thedrifter
05-01-09, 06:44 AM
Sailor helped write history
Museum displays log, diary that chronicle USS Nevada's early days
By KEITH ROGERS
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Ten years before the USS Nevada was attacked by Japanese warplanes at Pearl Harbor, sailor Andrew T. Levering found life aboard the battleship to be fun, adventurous and full of camaraderie.
According to accounts he logged, war was an afterthought since the days the Nevada had sailed the Atlantic Ocean protecting supply convoys during World War I.
Sailors had other things to do at the port in San Pedro, Calif., during the Great Depression besides training for the next battle.
"Went to Los Angeles and spent the day in theaters. In the evening went to Lincoln Park and met a few girls, had lots of fun," Levering wrote on Aug. 15, 1931.
"Went to Longshoremen's Fields to Hoot Gibson's rodeo. Seen Hoot Gibson, Sally Eiler, Ernie Maynard, R. Denny, Monte Blue and 'Skeeter' Robins," his diary reads.
Levering's log and diary, photographs of him and his shipmates, his medals and such memorabilia as the boxing bouts card between the USS Texas and the USS Nevada are among the items on display at the Nevada State Museum through May 15.
"It's amazing stuff," said Dennis McBride, curator of history and collections at the museum at 700 Twin Lakes Drive in Lorenzi Park.
While there is a collection of silver removed from the ship on display at the state museum in Carson City, "there is nothing to give us a clue as to what life was like on the USS Nevada in the 1930s," McBride said last week.
Bill McWilliams, a local military historian, author and Pearl Harbor researcher, said the display offers "a glimpse of an earlier period in the ship's and crew histories. What caught my eye was the fact he was the captain's secretary for eight years."
The Levering collection was donated to the museum last year by Levering's son, Robert. He found the items in a box beneath his dad's mobile home in Anaheim, Calif. His father died in 2002 at age 91.
"Dad's generation was pretty tight-lipped," Robert Levering said in a phone call from Brea, Calif.
"He came from a family of coal miners. ... His dream in life was to go to bed in clean sheets."
Robert Levering wanted the collection preserved for the public to see in the ship's namesake state.
"My dad would be so proud to have something he loved be displayed. I thought it would be nice to have some of the memorabilia and items between the wars to see what it was like to live on the ship."
Raised near Erie, Pa., Andy Levering, as he was called, became the quintessential sailor, climbing the enlisted ranks from seaman to lieutenant, or mustang officer. He learned shorthand and his tool was a manual typewriter, as depicted in one snapshot of him at work on the deck of the Nevada.
He was the captain's secretary from 1931 to 1938.
"He was a go-getter and made sure things were properly arranged," Robert Levering said. "He was a sailor, but I never heard him swear a word in his entire life other than, 'I'll be damn.' "
Before the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941, Andy Levering transferred to a mine sweeper patrolling the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal.
Meanwhile, the USS Nevada was the only ship in Pearl Harbor's Battleship Row to get under way in an attempt to escape the attack. In the process, she was hit by a torpedo and a half dozen bombs. Fifty sailors and seven Marines were killed, and 100 more were seriously wounded.
The Nevada, with the help of tugs, managed to make it to shallow water. After a year in dry dock, the vintage 1916 Nevada, equipped with a new anti-aircraft gun battery, was off to combat again during the Attu landings in May 1943, according to the Naval Historical Center.
After the Attu landings, the Nevada sailed to the mid-Atlantic, where her guns pounded Normandy during the invasion in June 1944 and southern France two months later.
She returned to the Pacific to help with the Iwo Jima and Okinawa invasions in 1945, enduring a kamikaze attack on March 27, 1945, and an artillery shell on April 5, 1945.
After World War II, the Nevada was painted red and put at center stage among other dilapidated ships used in a pair of nuclear bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Though damaged and heavily tainted with fallout, it survived both an airdrop and underwater detonations in 1946. A month later it was decommissioned.
Two years later, the Nevada was towed to deep waters southwest of Oahu and purposely sunk by gunfire and torpedoes.
After Andy Levering was stationed in Panama on the mine sweeper, he spent the end of the war in the Pacific on an aircraft carrier escort that took him to Japan. There he saw the aftermath of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.
After 25 years in the Navy, he retired to Long Beach, Calif., and later moved to Vista and then Anaheim, where he was an usher for the Angels baseball team until he was laid off at 89 years old.
"He kept himself in great shape," his son said. "He knew generations of families who knew him on the third deck."
Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.
Ellie
Museum displays log, diary that chronicle USS Nevada's early days
By KEITH ROGERS
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Ten years before the USS Nevada was attacked by Japanese warplanes at Pearl Harbor, sailor Andrew T. Levering found life aboard the battleship to be fun, adventurous and full of camaraderie.
According to accounts he logged, war was an afterthought since the days the Nevada had sailed the Atlantic Ocean protecting supply convoys during World War I.
Sailors had other things to do at the port in San Pedro, Calif., during the Great Depression besides training for the next battle.
"Went to Los Angeles and spent the day in theaters. In the evening went to Lincoln Park and met a few girls, had lots of fun," Levering wrote on Aug. 15, 1931.
"Went to Longshoremen's Fields to Hoot Gibson's rodeo. Seen Hoot Gibson, Sally Eiler, Ernie Maynard, R. Denny, Monte Blue and 'Skeeter' Robins," his diary reads.
Levering's log and diary, photographs of him and his shipmates, his medals and such memorabilia as the boxing bouts card between the USS Texas and the USS Nevada are among the items on display at the Nevada State Museum through May 15.
"It's amazing stuff," said Dennis McBride, curator of history and collections at the museum at 700 Twin Lakes Drive in Lorenzi Park.
While there is a collection of silver removed from the ship on display at the state museum in Carson City, "there is nothing to give us a clue as to what life was like on the USS Nevada in the 1930s," McBride said last week.
Bill McWilliams, a local military historian, author and Pearl Harbor researcher, said the display offers "a glimpse of an earlier period in the ship's and crew histories. What caught my eye was the fact he was the captain's secretary for eight years."
The Levering collection was donated to the museum last year by Levering's son, Robert. He found the items in a box beneath his dad's mobile home in Anaheim, Calif. His father died in 2002 at age 91.
"Dad's generation was pretty tight-lipped," Robert Levering said in a phone call from Brea, Calif.
"He came from a family of coal miners. ... His dream in life was to go to bed in clean sheets."
Robert Levering wanted the collection preserved for the public to see in the ship's namesake state.
"My dad would be so proud to have something he loved be displayed. I thought it would be nice to have some of the memorabilia and items between the wars to see what it was like to live on the ship."
Raised near Erie, Pa., Andy Levering, as he was called, became the quintessential sailor, climbing the enlisted ranks from seaman to lieutenant, or mustang officer. He learned shorthand and his tool was a manual typewriter, as depicted in one snapshot of him at work on the deck of the Nevada.
He was the captain's secretary from 1931 to 1938.
"He was a go-getter and made sure things were properly arranged," Robert Levering said. "He was a sailor, but I never heard him swear a word in his entire life other than, 'I'll be damn.' "
Before the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941, Andy Levering transferred to a mine sweeper patrolling the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal.
Meanwhile, the USS Nevada was the only ship in Pearl Harbor's Battleship Row to get under way in an attempt to escape the attack. In the process, she was hit by a torpedo and a half dozen bombs. Fifty sailors and seven Marines were killed, and 100 more were seriously wounded.
The Nevada, with the help of tugs, managed to make it to shallow water. After a year in dry dock, the vintage 1916 Nevada, equipped with a new anti-aircraft gun battery, was off to combat again during the Attu landings in May 1943, according to the Naval Historical Center.
After the Attu landings, the Nevada sailed to the mid-Atlantic, where her guns pounded Normandy during the invasion in June 1944 and southern France two months later.
She returned to the Pacific to help with the Iwo Jima and Okinawa invasions in 1945, enduring a kamikaze attack on March 27, 1945, and an artillery shell on April 5, 1945.
After World War II, the Nevada was painted red and put at center stage among other dilapidated ships used in a pair of nuclear bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Though damaged and heavily tainted with fallout, it survived both an airdrop and underwater detonations in 1946. A month later it was decommissioned.
Two years later, the Nevada was towed to deep waters southwest of Oahu and purposely sunk by gunfire and torpedoes.
After Andy Levering was stationed in Panama on the mine sweeper, he spent the end of the war in the Pacific on an aircraft carrier escort that took him to Japan. There he saw the aftermath of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.
After 25 years in the Navy, he retired to Long Beach, Calif., and later moved to Vista and then Anaheim, where he was an usher for the Angels baseball team until he was laid off at 89 years old.
"He kept himself in great shape," his son said. "He knew generations of families who knew him on the third deck."
Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.
Ellie