USS SLC..."Enlisted Navy"...Clinton Charles Hurley, S1c


July 12th, 2008
Dear Sandy,
I am writing you tonight to inform you that my Grandfather, Clinton C. Hurley of Lubbock, TX. passed away today. He lived a proud and dignified life and succumbed to a massive stroke that completely debilitated him. He died this afternoon, Saturday, July 12, 2008 at about 2:45 PM Central Standard time. He was surrounded by family and friends and left this world with Dignity and Honor. I know he enjoyed your web site, because I showed him many print outs of it. I also know he felt a sense of pride in his service to the U.S. Navy and his shipmates aboard the Salt Lake City and found great joy in the fact that America had not forgotten her Veterans of WW2 by your involvement and creation of this web site.
Jacob Denson

SLC Deck Logs, Oct., 1943

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Clinton's Memories

My favorite story that my grandfather tells is that of the time near Okinawa when the Captain of the Salt Lake volunteered the ship to go and hunt for the battle ship Yamato. Papa said he wanted to deck the Capt. for volunteering them, but of course he did not but he said the whole crew was very tense for a few days.

He told me about how it used to get so hot below decks & how he would sleep on the main deck during the night. Well one night he made a sleeping mat on the third main gun, you know the second to last main gun on the aft end of the ship. He put his sleeping mat on the very back of the gun turret. Well the ship was going to have a surprise testing of the main batteries later that night that none of the enlisted men knew of. So next thing he knew he was waking up to the humming of the turret traversing. He looked down and there was no deck below him. Yep, he leaned over the back end of the turret and all he could see was DEEP DARK Pacific Ocean. Needless to say it did not take him long to get on solid ground scrambling for the boat deck, I don't think it was a live fire exercise because from what I hear the concussion of the main batteries would fling you over board if you were not strapped down.

He tells about when two officers were on deck near the forecastle and having a smoke when the SLC took a large wave head on. One of the officers [Lt. (jg) John T. S. Och]was washed over board and the second was clinging to the lifeline. Since they were in enemy waters the Captain would have been court martial if he stopped the ship. So they ordered two DD's to stay behind and look for him. Well they looked for about an hour and then resumed their base course back to the SLC. No one ever heard from that officer ever again. My grandfather said that he has wondered from time to time, if the man wasn't killed immediately when washed overboard, what he must have felt watching the SLC and his shipmates steaming off. I don't even want to think of it.

Jake W. Denson, G-Son