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By
NORT JONATHAN
IN the beginning there was the LTS 512. Then came the World Series and the submarine, the USS Mero. All in all, Chicago had its eyes full during the past weeks. And being Chicago, it didn't miss a thing.
The LST 512 — a Navy industrial incentive exhibit complete with a real jungle on the tank deck — arrived at the Michigan Avenue bridge shortly after the Japs welcomed General MacArthur and the United States Fleet. No longer wanting to keep the industrial incentive program rolling, the Navy decided to give the taxpayers a break and show them what their money bought. The LST 512 — a veteran of the European invasion — became, presto, a war bond exhibit. This was wholly admirable, except that it put an extra strain on the Missing Persons Bureau of the police department. Grammar school commandos disappeared into the realistic jungle and remained hidden for hours.
The World Series, of course, was a national event. This year it was marked by cold weather and a sort of weary
resignation on the part o! JOLLY Chicago fans. The Cubs hac CHOLLY? won several National League
pennants before, only to fai miserably in the series, so most of th« local rooters adopted a "wait and see' attitude. They saw some exciting baseball, even though Charley Grimm and his Cubs again failed to come through.
Of course you heard the games ovet WHB-Mutual. There was plenty of color at Wrigley Field, and lots more around the loop. Distracted baseball fans roosted everywhere — in dollar a night hotels and turkish baths. One hardy group spent two solid nights riding the L because there were no hotel rooms available. Important people with influence at the major hostelries cither quietly disappeared, leaving no forwarding address, for the duration of the Series, or barricaded their doors and took the phone off the hook.
The last of the trio of events worthy of mention in retrospect was the local appearance of a bona fide submarine — the last to be constructed at Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Under the auspices of the Navy League, the USS Mero tied up near the Tribune Tower and was put on public exhibition. Almost two thousand people a day inched, climbed, and crawled through the Mero's length. The Navy was just congratulating itself on having gotten through the week of the exhibition without having some inquisitive soul opening a valve, thus sending the Mero to the bottom of the Chicago river in an unscheduled "practice" dive, when a seventy-five year old lady fell twenty feet through an open hatch, cutting loose with a startled scream that sent all hands scuttling to their battle stations.
No comment on Navy ships in or around Chicago could be complete without mention of three old-timers who served throughout the war. You can still see
them, tied up at Navy Pier, ERSATZ although they may be decomCARRIERS missioned any day now. The
ships arc the "ersatz" aircraft carriers. Wolverine and Sable, and the training ship Wilmettc. None of the