Legg, Douglas

LTJG DOUGLAS REID LEGG – 26 July 1952 to 1955

I Douglas Reid Legg, “Doug” was born 1 July 1930 at Portland, Oregon. My eyes are brown and currently my hair is grey/brown. I went through the NROTC program at Notre Dame, Indiana and became an Ensign on 1 June 1952. Six weeks later, in late July 1952, I reported to USS FRANK E. EVANS (DD 754) in Task Force 77 off Korea.

Not surprisingly, there was rapid turnover aboard FRANK E. EVANS as she was in mothballs when Korea began and her recommissioning crew was built around a large percentage of recalled reservists plus several men fresh from boot camp. I kept a diary for most of my time aboard her. I have a full, I hope, record of the officers from October 1952 through August 1954.

While onboard USS FRANK E. EVANS (DD 754), I had a number of successive billets associated with 1, 2, 3, and O Divisions. Ist nd rd started off as Assistant 2 Division Officer under Don Manion. Then, after a two-month ASW Officer school at Point Loma, San Diego, I relieved Ed Cazier as ASW and 3 Division Officer. I rd later relieved “Buck” Bennett as First Lieutenant and 1 Division st Officer. Prior to deploying to WESTPAC in 1954, Captain Chase appointed me Gunnery Officer, where I remained for most of my final deployment.

I spent time ashore in Korea as an FAO (Forward Artillery Observer) spotting gunfire for FRANK E. EVANS and the cruiser USS BREMERTON in support of the Sixth ROK infantry division. In September 1952, three of us from FRANK E. EVANS went ashore, Pitzer, Blankenship, and I. We wore Marine greens that were used with the ship’s landing force. However, we didn’t have green skivvy shirts, so we wore the standard Navy white issue. But when we got to the front, the Koreans immediately realized that we weren’t Marines and wanted to know who we really were.

After my relief came aboard, I reverted to First Lieutenant. As a Regular officer, I expected to be reassigned after almost three years aboard the same ship. Our then XO LCDR George Wadleigh personally phoned BuPers to find out where I was to go next, but they’d “lost” my records, at which point, on St Patrick’s Day 1955, I reverted to USNR and applied for release from active duty.

One night in’54 I was CDO checking out the quarterdeck watch when one of the men in my division came back from liberty totally sloshed and with his forehead cut open down to the skull pan. We quickly summoned the duty Corpsman and went to Sick Bay where the Corpsman sewed up the sailor’s head with a needle and thread. I talked to the sailor, hoping to distract him from the pain, and then realized he was so intoxicated that he didn’t feel much of anything. Afterward, the Messenger o the Watch took the man down to his rack. The next morning at Quarters he couldn’t remember what had happened, or why his forehead was all stitched, or why his jumper was blood soaked. I gave him some strong suggestions about getting in bar fights involving broken beer bottles, but my comments obviously didn’t trigger any memories.

I served in her until five of us were released early from active duty as DESRON 13 was going out on Operation Wigwam, which involved the first testing of a nuclear depth charge. No one knew how long it would take for just the perfect weather for that test, so they release anyone whose “enlistment” was up thru the first week in June. I departed the ship in late April 1955 as LTJG. After being released from active duty in early May 1955, I did 20 years in the Naval Reserve and retired as a Commander on 1 July 1990 my 60th birthday.

I returned to Notre Dame where I completed a two-year research Master’s Degree in History. After that, I spent five years at the Universities of Oregon and London. The year in England was a wonderful experience which I repeated again in the late ’60s. In 1962 what was then Southern Oregon College in Ashland hired me for its History faculty, where I remained handling a variety of teaching and administrative posts until retiring 1 July 1990, my 60 birthday.

Somewhere amongst the huge collection of “stuff” I’ve accumulated over the past 40 years, there is one of the original ship “patches” in mint condition. There was a competition aboard FRANK E. EVANS for an appropriate design, and a GM1 submitted the winning design. I can’t remember his name, but I do remember that a couple of the CPO’s were outraged that someone could make PO1 on his first enlistment, with about nine months left on a four year “hitch.”

Running through the Association’s roster and checking out the names of shipmates from ‘52-‘55, I was struck by the fact that some names drew a blank. I still have several of those small green memoranda books that we kept all sorts of miscellaneous information in.

I have a couple of division rosters, those in the duty section I usually had when CDO, and the list of those men on the same life raft, #4, as me: Riley FN, Taylor FN, Garstang FN, Brenner FA, Anderson FN, Johnson FN, Marsh & Speirs both BT3, DaRe FA, brother of movie star Aldo Ray, Roy, Griffin, and Rodger, all FA’s.

Terry Opdyke who I worked with closely while Ship Secretary, actually phoned after the previous roster was circulated. Looking back over a half century, I’m still impressed by the quality of people I was fortunate enough to serve with in FRANK E. EVANS.

Doug currently resides at 585 Terrace St., Ashland, OR, 97520-2003. You can reach him at drlegg@msn.com or 541-482-4936