Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
2:22 | He was standing watch on a tanker in a convoy in the Irish Sea. Clifford Waibel saw another convoy heading straight for them on a collision course. He alerted the wheelhouse three times, but, for some reason, his warnings were ignored. An English Liberty Ship plowed right into the tanker, narrowly missing the gasoline storage hold.
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He changed his birth certificate when he was fifteen years old but Clifford Waibel didn't go through with his plan to enlist in the Navy. He had to wait until he was seventeen. He was not fazed by boot camp, since he was already used to strict discipline. Offered a choice of serving on a battleship or serving as an armed guard on a merchant ship, he went with the promise of more independence.
After graduating from the Navy's Armed Guard school, Clifford Waibel was assigned to the USNS Mission San Antonio, a tanker. They operated in the Atlantic and the Caribbean, transporting aviation fuel. While under repair in the warm waters of the Caribbean, Waibel nearly got more than he bargained for when he decided to go fishing. Near Aruba, submarine activity was heavy, including deals with local smugglers.
Navy Armed Guard Clifford Waibel describes the convoys he was part of during his year on a tanker. His next vessel was a Liberty Ship, moving general military cargo in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The ride was a lot rougher on the lighter vessel, but it didn't bother the young gunner. He was more than a little alarmed, though, at what he saw when the ship arrived in an Italian port just after an air raid.
Navy Armed Guard Clifford Waibel was assigned to a refrigerated cargo ship which operated in the Pacific near the end of the war. The vessel would have been a mortuary ship had the Japan invasion proceeded. When he returned to civilian life, it took a little while to get used to mixed company after so long in the Navy.
