Three months after her launching that brisk autumn day in Bath, Maine, the new Fletcher-class destroyer was commissioned in January 1943.* A month-long West Indies shakedown cruise followed, with a complement of 350 officers and enlisted men, most of whom had never before been to sea and were “green as grass.” It did not help that Spence got caught in a winter storm off the coast of the Carolinas; so many in the crew became seasick that it was difficult finding enough men to stand four-hour watch sections. In the opinion of 2nd Class Yeoman Alexander “Al” Bunin of Roselle Park, New Jersey, a veteran of three years’ sea duty when he became a Spence plank owner, “5 percent of us put that ship into commission.” Other than the chiefs and a handful of other senior personnel, the enlisted men with few exceptions were right out of recruit training depots, while most of the officers came from civilian colleges with only ninety days of training at a reserve officer midshipman school before being sent to the fleet (hence the origin of the wartime term “ninety-day wonders”).
