Utano Family Visits Tssom
Commandant's Log ­ June 14, 2012:
On Wednesday afternoon, while the T/S STATE OF
MAINE (TSSOM) was berthed in St. George, Bermuda,
Mrs. Loretta Utano came aboard ship with her son
Chris for a tour. She is the widow of Anthony Utano
'58 who passed away a couple of years ago. She still
stays in touch, however, and read in the Mariner
Alumni Magazine that the State Of Maine would be in
port in Bermuda, the same time the cruise ship she was
aboard, the NORWEGIAN STAR, would be berthed
in Bermuda. She was taking the cruise with her two
children, Chris (son) and Elena (daughter), who had
their respective spouses and children with them as
well. Loretta was genuinely "moved" to be able to come
aboard the training ship and certainly appreciated
the personal tour given to her and Chris by 4/C Jacob
Neubert. Loretta still resides in Queens, NY.
Captain Robert Pouch '62 Recalls Cruise 1960
Captain Robert Pouch '62 spoke a while ago about his memories of his 1960 freshman cruise. Because the official MMA public affairs
officer became ill just before cruise and couldn't join the ship, Pouch, Captain Ross Pollock '62, David Smith '62, and several
midshipmen who volunteered to help were appointed to take over the work.
They decided to publish a little shipboard newspaper about each port, detailing the customs and local knowledge of the area gleaned
from the US Navy and the US State Department. He said, "We were lucky because the TS State of Maine, the old USS Comfort, still had
its photo lab on board so the midshipmen were able to develop and print all their pictures in `the ship's darkroom,' which originally was
the ship's well-equipped x-ray and photo lab."
In addition, every time the ship was due into a port, they also helped to organize events and wrote press releases. Pouch and Doug Scott
'62 also collected and processed the ship's mail; always a good detail and worth several extra trips ashore.
Pouch claimed that the "ship had its mysteries ­ including a psychiatric ward, a mortuary, and hydro-thermal baths for burn victims,
for instance." One room that had apparently not been opened in many years held the original stainless steel operating room equipment.
Another rarely visited area down by the forepeak held lockers containing a large collection of US Navy embroidered table linens, signal
flags, tools, and a 35-foot long `Homeward Bound' pennant.
Many alumni had the good fortune to do their freshman and junior cruises aboard the USS Comfort, aka TS State of Maine, and have
fond recollections of the 416­foot ship built in 1943 as a military hospital. Considered large for her time because she displaced 10,000
tons, she nonetheless survived several kamikaze attacks in the Pacific Theater of WW II. She was loaned by MARAD to MMA in 1953 and
returned to MARAD in 1962. In 1967, she was sold for scrap.
19 MARINER / FALL 2012

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