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Memories of Joseph Nowak

Here's George Marquis and I manning the 40 mm gun. Lt. Welch is on the bridge with his back to the periscope shears and the guy with sun glasses on the bridge is Mort Soiett. George and I have been close friends since the Bergall first left the States for her war patrols.

I remember an Annapolis grad (new officer) exploded the head all over his white uniform. The 'head' required a certain sequence of valve openings and closings... anything else resulted in hysterical consequences... , for everyone else! Here's a plague from the Gato class boats describing each procedure to flush the 'head'... one mistake and 'somebody' pays a price!

One time we were playing medicine ball on deck and it went overboard and I jumped off the sub to get it back ... into shark infested waters! I don't remember that point coming to mind at the moment!

Toward the end of the first war patrol, we were heading to Australia and crossed the equator.   Navy tradition holds that all that cross the equator for the first time are just "pollywogs" and had to be initiated and become "shellbacks" in order to pass.   Can you imagine our surprise, at war and heading for a new home base and the skipper calls for "All Stop" to initiate the "pollywogs" just northwest of Borneo? Here's my certificate. It's on real thin paper so there's some bleed through!

I have a few pictures of the guys that I ran around with that I'd like to share. It'll take a while to load, but if you're willing... click here.

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