LEE “BABE” GREENSPAN
Age: 85
Born: Nov. 19, 1924
Hometown: Evanston, Ill.
Residence: Palm Desert
Military branch: U.S. Navy
Years served: 1943-1946
Rank: Electrician's mate first class
Family: Wife Micki; five children, Rick Greenspan, Diane Lachman and Gary Greenspan, all of Chicago, Julie Cowan of Evanston Illinois, and Neal Cowan of Albuquerque, N.M.; 11 grandchildren.
About this series
Staff writer Denise Goolsby will profile desert veterans from World War II through the end of 2010 — the 65th anniversary of the end of the war. Contact her at (760) 778-4587 or via e-mail at denise.goolsby@thedesertsun.com
Coming tomorrow
U.S. Army Air Corps veteran Bob Schneck of Indio
LEARN MORE: Read about other Coachella Valley residents who served in World War II at mydesert.com/wwii
More
Lee Greenspan's ship, the destroyer escort USS Reynolds, was part of a hunter-killer group tasked with protecting convoys of ships from Japanese submarines and fighter aircraft in the Pacific during World War II.
The hunter-killer team was comprised of three destroyers and one “baby” carrier.
“We cleared the supply lanes for the convoys going west from Pearl Harbor,” Greenspan said. “We sunk some submarines during that time.”
The USS Reynolds played host to one of the most famous journalists of the era — war correspondent and Pulitzer Prize winner Ernie Pyle.
Pyle joined the crew of the USS Reynolds in February 1945, spending about a week among the ship's 200 or so sailors. He was hoisted aboard the USS Reynolds from the USS Windham Bay.
Greenspan said Pyle sat in a basket and was pulled across on ropes from the carrier to the destroyer.
“He was dressed in a leather jacket and a hat,” Greenspan said. “He was a little guy — about 5 feet, 6 inches. He was very laid back and you could really talk to him You'd just sit down next to him and introduce yourself. We all talked to him. We had more fun with him.
“He never went into the officer's mess,” Greenspan added. “He always ate with us. The officers were kind of” put off by that, he said.
Pyle was killed on April 18, 1945, on the island of Ie Shima when a bullet from an enemy machine gun struck the journalist in the head.
Greenspan, an electrician's mate, worked as a bridge (command deck) electrician and spent time in the motor room working on the ship's diesel-electric machinery.
The ship was pulled off of convoy duty for a brief period while it participated in submarine training operations in Pearl Harbor.
“We practiced with subs, going out and trying to find them,” Greenspan said. “They shot torpedos with just air pressure.”
The USS Reynolds protected ammunition ships, supply ships, tankers, battleships and aircraft carriers around Pacific islands including Enewetak, Kwajalein and Peleliu, earning eight battle stars for its efforts.
“The Japanese had some real tough battleships north of the Philippines and we beat the hell out of them,” he said.
In Okinawa, the USS Reynolds was pulled off of picket duty — it was protecting the bigger ships from enemy fire — to go on a convoy.
“When we came back, (some of the) destroyers had entire decks taken off,” he said. “A lot of ships were struck by kamikazes. When they dropped the bomb, we were 300 miles off Japan.”
Of all his time at sea, Greenspan's scariest moments were weather-related.
“The storms were really tough,” he said. “We had 52-degree rolls. We had to flood our bilges so we wouldn't capsize. They were so powerful, the flight deck of a carrier was bent back,” he said. “That's how strong they were.”
The men were in fighting form even when they were off duty.
“We used to have beer parties,” Greenspan said. “They put us on a little strip of beach with guys from other ships and we'd have big fights. I'm talking riot fights. It was just an outlet.”
The massive quantity of beer — “as many as you could drink” — fueled the sailors' aggression. “We'd go back aboard a (landing boat) and the other crew would get in there and we'd fight all the way back to the ship.”
Greenspan was able to stay out of the middle of the ruckus.
“I was a little guy,” he said. “They gave me all their clothes to hold,” while they fought.
The rivalries were not only between ships' crews, but between different cities and regions.
“East Coast, New York, Midwest — then we have the South, Georgia, West Virginia,” he said.
The guys from the South, “They were the wildcats,” Greenspan said. “They were nuts.”
While the beer was plentiful at times, the ship ran extremely low on nutritious edibles while operating around the islands of Palau, some 500 miles east of the Philippines.
“In Peleliu, we ran out of food for three weeks,” he said. “We were eating canned baked beans and rice” three times a day. “For dessert, we had apricots. For about 10 years, I couldn't look an apricot in the face.”
U.S. forces fought in the Battle of Peleliu from September to November of 1944. Even when the men had adequate stores of food, there was no assurance of the quality.
“We received some flour for bread from New Zealand,” Greenspan said. “It had boll weevils in it.” Once the bread was made, the men inspected each slice before putting it in their mouths. “We'd hold it up to the light to see if we could see the bugs.”
They'd try to pick the little critters out of the baked dough, but it was a tedious chore.
“After awhile we just said, ‘The hell with it. We'll just eat the bugs,'” Greenspan said.
