ‘em the latitude and the longitude, and they’d leave the scotch and then be back in 20 seconds with another glass saying, “I forgot what you told me.” So they were, you know, they were ver . . . the pilots were the most relaxed, fun officers, less formal than a ship’s officers, and, um, working with them was always a pleasure, and one of the ones that hung out all the time was a guy that looked younger than me, I don’t know how he became a pilot, I was 18 or 19 then, and he hung out there, and he was a night fighter pilot, but he never got to go up, and he was complainin’ how will I ever become an ace, and I looked at him like “You [inaudible] maybe you oughta be home, you know, not here.” Well one night we learned that the Japs were learning to attack us at dusk as our day patrol was landing so what we did we started launching the night fighters before we landed the day patrol so they were up there orbiting and he got into one of those and he shot down three planes that one day, well you shoulda seen how happy he was, he came in and he was so happy and slapping us all on the back and telling us and I felt so good for him because, uh, he, I’ve never seen anyone so happy in my life.

(23:18 – 23:21) Jessica Williams: Do you remember what his name is?

(23:21 – 24:37) Ray Stone: No, that’s my problem, you know, I don’t remember names, uh, very few of ‘em I remember, Ensign Ewing, who used to hang out in C.I.C., but he was a materiel officer, these sets were very, very temperamental, they needed constant attention, and he was there always to dig into a set and try to get it back in operating function, and he sat there and I liked him, I used to, when I was off the set sit with him trying to do New York, uh, Times crossword puzzles [inaudible] he was there, and I kibitz, I was a kibitzer with him, and, uh, he was a good man to have around. His boss was, I forget, Ensign Davis, Lieutenant Davis, not sure, I’ve never been strong on names, I’ve been strong on people’s faces. Being a visual person, uh, I don’t know, I never retain, I still don’t retain names, but now I have an excuse because I’m an old buzzard or whatever.

(24:38 – 24:55) Jessica Williams: Um, you know as we’re talking I’m realizing a question that I should ask you, so you and I have talked a lot, and so we both know what C.I.C. is, but I’m wondering if you can explain what C.I.C. is and also tell me a little bit about why it’s so important to an aircraft carrier?

(24:56 – 33:33) Ray Stone: Well, C.I.C., Combat Information Center, this was where all intelligence, and the officers gave input there, our officers were the fighter direction officers, as I said they were in control of the planes, once they left the deck we were responsible to make sure they got back, by radar contact first and then radio, we had radio contact with them, uh, C.I.C. also had, uh, like Lieutenant Kegney(25:39), the marine officer, was hooked up to the

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gunnery, at that time we had, uh, five inch twin mounts fore and aft of the island, and a couple more single five inch guns plus the 40mm plus the 20mm. Now he was hooked up to, hooked up to their, to them so they could train their radar, they had fire control radar for the five inchers, so this was important, and also we had somebody hooked up to the l . . . with a headset to the lookouts. This was important cause you could help the lookouts to tell which. . . direction the raids were coming in from so that helped. And I think I’ve told a, the story of my friend Jake Fegely always his battle station was assignment to the lookouts, giving them directions, and then they would tell him, the look, they, the damn planes were in there diving on the ship and Jake, when they said they, uh, enemy planes were diving on the ship, Jake always yelled “Hit the deck, hit the deck!”, and that’s a natural reaction, you know, you, you’re sitting there at a set, doesn’t matter whether you’re gonna be sitting there or on a deck, if you’re gonna get killed you’re gonna get killed, but you know, it gave you something to do, and usually when I hit the deck I usually was nose to nose with Commander Mitchell, and to break things up I would request a transfer immediately to a nice place not like this, and he’d say, “Stoney you’re gonna be here with me through everything.” And we both laughed, you know, but then one day when Joe, when Jake yelled hit the deck this brand new officer said, “You oughta be ashamed of yourself, John Paul Jones would be mostly ashamed of you for that, nowman your station.” And, so Jake just looked at him, you know, and (Ray Stone shrugs his shoulders) planes dove about ten minutes later, diving on us again, and Jake yells “Hit the deck, hit the deck!” Well this brand new officer dove under a table and so when he got up Jake said, “Mm, I think John Paul Jones would be ashamed of just about everybody in this room sir.” And the guy said, “One more word outta you and you’ll be on report.” So that was Jake, he never stopped yelling hit the deck. Uh, the other things about C.I.C. in navigation I explained that you had to keep your station with other ships and maneuver and according to the plan of the day for the zigzag course. Uh, that was important, it, uh, was, the intelligence officers always fed in information to you’s so that you could be prepared for certain things, not all of ‘em, but you could expect certain things possibly from land based planes etcetera. They would also feed in when there were friendlies flying over. They weren’t supposed to fly over the fleet and once you threatened to shoot ‘em down they usually changed course (laugh), even though you knew that they were our own planes, and, uh, it was, uh, always a place where even when you were not in battle you had so much to do that it was always interesting, and you try to re . . . keep your cool while you’re in battle and do the best job you could. I, as I said there was a thrill to being involved in, I used to do interceptions in my head and see how they were going and working out, and one time after we got hit and we were back in Ulithi amongst a thousand ships anchored there, we had a half watch and we had the radar’s control of the combat air patrol above, and intelligence said that there was a plane, a stripped down Betty that flew over at flank speed photographing the ships so that they could keep track of who was there, and he had a name, One Eye Willie, after the camera on board I guess, and so, uh, I had that

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information and it was a half watch and I was in charge of the, I was the leading petty officer in charge of the radar men and, uh, had a brand new ensign from out the states who had never been on a ship and involved in it before. I assured him that, uh, well, we’ll, uh, be able to have a quiet four hours, and, uh, I’ll be able to show you what we do and how we do it, and be a good day for you’s. Well he was very appreciative, but then sure enough we picked up what must be One Eye Willie coming at the ship at a pace so he didn’t know what to do, and the, uh, fighter directions chair, head fighter directions chair was an elevated chair above everybody so I jumped in that and took over with, I had, uh, three groups of four fighters orbiting at 5, 10, and 15,000 and I brought in a group from I think the 10,000 high altitude and brought ‘em in perfectly on the tail of the incoming One Eye Willie. Meanwhile, uh, the new ensign I had him on the squawk box to the bridge, general quarters was sounded, and just as this interception was coming together my division officer arrived with a lots of others into C.I.C., first team, and he came up to me and said, “Stoney, what the hell are you doing?” He saw me there, the ship at GQ, etcetera, and just then fortunately the pilot yelled, “Tally Ho”, and so I felt so good, I said, “I’ll explain later, sir you better sit here.” And he sat down and the pilot yelled, “Splash one Betty.” So we had captured, shot down One Eyed Willie, and, [inaudible] we still have no idea where he came from because of where we were. I always figured he came from Truk, we had nullified Truk when we were there, but they probably had some planes in caves, and a way of them taking off, but that was exciting because it gave you the feeling that um, all of these things you did in your mind you could do in reality too, so I enjoyed that.

(33:34 – 33:40) Jessica Williams: Was there any, um, what happened in the aftermath of that incident, was the officer pleased with what you had done?

(33:40 – 34:41) Ray Stone: Yeah, but this is strange, usually in the Navy if you did something you at least got a well done. (Shrugs shoulders and looks around) Nobody said anything. It was just like, oh well. You know. And I don’t know whether he got all the credit or what, but I know that I, I was, uh, in hiding after it because Admiral Halsey was coming aboard with Admiral McCain to inspect the damage of the ship, and I had forgotten to put in code my instructions to the pilots, I didn’t put it in the code of the day, I put it in plain English, and I figured he was gonna ask who was that dumb person who did that, but I guess he never knew that I did either, not send the message out in code or do the interception (laughs).

(34:42 – 34:53) Jessica Williams: So maybe it sounds like one thing that um, you did the interception would have maybe given you some, some, uh, well done, but maybe not putting it in code, so maybe on that balance…

(34:53 – 39:03) Ray Stone: Yeah, I know, it, it, uh, didn’t matter, the reason for the in code even when you’re in your own base there is because a Japanese subs would be around monitoring radio transmission to pick up any intelligence they could, and, uh, so that was that reason. Uh,

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later on as we progressed through the war, and when we had Admiral Bogan on, his, he would have the group fighter direction officer, the flag, in charge of all fighter direction officers on all carriers that were operating in our group. He was the coolest man I’ve ever seen . . . under pressure. He sat there in that head fighter direction officer’s chair and he just, you could see his mind just clicking away, and under great duress all the time cause you never got much sleep, he was always there, and he, I admired him, uh, because he was so good and he was also very thoughtful. He would realize, say we would’ve been on a GQ for six or seven hours, had nothing to eat and were a little bit groggy, and because he was flag he had access to a flag kitchen and he would order three orders of bacon and eggs with home fries and toast and coffee, well we had our own coffee there, but, uh, and then he’d just say dig in guys, you know. He also for some reason he and I got along great together on interceptions, and he, when he had to go to sleep he’d say, “I want you to come and tell me if I am needed.” I don’t know why, but I would go to his stateroom, which he had close to C.I.C., flag stateroom with a little anteroom with a table with a bottle of scotch on it and, and a chair, and I’d go in and I’d say, “Commander, its time you must come back.” He’d say, “Pour yourself a shot of scotch, throw it down, and make sure I’m on my feet.” (laughs) So, that’s the way we got along together, when we got double hit with the kamikazes off the Philippines he wanted me to join Admiral Bogan’s staff and go with them and become a radar operator, they didn’t have any radar operators on his staff, and come with him, and I said, I thought about it, I said, “Commander you’ve been blown off four carriers, and you’ve never been maybe even more, and you’ve never been home on leave. I’m going home to dance with the girls.” He said, “I don’t blame you.” And it’s a, that was a good decision because had I gone with him I would have been with him when they switched the flag, they were switching the flag on the Franklin, and he was there, Admiral Bogan and Jim Winston, was there in C.I.C., and all of the radar men got killed in that attack, so it was one of those good decisions, what turned out to be a good decision, uh, and a lucky one, which I was because I never had a scratch while I went through all of the battles on the Intrepid.

(39:04 – 39:21) Jessica Williams: Do you think, um, I mean do you think that that’s, how do you, how do you deal with thinking about luck in that respect in terms of the fact that you managed to, to, experience all these battles and, and come through unscathed, what do you think about that?

(39:23 – 42:29) Ray Stone: I think God was good to me, that I was both blessed and lucky, and I don’t know why, uh, there were, the terrible thing about having 26 of your fellow radarmen killed . . . is that you knew them, you knew their hopes, and you knew their aspirations, and your hurt for them and their families, and you think of that all the time that never left me, I, and then when there are heightened types of memory like Memorial Day, the litany of their names and . . . their aspirations, Schultz will never dance at a three day Polish wedding in Chicago anymore, Nitro will never play, get to play first violin in the San Francisco symphony,

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Compton will never grow vegetables in Alaska with his brother then father, . . . Robinson will never change the diaper on his newborn baby. That repeats in your mind as you honor them, and try to remember the fun things that you did together, and to remember them that they’re at the bottom of the sea, . . . uh, you became very close, it’s always hard to explain, brotherhood people call it whatever, become very close because you all are facing not only life but death every day that you are in action, and that does make a very unique and powerful bond between you because you know you would probably give up your life to save theirs and they would do the same for you. I mean this is a given, something which is a very treasured given, knowing that you can depend on someone else that much, and that they can depend upon you that much is also important.

(42:30 – 42:42) Jessica Williams: Yeah, it sounds as if, you know, in C.I.C. there’s such a close relationship with the pilots, and did you feel all the time that people were depending on you for their safety?

(42:43 – 44:52) Ray Stone: Well, the, uh, I don’t know it just, a, as everyone on the ship was doing the best job they could, that’s why we always had a good crew it seemed, and it was just natural to do the best you can, and this ship you know it’s steel on all of that you became part of this, and the decks, you were part of everything and everything was part of you and everyone had to do their job and it seemed like they did you know, and how the, how the heck did we ever, you, you take this ship, you know how big it is, can you imagine three thousand mostly teenagers with about two hundred, uh, I call them adults, experienced officers and chiefs and petty officers to try and mold these people into a crew, that functions, all pulling the same way, my God I don’t know how they did it, but they did it, and then there’s, I guess each ship has its pride in being the best and trying to be the best, maybe that helps, bragging rights, uh, you know, sounds silly to be such a powerful force but I think that helped. Uh, but we were, always a damn good crew and even after the war all of the crews that followed were super, and w, they won awards, it’s a, it’s pleasant to be able to look back and say that to you, with pride, and with great feeling for it.

(44:54 – 45:12) Jessica Williams: Um, you said something, uh, about you being part of the ship and the ship being part of you and this closeness with this, with Intrepid. I wonder about how did you feel about C.I.C. and your radar equipment, did you feel like a personal connection with the equipment that you had to operate?

(45:14 – 45:16) Ray Stone: Do I feel how?

(45:16 – 45:20) Jessica Williams: Do you feel, did you feel a connection with the radar equipment?

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(45:20 – 47:30) Ray Stone: Oh God yes, you know, especially like the SM, the one that I explained that was the best and, uh, you know, and most skillful thing . . . it was like a first love but not a puppy love, you respected this machine because you knew what you, it, you could do with it and it could do for you so it was a mutual thing, and this all was, you were doing it not for yourself but for the pilots and for the ship. That’s why you were trained to be so good at it, for our pilots so they could be bet, good at what they did, and for the ship so it could be good at what it did, and it’s hard to separate yourself from the physical steel and the wooden flight deck that we had once, uh, and the planes and it, it all was like there was a symphony orchestra and instead of clarinets and drums and, and French horns, it had guns and p, different planes and people, performing. That’s a funny analogy, I never made that before but, uh, it was like that with the ship being the unseen conductor who pulled ya all together (Jessica Williams begins to say something) and led you into battle.

(47:32 – 47:41) Jessica Williams: Sorry to interrupt there a little bit. What I wondered is you said this was a new analogy so could you venture what you think C.I.C. might be in the orchestra that is Intrepid?

(47:48 – 48:39) Ray Stone: (Deep exhale) I think C.I.C .would have been, uh, like on the stage there’s a pitman down there making sure everybody follows the score and performs properly. I think that’s what C.I.C. would have been. Down there always connected to the needs and wishes of all departments and being able to keep them performing at their best by providing instant information and direction. How’s that?

(48:39 – 49:06) Jessica Williams: That’s great, I think that’s good especially, uh, as a on the fly answer to… it really is a great analogy. In the, you know, the thinking again about the physical aspects of C.I.C. what, I wonder if you could describe, um, what C.I.C ... give a sense of what C.I.C. felt like when you were there during World War II? What, um, what did it look like, what kinds of sounds were happening, that sort of thing?

(49:09 – 52:00) Ray Stone: Well it looked quite differently than it does on the ship today, uh, in my book I have a diagram of C.I.C., which the focal point was a huge plotting board at one end, the main plotting board, and there were a couple of plotting tables that were like desks with illuminated three hundred and sixty degree grids on ‘em, and the sets were spread around, the SM, the SG, another SK air search, and most important there were three Silex coffee makers, and these three pots had to be full at all times and to d, just to digress a bit, uh, what I love about those three things was that as you know on a ship there are means of getting whatever you want somehow. Whenever they were striking stores down below through our compartment we would ask them, they’re going down another deck to somewhere, wherever they put ‘em, and, uh, we’d say what are you loading, if it was a canned pineapple we’d say oh, we could use one of those, they’d slip the case off to us, oh it’s the captain’s Columbian coffee

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private blend, oh we could use two twenty five pound tins of that, so we made some of the best coffee on the ship and commander Gaines, second in command, our executive officer, always, he had to report to C.I.C. in the morning, first stop on General Quarters and he’d always have a cup of coffee and our, one day when I was off the set and back there having a cup of coffee myself he said, “Stoney I don’t understand” he said, “you have the best coffee on the ship, we don’t get it this good in the wardroom. What’s your secret?” So I looked at him and blinked and blurted out “Cleanliness, sir. Cleanliness.” Well I think he bought it, you know, I’m not sure but, uh, it was good coffee and it was important to have good coffee and, uh, you bartered as I say, radiomen they may have eggs and we’d have canned ham or something, so it was a wonderful way that, um, the ship functioned with some dysfunction going on.

(52:01 – 52:12) Jessica Williams: Um, let’s see I had a question but I forgot what it was… what, when, um, what was your typical day like in C.I.C.?

(52:14 – 1:00:29) Ray Stone: Well, uh, in battle or in, in a normal day when you weren’t in battle you were uh, on the watch for four hours, you were relieved after that by another watch for four, by another watch for four, before you rotated and you were back again, and, uh, so that was like four on and eight off and that rotated around and, uh, I mean you had your, uh, duty as I said you always had something to do, planes in the air, you’re responsible keeping track of ‘em, plane goes down say due to mechanical things, you have to know exactly where he is, etcetera, you have to plot it so that a rescue plane can go and see, a submarine can get there, destroyer according to the distance, etcetera, so you were busier doing that, and in a normal day if nothing went down you had to bring the planes back and, uh, if they were out and usually they could find their way back, but if they needed direction you gave ‘em direction to get back to the ship, and, uh, you did the same things you would do in battle if you had an interception going on, and if you had an interception going on it was same as the other except that you were for real vectoring fighters to intercept planes to shoot ‘em down and destroy them, and you were relaying the information to the gunnery radar and, uh, it was a good place to be because you always had something to do and you’re always in the know, like when we had the flag on I knew exactly what we were gonna do the next day with the battle plan, etcetera. Scuttlebutt was rampant on the ship, always speculation on wild stories were flo, floated around, who started them I don’t know, but they were either believable or non-believable according to your choice, but I’d ignore most of ‘em, and radar, uh, we were, we were treated a little bit differently because they didn’t know. There were some earlier, as I said earlier, that it was a new thing and there was, even in radar school they told us about a sea captain who didn’t believe in his radar, he preferred optical sighting and he ran his ship upon rocks and shoals, which was the thing that you should never do, they used to read us rocks and shoals, the, the laws that govern the US Navy, so by the time the war really got going, I mean when I was in it, by then radar was accepted by, not understood by all as a tool, but it was a powerful tool, and a

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day in there you were, they, they used to examine us because they didn’t know whether working in a dark room, staring at a scope would do to your eyes, so we were always examined both by an optometrist, who was constantly dilating our eyes and studying ‘em, and also a psychiatrist. It just, one of the fun things was, and they were, we must have been a test group, our, our group because I don’t give a damn where we were we were some of the first off and on the back of a truck and off to see the shrink. In Pearl Harbor he was located right next to a Jap prison camp at a base there. Well we came in after being hit, I forget which battle it was, and we were shipped, I mean within an hour we were on a truck going to visit the shrink, whom we had seen before. We thought of him as a fruitcake, and we got there, and we got in the PX, and we started drinking beer, and we got in to quite a bit of beer and canned sardines and things like that, and we were having a merry old time when they said you can’t see the shrink today, but we’ll, he’s gonna see you tomorrow, but you have to take a proficiency test now, so we didn’t want our party interrupted but we had no choice, and we went in, and a proficiency test was true or false, a or b answers, so we dispensed with that with a bunch of x’s on whatever we felt like x’ing without reading the question, got back to our party. At about 6 AM and we’re in our bunk beds in the compartment there and here’s Commander Mitchell shaking me saying, “Stoney what the hell is going on here?” Once again he uses that phrase with me. I say, “Why sir?” He says, “I was enjoying my liberty when they found me and told me I was sailing with the dumbest radarmen in the fleet. What the hell went on h . . .” I said, “Well we had a few beers and we didn’t wanna take a test and they gave us a test.” So he got us all up into the showers and we went and we had some of the highest marks they had recorded there because we all knew what we were doing, and then we had to see the shrink. And he had examined our friend Dingy, who was a North Carolina ridge runner mountain boy, who couldn’t stay below when the guns went off. He had to run from one end of the deck to the other outdoors, and they got him and they said, “Dingy, you know that’s where all the shells and bombs hit, and, uh, you know you’re much safer down here making sandwiches in, uh, in the mess hall.” He says, “Tell me where the torpedoes hit.” (Laughs) So then they switched to the, uh, he said the strange question, what am I gonna do, do I prefer boys or girls. He said, “Well that’s all according to where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do, whether I wanted to be with a boy or a girl.” So he, uh, we used all of Dingy’s, everyone repeated exactly those answers to the shrink’s questions, and he finally gave up on us, but that was part of them trying to find out how it affected, and they gave us eye exercises and I still don’t wear glasses and I’m 88, and I can read the New York Times, as long as I have good enough light I can read anything so maybe the eye exercises (moves eyes side to side) helped. (Both laugh) One of the benefits from being a radarman.

(1:00:32 – 1:00:51) Jessica Williams: Um, you, you mentioned that I think at some point earlier, or we’ve talked about this a little bit before about how you were [inaudible] were a damn good radarman. (Ray Stone says, “Yeah”) Eyesight makes me think about this a little bit. I’m

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wondering what, um, you think were some skills that were really necessary to be good at being a radarman?

(1:00:54 – End of Disc 1 & 00:00 – 00:54 Disc 2) Ray Stone: Well, it was simply that you were good meaning you, you know, seemed to, part of it was human, this interpretation of pips, and being able to, one, get the pip to its maximum strength so that you could then judge, make judgment calls as to say, how many planes are in this group, is it a two planes or ten planes or what, and then also doing sort of a judgmental guess as to the distance that you had it, the height of the pip, and the intensity of it as to possibly the altitude. That was one thing that we didn’t have then, we could get you the exact direction it was coming from, and the exact mileage, but not the altitude. We were not that sophisticated, I, I guess today they, that would all be axiomatic you know, but it’s a, being good meant that you sort of put an extra effort into your involvement and interpretation of what you were seeing, and from experience you began to learn and be able to be more accurate, and not everyone had that same attitude just because, not because they didn’t want to, but they just didn’t have it somehow, and it was sort of a little bit special. There were a couple of us that were I thought above, we were the best, and I was one of them. My friend Botts Alexander was good. My friend Smitty was good. Smitty’s life was saved because he was good. When the twenty six, day before the twenty six we got hit, in November 24, and twenty six radarmen were back in the compartment about fifty feet aft of us on standby duty. Smitty was before that assigned there for GQ as the leading petty officer in charge of them, and just the day before he went to Commander Mitchell and said, “Sir I’m a damn good radar operator, you know that, I don’t belong back there babysitting.” And he said, “You’re right.” He said, “You report to, uh, C.I.C. for General Quarters.” So he was in C.I.C. when the kamikaze hit and killed all of those men. So was Red Jones, and, uh, C.J. King, couple of southern boys who were in that compartment, but they (End of Part 1) got tired and they went, came up to C.I.C. and they asked me, I was having a cup of coffee, they said, “Stoney how long is this gonna go on?” and I said, “I don’t know.”, you know. Just then the first kamikaze hit, so they were saved, so there were three men just by that fickle finger of fate missed being killed. You had asked me earlier, you know, how I felt about all these things, I, well, I have no explanation for that it’s just they were not killed. They were saved by happenstance.

(00:56 – 1:16) Jessica Williams: Um, the, we’ve talked a little bit about this attack, this kamikaze attack, and I know it’s a story that you’ve told before, but for the benefit of this, you know for somebody who hasn’t heard, um, I’m wondering if you can tell me about your experience during that, uh, really terrible, terrible day?

(1:18 – 13:00) Ray Stone: Well that was . . . the worst day, and . . . when it hit, the first one, I was in back on the SM with my friend Jack Schwartz and Smitty was on the other air search.

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When the second one hit, and the fires became so intense all around us from the hangar deck, we were just above it, and smoke and everything, everyone left C.I.C., it was only the three of us there, I don’t know why, uh, we didn’t say anything or volunteer, but somehow we felt that we were gonna try and stick it out, and that we could do some good I guess, I don’t know. We were in a bit of shock, and in the midst of this after about five minutes what we were doing was, it was so, eyes were burning from the smoke and the, and everything, and have to go down on the deck and try and get some air and then come up and try and see the scope and read things, and, we weren’t doing much good when in came a guy we called my country cousin, Stoner, and he said, “Stoney what can I help?” And so I said, “Sit behind the plot board.” Within thirty seconds though we all had to get the hell outa there, crawl, we crawled, we just couldn’t cough, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see, and got out, and as we came out, two, one deck below the flight deck there, there was a narrow passageway and a narrow ladder going up to the flight deck. Well there was a knot of men all coming up from the hangar deck, and some wounded and half burned and screaming, etcetera, and got in this knot of men, all trying to find a ladder to get up to the air and the flight deck, and I thought oh my God this is the way I’m gonna go, cause, just then somebody hit me so hard I ended up with my tail on the ladder, and I said, “Oh boy,” I said, “Here’s the ladder everybody.” Somebody yells, “Shut up and hold hands.” They did and they, we all came up, then we came onto the flight deck, there were all the bodies spread out on it right there with the chaplains givin’ last rights, and aidin’, comfortin’, the doctors tryin’ to save them, and a corpsman asked for a, I had a first aid belt on, and we had morphine in it, and he asked for my belt so he needed morphine, and I had cut off my shirt, tried to clear my eyes cause I couldn’t see, I was sort of blinded for a few minutes, and then finally I could see, and I looked back at the flames shooting through the hole in the flight deck and saw some guys run, there were hoses there, there were fire hoses, and the guys running with another one so I got on that and helped pull a fire hose, and, uh, was more or less something to do, you know, cause guys were standing around not knowing what to do, others were all trying to do something. That’s when the controversial, uh, came over announcement over the loudspeaker saying report to your abandon ship station. Now some people said they never heard it and that it never existed. I asked, I thought I heard that, and I asked the man in the front of me pulling the hose, I said, “Did you hear that announcement?” He said, “Yes.” He said, “Report to your abandon ship station.” And I said, “That’s what I thought.” And I looked back and the men on the deck under the island were (shakes his head no) all shaking their heads up to the captain, no, no way. Well I eventually did go, I remembered where my abandon ship station was, which all I knew was, uh, it was something we never drilled at this, but were told it was forward on the starboard side of the flight deck. And I got there and there was some other radar men there with Polock checking the list of those, making a list of those alive. And years later he told me, we were talking about that at one of the reunions and he said, “Do you know, Stoney,” he says, “If we had to go over the side,” remember we didn’t have

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ropes or anything, we were gonna have to dive off the flight deck, he says, “I can’t swim, (laughs) I woulda gone down, come up, and then drowned.” I said, “Well we’re lucky we needed you. That’s why you didn’t go over the side.” But that was true, you know, that, uh, what is it ninety feet to the water? It’s a bit of a high dive. But thank God we never had to do that and, uh, the ship was saved that day when the captain made a hard turn and all the flaming gasoline mostly went over the side, and it took four and half hours or so to put out the fires, and all through that, in reflection of that day, all I can remember is that I did report to, there was a radar, back up radar set in flag compartment, I went there and nearly knocked Admiral Bogan over as I entered, and he, I musta looked great, I was covered in soot, had a half a shirt, and I had lost one of my shoes. And he grabbed me and looked me over and said, “Had a rough day son?” I said, “Yes sir, but I’m here to operate the radar.” So I sat and did that for a while and then eventually when it was dark I went down and I was making my way back to the compartment on the hangar deck, and there were the bodies all out, and they were putting them in body bags, and a corpsman said, “Hey you’re a radarman, uh, what do I do with these two?” Compton and the other guy had their arms wrapped around one another, holding one another and they were instantly killed that way and rigor mortis had set in a bit. He said, “How am I going to bury them?” And I said, “Break their arms,” and, you know, put ‘em in the bag and, that, I walked, and the smell and everything. I still remember the burnt flesh, the ammunition burnt, the gasoline burnt. It was horrible. I went back, before I went to the compartment I just stood there and cried . . . I don’t know how long. Then I went down, and into the compartment, and our forward compartment was pretty full not many outta that, our after compartment, that’s where most of the guys had, that had been killed were berthed, and I went back there, and I just made an announcement for the benefit of three wise guys, who had been picking on my country cousin Stoner, and I just somehow felt that I had to do that right then, and I said, I knew what they did, which was not, one fainted, one pooped in his pants, and the other threw up, not that I have anything against anyone that did that in battle, but because they were such wise guys and picked on him I said, didn’t mention him or anything I just said, “I just want you men back here to know that you have a hero in your midst, that Stoner is the only one that came back to C.I.C. to see if he could help.” I said, “So I want him treated with the utmost respect from here on in.” Now fast forward fifty or sixty years later, I call up find out Stoner is alive, call up, and he’s in the bit of an Alzheimer mode (laughs), and I said, we used to kid him and because we call her, he was so in love, he was love smitten, and if he married the girl in the farm next door he would have eighty acres cause his father would give him forty, her father would give her forty, so we called her “eighty acres,” did you get your letter from eighty acres, you know, that was constant, oh, and the poor guy he went looking for the mail buoy in the middle of the Pacific you know and all of this, and then it, it got to, it was so much that I just started to announce that he was my cousin, and that everyone should leave him alone, or, uh, they were gonna have to fight me. And so I asked him, I said, “Did you ever marry eighty

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acres?” He says, “I don’t know, I married somebody (laughs) I don’t know who she was.” But, it’s, you stay connected with a few of the guys and they were all wonderful people, he was a farm boy, I didn’t know any other farm boys like that, I didn’t know any guy, kids that had worked in factories as a machinist mate etcetera. It was a part of a melting pot of cultures with a crew with so many people from all parts of the country, and with all, with a slightly different identifying personality.

(13:03 – 13:29) Jessica Williams – Um, when, so the ship, the ship is this melting pot, all these guys on board, and you feel such close, you know, close relations with them. When in the aftermath of that attack, it’s not the first time that kamikazes struck Intrepid, but once, once you knew what happened, and knew that these were kamikaze pilots, what did, what did you think about that, about for yourselves, about the Japanese, how do you process that?

(13:32 – 17:40) Ray Stone: How, well, . . . this one was so much, the most brutal of all, number two and three, uh, it was . . . you, it was so bad, so awful that it increased your fear and awareness of kamikazes, uh, it’s not the worst that hit a carrier, poor Franklin they lost nearly a thousand men when they got hit, I cried on that, that’s, I could have been one of those as I said earlier, but when that got hit and I knew it I went up on the flight deck and looked off on the horizon and saw explosion after explosion on that. I knew that Jim Winston was on it, and I knew that McGregor Kilpatrick, my first fighter direction officer, was on it, and had a squadron, he was in charge of the fighter pla, he was flying again. So, to answer your question, I don’t know how I can go any further on that subject it’s, uh, it showed how, one, how vulnerable a carrier was because of planes, ammunition, etcetera, once it got hit, I mean we were, when we got hit, and the fourth kamikaze we were fortunate that Don Bee and his partner were forward there by a foam fire extinguisher and got out the parts of the plane and flames that were there before damage control even got there, that was the easiest. When we got hit at Okinawa it was pretty bad flames and stuff, but as Winston Goodloe said to me, we had a lot of experience fighting fires and knew how to do it better, so when we got hit the worst, I mean, we’ll, that was so horrible and had so many r, uh, things that happened, Frank Fodor, who later became Brother Fodor with, uh, in a religious order, I think he became that because he operated the number three elevator, and when they were cleaning up after it he found his division officer’s head in a, in a helmet, and that, poor Frank was a gentle person before, and that really drove him in. Uh, there were things like that that happened to young people, old people, whatever, they were horrible, and they were, you, I don’t know how you, . . . how you position them to other people, it’s hard, some things, uh, you bury within your mind and you hope to keep ‘em buried you don’t exhume, that’s about it.

(17:42 – 18:06) Jessica Williams: When, um, related to that, when, after these attacks happened what, what are you, what were you thinking when you had to then go back into

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C.I.C., you know, pick up the next day, well in some cases the ship got hit and went back for repairs, but after the first kamikaze attack, um, what, what was it like being in C.I.C. during those moments of battle?

(18:08 – 19:38) Ray Stone: Well, you were more aware, as I said earlier, you, you were able to concentrate on always, I was always able to concentrate more on just what I had to do, what I was responsible for until after it, then I had the realization of what could have happened. I think, during the next battles I was aware of what could happen while a battle was going on, still doing my job, but really conscious of what it might be like if we got hit again, and what, how many, among and that I might surely be among them because I felt I was running out like a cat has nine lives you know, I was running out of good fortune, and, uh, had a bit of, still did my work as well as ever I think, but had the anticipation there, which used to wait until after the battle, a realization of what could happen.

(19:40 – 19:59) Jessica Williams: Were there any, um, experiences that you remember where you, you could attribute your collective work in C.I.C. to maybe preventing a kamikaze attack or anything, anything where the decisions made in C.I.C., um, had an impact, which I guess it did all the time, but?

(19:59 – 22:22) Ray Stone: There were so many of those that I can’t be give you any specifics, that was, we did that mostly and, uh, but it’s hard to say if fifty thousand, if five thousand, or if fifty planes have made up their minds that they’re gonna attack your group of ships and you intercept them, they learn, you know, to come in low so you couldn’t pick ‘em up too far out cause they were, they were just barely able to fly they weren’t skilled pilots, and some of ‘em were bound to get through, both the planes being shot down and the ship’s gunners, it, it just, you know, one could get through, two could get through, three. You just couldn’t stop every one of them, and it was an interesting thing, not something that changed things, but I observed when there was a group of kamikazes coming in there was always a plane orbiting about ten miles behind ‘em. I said that has to be significant. I talked it over with I think Jim Winston, the fighter direction officer, so they decided to shoot him down, and what it turned out to be, there would be an admiral or some high ranking officer who sort of followed the kamikazes to make sure they died an honorable death and didn’t become chicken kamikazes as some did, rather than dive into the ship they pancaked into the water and were picked up by our submarines, but that was you know, something that you . . . in the heat of battle you say why is that guy there, always, you began to notice that, maybe it was only two or three times that you noticed it, but, then we decided to do, always do something about him.

(22:25 – 22:47) Jessica Williams: It sounds like from that story and some other stories that you know, judgment and analysis of information is, was so important, I’m wondering if you could describe a little bit about how information got passed around C.IC., does that, I’m, I would love

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to know more about just the communication, how you communicated within C.I.C., and how C.I.C. communicated with, say, the commanding officer?

(22:48 – 25:36) Ray Stone: Well, say I’m on the set okay, and I have a headphone on, and I’m connected to a plot board, somebody plotting, and I say alright, uh, we have a bogey coming in at, uh, fifty five miles bearing zero ten one o, then I give him the next plot, he puts it down, they designate it, I check it for IFF, if foe, not friendly, no IFF, they put the second plot down, which determines its course and speed, they give it a, a grade designation say a, it’s the first one, and then they keep plotting it, then one of the fighter direction officers takes over the interception of that, and then we pick up another one coming in from zero seven zero, sixty miles out, they do the same thing, plotting that, and another fighter direction officer, if he’s available will handle that raid, he will then notify the combat air patrol plane up there, a four, a group of four that are orbiting that they have something approaching on such and such a course and then give ‘em a vector for interception, he speaks to the pilot, the pilot then, uh, head in on it, and you see the two, if you’re watching the plot board, you see the two courses coming to an ollision, and that’s when they shoot ‘em down hopefully, not all the time, but towards the end the American pilots were, uh, more skillful than the Japanese pilots, they had better equipment and better pilots in the beginning of the war, more skillful cause they were more experienced, their planes were faster and more maneuverable, the Zero, and they could out, take our F4U’s, which were not up to ‘em, but the F6F and then the F4U are, those two fighters were very good matches for Zeros and superior to them and, uh, the pilots were better also, so that’s why we destroyed so many Japanese planes in the air in combat.

(25:38 – 25:51) Jessica Williams: How much, um, so in C.I.C. you had a lot of information, information about individual aircraft and whatnot, how much did you know about the bigger picture of what Intrepid was involved in?

(25:52 – 29:29) Ray Stone: When we had the flag on I knew the battle plan from day one through day seven, so I, so I knew the bigger picture for that immediate area of, of the world that we were involved in. The rest of it I had no idea, what was going on, when, uh, the war in Europe was something, another war, it wasn’t ours, and our war wasn’t their war. The day I had the, a midnight watch, the dog watch, when radiomen told us that the war in Europe was over I said, “God we gotta celebrate something . . .,” and I wonder if we have any booze in our salted away locker, so I went down and there was only one bottle of some horrible concoct. . . rockin’ rye or something like that, and I thought you know we had to symbolically celebrate and we just each took a taste of it, it was too sweet and etcetera, but somehow the word got around the ship. When I got off watch after GQ there were some bodies spread around who got to the torpedo juice and were passed out (laughs) in celebrating it, and the feeling was, okay, that war’s over, this war will end sooner because they’ll be able to put more stuff here,

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and that, it was, that was the rea…, simple reaction to a major, major event, but it was a personal one, and, so that’s, I didn’t know what their plans were, uh, except we were, uh, with Halsey who was going to kick butt, and always after the Japanese fleet, he wanted to sink the carriers and when we went north to do that and left the rest of the fleet to fight them as they came through San Bernardino in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, it seemed perfectly logical because that was our objective, to destroy their carriers. The carrier came into its own as the most important type of ship in the navy, the battlewagon, the big old battlewagon was no longer the queen of the fleet, the carrier had taken over as the prime ship because we could bring an airfield anywhere, and attack so well, land, sea, or whatever, and the Intrepid always seemed to have a, a will of its, a fighting will, and a spirit, it was a good spirit among the crew. It wasn’t just me, it wasn’t just somebody else, it was everybody, we were out there to do a job, to do it well, to get it over with, and to win.

(29:33 – 29:47) Jessica Williams: How would you, um, in the end, the allies won the war in the Pacific and Japan was defeated, I’m wondering how from your perspective you would describe Intrepid’s accomplishments during the war?

(29:48 – 31:31) Ray Stone: I sum it up quite simply. The Intrepid was involved in a lot of battles, took a lot of punishment, but it gave out more than it took. The number of planes we, our pilots, God Bless our pilots, destroyed in air combat or on the ground, number of ships they sunk, and had credit for being involved in the two largest battleships in the world that the Japs had, the Matui and Yamoto [Musashi and Yamato] (30:28), . . . what the planes from this ship did was far more than the Japanese did in their sneak attack on Pearl Harbor so we were part of avenging that attack, that attack to me still . . . remains as a sneak attack, not a surprise attack, like those who try to modify history, try to soften just because we are now friendly relations with Japan, I don’t try to alter history, I try to remember it exact and say it exactly as it was from my viewpoint.

(31:34 – 31:40) Jessica Williams: When you, what, where were you when you learned that the war was over?

(31:41 – 38:22) Ray Stone – By then, I took my thirty day leave after we got hit at Okinawa, the medical officer said he didn’t think that anyone from the original crew should be going to sea for a while, they should have some other duty and I agreed with ‘em, they gave me delayed orders to report to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, near home, for reassignment. Well after waiting awhile they assigned me to the FDR, new carrier that was not yet commissioned, and I went up to Newport, and, should I tell this story on myself? (Jessica Williams says, “Sure”) Getting up to Newport, I had a date with a gal, it was Saturday night, my orders were to be in Newport, Rhode Island, by midnight. I said, “The hell with that I got this date and we’re going dancing.” That was the big thing then, big name bands and dancing, we’re going dancing at the

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Commodore Hotel to Vaughn Monroe and that’s right near Grand Central I’ll catch a later train. I’ll threaten to kill any yeoman that checks me in wrong, you know, I figured, I you know, I could get away with that, so I did go dancing and I got, didn’t get there until six in the morning instead of midnight. Not only did they not have Marine guards, they had civilian guards on the gates at Newport. They made me a prisoner at large, they locked me up. For two weeks I went around on a laundry truck as a prisoner at large. My friend the marine, who was at, with the war college there, from hometown, Jimmy, said to me, “Boy you’re in trouble.” I said, “I know, I see that prisoner stockade, it’s horrible, they have ‘em out there doing calisthenics all day and night and they had big P’s printed on their back.” He said, “Yeah, they’re terrible,” and he said the guy that runs the captain’s mast is a commodore whose about four foot nine, he’s a little short guy, and he can’t hear, and he can’t see, and he’s just an old leftover. So I said, “Oh, I’ll handle him.” And I figured how am I gonna handle him? So I said, I, I’ll have three stories, I’ll see how things are going, and I’ll use one of these three stories, either the alarm clock that my father gave my mother as a wedding present never did work right, and you know, she wouldn’t ever part with it and I’m sorry sir, I didn’t think that would work, my dog got hit by a car and I was so distraught da da da da da da da, and I thought that might work I, I could really bring tears cause it really did happen but not then. Third one was I met the sister of one of my buddies who was killed in a kamikaze attack and she was so distraught I couldn’t leave her, I was trying to comfort her and explain about her brother, so I figured alright, so, I’m sitting there and with an S? [inaudible] I was sorta late, everybody was getting thirty days bread and water (makes motion of hitting gavel), thirty days, and this guy couldn’t hear everything so I said I’ll speak loud so that he can hear me, so (seems to mimic the commodore speaking) he’s like, he’s on, standing on a milk box behind a podium he’s so short, and he keeps (makes gavel motion again) with the gavel you know, and boom the guys are going off, they, they were all terrified by them, so I get up and I start in and I sorta got the dog and the girl and the alarm clock stories all mixed up so I started laughing uncontrol . . . I figured I’m dead, and I start laughing, the more I laughed the more he banged the gavel, he said, “This man’s an idiot.” (Makes gavel motion) And I’d laugh more then, so he kept doing this and finally he says, “This man’s insane, get him outta my sight.” So two boatswain’s mates took me over to the door and gave me a shove and said, “Run, you’re the first person that ever got away from him.” But anyhow, getting back to the FDR, so that base I didn’t like, you had to, if there were three of ya you had to march in step, going to the chow hall, coming from here or there, etcetera. They assigned, they had their radar, some of their radarmen there so I took them to for further training down to Brigantine Island off the coast of Atlantic City, Father Divine had a hote…, a hotel down there that the Navy took over and had a radio, uh, radar school there, then I took ‘em up to Boston where we went out on a former I think Theodore, Teddy Roosevelt yacht, which was made into a radar boat, and so when I got there with them it, we’d go out and around the harbor and use the surface radar and hope to have some planes to work with, and so this went on for a couple of

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days. Then there was the day I was getting shaved when the war ended, I jumped in my blues, ran out, didn’t ask if I had a pass or anything, went and joined the merry throng in Boston who were celebrating the end of the war. I know I went out and I had a dollar sixty two in my pants, when I came in I had I think twelve dollars in my pants, and had been drinking and celebrating with people all night long. It was such a grrreeaat, great feeling. So that’s where I was when the war ended.

(38:23 – 38:35) Jessica Williams: Um, yeah, after seeing all of the things that you experienced it really must have been an amazing sense of just relief and accomplishment that, uh, contributing toward victory.

(38:37 – 39:59) Ray Stone: Well, then began to think, you know, I had been offered a chance to go to Annapolis, which I couldn’t take, my father had died during the war, and I had to support my mother, but Commander Mitchell, who had often asked me, “Stoney what the hell are you doing?” said, “Stoney you’re going to Annapolis. They’re allowing, they want some fleet sailors who’ve had experience to go.” And I said, “My math was lousy.” He said, “We’ll send you to Lakehurst” where the balloon, uh, dirigibles were from, they had a prep school there for Annapolis and, uh, said, “You’ll be able to pass.” Well, I said, “I can’t, I have to help support my mother you know, my father lost everything during the war and when he died, and uh, she needs help.” And I was, I think also ready for civilian life, I wanted to get on and somehow go to art school and pursue that career, so that’s what I chose, and I had a good life.

(40:00 – 40:02) Jessica Williams: What did you do after the war?

(40:03 – 40:43) Ray Stone: Uh, I was, uh, an art director and creative director, advertising, magazines, and then eventually had my own small ad agency with a couple of partners, a boutique one creative and, did both, some designing of ads, etcetera, and some writing of ‘em and some producing of this and that end everything. Uh, I had a wonderful time and enjoyed it and was quite successful at doing whatever I did, and, uh, didn’t make tons of money, but I made a comfortable living.

(40:44 – 41:00) Jessica Williams: Um, it’s interesting to me that you started as an art student, had this time in the Navy doing something totally (Ray Stone says, “Right”) different, and then went back to that again. Do you think that your time in C.I.C. was a blip, as it were, or do you think that that informed your later career?

(41:06 – 43:19) Ray Stone: What I think helped being in the Navy and in C.I.C. was I learned and understood what teamwork was and this came into play when I was an art director, it was working with copywriters and directors, and the way we worked best was when we complimented one another and did, each did our job and didn’t try to do the others. Then when I started writing copy as an art director it was a little difficult but I figured I did it in a way

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that I wasn’t offending other writers, and I became my own. Then when I became creative director I could choose either writing or art or both, and that was the happy time because I could assign certain assignments where I knew the writer would be better than I was or the art director would be better than I was, so we could work toge . . . and we did a lot of good work, you know, that got awards, etcetera, mostly it got results and I always felt . . . that . . . part of it was what I learned in C.I.C. under stress, under battle conditions, which you did in the ad world, deadlines and missed deadlines, and, uh, you learn to work with others to get the job done, and that, you know, that is with a lot of different personalities etcetera, as you find anywhere, but particularly in the, the advertising field.

(43:22 – 43:40) Jessica Williams: So, we’ve, we’ve covered a lot and time as, it’s been a while, time has flown, but I wanna ask just the last question is if there’s any particular things about C.I.C. or your time on board Intrepid that I didn’t ask you about or any stories that come to mind that you’d like to tell, um, before we sign off?

(43:43 – 44:08) Ray Stone: Not immediately comes to mind, always comes to mind on the way home (laughs) (Jessica Williams says, “Of course.”) what you coulda said, and, uh, no I can’t think of anything, I think that ya been thorough, thorough in probing, and I hope I’ve been sufficient in my response.

(44:08 – 44:22) Jessica Williams: Oh, please, you’ve been more than sufficient, and um, and I’ve learned a lot from talking to you, and we know where you live so we can always pick up if there’s anything we want to follow up (Ray Stone says, “Right.”) on, but yeah, and I think, I think we’re good, we’re good, yes.