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USS UVALDE AKA-88

Edward Derby Tungate was born in Biddeford Maine, on 17 September 1920.  His family lived in several cities along the East coast, until settling in Springfield Ohio around 1930.

  Ed joined the Navy on November 3, 1937 and was assigned to the USS California. His duties included a time as a Deck hand in the 5th Division, on the crew of a 50 ft. Motorboat and assistant to the sailmaker in the Sail Locker.  With the expanding of the pre-war Navy Ed was transferred to The USS Harris APA-2 going in commission in Seattle.  He was a BM2c assigned to the 1st Div. as Hatch Captain of Hatch #3.  On December 7th of 1941 the Harris was loading automobiles, furniture and baggage for dependants being transferred to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. That cargo was taken off and the ship was re-loaded with all kinds of salvage gear and the Harris set sail for Pearl.  The Harris returned to San Diego, to train the ship's crew in amphibious warfare.  Many boat crews landed on Coronado Island beaches with marines and Army troops, training both the troops and the boat crews.  My first amphibious landing was at Wallis Island in the South Pacific.  The Harris went on to take part in the amphibious landings at Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Island chain. I was promoted to BM1c in October 1943.  The USS Harris participated in the landings at Tarawa and other near-by Islands in November 1943.  The next landings were at Safi, French Morocco, The Harris transported General George Patton's army and their tanks to North Africa

In early 1944 I was transferred to Bremerton, Washington to join the commissioning crew for the USS Takanis Bay CVE-89.   The crew went to Astoria Oregon to board the ship and take it down the Columbia river and on to San Diego.  For about a year the ships was to train pilots to land on small carriers like the Takanis Bay. I was promoted to  Chief Boatswains's Mate in August 1944 and transferred to the USS Kalinin Bay, at that time our duty was to carry new carrier type airplanes to the western pacific and to bring back to the USA the damaged and wrecked planes from WesPac.  I spent about a year aboard the Kalinin Bay, and from there I applied for and was accepted to duty at the US Naval Training Center at San Diego, where I was a Company Commander of a company of recruits.  I had several companies then was shifted to teaching in a classroom.  At this time I heard about an examination that was being given on the base for LDO (Limited Duty Officer) I took the exam and after several months I was promoted to Warrant Officer (WO 1), upon that promotion, I was transferred to the USS Uvalde AKA-88, home ported in Oakland CA.

The Uvalde's job was to carry dry stores, such as al kinds of groceries, canned goods, flour, sugar coffee etc. to West Pac and re-supply the Navy ships.  My Warrant Officer grade dated to September 1951, Upon going aboard as a Warrant Officer I was 1st Division Officer, Asst First Lt. of the ship, and OOD in port and underway.  I had a lot to learn.

I spent 4 years aboard the Uvalde, I liked the ship, we did a lot of sea-duty, We visited Yokosuka, Tokyo, Shimono Seki Straits, Iwakuni Air Base, and the Philipines.  There were 5 ships just like the Uvalde doing this job.  Two things stand out in my memories. The first  in doing underway training in San Diego, the Captain wanted to dropt the anchor at our designated anchorage, while the ship had about 3 or 4 knots of way on her, He wanted to swing around on the anchored anchor, and have the bow of the ship pointed the opposite direction from the coming in direction, well it was too much, we had to pay out the chain, and the anchor windless couldn't hold the chain, it burned up the brake lining, and we hat to let the entire chain go overboard.  We retrieved the chain the next day.  The second incident was a fire in the crews galley, one morning the sea was rough and choppy, and the crews mess was to have donuts, (The fried kind), the frying oil in the galley spilled over and caught fire, the fire went up the stack and the whole thing was on fire, the galley stove and the exhaust stack. But luckily the fire didn't spread it was kind of confined to that small area, so after it burned for awhile, (and burned up whatever fuel there was) with CO 2's and dogging down the galley doors as tight as possible, the Fire was extinguished.

My next duty station was the Pacific Reserve Fleet at the US Naval Station in San Diego, I was a W-2 Chief Warrant Officer, and assigned to security of the reserve ships.  My next duty station was the USS Mississinewa AO-144 a tanker just finishing up a "yard period" at Norfolk, VA so in February 1958, I drove across country and reported in to the Mississinewa, a week later we went to Guantanamo for training went back to Norfolk and then sailed for the Mediterranean, and our new home port of Naples, Italy.  I spent 4 years aboard the Mississinewa and loved every minute.  I was 1st div Officer, Asst First Lt., OOD in port and underway, and Officer in charge of the anchor detail. We broke records fo refueling all types of ships.

I married a lovely Italian lady, her name is Tina, and I studied and learned Italian.  We have been married 45 years in 2005.  I retired from the Navy in 1961 and lived in San Diego all these years. In retirement I took up Real Estate and Tina had he r dress shops called "Tina's Boutique" Now we are both retired me at 84 and Tina will be 80 in February of 2005.

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