"Beep Beep"

Charlotte Carroll of Longwood, Florida, has donated several items to the EG SMALL memorabilia collection. The articles belonged to her late husband, Charles Carroll, a former skipper of the SMALL. The gift included some photos and a walnut plaque and hand painted casting of the 'ROAD RUNNER'.

The cartoon character, a scraggly bird, and member of the cuckoo family, was created by the legendary animator, Chuck Jones. The ship's crew decided to use the bird as their logo, probably in an effort to replace the inaccurate, and irreverent, 'Dirty Ernie' nickname. Plaques and embroidered patches were purchased and made available to crewmembers.

Since the desert bird, as depicted by Jones was copyrighted, Captain Carroll had to solicit permission to reproduce the cartoon figure. The artist not only gave his authorization, he accepted an invitation to dine with captain and crew aboard ship.

As we all have fond recollections of 'Birdus Speedicus', we also cherish our memories of our time aboard the SMALL. I am sure that if 'Road Runner's' vocabulary (as provided by Mel Blanc) contained more than the familiar 'BEEP BEEP', the comical cuckoo would tell us how proud he was to be the mascot of the ERNEST G. SMALL DD/DDR-838.

Many thanks to Mrs. Carroll for her kindnesses, and for sharing her stories with me.