November 28, 2003
And you thought the lighthouse/carrier story was funny...
From: Life on a Destroyer Escort
"It was a very dark night in mid-1943, and the Edgar G. Chase was proceeding south along the Atlantic coast, running fairly close to the shoreline. She was operating in company with two navy patrol craft (PC) vessels, searching for enemy submarines.Suddenly, a very bright light stabbed through the dark night off the starboard bow. Moving quickly from right to left, it would disappear, only to reappear intermittently. The captain of the DE, suspecting the very worst, immediately detached one of the PCs with orders to proceed dead ahead at full speed, investigate this very suspicious light and report his findings promptly.
Off into the night went this little ship, quickly disappearing from view. After what seemed to be an unusually long time, a signal light began to flash in our direction-
W-E H-A-V-E I-N-V-E-S-T-I-G-A-T-E-D T-H-E L-I-G-H-T
I-T I-S A-N A-U-T-O-M-O-B-I-L-E A-N-D
W-E A-R-E A-G-R-O-U-N-DElmo Allen, Radioman First Class, USS Edgar G. Chase
