![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/843b9b_5ade08fe76504ff083918dec5048974c~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_1920,h_1200,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/843b9b_5ade08fe76504ff083918dec5048974c~mv2.jpg)
"NOW HEAR THIS"
Subject: Looking Back
Published: January 1997
By: Cdr R G Langland
It is hard to look back more than 58 years to when we stood on the dock in Philadelphia to go aboard to put the Savannah in commission.
I spent over 4 years on the ship – 2 years in the Radio Transmitter room and 2 years flying as radiomen 1st class in the SOCs. . .
I have attended only one reunion, the 12th, in San Diego. However, I do enjoy the Savannah newsletters. She was a great ship and a fine crew, and many hundreds of memories including my being picked up by an old WWI 4-stack destroyer when I ended up in the Atlantic Ocean when we lost SOC #1187 on April 13, 1942 flying with Lt(jg) Anderson.
I retired in May 1966 after spending 30 years active duty in the US Navy.
Some expense money is enclosed.
Cdr R G (Bob) Langland
![USS Bernadou (DD 153)](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/843b9b_89eb450e4aa04308ab2e4168bf2d7583~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_465,h_270,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/843b9b_89eb450e4aa04308ab2e4168bf2d7583~mv2.jpg)
USS Ludlow (DD438)
Rescue destroyer at the Invasion of Sicily
Courtesy of US Navy Bureau of Ships