Underway replenishment — transferring fuel from an oiler to a warship while both vessels steam alongside each other at sea — was one of the essential skills that gave the U.S. Navy its ability to project power across the vast Pacific. These two pages from the November 1945 All Hands show the process in photographs. Gene Slover, who served as a Navy enlisted man, added his own eyewitness commentary:
YOU CANNOT IMAGINE HOW MUCH FUN THIS WAS. IF YOU THINK THAT ANY MAN WAS NOT SOAKED PLUM TO HIS SKIVVES YOU ARE WRONG. WHEN THE FUEL LINE HITS THE WATER IT WILL DRAG EVERY MAN DOWN ON DECK THATS HOLDING ON TO THE LINE. WHEN ITS OVER YOU ARE TOTALY EXHAUSTED.
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