We are seeking information on the USS Samuel B. Roberts and her crews. Files and photos may be E-mailed to us and we will incorporate them into these pages.

10/9/05:

Hi Robert!

Many thanks for your e-mail! --Every thing you say is correct. Then it sailed to Panama and the round the world cruise as one of the sailors aboard said they would. For sure I was on it, along with about 96 other soldiers. we stayed in a water-tight compartment with cots stacked from floor to ceiling. The Picture I have attached I bought aboard ship for 50 cents. I recognize the guns, etc. After we got through the storm I was talking with a sailor about the proposed round the world cruise, and we were up near the bow stem on deck under the guns. If you were on that ship at the end of February and the beginning of March 1953 you went through that storm...When we left Germany we were told that the USS United states was tied behind us, not too far away and was departing for France and then also to New York. Sure enough, a day or two later she passed us like we were going backwards! I did not realize at the time that I was on a destroyer, the only destroyers I had seen were in the movies and I didn't think they were 390 feet long. Then we got into the storm and we heard the news about Holland washing out, etc. We were pounding very hard and I was wondering how the ship could hang together. Then most of us got seasick and then got dysentery. Toilets were at a premium and I went aft looking for one and passed the doorway going into where one of the steam engines were and saw the crewman riding the throttle, when the bow would go under, the propellers would come out and he would slow the engine down--when the bow broke loose and came up he would turn on more power. If he was a slow at slowing it down the piston rods would rattle.

Sincerely,

Garner Hadland

I served on the USS Benham (DD-796) in 1953 and
the USS HYMAN (DD-732) from 1953 thru 1955.