SCOTT:…Oral history, an interview with Cecil Cran who is the interviewee, and I’m James Scott, the interviewer. The place of the interview is in Sacramento, California, and Mr. Cran’s residence in Sacramento. The current time is 10:10 and the date is September 29th. Now, we have gone through the process of signing the release, we have discussed Mr. Cran’s choice to…not…or to decline contribution of certain bits of information if he doesn’t feel comfortable in doing so. He has signed the release of information to the public under the Freedom Of Information Act and I think we are basically all set to go. I’m also giving Mr. Cran a transcript and facsimile of the core questions that we are going to ask him so that he can review them as we go along. The interview should not take more than an hour, maybe a little bit longer, so let’s get going right here. Again, this is an interview of Cecil Cran and I am James Scott….

SCOTT: Here we go…all right…Mr. Cran we’re going to start from the very beginning--basically, the prelude to the War--if you could tell me something about your background, um, basically, everything prior to entering active duty in World War II-tell me about your life.

CRAN: Uh, okay, I was primarily raised in…just on a ranch, just outside of Grass Valley, California. We moved from that area to Oroville so I could finish high school. And uh, from Oroville I had to quit high school in the third and to go to work…I went to work for the Western Pacific Railroad and uh to support my mother…I was working there and the railroads got so busy and they’re working me seven days a week, seventeen hours a day, and being just a young person, and I had a girlfriend, and she got complaining because we just never had any dates, and so it went on to about, over a year, that I wasn’t having any time off you know, so I decided to call in sick one time and my best friend…my buddy I was going to high school with, Joe Grey, he took off at the same time, but he was sick and I wasn’t. And I went back to work the next day, and the superintendent just climbed all over me…called me into the office… called in the labor union…just chewed me out something fierce.

SCOTT: Let you have it. What year was this approximately?

CRAN: This was 1942.

SCOTT: Okay...okay.

CRAN: Okay? So, anyway, he just really ripped me up and he said “well now you can quit if you want to. I don’t care what you do. You just don’t play this game anymore.” I says “If this is the way it’s gonna be…if I can’t have any time off…I’m gonna join the Navy so I can at least have some liberty and 30 day leave a year…at least.

SCOTT: How old were you at this time?

CRAN: Think I was 18.

SCOTT: 18. Okay, all right.

CRAN: Okay? And uh, so that’s exactly what I did. Another fella there workin’ with me, we decided both to go join the Navy. And we joined together. Uh…his name was.. .uh…Smith. I forgot his first name. But, anyway, we joined together here is Sacramento.

SCOTT: Okay. Now, why the Navy?

CRAN: Well, (laugh) this goes back to when I was a child. The nurse that helped deliver me, when I entered into this world, she always kept in contact with me. And, uh…I guess the reason she kept in contact with me…and my, my mother and her were great friends, and she was changing me one day, and she gave me a bath, and was kissing my belly and everything, and I, you know what happened, uh, she got a face, a face full of you know what? (laughing). So, anyway (laughing), uh, we were real, real great buddies. And, every year, she would, every birthday, or Christmas she always sent me money or come and got me and during the summer months she would take me on trips. And this time she took me to San Francisco for the first time, and I had never slept, had never been in a hotel. We stayed in the Marc Hopkins Hotel way up, up in the upper stories. And the next day she took to Montgomery Ward’s, bought me a bunch of news clothes, and then took me out on the…uh…on the…on the aircraft carrier..uh…oh shoot…what the heck’s the name of that…?

SCOTT: The Yorktown?

CRAN: No, no. It was the…oh shoot…it’s right here (Cran presents photo). Maybe it says right on the bottom there? Oh, I know it as well as I know…

SCOTT: Oh, the Saratoga!

CRAN: The Saratoga! Ya. Well, when I went aboard…well…she immediately went up to the admiral’s quarters ‘cus she was a great friend of him and the sailors took me over and (laugh), and they just uh, they just spoiled me all the gee-dunks, and gee-dunks you know is candy and ice cream and I, I had chow with ‘em and the chow line and the whole thing, and well I was gung-ho Navy from then on you know, and was gonna be, Navy nothin’, nothin’ could touch me but the Navy.

SCOTT: That was a heck of a recruiting job on their part and they didn’t even know it.

CRAN: Oh they did! (laugh). But that was a fantastic experience. I never thought that I would grow up to patrol with the Saratoga, you know. That’s why I joined the Navy.

SCOTT: So, uh, prior to joining the Navy did you have any military training or experience? Were you a boy scout? Um, were you in any other sort of group?

CRAN: No…no. I was strictly a farm boy and I knew how to work.

SCOTT: Okay, all right, all right. Good enough. So, when you entered the Navy were you married, engaged, did you have any children?

CRAN: No. I had a girlfriend. I wasn’t engaged. We were just boyfriend, girlfriend.

SCOTT: Okay. And, were you living with your parents at the time?

CRAN: I was living with my mother.

SCOTT: With your mom?

CRAN: Ya.

SCOTT: Okay. All right. So, let’s move on to the second question. Um, now tell me about your experiences and feelings during induction and the initial military training experienced during the Navy. Boot camp? Um, just the early on sort of experience.

CRAN: Well, my first experience was when we left Sacramento here, and we got on a train and went to San Francisco. And that’s where we were sworn in, and then we got on another train from San Francisco and went to San Diego, to uh, to boot camp there. And when we got there, uh, we were still in our civilian clothes and the chief that was going to train us got up in front and on this stand, and we’re all standing out there in the field and, on the concrete, and he got up there and he looked at us, and shook his head and he says, “What a sorry bunch of plow junkies you are!” (laughing). And he says “I’m gonna tell ya something…he says you’re gonna hate my guts in the next two weeks. If you don’t you wish you had have.” (laughing). But, he says “I wanna tell you something. I want you to listen to me because I’m gonna train you to save your life.”

SCOTT: Words you’ll always remember.

CRAN: I’ll never forget. (laughing). And he was a high school coach and he was tough…he was…very tough.

SCOTT: So, do you think of him as the person you remember most from boot camp?

CRAN: Ya, I would say…

SCOTT: Did you make any buddies? Do you remember any?

CRAN: Oh, I had lots of buddies…ya, I, I…

SCOTT: Are there any, in particular, that you’d like to talk about?

CRAN: Oh, I had one…it was aboard the Chicago…he was 36-years-old. He was, uh, he sort of took me under his wing. He was a metal smith, by trade, and uh, he sort of took me under his wing and I called him “Pop” Crawford. His name was Joe Crawford. And he taught me the ropes on, on metal smithing, and that’s where I got training in metal smithing.

SCOTT: Okay, so the drill, the drill master back at camp and then, and then “Pop” Crawford…those are the two. Okay, all right.

SCOTT: Now, um, back to, um, your induction, and being sworn in and going to boot camp. What was your feeling like at this time? I mean, emotionally. I mean, Pearl Harbor had happened, you know, my guess is seven, eight, maybe nine months prior to that. Um, how did you feel in terms of your sense of nationalism and patriotism?

CRAN: I was raised to be very patriotic anyway. Uh, it uh, when I first went into, into boot camp, the first few days I wished that I’d never joined. The shots, the, in both arms. You couldn’t raise your arms. They made you get out there and do all those exercises…about killed ya and, and a…

SCOTT: What was the toughest, what was the toughest uh exercise, or, or ah, drill that they made ya do?

CRAN: Well, when you had that tetanus shot, you know, I was very allergic to it, and, and, also uh, uh mesquito disease. Uh, that do you call that now?

SCOTT: Oh, malaria?

CRAN: Malaria. I was allergic to that. And, uh, I couldn’t raise my arms, but they forced you to raise your arms, you know, you had to raise them over your head…do all these exercises. It was tough, and uh, and then one night uh we did our laundry and we had to do our own laundry and we had to do our caps and that and everything had to come out just perfectly white. If they turned out yellow or something, well they’d give you XP duty. You’d have to get out in the middle of the night and, and do guard duty, just walk back-and-forth, back-and-forth. Here, I had this real high fever, and out there walkin’ back-and-forth, back-and-forth. I thought “how stupid this is.” You know…here I’m sick as a….almost as, as the old saying “sick as a dog,” and here this dude’s got me out here in this fog and cold (laughing). And uh, I just couldn’t, I just couldn’t see no sense in it, but, uh, it taught me, I knew my endurance. That taught me how much endurance I had. But, uh…

SCOTT: So, how long did, did, uh, camp last?

CRAN: I think it was six weeks. Think that’s what it was.

SCOTT: Um, so was there anything that you saw, um, as unusual when you were in boot camp? Were any people removed? Were any people seen unfit for duty during or after boot camp?

CRAN: I don’t remember if anyone was unfit for duty, but, uh, one person was, uh, ahead of me, in a line, and he was not directly in front of me, but he collapsed…and…everybody wanted to help him and the instructor he just really got on ‘em, he says “Whenever anyone falls, you step up and take his place,” you know. Forget him!

SCOTT: And how did you feel about that?

CRAN: Oh, we thought that was very cruel. We thought that was just uncalled for. That was, uh…

SCOTT: Even now, do you feel that way?

CRAN: Pardon?

SCOTT: Even now, do you feel that way?

CRAN: Yes I do. I…think we should, you know, someone should help ‘em. I still feel that way.

SCOTT: All right. Well let’s move onto the next question. Now, what skill were you initially trained to do, and then what skill did you actually end up acquiring and practicing in the Navy?

CRAN: Well, in the Navy, as I said, “Pop” Crawford got me into metal smithin’ and then the, my division officer seen was, uh, that I progressing well in it, so he sent me to San Diego advanced welding school for six-months and, uh, and that was from the U.S.S. San Francisco.

SCOTT: Okay. So that’s after the Chicago…later on?

CRAN: Ya, right.

SCOTT: So, did you enjoy being a metal smith?

CRAN: Yes I did. I enjoyed it very much. I, uh, I was able to work on the, on the very last ship that was hit three days after World War II. The battleship Pennsylvania, three days after the War was over, this Japanese Kamikaze dove into the fantail and killed 22 guys.

SCOTT: The Pennsylvania was at Pearl Harbor as well.

CRAN: Ya, I think it was there, too. Anyway…

SCOTT: So you did the repair job, or helped do the repair job on the Pennsylvania?

CRAN: That’s, uh, when I was stationed on that sectional dry dock. That was the Pennsylvania that was in there at the time.

SCOTT: So, which job were you the most proud of doing? The Pennsylvania? Did that repair job make you the most proud?

CRAN: Ya, I though that was kinda unique. We worked on a number of ships. But, we also worked on the dry dock and maintenance of the dry dock.

SCOTT: Can you remember any other repair jobs that were distinguishing in any way?

CRAN: No, no that was, that was, that was the grave, that was the main one, because of the trauma of all of those 22 guys being killed. And, and gettin’ ‘em out of there. And, and, the smell was terrible.

SCOTT: Ya, the uh…what, what was your feeling um, it was near the end of the War: the, you know, the Kamikazes were used. What was the sentiment of yourself and your shipmates toward…..?

CRAN: During the War?

SCOTT: During the war. I mean, obviously, this practice was never used before. Um, you know, it was an original sort of thing that the Japanese had developed, and, uh, ethically, you know, there were probably some concerns that came up. You didn’t understand why they were doing it probably and I was wondering how you felt.

CRAN: Well, I felt it was such a waste of life, you know, to uh, to do something like that. I, I just, and to take so much life with ‘em you know, that, uh….the San Francisco was hit several times with those planes, you know. Quite a few were killed. To me, I thought it was just absolutely senseless.

SCOTT: And one more quick little question with, uh, metal smithing. Were you good at it? Did you feel like you an ace, an ace behind that blow torch?

CRAN: At least I thought I was. (laughing). I was a journeyman welder. I had a journeyman’s card.

SCOTT: Well, that takes a lot of skill to be able to win such a title.

SCOTT: Okay, um, so um sticking with training a little bit, now the first post you held was on the Chicago. Right? Okay, so when you were on the Chicago was it deployed for training at all? Fleet problems, things like that? I mean, did you have-before you were sent to the South Pacific-was there a period when you thought there was enough time for training? Did you feel it like the training was adequate? And was it long enough, or was it too long?

CRAN: Well, it wasn’t long enough-I didn’t think-because I couldn’t comprehend, you know, I, I couldn’t comprehend the seriousness of it, and the seriousness of the stations that I was put in. First thing I went on the Chicago, of course, they uh, when you first go aboard, you have to serve so much time, in serving food you know. They call that mess cooking. And, my battle station, my very first battle station, was down in the ammunition; there was two of us down in the ammunition hole. And uh, five-inch, five-inch. And we put ‘em on this elevator and send them up, you know, to the gun mount. Well, send them on to the second deck and then they put ‘em on and send ‘em on up. But, uh, the day before the Chicago got hit, I was transferred from that station up to between number one and number two mess hall. And, uh, had I’d been in that station, I wouldn’t be here today.

SCOTT: So, when you say the Chicago that was at Rennell Island?

CRAN: Ya. Rennell Island. Ya. The first torpedo hit us was, in the fantail-knocked out our power, the screws, and knocked us dead in the water. And then, uh, then a plane came over and it was heavily damaged and then hit our radar screen, and threw flames all over the ship and illuminated us, and then we got three more hit, we got one, one hit in the bow, and another one hit in mid-ship. Well, the rest of the night it was, it was, bailin’ water, bucket brigade, bailin’ water to get the ship on an even keel. The U.S.S Louisville towed us all that night. Broke several lines trying to tow us; finally got connected. They towed us all that night, then a see-going tug came out and took on a little after daylight, I guess, something like that. Towed us the rest of the day until 4 o’clock that afternoon, another, I think it was around 4 o’clock, another squadron came in on us. I think it was 22 or something like that 22 torpedo bombers come in on us, and uh, finally did the job on it. They put 5 more…I think there was a total of 8 torpedoes hit us.

SCOTT: And this is, uh, this night fighting, this is at night?

CRAN: This, well, the first night it was after dark, but the next afternoon it was still daylight. And uh, we all hit the water or tried to hit the water, and as I was swimming off-I have to tell this story-it’s not a story, it’s really, really unique. As I was swimming off, the fantail, the lifeline was under water, and I was swimming off, and as I was swimming off my shoestring was untied, ‘cus they instructed you, never take off any of your clothes-your shoes or nothing-when you hit the water. Keep everything on. Well, I did. And so, but my shoestring was untied for some reason. I had the high shoes on, and it got wrapped around a lifeline. Well, I couldn’t get loose, and it kept dragging me down and I was going under water like crazy. And I thought “Oh boy, this is it…this is the end of it. I’m not gonna get away…” ‘cus I was on the suction side of the ship, and all that suction and everything. And, I was fightin’ to get away, and I didn’t know how far under water I was…seemed like a long ways, but uh, I knew it was over so I just, uh, said a little prayer, asking him to protect my mother, you know, from the shock, you know, of me losin’ my life. Just about that time, just, just as I was givin’ it up. You know, I says, I just give a, I couldn’t fight no more. And just felt…believe it or not, it felt just like a magnetic hand grab me right by the top of the head, and when I came to my senses again I was yards away from the ship. All by myself. And when the waves and swells would come up I’d wave. (laughing). They come over and, the destroyer Sands’ crew was picking us up. That a commando ship, an old World War I commando ship, and they come over, and they says “When did you abandon ship? Day before yesterday?” (laughing). But, actually, it sunk in nineteen-minutes and I, I was I actually had seen it go under-I seen the flag just wave itself right into the water.

SCOTT: You saw that? What a moment that must have been.

CRAN: Ya. I’ll never forget it.

SCOTT: So…during Rennell Island, the sinking of the Chicago, do you you feel, in any way, that you should have been recognized for…citation?

CRAN: Na, just, it was just a job to be done. I didn’t feel anything special…nothing like that. I do know that after the Chicago was sunk, they took us, we went to, Esperito Santo. They…was on the destroyer several days and, uh, very little water: just enough water to wet our lips, wet our mouth. And uh, anyway, we went aboard the…I guess it was a luxury liner; they issued us new clothes, and got showers. Of course, we had this crude oil all over us. Uh, and then we went to Main New Caledonia. And, as soon as we got there…this commander of the camp, Camp 13, he put us right to work. Well, we didn’t think that that was fair, and so Captain Davis came down and told him: he says “Well, I’m still, I’m still in command of these…of the ship. I’m still the captain” and he says “These men are not to work. I’m gonna send them to rest camp.” So, that’s what they did.

SCOTT: I wanna just backtrack a little bit. Prior to your first combat experience, the Chicago had been…at Guadalcanal, it had been at the Battle of Coral Sea, do you remember speaking to some of the fellows who had been on the ship during that time? Can you relay some of their experiences…some of the things that they had gone through?

CRAN: Gosh, it’s been so long. We didn’t talk too much about it. Really…no. See, as the Chicago lost 45 foot of its bow there, in one of the battles, and that what Captain Foley got court marshaled, because he uh, the ship had 45 foot of its bow blown off by torpedo and be refused to enter into the battle…and, uh, he got court marshaled for it and got sent to shore and he on Guadal, uh, on Panama Canal and he committed suicide because of that.

SCOTT: But, not a whole lot of information to relay past that?

CRAN: No.

SCOTT: Okay. Let’s see. Are there any more stories that you’d like to relay about your combat experiences? Were there any after that that you had?

CRAN: The San Francisco. Uh, after we left the Main New Caledonia, they went to Pearl Harbor to get foul weather gear and headed right for the Bering Sea, and we’s in that campaign up there and we’d takin’ the islands back…Attu…And that was humungous duty up there…it was cold and scary because if you got hit you didn’t have a chance at survivin’. You know, you hit that water and it’s over.

SCOTT: It’s terribly cold up there.

CRAN: Ya. You’d never survive.

SCOTT: Do you ever remember…seeing a Japanese sailor or seeing Japanese ships?

CRAN: No…no I never did.

SCOTT: You saw planes?

CRAN: Seen a lot of planes…lots of planes. Lots of planes. (laughing). I always did say I was the biggest coward in the United States Navy.

SCOTT: You you’ve got that written down on your application…(laughing)…which certainly is not true.

CRAN: Well, I’ll tell ya, I might notta had nothin’ up here, but boy my feet was educated. They moved right on.

SCOTT: You know, it’s all about human nature, but the fact is you were a contributor in all sorts of different ways, and you did your part and that’s what’s important…

SCOTT: Well, so anymore experiences you want to relay about combat? Anything you can remember…any stories you remember coming off of Guadalcanal? Anything like that?

CRAN: No.

SCOTT: Whatever happened to “Pop” Crawford?

CRAN: “Pop” Crawford? He stayed on the San Francisco, I think, until it was decommissioned.

SCOTT: Okay, so you both were transferred over there together?

CRAN: Ya. From the Chicago.

SCOTT: So he stayed with the San Francisco?

CRAN: Ya, he stayed on and, and…I know when I left the San Francisco he, he says “Well, I wanna say goodbye a couple a’ days before.” (laughing). He couldn’t stand to say goodbye.

SCOTT: When you’ve gone through experiences like you two went through, I mean, it’s a bond, it’s something that, it’s hard to break, it’s really hard to really put it into words. I’m just guessing, but I can see it in your eyes.

CRAN: Oh, it’s tough. But, I’ll tell you one thing, New Caledonia has the biggest Mosquitoes in the world. (laughing). They should use them for torpedo bombers they’re so big.

SCOTT: So…did any of your comrades catch malaria, catch dysentery?

CRAN: No, I don’t know of any, no, no.

SCOTT: What did you hear about Henderson Field on Guadalcanal? Did you hear anything about what was going on there?

CRAN: Well, not too much,