D. Clarke Evans Photographer

Ray Denison

Lieutenant Junior Grade, Merchant Marine
1942-1945

PO1/c Ray Denison
St. Petersburg, FL, 1943

Most of the time that I sailed as an officer, I sailed above my rank because there was such an acute shortage of men.

I was born in 1919 and grew up in San Antonio, Texas. My daddy worked for Kress Stores. My mother raised three boys and kept us all out of jail. None of us spent a night in jail, which we’re proud of. The day after Pearl Harbor, I went with a buddy to enlist in the Navy. They turned me down because I have a lazy eye. Six weeks later the recruiting officer called and said they were taking recruits for the Coast Guard. They examined me and threw me out. Another few weeks went by and they called again and said they were recruiting for the Merchant Marine. He said, ‘They’re losing them so fast that they’ll take anybody.’ Sure enough, they approved me.

I got to boot camp in May, 1942. My wife and I were married less than a year. She came and stayed with me. After boot camp, I was assigned to the permanent engineering crew on a passenger ship; a freighter really. Three licensed engineering officers recommended me to Fort Trumbull where the Navy’s submarines are. I held every rank from a privy seaman to a petty officer first class in nine months. They promoted us as fast as they could because they needed men so bad. At Fort Trumbull, chief petty officer is the rank they give you but you’re just a student. We went there for 120 days, and I got my engineering license. You have to have an engineer’s license to be an officer in the Merchant Marine. When I got to my ship, the chief engineer met me and said they were shorthanded, so they promoted me to 2nd engineer. Most of the time that I sailed as an officer, I sailed above my rank because there was such an acute shortage of men. Our ship was a liberty ship—the SS Henry Dodge. We had 105 amphibious vehicles on deck. In the holds we had everything from Post Toasties to 500-pound bombs.

We carried a lot of equipment to New Guinea to prepare for the invasion of the Philippines. We carried 200 troops into Luzon. We had this huge convoy of ships with Nimitz, MacArthur and all the top brass. The ships were all across the horizon; it made your spine tingle. The whole convoy cruised up and down the length of Luzon for three days. It alerted the Japanese that they were going to get hit, but they didn’t know when or where. Our ship had a 43-man crew and 18-man gun crew. The worst scare I had was when the Japanese airplanes strafed us. The plane went over just above my head. None of them hit anybody on my ship.

After that we came back to San Francisco. I went to upgrade school which raised my rank to lieutenant JG. Now I had the license to be a 2nd engineer. I had sailed for 11 months over my rank. In 1943 I went on a tanker and delivered aviation gasoline to airports on the Atlantic coast. I went to another liberty ship in the Atlantic in 1945. The war was over in Europe and we took a load of wheat to the people in North Africa. Then we went to Italy to pick up American troops and bring them home. I went home in November, 1945 and resigned. My rank was lieutenant JG.

My daddy owned a dry cleaning and laundry business in San Antonio, and I worked there. I became a real estate broker in 1947. I built a few buildings and bought and sold property. I went to work in the securities business for six years, then I went back to real estate and did that for 65 years. I had my own office for a good part of that time. I got married June 11, 1941 to Peggy Jones. We had more than 75 years together. That was a blessing because we loved each other. {02-15-2019 • San Antonio, TX}