CENTER FOR U.S. WAR
VETERANS' ORAL HISTORIES
World War II
Grover L. Shealy
World War II Oral History Interview
US Navy, Chief Gunner’s Mate
Date: August 27, 2009
Interviewer: Carol Fowler
Summarizer: Ethan Rush
Veterans History Project
Summary
Grover L. Shealy was born in Columbia, South Carolina, in June 1921. Although he grew up during the Great Depression, he and his family never felt the effects, as his father always held a good and stable job. Shealy joined the service of his own volition and enlisted at the age of 17. He was heavily recruited by his older brother, who was also in the Navy. Shealy was a career Navy sailor, having served for 20 years, from February 1939 to April 1959. He was primarily a Chief Gunner’s Mate and held this responsibility aboard nine ships. During his 20-year tenure, Shealy served active duty in World War II. He was stationed then in the Pacific Theater of Operations and was involved in the Battle of Okinawa.Â
Shealy attended boot camp in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Typically, boot camp lasts around 12 weeks, but his was cut down to 6 weeks due to the upcoming World’s Fair. He started his service in 1939 and was placed on the U.S.S. Wyoming (BB-32), which was a battleship stationed in Portsmouth, Virginia. Shealy’s brother was also stationed on the Wyoming.
At that time, that was before the Sullivan Brothers went down, and then they changed that.
She had four 3-inch/50-caliber guns on the port side and four on the starboard side. Shealy applied for the position of Gunner’s Mate Striker because that is what his brother did. Shealy was assigned to operate the guns on the port side. The U.S.S. Wyoming never participated in or practiced amphibious landing exercises. It did, however, train thousands of sailors in the art and science of Gunnery.Â
After the U.S.S. Wyoming, Shealy was placed aboard the USS Barry (DD-248), which was a Destroyer ship. He was only on this ship for 9 months before he was transferred to the U.S.S. Denebola, where he served as a Chief Gunner’s Mate. Shealy was placed in Shore Patrol in New York for two weeks before being sent to SETC in Miami, Florida, for training. From there, he went aboard the USS Brennan (DE-13), which was the first Destroyer Escort ship to go into commission. The shakedown cruise (to Miami) was to see that the equipment is working correctly. However, the Brennan was turned into a school ship, which is how Shealy ended up on the USS Marts (DE-174) in Port Newark, New Jersey. The USS Marts conducted convoy duty in the South Atlantic, between Trinidad, British West Indies, and Brazil.
And I went aboard ship, and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing: I saw all these female welders! And we couldn’t figure out what was going on.
After the Marts, he moved on to the USS LST-833, then to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for duty. During his time in Cuba, Shealy was sent to dismantle ammunition for burning and dumping. He also served on the USS Hugh Purvis (DD-709), the USS Steinaker (DD-863), and the USS Tercel (AM-386). Shealy was aboard the USS Fort Mandan for the execution of Operation Bluejay: the secret construction of an air base near Thule, Greenland, in the early 1950s. Built during the Cold War, the base was to provide the U.S. with a home for long-range bombers closer to the Soviet Union and China. Staged at Norfolk, Virginia, Operation Blue Jay moved over $125 million worth of equipment by ship to the remote Greenland site. During this operation, the ship and even the icebreakers were frozen in the Atlantic for 16 days!Â
During the Battle of Okinawa, Shealy was on a ship that had 450 to 500 Marines aboard. Their expected time to take the beach was three days; they took it in three hours! The Marines had been picked up from Guadalcanal. After that, they went to Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, picked up more troops, and took them to Okinawa. Shealy also witnessed through a pair of binoculars a Kamikaze plane hit a cruiser that killed 16 sailors and injured several others.
When Shealy finished his active duty, he was transferred to the Naval Fleet Reserve for ten years. He went out to the Fleet Reserve in 1958. His official retirement was not until April 1, 1968. Shealy has medals for the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign, Good Conduct, the American Defense Medal, the Occupation Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the American Campaign Medal, and the European African-Middle Eastern Campaign medal.Â
Grover L. Shealy passed away on October 5, 2014, at the age of 93 in Tinton Falls, New Jersey.
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