Reminiscences of CWO Cecil S. King Jr., USN (Ret.)

King is a delightful storyteller with a fine sense of humor and a knack for conveying the atmosphere of the time and place he is describing. He served in the Navy from 1934 until his retirement in 1957, spending approximately one-third as a white hat, one-third as a chief petty officer, and one-third as a warrant ship’s clerk. He served in the heavy cruiser USS Portland (CA-33), NAS Coco Solo, destroyers USS Davis (DD-395) and USS Warrington (DD-383), and as a yeoman on Admiral Thomas Hart’s Asiatic Fleet staff. As the fleet disintegrated in early 1941, King has several near brushes with death. Thereafter he served in a number of aircraft carriers, including the USS Hornet (CV-12), USS Princeton (CV-37), USS Midway (CVB-41), and USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42). Ashore he was assigned to the Commander Air Force Pacific Fleet, Chief of Naval Air Advanced Training, Chief of Naval Air Training, and in the front office of three successive CNOs: William Fechteler, Robert Carney, and Arleigh Burke. He had a post-retirement career in the Atomic Energy Commission.