Bourke, James

SK3 JAMES R. BOURKE 28 May 1956

I James R. Bourke, was born 17 August 1934, at High Island, Texas My eyes are brown, and my hair is black. On 9 May 1952, I enlisted in the Navy at New Orleans, Louisiana, ane went to boot camp at San Diego, California. My first duty station was NAF Iwakuni, Japan. I was promoted to SK3 and married Fumiko.

On 28 May 1956, I was received for duty on board USS FRANK E. EVANS (DD 754). She was in dry dock at Hunter’s Point, San Francisco, California. I was assigned to S Division as a store keeper.

While serving in FRANK E. EVANS, I was one lucky guy; crossing the equator and going to the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.I had one hell of a good time on that cruise.

Memories: …The Supply Office, right off the mid-ship passageway, was so small only two people could get in it. The Disbursing Officer had his safe in there with all the dollars. Occasionally, he left it unlocked. Once, I emptied the trash cans in the safe and then locked it. Boy, was he hot, but he never knew who did it. …Someone poured a five-gallon bucket of red lead on the Chief Boatswain, who was not too popular.

When the ship got to Sasebo, I took the train to Iwakuni. On the way back with my wife, we got to Fukuoka and found out service to Sasebo had ceased for the night. My leave was up the next morning. A taxi driver agreed to take us to Sasebo in exchange for all my camera equipment. We had a wild ride through the mountains and got to the ship around midnight. FRANK E. EVANS was outboard of the squadron. When I got to the quarter-deck, complete with my wife in tow, quite a stir occurred, especially when the messenger had to wake the Supply Officer to sign an overnight pass for me. Those were some tough days for me.

I felt great pride at my GQ station, Mount 51. I loved that set of guns. I had a great tour aboard FRANK E. EVANS, and will never forget the speed that TIN-CAN had. I’ll never forget when they kicked us out of San Diego!

I remained in Navy 1952-1972; SKC USN (Ret), Chief Store Keeper.

Post Navy: 1974-2002, Civil Service, Naval Training Center, Corry Station, Pensacola, FL

James & Mary Bourke currently reside at 728 W. Moreno St., Pensacola, FL, 32501. You can reach them at 850-436-4095, or cajun11@cox.net 23 November 2008