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 Author  Topic: PT658 hosts Skipper of PT143 RON8 Bill Skade for 90th birthday
Gary Szot

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Gary Szot   Send Email To Gary Szot Posted on: Sep 26, 2011 - 5:22pm
Very cool indeed.


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  Jerry Gilmartin

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Jerry Gilmartin   Send Email To Jerry Gilmartin Posted on: Sep 27, 2011 - 7:18pm
Hi everybody,
Here is a newspaper article from the Tuesday 9-27-11 Eugene, OR Register-Guard about the trip. Jerry

Back on PT patrol
A World War II veteran gets a surprise and an honor as part of his 90th birthday celebration

By Bob Welch
Register-Guard columnist

Published: (Tuesday, Sep 27, 2011 05:01AM) Today



Bill Skade stands aboard the restored PT 658 in Portland on Saturday. It is one of only 11 PT boats that survived WWII.

You’re a 23-year-old PT boat skipper when World War II ends.

In September 1945, on Samar, Philippines, you watch the farewell inferno: dozens of the wooden “patrol torpedo” boats, including yours, dragged together on the beach like so many logs on a fire and, after being stripped of any useful equipment, doused with diesel and set aflame.

This is a boat you lived on, fought on, watched men die on. Gone. You feel like a cowboy having to put down his horse.

You return home to Eugene, where your wife, Gloria, has clipped the articles from the local paper, The Register-Guard, about Lt. William H. Skade leading missions into “the mine-infested Marudu Bay ...”

You and Gloria move to the house where you still live on Emerald Street, south of the University of Oregon.

Son Hank is born in 1948, daughters Dorothy in 1950 and Patricia in 1956. Thirty-seven years with Allstate Insurance. Retirement in 1987 at age 66.

You do a little fishing here and there, own a few boats. But nothing like that 78-foot wooden boat you piloted during the war, a craft with three 11/2-ton Packard V-12 engines whose vibrations, if you close your eyes, you can still almost feel.

Not that you mention those years to anyone. You’re like a lot of folks in your generation: just did what you needed to do, and got on with things when the war ended.

Still, when you find, in the attic, the tattered flag that once flew from the bridge of PT 143, you were honored that the kids had it framed. You hang it in your den, the edges frayed as much by time as by the way it once whipped above you in boat speeds of up to 40 knots.

Meanwhile, you haven’t heard what some of your generational PT peers are up to 90 miles north, in Portland. How they’ve come across one of only 11 PT boats that survived the war, and trucked it from California to Oregon to restore it.

Never mind that, since the war, it had survived a fire and sunk twice. “You never tell a bunch of old PT boaters that it can’t be done,” one of them tells The Oregonian.

In 2004, 13 years of volunteer blood, sweat and tears after the project begins, the mainly 80-something guys and a few others proudly motor PT 658 up the Willamette River in a dedication ceremony.

It is the only authentically restored, operational U.S. Navy PT boat in the world. But of the 16 men who originally began working to restore it, eight don’t live long enough to enjoy the day.

A thousand of your aging fellow World War II veterans are dying each day. A few months ago, Gloria reminds you that you’ll soon be 90 yourself, which is a long way from that fresh-faced kid who’d heard the Navy wanted “athletic types” for PT boats so wore two extra sweaters beneath your coat for your interview.

In the same breath, Gloria mentions something about the PT boat in Portland. She and the “kids” — now 62, 61 and 55 — want you to see it Sept. 24 as part of your birthday celebration.

Oh, the grandchildren are coming, too, 13 family members in all, three generations, from Oklahoma, California and Seattle.

On Saturday morning, your heart quickens when you see PT 658, moored at Portland’s Swan Island Pier; it’s just like the Higgins boat you trained on in New Orleans in 1943.

The crew hands out life preservers. The whole family is seated on the boat. You’re given an honorary medal.

Then up stands Jerry Gilmartin, a 50-year-old retired Navy man who’s the PT project’s curator. He still can’t believe that, though only 36 boats of this class were made, there’s an actual captain of one in his midst.

He welcomes the family, all decked out in their matching Bill Skade “90 Years and Going Strong” T-shirts, then tells you the bad news.

“The captain,” he says, “has called in sick.”

He looks at you. Everyone but you knows what he’s going to say next.

“Lt. Skade,” he says, “how would you feel about running the boat today?”

You’re a bit confused here. “What, you’re actually going to get under way?”

Gilmartin nods yes. Your daughter, Patricia, worries that you’ll decline. Please, dad, say you will.

“It’s been a long time,” you say — 66 years to be exact — “but sure.”

You’re on the water for almost an hour, which, your children say, is about how long your smile lasted.

When you were at the helm, sometime before back-on-the-dock birthday cupcakes and before you donate your well-pressed captain’s uniform to the nonprofit group that restored the boat, your son Hank asks the question.

“How does it feel, Dad?”

Your hands are wrapped around the mahogany wheel.

“Just like old times,” you say, then return your gaze to mine-infested Marudu Bay.

For more information: savetheptboatinc.com. Bob Welch is at 541-338-2354 or bob.welch@registerguard.com.



Jerry Gilmartin

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Drew Cook

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Drew Cook  Posted on: Sep 28, 2011 - 12:54pm
Kudos and belated 90th "Happy Birthday" wishes to Mr. Skade!

One thing caught my eye as somewhat curious in one of the WWII photos...

In the photo titled "Skipper Bill Skade PT 143 at the helm," the port cockpit splash shield, or bulkhead, seems unusually low -- only waist high. Its barely even there, compared to the fairly standard shoulder-high height of this part of the boat usually seen on the cockpits of other Elco 80-footers.

Does Mr. Skade remember why this was so? You really can't tell anything different from the other photos of PT 143.. Wonder why that shot shows the port side of the cockpit "missing?"


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CJ Willis

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of CJ Willis  Posted on: Sep 28, 2011 - 3:15pm
Jerry, thanks for posting the very nice newspaper article. A real tribute to Mr. Skade. I would liked to have been there on the boat trip to give him a well deserved "hand salute".

C. J. Willis

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David Waples

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of David Waples  Posted on: Sep 28, 2011 - 6:49pm
Quote:

Kudos and belated 90th "Happy Birthday" wishes to Mr. Skade!

One thing caught my eye as somewhat curious in one of the WWII photos...

In the photo titled "Skipper Bill Skade PT 143 at the helm," the port cockpit splash shield, or bulkhead, seems unusually low -- only waist high. Its barely even there, compared to the fairly standard shoulder-high height of this part of the boat usually seen on the cockpits of other Elco 80-footers.

Does Mr. Skade remember why this was so? You really can't tell anything different from the other photos of PT 143.. Wonder why that shot shows the port side of the cockpit "missing?"





You know what's interesting, if you look at the "contamination" photo of the 143 boat you can see the shield that surrounds the cockpit. Of the boats I've seen where they've cut down the cockpit on the port side you never see the shield behind the helm. So, maybe one was taken after the other or it could be another boat. Definitely a question for Mr. Skade.

David Waples

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Drew Cook

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Drew Cook  Posted on: Sep 29, 2011 - 5:49pm
Dave...the "contamination" photo of the 143...?

Which photo are you referring to?


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Jeff D

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Jeff D   Send Email To Jeff D Posted on: Sep 30, 2011 - 2:44am
I think he must be standing on something Drew, maybe a folding seat. The wheel would be too low otherwise.

It looks like an interesting use of a deck vent on the chart house roof of the 189 boat in the photo titled "RON8 nested by tender". It also looks like a slightly different radar mast than the other boats. The vertical legs look wider.



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David Waples

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of David Waples  Posted on: Sep 30, 2011 - 5:41am
Yes, If you look behind the guys pumping out whatever it is they're pumping you can clearly see the shield or panel which wraps around the back of the helm. When I think of the cockpit sides shaved down I always think of the PT-134 photo in Johnson's book on page 145. In that photo the shield directly behind the helm is gone and it wouldn't make any sense for it to be there because it would be sticking up on its own.

Anyway, just an observation. Like I said the photos could be taken at different times or it could be different boats. But without numbers or something very distinctive it's difficult to know anything without talking to the owner of the photos.

Dave

David Waples

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  Jerry Gilmartin

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Jerry Gilmartin   Send Email To Jerry Gilmartin Posted on: Sep 30, 2011 - 11:07am
Hi guys,
I think David is referring to the photo showing the "Refueling". Where did you get contamination? That is "containment" They are filling the fuel tank with gasoline.. Do you see the hose and the nozzle? I dont think they would be "pumping out" gasoline from the gas tanks. The little can on the deck is maybe for catching the excess fuel or maybe the fumes created during refueling. What do you guys think? I have never seen something like that used before. Anyway, I think he is standing on something by the helm in the other photo. They did not cut down the spray shield on the PT143. I asked Bill and he did not remember modifiying the boat like that at any time. I am amazed by the questions these old photos generate. Take care. Jerry

Jerry Gilmartin

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Frank J Andruss Sr

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Frank J Andruss Sr   Send Email To Frank J Andruss Sr Posted on: Sep 30, 2011 - 12:00pm
It seems a bit odd that they are re-fueling from such a distance from the cap. As these were located on the deck, I wonder where they found such a long nozzle to do the job. I have never seen re-fueling being done with a cover or barrell around the fuel port. You would think that this would increase the chances of trapping vapors in a concentrated area, thus providing the chances of an explosion. Could this device have layers of chamois to filter out impurfections in the gas?


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