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Mr. Metzler: No armament?
Mr. Doig: No. No one had a rifle, no one had a pistol, like I say, they didn't trust sailors with guns and I realized why later when one of the guys they did give a gun to shot himself with it. He was horsing around and the gun went off, it hit a set of bits and the gun went off, it was an accident, and it hit him ... and they said "there's why we don't give sailors guns"! (laughs) Mr. Metzler: Ok, so you're back on board after Tarala and what next? Mr. Doig: Well, one of the other kids on the boat crew was told he was going to be sent down to the fire room and he was transferred off the boat into the fire room on the Ashland and he didn't want that, he wanted to go back onboard the boat so I told them fine, I'll trade with you. So I went down to the fire room and I never went back on the boats again. I stayed in the fire room until I got off and we had made another landing at Inawetok and Quadjulane after that before I left the ship. Mr. Metzler: What did you do in the fire room? Mr. Doig: I had a regular shift tending the boilers and .... Mr. Metzler: These are oil fire boilers, bunker type....? Mr. Doig: Well, they have big long injectors in them and you hook up a fuel line to them and you open up and get the fuel flowing and the fuel is pre-heated, it's like tar, if you don't pre-heat it it won't flow at all and they put little injectors on it and get the spray out and it will ignite. It was a learning experience for me, I'd never seen a boiler in my life. It was something new to me and I kind've enjoyed it. I'd get a sunburn and I'd go down below and I'd spend four hours below and I didn't have any sunburn left, it would just sweat right off. It was a 120 degrees down there all the time. Mr. Metzler: It must've been hot down there... Mr. Doig: Oh, it was just terrible and it didn't have like the newer boilers had covers and all the air was pushed in around this jacket but it didn't have that,
this was just an open room and all the air pressure from the boilers was coming down right on top of us, that was what was keeping the fire in the fire pot so it was just like a sauna from the minute you got down there. Mr. Metzler: So you needed a lot of water?
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with James Doig. Doig joined the Navy in December of 1942. He completed Diesel School, repairing landing craft engines. Beginning August of 1943, Doig served in the fire room aboard USS Ashland (LSD-1). While he was aboard, the Ashland participated in the assaults on Kwajalein and Eniwetok. In the late 1944, Doig was transferred to USS Kenton (APA-122). They transported troops to the Philippines and participated in the Okinawa invasion. Doig was discharged in February of 1946.
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Doig, James.Oral History Interview with James Doig, May 13, 2004,
text,
May 13, 2004;
Fredericksburg, Texas.
(https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1604529/m1/17/:
accessed July 16, 2024),
University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu;
crediting National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation.