Dear Dr. Flanders,
     I enjoyed your e-mail and your success story very much. I think our generation of guys were lucky to have had the opportunity to change our life's prospects through the Navy or other armed forces at a time when we couldn't/wouldn't stay at home with our parents or on the other hand go out into a society that wasn't eager to employ us as novices. We had good work values and social ethics but no sense of entitlement that kids have today, we just wanted a chance to make it on our own.

     The armed forces was a place where we could grow, to find out who we thought we were and who we wanted to be, within a protective culture that was expansive and yet could be hard and even very dangerous. As you and I and many others can attest, the trip was worth the price.

Best regards, Stephen E. Herrick, LCDR, USN (Ret).

From: "Charles Flanders" CFlanders@hot.rr.com
To: njherrick36@msn.com
Subject: Mispillion
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 23:00:49 -0600

     Dear Cdr. Herrick, Sir, I had the same kind of experiences aboard the Mispillion. I had no high school diploma when I came aboard. A lieutenant Named Melton kicked me in the butt, checked out some correspondence courses for me and changed that. He then let me be a striker in the sickbay. He pursued me at every moment and checked out CLEP courses for me. On my last cruise with the Mispillion, our Captain ran us aground between Corregidor and Bataan. He had thrown the pilot off the bridge. As a result, when we finished littering, tugs came with beaching gear and the same Lt. Melton I mentioned earlier helped them get us off the bottom. We sustained some damage to the plates and had to go into the drydock at Subic. While we were in the drydock, another auxiliary ship the APA 222, U.S.S. Pickaway was also in the drydock next to us. All of their medical personnel were on the beach and the rest on leave. We were the medical watch for that night for both ships. As things would have it, The messenger of the watch comes to my rack and wakes me about 0:200 and tells me to bring my unit 1 bag and go to the drydock next to us as a man had fallen off the brow into the drydock. I went to the spot where the man lay and examined his pupils, which were still reactive to light, saw that he had a bad head wound, and checked his pulse, blood pressure and breathing rate. I checked his body to see if there were any other possible fractures but found none. I asked for a stokes stretcher, immobilized his neck and had him carried to their sickbay as it was a much larger sickbay than ours. When we got there, I saw that the wound had not penetrated the skull so I cleaned the wound, and sutured it closed. He still had a very large bump in the wound area that took almost thirty stitches to close. No anesthetic was necessary as he was dead drunk and never felt anything. I then x-rayed his head and neck and reaffirmed that he didn't suffer a fracture of the head or neck. His head and neck were immobilized for the night and I kept track of his vital signs every 30 minutes until 0800 when their medical personnel returned. The medical officer asked what had been done for him. After I gave him a detailed report, he asked my name and rate. When I replied that I was a striker and hadn't gone to school yet, he got a very odd look on his face. Well, when we returned to Pearl Harbor, and the sea detail was set to take lines, I got a message to report to the quarterdeck. The Officer of the watch told me to get my gear together that transportation was waiting for me on the pier. I got into the Uniform for leaving ship (dress whites) and went to the quarterdeck and was met by the driver. To my amazement, it was an Admiral's staff car. I was taken to a Building on base and when we went inside, I was told to sit down. I noticed the name on the door was COMBUMED. I started thinking that maybe that seaman had died and they knew I hadn't been to Corps School yet. I was really sweating by then. Then suddenly an aide asked me to come in. I came in and stood at attention and reported that I was Charles Flanders, HN striker reporting as ordered. The admiral continued looking at a file folder and then asked me if I knew that there was no such thing as a Corpsman Striker? I said no sir (I really felt like a gone duck then). He asked me if the night in question (when the seaman was hurt) if I had done the things listed in the report? I said Aye Sir, I did. He asked me if I would like to go to Corps School? I said Aye Sir I would. He said that you would have to extend your enlistment, would that matter? I said no sir I would be glad to extend to go to school. He told me that a plane was leaving Barber's Point at 1600 to take me to CONUS and from there I would report to the Commanding Officer, Hospital Corps School at Balboa Naval Hospital, San Diego. He also advised me that I was to receive a Navy Achievement Medal for my actions. I was so relieved that I was not going to Leavenworth! Now you know the rest of the story. I am a better man to have walked on the decks of the old Mispillion and a much better American for having lived and served with the fine men of her crews. My late brother also served on her when I was aboard her for a while. He was a SK/3. He came aboard in 1959 and left her in 1962. I came aboard in 1961 and left her in 1963. God bless you Mr. Herrick for serving on her too. She was truly "Nulli Secundus." The Captain I had for my first cruise on her was Capt. J.E. Gibson, who was a fine Captain. Our XO at that time was LCDR. J.V. Phares, another fine officer. We had many of them aboard during my stint on her. I will remember them all as long as I live and in my eyes, they never get any older than they were then. Thank you for allowing me to tell you about some of my time on her. Dr. Charles Flanders