Everyone has their own memories of former president, but mine is a
little
different. My uncle played basketball against Gerald Ford, in
the elevator
well of an aircraft carrier during World War II. And I
have the picture to
prove it. Naturally, there's an even more
interesting story behind
that.

My uncle, Bill Howell, joined the navy right after Pear Harbor

was attacked. In February, 1943, he reported to the Philadelphia
Navy
Yard to join the crew of the new light carrier Monterey. He was
the first
enlisted member of the crew to report to the ship. Yeoman
Howell became a
Chief Petty Officer in January, 1944, at age 24.

The USS Monterey
(CVL-26) reached the fleet in Fall of 1943, and was
heavily engaged, but was
damaged only in the December 1944 typhoon,
when several aircraft on her
hanger deck broke loose, causing
potentially disastrous fires, which were
put out with some
difficulty. Future president Gerald R. Ford was later
decorated for
his part in the damage control effort. Ford led a team of men
to the
hanger deck, where they secured the aircraft, and other large objects

being tossed about.

Commissioned an ensign in the Navy in April 1942,
Ford served as a
gunnery officer aboard the light carrier Monterey from 1943
to the
end of the war, earning ten battle stars. He was discharged in

February 1946 as a lieutenant commander.

Ford and my uncle Bill knew
each other because CPO Howell worked for
the executive officer (XO) of the
ship. That made CPO Howell one of
the more important CPOs on the ship. For
example, he handled the
paperwork for all personnel and disciplinary
matters. All the ships
officers and chiefs met with CPO Howell frequently
because the XO ran
the ship (the captain commanded it), and the XO's chief
took care of
a lot of the details.

During World War II, it was not
unusual for an able young sailor to
make CPO while still in his 20s or 30s.
Thus, on the Monterey, there
arose the tradition of holding basketball games
between the chiefs
and the junior officers. Someone took a picture of the
play during
one of those games, and that picture made its way into the
National
Archives photo collection. Fifty years later, Al Nofi and I were

working on a book about the Pacific War (The War in the Pacific

Encyclopedia), and the publisher (Facts on File) wanted some
pictures.
So Al got in touch with the National Archives, and asked
for pictures. One
of the pictures he obtained was of some men playing
basketball in the
elevator well of the USS Monterey. I knew my uncle
had served on that ship,
and one of the players in that picture
looked like him. So while on a trip
to Florida, I dropped by and
showed uncle Bill the picture and asked if that
was indeed him. He
said yes, and commented in passing, "and that's
lieutenant Ford right
there." What a coincidence. Well, it shouldn't have
been, as Ford was
a star athlete (football) in college, and was still in
good shape ten
years later. So when we sent the picture to the publisher, we
added
to the caption, that little footnote on World War II, and

presidential history, that my uncle Bill played basketball with

president Ford.

Uncle Bill passed away ten years ago, having, like
Gerald Ford,
survived the war and gone on to live a full life.

Jim
Dunnigan