REACTIVATION OF `MIGHTY MO' JOGS RETIRED FIRE CHIEF'S MEMORIES

MILLS AT 19: Retired Cape Girardeau fire chief Charles Mills, left, as a 19-year-old sailor aboard the Navy flagship Pennsylvania. The ship was caught in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor almost 50 years ago. The battleship absorbed several hits but the heavy armor prevented major damage.

CAPE GIRARDEAU A half-century-old war veteran, the USS Missouri, last week began bombarding Iraqi positions with its 16-inch guns for the first time since the Korean war.

The Missouri and another World War II-era battleship, the USS Wisconsin, are participating in action for the first time since being recalled from the mothballs, and their recalls have jogged the memories of retired Cape Girardeau fire chief Charles Mills, who served during World War II on a battleship.

Although, according to his wife, Jerlene, he is not much given to talking about his World War II experiences, Mills recounted his experience on the battleship Pennsylvania and the role of battleships in warfare.

The Missouri, best known for being the scene of the Japanese surrender ceremony Sept. 2, 1945, has been retrofitted with computer-guided Tomahawk cruise missiles, Harpoon anti-ship cruise missiles and other up-to-date armaments, a $475 million process that started in 1984. High-tech, 3,000-rounds-per-minute machine guns replaced outmoded 40-mm anti-aircraft guns on the 58,000-ton ship.

The Navy had decommisioned the ship, putting it to rest for 19 years as a museum in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyards in Bremerton, Wash.

The "Mighty Mo" is flexing its new and old muscles in the current war. The 1,600-member crew positioned the ship in the Persian Gulf within 23 miles of Kuwait to be within shelling range. According to military-censored reports, the 16-inch guns lobbed shells at prefabricated concrete troop bunkers and hit some of them.

Based on his experience, Mills said he is not surprised to see the Missouri being used despite its age.

He stressed the old ships' strong points. "Being so large, they can carry a lot of armaments," he said. "And the guns are very accurate." Mills also said the ships' combination of older conventional weapons coupled with the cruise missiles.

Part of the battleships' edge originates in the exceptional armor shielding protecting it. "They are heavily armored," he pointed out. "The armor on the gun turrets is at least 16-inches thick. The ships' sides are double thickness, with a thick steel belt to take torpedo hits." Mills said the ships' engines and ammunition storage are on the lower decks, protected from explosions by thick steel decking.

"Knocking out a battleship would be difficult," he said. "The U.S. lost none after Pearl Harbor." In World War II a phalanx of six to eight destroyers would flank the battleships and, combined with support aircraft flying nearby, would screen the ships from aircraft, ship and submarine attack.

Mills said the USS Pennsylvania had four spotter planes stationed on the ship. The light, two-man aircraft were stored on small platforms and launched on gunpowder charged catapults to perform the aerial surveillance work. Rigged with pontoons, the aircraft landed in the water near the ships and were retrieved with cranes. Mills was one of the crane operators.

Mills allowed that some prestige came from serving aboard one of the battleships, but he said the experience had its limitations and drawbacks.

"It was really military," Mills said. "You had to put on your hat to do anything. Every time you turned around, you were saluting an officer." And, as one of 2,000 crew members, a person tended to become a nameless face in the crowd, he said.

He contrasted the experience with his serving aboard a search-and-rescue ship, the USS Coos Bay, which had a less rigid environment, a much smaller crew, and fewer officers. Mills served on the Coos Bay during the last half of the war.

Due to the battleships' immense firepower, Mills said they represented the strength and power of the Navy. The dreadnoughts developed a reputation for invincibility; however, the Pennsylvania came to an ignominious end when it served with other boats as a test ship during an atom-bomb test in the South Pacific to evaluate the bomb's consequences.

Now 69, the former sailor said his most vivid memory of his battleship service was being caught in the Pearl Harbor attack, the 50th anniversary of which will be Dec. 7. The Pennsylvania was in dry dock next to two destroyers that were destroyed in the Japanese sneak attack.

Mills, a member of an anti-aircraft crew, was on deck cleaning at the time. Because no alarm sounded, the sailors assumed at first the incoming aircraft they saw were U.S. planes practicing a bombing run. Mills saw a Nay PBY flying boat hit and burst into flames, then realized the Japanese were attacking.

The lack of warning (some officers scoffed at the radar operator's reports of the planes) caused confusion and delays in the men's response. Initially, when Mills' gun crew called for ammunition, the supply crew, who were deep inside the ship, derided the call, thinking it was a joke. Mills and a cohort used a large fire-hose nozzle to break the lock on a nearby ammo box to get an initial supply of ammunition. Mills lost his hearing temporarily when the overanxious gun crew commenced firing while he was removing the muzzle cover from the gun barrel.

"We were in a hell of a mess," he said. "We could see the other ships being hit; I saw the USS Oklahoma torpedoed and roll over and heard the USS Arizona hit. There was a lot of confusion."

He said he was feeling much more than apprehension during the ordeal. "I was scared as hell. Anybody who wasn't was crazy."

The Pennsylvania sustained 65 casualties in the aerial bombing and strafing assault. Of the eight battleships at Pearl Harbor, it was the only one not heavily damaged. After immediate repairs the ship went on to participate in the South Pacific war effort against the Japanese.