September-23, 1950

We are steaming at night with Task Force 77. Don't remember where we are nor where we are heading. Sometime during the middle of the night while every thing is calm and everybody is sound asleep in thier racks, sonar reports a hard contact. The Captain is called to the bridge and after studying the contact for some time cannot decide if it is an enemy Submarine or a whale. He decides to send a messenger around to wake up the asw depth charge crews. (he didn't want to waken the whole ship in case it turns out to be a false alarm). The men man the stern racks and the k-guns. The Captain orders a depth charge run to see what happens with the contact. We commenced a run and fired 5 depth charges. The exploding charges woke every man aboard ship and caused quite a lot of confusion. Bosun Mate Sullinouski ran from his bunk and was going over the side when he was stopped by shipmates who were manning the k-guns. It seems bosun mate Sullinouski was torpedoed during the war and his reaction was that it was happening again and he was getting the heck out of there.

Needless to say, Captain Weatherwax was very imbarressed and he was heard to say, I'll never do that again without going to General Quarters. The Sonar contact turned out to be a false alarm.