[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 30 (Thursday, March 7, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E308]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    MOBLEY MOURNS HIS NAVY COMMANDER

                                 ______


                           HON. JACK KINGSTON

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 7, 1996

  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I submit the following story for the 
Congressional Record. This story ran in the Glennville Sentinel on 
January 11, 1996.

                    Mobley Mourns His Navy Commander

                          (By Clinton Oliver)

       While flags flew at half-mast in honor of Admiral Arleigh 
     Burke, who died last week at 94 in Bethesda Naval Hospital in 
     Maryland, one Glennville resident was particularly saddened 
     by the passing of this distinguished naval officer. Petty 
     Officer Thurman O. Mobley served with Admiral Burke aboard 
     the U.S.S. Charles Ausburne in the South Pacific during World 
     War II and remembers Burke as a courageous, feisty, and 
     sometimes blustery commander who was highly respected by his 
     men. ``This ship is built to fight,'' Burke once barked to 
     the crew of the Ausburne, ``you'd better know how.''
       The U.S.S. Charles Ausburne was built by Consolidated Steel 
     Corporation of Orange, Texas, and was commissioned November 
     24, 1942. Mobley boarded the Ausburne in Norfolk, Virginia, 
     in April of 1943, and the next month the ship joined the 
     Pacific Fleet, after passing through the Panama Canal, 
     according to Pentagon records. Mobley and his shipmates of 
     the Ausburne were commended by Admiral William ``Bull'' 
     Halsey, Commander of Allied Naval Forces in the South 
     Pacific; by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief of 
     the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and by General Douglas MacArthur, 
     Commander of Allied Forces in the Pacific, for action in that 
     theater. They were cited by President Harry S. Truman for 
     action from November 1943 to February 1944.
       The Ausburne was Admiral Burk's flagship, and although a 
     number of sailors from Georgia served under Burke on other 
     ships, ``I was the only Georgia boy to serve on the same ship 
     with him,'' Mobley declared. The Ausburne destroyed nine 
     enemy ships and shot down nine aircraft. Mobley and the crew 
     rescued ten survivors of planes forced down at sea and picked 
     up 31 Japanese prisoners from the water, according to Navy 
     records.
       Mobley stated that all crew members had two jobs to 
     perform, depending on whether or not the ship was engaged 
     with the enemy--one ``combat'' job and one ``work-a-day'' 
     routine job..
       Petty Officer Mobley was triggerman on a 20 millimeter 
     artillery piece during combat and a baker at other times. The 
     gun crew had trained by firing at aerial targets on a Pacific 
     island, and once just before an air battle with the Japanese, 
     Mobley was summoned to the bridge of the Ausburne. The 
     officer on the bridge had observed that the Glennville sailor 
     consistently had more hits on aerial targets than any other 
     triggerman. ``Mobley,'' the officer demanded, ``we're about 
     to engage the enemy. How do you account for the fact that you 
     have consistently hit more air targets than any triggerman on 
     board?'' Mobley quickly recalled his dove-shooting days with 
     a shotgun near Glennville.
       ``Sir,'' he retorted, ``I keep telling you fellers you're 
     not leading `em enough.'' Mr. Mobley was referring to the 
     practice of a hunter aiming slightly ahead of a moving quarry 
     to allow time for the projectile to reach the mark. The 
     officer ordered an appropriate adjustment to the aim-and-fire 
     routine and the change improved the accuracy of the entire 
     crew, Mobley said.
       As the ship's baker, Seaman Mobley learned of Admiral 
     Burke's favorite dessert. ``About once a month, I baked an 
     apple pie and carried it to his quarters,'' he said.
       After President Eisenhower appointed Admiral Burke Chief of 
     Naval Operations (the top post for a Navy officer), Mobley 
     called his old commander at the Pentagon. ``It took me about 
     half a day to get to him,'' Mobley said, ``but they finally 
     put me through.'' Mobley stated who was calling and 
     congratulated the officer on his high appointment.
       ``Mobley, Mobley,'' the admiral mused. ``I seem to remember 
     the name, but I can't quite place you.''
       ``I used to be your baker,'' Mobley informed him.
       ``APPLE PIE!'' the admiral exploded. ``You used to bake my 
     apple pies.'' The two old sailors enjoyed a lengthy visit by 
     telephone. Thereafter, Admiral Burke wrote a short note about 
     once a year to his ex-baker, and always addressed him as 
     ``apple pie.'' The periodic messages ceased about two years 
     ago. Age finally claimed Thurman Mobley's cherished and salty 
     old friend.
       During air battles, Japanese pilots routinely held back the 
     last bomb on their aircraft for a suicide dive into allied 
     war ships, slamming into them at about the waterline. ``We 
     always made sure we shot down those suicide divers,'' Mobley 
     said. ``We knew if we didn't get them, we were goners for 
     sure.'' Sometimes downed suicide craft slammed into the ocean 
     so near the Ausburne and with such force that the crash 
     caused a surge of water across the deck that nearly knocked 
     the sailors off their feet, Mobley declared.
       At the end of World War II, the U.S.S. Charles Ausburne had 
     steamed a total of 207,000 nautical miles, consumed 
     10,686,305 gallons of fuel, and visited four continents, and 
     eight ports in the United States. Mobley and his shipmates 
     crossed the International Date Line four times and the 
     equator 16 times. The Ausburne had conducted 32 fueling 
     operations at sea, had gone to General Quarters (complete 
     readiness for battle) 780 times, and had been in three 
     typhoons. Mobley and the Ausburne crew conducted 22 battles 
     against the Japanese Navy in four months.
       Petty Officer Thurman O. Mobley was discharged from the 
     U.S. Navy on Thanksgiving Day, 1945. He is retired from the 
     U.S. Postal Service and lives with his wife, Lilla, on Howard 
     Street in Glennville.

                          ____________________