After a Google search, I wrote to Paul
Ament-Gjenvick, Archivist & Curator of the Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives,
Atlanta, Georgia, “What happened to the Our
Navy archives for the Korean War era? I served from 1952-1956 and you have
nothing on-line.” On the 26th of November 2012 I received this reply:
“Dear Mr. Turco,
“Thank you for contacting the Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives regarding our collection of Our Navy Magazine back issues, specifically during the Korean War era. While we attempt to collect as many issues of Our Navy as we can, we are limited to what is available or to the collections donated to us. In this case, we lack the monetary resources to purchase the missing issues on the open market. We also haven't received any contributions in kind of back issues of Our Navy for this time period.”
The reason I had contacted the Archive was that one of my early poems, “Carrier,” had been written, and published in Our Navy, while I was serving as a member of the commissioning crew aboard the aircraft carrier U. S. S. Hornet (CVA12) somewhere around December 8th, 1953, during our maiden voyage. I had no copy of the periodical, and no record of the publication date, and I was trying to recover that information. This is the poem, such as it is:
CARRIER
Grey on grey.
(The steel hull
shoulders its bulk effortlessly
through pendulous water-mounds,
determinedly making its way
towards the horizon
which rises and falls slowly,
as though in respiration.)
A metallic gargoyle;
ponderous, austere,
An itinerant catacomb;
a wallowing labyrinth.
(The overcast sky
blends its tactile protoplasm
with the sea…
and the ship becomes
a diminishing Atlas
as it moves away—,
its heels seemingly melting
into the primordial mud
of the ocean bottom
under the impossible weight
of the heavens.)
Subsequently, I had published rather regularly in Our Navy, and I had begun to notice other sailors publishing there, too. In fact, a poetry column had been established in the magazine. I was trying to discover how many other Navy poets had also appeared in Our Navy. It was no secret aboard ship what I had been doing when I was off watch, for on the 24th of June, 1954, the Hornet crossed the Equator; Charge 4 of the subpoena I was given to appear at the Court of Neptunus Rex was, ‘Scribbling poetic doggerel on Navy time."” I kept on doing that for the rest of my life.
Lewis Turco
