Two residents at Meredith Court, Frank Liggins and Melvin Ball, both served in the Navy, and although they didn’t serve together, both of them share their stories about being out on the open seas.
Melvin Ball joined the Navy in 1948 and served until 1952. He was stationed in San Diego, California and sailed to many islands on many waters during the Good Will Tour.
“Everything was smooth,” he said. “We had a good time the whole time we were there. We hit every island in the Pacific Ocean, it was like an extended vacation!”
Frank Liggins joined the Navy in 1956, and according to him, he too had a good time.
“It was an in-betweener, nothing was really serious going on at that time,” he said. “We sailed around all over the South Pacific to all the countries. I didn’t get in trouble except for a couple of times!”
Frank joined the service when he was 17 while he was living in Houston, when he and his friend were grabbed by their collars by his friend’s dad and were told that if they didn’t get their acts together, they both were going to wind up in jail.
During that time, the Buddy Program had been implemented, so Frank and his friend not only enlisted together, but they also got to stay together throughout their service.
“Where he went, I went. Where I went, he went. We even stayed friends when we got out, and now he’s actually part of my family as an in-law.”
Frank went through bootcamp in San Diego, and right after graduation, he became a helmsman for the Destroyer DD797, steering the ship wherever he was ordered to go. Luckily there were no conflicts going on at that time, so there was plenty of downtime for the crew to explore new lands and waters, get to know their fellow seamen, and have fun initiating the newbies.
“They initiate you if you haven’t ever been across the equator. Those who had never been would stand up there behind the break water, and we had to go down on our hands and knees and crawl across. The guys who had been there would have canvass sacks stuffed with cloth, and they would work you over. Once you got to the end, there was the biggest guy on the ship in nothing but his bathing suit on. He had a bucket sitting there full of mustard, ketchup, oil, and whatever, and when you got down there, you had to ask him permission to cross the equator. ‘May I cross the equator?’ He would say, ‘only if you will kiss me on my stomach,” and he would reach down in that bucket and cover his belly. When you got up there to just give a quick peck, he would grab you behind your head and smear your face in it. After we crossed it, we went from ‘Pollywogs’ to ‘Shellbacks’. That was our initiation.”
Spending most of his time out on open waters, there were certainly times when Frank had to battle mother nature and keep a steady ship during one of her tropical storms.
“The waves out there would get so high and the ship would go out on top, then the wave would crash down and you would fall off to this side or that side. If I was the helmsman, I had to steer through it, and the skipper told me one day, ‘Liggins, just hold her as close as you can.’ I’d get it straight, but as soon as I did, here would come another one. Lord have mercy!”
When asked if he had ever gotten sea sick, Frank’s answer got a laugh out of all of us.
“Only when I went to town, had a little too much to drink, and got back out on the water. We’d be hurling off the side of that ship!”
If you head on over to the Freedom Musuem, located at 600 N. Hobart, you’ll see the first brick on the sidewalk is Frank Liggins, something he is absolutely proud of. He donated everything he had from his service to the museum as a way to preserve the history.
“Anything you had that was military, you didn’t need it anymore. So give it to the museum. Even the big airplane in the back was donated from Las Vegas. It sat out in the desert out there and we got it down here, put it back together, and it’s been sitting there ever since.”
Frank fondly remembers his time in the Navy, sharing his stories with the other Meredith Court residents, remembering each one as if they happened just yesterday.
“All of us on that ship were in our late teens except for the officers of course. We all grew up together and we had a good time.”
Thank you to Melvin and Frank for sharing their stories with us, and a big thank you to all of our veterans for your service!
