By CLARENCE ZAITZ
Journal Staff Writer
They cried and they waved, and they cried some more.
Then the USS McGinty, sounding horns and belching smoke disappeared down the Willamette River.
The wives and children of the more than 140 men aboard the ship left the Swan Island dock, with reddened eyes and prospects of a home without a hubby or daddy for at least a year.
THE SHIP, reactivated by presidential order in August, left for Long Beach, Calif., then it will sail to Hawaii.
For nearly an hour before the ship departed shortly after 1:30 p.m., the pier was the scene of many emotional embraces.
Husbands and wives exchanged last minute instructions. Children waved, and tugged, and yelled "bye, daddy" time and again.
WIVES exchanged information about their plans to go to Hawaii to be with their husbands.
The women tried to figure out where the best spot on the pier would be to watch their husbands, and then they darted in and out of the crowd, the full length of the pier, as they followed their husbands down the ship.
"Look, there's daddy," was the frequent exclamation as a sailor suddenly appeared from an obscure region of the ship.
The the officers shouted the instructions "Take in lines 2 and 3."
"TAKE IN line 1."
Then the harbor patrol boat sounded its siren.
The USS McGinty sounded its horn, belched a big cloud of smoke, and showered the farewell crowd with soot.
Then it eased down the Willamette, under escort of the harbor patrol, a fire boat, Coast Guard Vessels, and a flotilla of pleasure craft.
Photo caption: FAREWELLS AND BON VOYAGE calls were repeated Wednesday afternoon as Portland's naval reservists took their destroyer escort, USS McGinty, down the Willamette and off for a year's active federal duty. Cmdr. Jerome E. Aakhus (left) waved to crowd as ship eased away from Swan Island berth on way to Long Beach, Calif., and then to Hawaii. Osculatory scenes (such as at right) were duplicated everywhere as wives, girlfriends, mothers bade loved ones adieu.
Note: Apparently the paste-up person didn't follow directions, or the caption writer blew it, because it's obvious the photos are reversed from the 'left' and 'right' indicated in the caption.
Oregon Journal newspaper, Oct. 1961
© 2001 Jeff Bailey and Louis Bailey - McGinty@baileyjs.com
Other material under individual copyright where indicated.
