Navy Chiefs

Navy Chiefs. There is lot of lore in our culture about U.S. Navy Chiefs. It’s true that it is the chiefs that keep the ships afloat and doing their job but the rumor that somehow they are loud belligerent demanding SOBs like many of the Army and Marine sergeants is simply not based on any real facts. My experience with Chief Petty officers is limited because of the limited time I spent in uniform but I believe that my experiences with chiefs were not untypical. This brief account will be limited to a remark or two about one such man and a bit more about another.

Joe Copestakes, at the age of 12, as an enthusiastic ham radio operator, and much later as the Chief Radioman aboard the USS Nicholson DD442, knew more about radio in the ‘40s than most electrical engineers or any of the other technical officers in the U.S. Navy. He also became a very dear friend and mentor after welcoming me aboard our ship, the USS Nicholson DD442, at Pearl Harbor in 1945. I, at the age of 20, an electronics petty officer 2^nd class and senior electronics technician aboard, would have fared very badly without his help. He was also later the best man at my wedding in Charleston, South Carolina. We maintained a close relationship through our ship reunions until his death about four years ago. He is sorely missed.

Above. Jan. 1, 1946. St Michael's, Charleston, S.C.

Best Man, Chief Joe Copestakes - Mr. and Mrs. John Hood - 

Matron of Honor, Jerry Tvelia

Joe’s talents and expertise were not unusual or unexpected but the story about the other chief is remarkable in many ways and is the primary subject of this blog. 

Chief Storm Bull and I never had a personal relationship even though he was a crucially important person in my life.  He was in charge of my company at the advanced electronics school I attended located on Navy Pier in downtown Chicago. He was a quiet man of fairly short stature. We all liked him. During our seven months course I came to know a little bit about him. He was a nephew of the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg and was a well-known composer and concert pianist in his own right. My graduation ceremony at the end of the course was to be held in the elegant concert hall located at the end of the pier. Chief Bull was to play a concert for the ceremony. When my mother, a trained classical concert pianist, heard what was to occur on that day she made arrangements to come out from Denver to attend. That was no small feat in 1944. She wouldn’t have missed it. It was a great occasion even though I don’t recall that she even got to meet him personally.

But the story goes on. After the war Storm Bull became a music professor at my alma mater, The University of Colorado, and was the head of the department of piano music. Even though I never had occasion to meet him at CU, (it’s a very large place and I was in Physics), I was proud to have attended an institution that was home to my old chief. The following clip is taken from Wikipedia.

“Storm Bull (October 13, 1913 – July 22, 2007) was an American musician, composer and educator. He was Professor Emeritus at the College of Music, University of Colorado at Boulder and Head of the Division of Piano.[1]

Background

Johan Storm Bull, the only child of Eyvind Hagerup Bull (1882-1949) and Agnes Hagerup Bull (1885-1950), was born in Chicago, Illinois . His family heritage included the musical traditions of Norway. Both of Storm’s grandfathers were nephews of the Norwegian violinist Ole Bull and were also first cousins of the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg.[2][3] In 1919, Storm Bull began his formal musical training at the Laboratory Schools of the University of Chicago, the American Conservatory of Music, and the Chicago Musical College. His teachers during this time included Percy Grainger.

Career

In 1929, his debut as a soloist took place at age 16 in Oslo, Norway. He performed Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor with the Orchestra of the Oslo Philharmonic conducted by Issay Dobrowen before an audience which included Nina Hagerup Grieg, the composer’s widow.

In 1931, he studied in Paris with Lazare Levy at the Ecole Normale de Musique and at the Sorbonne. Bull continued his musical training at the Liszt Academy and the University of Budapest. He was the private pupil of the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók.[4]

On March 2, 1939, he gave the first North American performance of Bartók's Second Piano Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Frederick Stock. He performed with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra conducted by Douglas Clarke and made his concert debut in New York City with a solo recital at Town Hall.[5]

Bull served three years in the U.S. Navy during World War II in a precursor to the Navy SEALS. Bull was a Chief Specialist in Athletics, Underwater Demolition Team. Starting in 1945, he spent two years teaching at Baylor University before accepting a professorship at the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1947. During his time at CU-Boulder, his students would include classical musician David Schrader and composer/pianist Dave Grusin.[6][7]

In 1954, Bull was honored as a Fulbright Grant Professor of Musicology at the University of Oslo, Norway. In 1969, Storm Bull was honored with the Distinguished Achievement Award for extraordinary contributions to the cultural life of the United States and Norway by the Scandinavian Foundation at the University of Denver. After thirty years with the University of Colorado College of Music, Bull retired in 1977 as Professor Emeritus and Head of the Piano Division.[8]”

Vice Admiral Barney Rapp

Vice Admiral William Theodore (Barney) Rapp was my boss at Pearl Harbor for a short period in 1973. A recent communication with a friend and colleague of his brought to mind the situation and events that occurred then. Just prior, in 1972, I had been urged by Bob McManus and other of my friends at the Navy Electronic Laboratory Center in San Diego to volunteer for the position of Science Advisor to Vice Admiral James. F. Calvert, Commander First Fleet, stationed aboard the USS Blue Ridge LCC19 operating from the 32^nd street naval facility in San Diego. I accepted the challenge and reported regularly aboard for duty. There was even one occasion when the Blue Ridge put to sea with me aboard, however, my service under Admiral Calvert was short lived.

What I did not know at the time and have only just begun to realize was that the Navy then was undergoing some radical changes under the aegis of Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, Chief of Naval Operations. Among the many consolidations and reorganizations were the elimination of First Fleet and the folding of those responsibilities into Third Fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Some may remember Zumwalt for his very controversial policies relaxing many ordinary military formalities and standards in an attempt to bring the Navy into the “modern” world. Needless to say not everyone agreed with the changes of that era nor have the changes stuck in most cases.

The upshot of all this was my job suddenly was not in San Diego anymore but in Hawaii and my new boss would be the commander of the Third Fleet. Vice Admiral Calvert retired and I flew to Hawaii and took up residence in the bachelor officers’ quarters at Pearl. My desk was now on Ford Island in the headquarters building for Third Fleet, accessible each day by a navy shuttle boat. The Navy kindly took my little English sports car as a deck load aboard a ship that happened to be on its way to Pearl. I had wheels. My wife, Barbara and son Patrick, then 12 years old, stayed in San Diego until school was out and then joined me in Hawaii. We rented a really swell apartment for the summer on the 24^th floor of a building in downtown Honolulu overlooking Ala Moana Park.

This blog is not about what we did in Hawaii but about one of the most admirable and likeable persons I have ever known and my all too short span of duty in his office, headquarters of Third Fleet. The rest of this account will be about that man, Vice Admiral Barney Rapp.

As preamble I need to point out that the top ranking naval officer in that area is a four star admiral whose title is Commander Naval Forces Pacific, one half of the American navy. His office is at Pearl but not on Ford Island. Under him ComThirdFleet commands all forces afloat and ASW units, such as patrol aircraft, in the Pacific (minus Asian area forces). A little bit about Barney - he was a graduate of Annapolis and initially served on destroyers during the war. He then got into aviation and trained in multi-engine aircraft. He had an ongoing career in anti-submarine warfare (ASW). In the 1970s we were deeply involved in the cold war and our primary attention at Third Fleet was keeping an eye on Russian subs that were everywhere in the Pacific.

The Navy has customs and protocols, all vital in my view. to an effective and smooth running service. Admiral Rapp, a really sweet guy, certainly agreed with me on that. When I first arrived I was asked by one of Rapp’s staff what my grade level was and my latest date of promotion. At the time I was GS15 step 4. He grinned and said, “Well, you outrank his exec, a captain, so at meals you sit right next to him at the head of the table.” The Navy has for a very long time integrated important civilian staff into the structure of the military ranks and protocols. This was no surprise and didn’t bother anyone.

In spite of Barney’s generous and friendly nature he had very effective ways of enforcing his views on good order and discipline. There was an incident which I observed from my desk: a young sailor was reported to Barney for discipline for failing to salute an officer he passed while walking on Ford Island. Barney told his aide to keep the young man standing at attention in the hall for thirty minutes then send him in. He then gave the terrified young man a mild dressing down and sent him on his way. My guess is that that sailor never made that error again. The Navy protocol for courtesy is fundamental and should be learned by all in boot camp. See link. http://www.courses.netc.navy.mil/courses/14325/14325_ch9.pdf

One day a squadron of four Chinese Nationalist destroyers (that we had given them I presume) came into Pearl on an official port call. Barney observed them from the window of his office on Ford Island as they sailed in and noted that they were badly out of trim.  He dictated a stern reprimand message to the commander of the squadron for appearing at Pearl in such condition.

While there I deduced that there was some tension between Barney and his superior, a four star admiral, COMPAC. Barney in his interest to bring about some good order and discipline had the habit of traveling around Pearl in his barge visible in his full uniform demanding passing courtesy of the various ships at anchor or underway (please read the link on “passing courtesy”). The four star always traveled on land in a blacked out auto and no one ever saw him.

Barney, an aide of his, and I were scheduled to fly back to the North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego to attend a technical conference featuring a number of papers on new weapon developments out of the Naval Weapons Lab at China Lake. We traveled tourist class by commercial air – Boeing 707, I presume. The aide and I sat together and Barney was across the aisle. The aide leaned over to me and said “This is the fastest that Barney has ever flown.” Barney had trained on the Navy version of the old B24 developed for Navy use, the PB4Y2, and had no doubt flown the Lockheed P2V Neptune and its successor the turbo prop P3V ASW patrol aircraft.

I especially recall the day Barney came to me and said some engineers from Bethpage, Long Island were scheduled to be there that day to give us a presentation on a new fighter aircraft for the fleet. He wanted me to listen in and give him a report and an opinion. I was excited and delighted to get a run down on what the Navy was to put into service the following year, the F14 Tomcat, a fabulous machine made by Grumman that served the Navy as its front line fighter for decades.

One last little story – things weren’t so correct in those days. Barney had one of his Lockheed P3’s returning from Alaska bring us some salmon for a big staff summer party. The party came off well on Ford Island and Barbara got to meet Barney at last.

Barney sadly died at too young an age, 68, in 1988 and is interred at Arlington.

https://www.billiongraves.com/grave/William-Theodore-Rapp/11572741