Oral History Interview with Carl Hecht, May 12, 2001

Transcript of an oral interview with Carl Hecht. He was born in St Louis, Missouri in 1920 and joined the Navy Reserves in October, 1940. In early 1941 he was assigned as a Signalman aboard USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37). He recalls sailing to Argentia, New Foundland in August 1941 in company with USS Augusta (CA-31) (President Roosevelt embarked) and Henry Hopkins and the remainder of the President's staff embarked on Tuscaloosa. He recalls that the two American war ships met up in Argentia harbor with HMS Prince of Wales (Winston Churchill embarked) and that, on 11 and 12 August, Churchill and staff met with Roosevelt and aides on the Augusta for conferences and their first of several meetings in order to form the Atlantic Charter. Later he recalls three instances when Tuscaloosa was assigned convoy duty between the United Kingdom and Murmansk, Russia. Upon return to the US he was assigned as part of the commissioning crew aboard USS Monrovia (APA-31), which became the flagship of Admiral Hewitt, Eighth Fleet Commander, in charge of training for the invasion of Sicily. He recalls General Patton and his staff were aboard, in addition to army troops being prepared for the invasion and how Army and Navy personnel were kept separated, including a prohibition against Army personnel on the Monrovia's bridge. He says that he observed General Patton arriving on the bridge in order to talk to Admiral Hewitt, and being escorted off the bridge by the Officer of the Deck, while Admiral Hewitt stayed silent. Monrovia later sailed to the Pacific where he observed the marines landing on the beach at Tarawa. He spent the rest of the war as an instructor at Communications School and was discharged October 8th 1945