US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

Ten Years of Big Ship Gunnery 77
ship’s officers served with Turner throughout his eight and a half months’
cruise in the Mervine. These durable officers were Lieutenant (junior grade)
Samuel W. Canan, Class of 1920, and Ensign Everett H. Browne, Class of
1923. The Executive Officer, Gunnery Officer, and Communication OiKcer,
however, all served more than seven of the eight and a half months, and the
Communication Officer, Ensign William B. Arrunon, who came aboard
shortly after Turner, went on to become a Flag oflicer on the active list of
the Navy, and Director of Naval Communications. Rear Admiral Ammon
died before this book got well underway.
When asked to say what stood out in their memories from the period of
their service in the Metwine with Turner, one shipmate wrote:
His invincible determination to make a happy efficient destroyer over into a
taut battleship.Aa
Another remembered
his sincere regret in being detached from duty in the Mervi?/e. He had strived
so hard to make his first command a success.AA
Describing Turner another wrote:
Intellectually brilliant, but impatient with average guys slow to grasp his
theories, intolerant of opinions at variance with his, there was only one way to
do a thing—the Turner way. Mostly, he was right, sometimes wrong and
always very hard to convince.AE
All the living officers who served more than a dog watch (a very short
period) in the Mervitze under Turner were queried in regard to Turner.
It can be recorded as a fact that the Mervine is not remembered as a “happy
ship” by several of her officers who served under Lieutenant Commander
Turner, and that all her oficers remember that some were not at all happy
with their captain. He was “rank poison” to one.
Others mentioned Turner’s “positiveness,” his “excellent leadership” and
his’ ‘determination.” 4’
When asked to rate Lieutenant Commander Turner on a scale made up of:
1. Tops,
g Commander Frederick D. Powers, USN (Ret.), to GCD, letter, 9 Mar. 1964. Hereafter
Powers.
a Commander Everett H. Browne, USN (Ret.), to GCD, letter, 10 Apr. 1964, Hereafter
Browne.
a Captain Joseph U. Lademan, IJSN (Ret.), to GCD, letter, 9 Mar. 1964. Hereafter Lademan.
‘“ (a) Commander Samuel W, Canan, USN (Ret.), to GCD, letter, 22 Mar. 1964; (b) Commander
Roy R. Darron, USN (Ret.), to GCD, letter, 18 Mar. 1964; (c) Commander Everett H.
Browne, USN (Ret.), to GCD, letter, 10 Apr. 1964.