Tonight I have finished entering all the arrivals and departures of all the sailors of CA-69! We have 3,022 sailor records, as of tonight all their arrival and departure information is complete along with all of their promotions! Yeah!
So what’s with 1 and 1,217? When I look at the data, we had two sailors attend the commissioning ceremony on June 30,1943 and they were re-assigned the next day! They each spent 1 day on the Boston: They are Robert B Johnstone and Robert J Duren. These are the shortest services on the Boston in my records. On the other side, five sailors spent 1,217 days from Commissioning to Decommissioning on the Boston with only the normal leaves given to all sailors. These five had no time off the ship in Hospital, or temporary duty. They were Robert Earnest Lafavour, joined as a seaman second class, he was from the New Hampshire area, he was promoted to Seaman first class after nine months on board, 11 months later he was promoted to Coxswain, after 3 years and almost 4 months we and his other 4 sailors who spent the most time onboard, departed on the USS BALTIMORE.
Next is Marion Ray Shores, Marion came to the Boston as a Machinist Mate 2nd class having enlisted in January of 1941, Marion had experience coming into the Boston. Marion was promoted the Machinist Mate 1st class after 11 months, and he left the Boston at this rank.
Ralph Sydney George is next, Ralph came to the Boston as an experienced sailor also enlisting in 1941, he was a ShipFitter. He had a bit of a rough patch with a demotion on board, but he regained his rank over his long service on the Boston.
Robert Emile Haas, came to the Boston as a raw recruit, a Seaman Second Class. He was promoted the Seaman first class after 14 months on board and he departed the ship as an Seaman 1st class.
Finally, Clifford Ross Jones fills out the longest serving Sailor. Clifford also came as a raw recruit and was promoted to Ship’s Cook 3rd class and promoted again to Ship’s Cook 2nd class.
A few numbers: There are 3,022 sailor records, with 2,707 promotions. The records include 6,476 individual transactions of sailors arriving and leaving for both temporary assignments and permanent transfers. The most sailors onboard at any one time is 1,592 sailors May of 1945. Over the next months and beyond I’ll be finishing the discipline records and working on notes and decklogs to bring interesting stories…
Bill
Clifford Ross Jones was my uncle and longest serving sailor
Phil DePauk