RAdm. William A. Sullivan
This is condensed from a story written by Rear Admiral William A. Sullivan and appears in”The Pacific War Remembered” edited by John T. Mason Jr.
ship in Manila Harbor
When Captain B.S. Huie had arrived with his men, I put the gang to work on North Harbor. There turned out to be over 200 wrecks there. Huie cleaned this up and then work began on the Pasig River. For some weeks we had 40 to 60 wrecks cleaned up per week, this was around the end of May.
crossing the Pasig River
Our most important job in Manila was the opening of the main harbor entrance. The Japanese did a perfect job blocking it – far more efficient than any similar job the Germans had done in Europe. There were 5 ships sunk in a staggered line across the entrance. Four of them were old inter-island ships and one was the Luzon, flagship of the Yangtze patrol. I had the steering wheel of the Luzon taken off and sent to the naval Academy Museum.
USS Luzon
About this time, Doc Schlesinger advised me to get the men out of the tents they had been living in and put them in solid buildings before rainy season hit. Requisitions for lumber were ignored. The lumber was being unload by the SeaBees to build build a tremendous 7th Fleet Headquarters.
I watched them and every afternoon at 4:00 pm, they knocked off and went back to their billets. One night a lighter was not properly secured and drifted loose. I sent our boat over to it. Just what we needed! The next morning, the SeaBees returned and went to work as usual.
I turned it all over to our firefighters and the houses got built by mostly Filipino carpenters and guerrillas. No one in the Navy asked where I got the lumber. The only who asked was General Casey, MacArthur’s chief engineer. I told him I stole it from the Navy as the Army was short, so I couldn’t have stolen any from them.
We had a job which received much publicity, the recovery of silver pesos from the waters around Corregidor. I asked MacArthur about using Army divers, but he didn’t want the job of Manila Bay neglected. A week or two later, he brought the subject up again. He said the money had been removed from Manila bank before the Japanese complete take-over. The money was dumped by barges, something like 13 million dollars worth. The United States had both a legal and moral obligation to recover it.
I made up a team of divers and gave the CO of the ARS his orders and he left with an Army finance officer and a MP. They found no silver. An Army Sgt., Bataan Death March survivor, recently released POW, who had worked on the barges, marked the chart with an X. He also said the Japanese had recovered some of the silver themselves.
Dive ship in Manila Harbor
Finally after many dives, the wooden boxes were located at 90 →130 feet down, deteriorated and broken apart. The divers had to sift the silt on their hands and knees. The recovery of the silver continued through my stay. When I left the Philippines (August 1945), I believe something like 7 million dollars in pesos had been recovered.
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August Bill – Woodland, CA; US Navy, WWII, PTO, USS Vella Gulf
Patrick Churchill – Oxfordshire, ENG; Royal Marines, WWII, ETO
Joseph DioGuardi – Mount MOrris, NY; US Army, Korea, 11th Airborne Division
Gerald Giles – Lowell, MA; US Army, Cpl., medic
Drensel Haws – Emmett, ID; US Navy, WWII
Dick Marshall – Des Moines, IA; USMC, WWII, PTO
John Reith – LA & CA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, P-51 pilot
David South – Bozeman, MT; US Army, WWII, ETO, 85th Div., Silver Star, Bronze Star
Albert Trapanese – Bronx, NY; US Navy, WWII
Charles Wright – Millcreek, UT; USMC, WWII, PTO
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US Army 77th Division hears the news on Okinawa
Victory in Europe was welcome news to Allied troops in the Pacific and the China-Burma-India theaters of war. They greeted it with thanksgiving but there was little celebration. As a London Times special correspondent in Burma wrote, “The war is over. Let us get on with the war.” Now that Europe would no longer be receiving the bulk of troops and materiel, officers and enlisted personnel in the war against Japan hoped they would be given more men and equipment quickly, in order to end their war sooner.
Meanwhile, fighting continued in New Guinea, the Philippines, Okinawa, the CBI and elsewhere. Kamikazes still made suicide dives to sink Allied ships. The lights may have gone on over Europe and America, but a funeral pall still darkened the Pacific and Asia.
SMITTY _ New Guinea 10/24/44
Smitty, my father, when asked how he had felt, merely shrugged. “I was happy for my fellow soldiers over there, but we had work to do, so we didn’t think about it very long.”
From The May 7, 1945 Edition of Stars and Stripes
OKINAWA, May 6 (ANS)—The reported death of Adolf Hitler and the word of surrender of the German armies in Italy was good news to soldiers, sailors and marines here but there was no celebrating.Most of the fighting men figured it wouldn’t mean a thing to them “until we can see some help coming and see a chance of ending the war out here.”
They termed Hitler’s death “good riddance” and said it was a good thing he went that way because there probably would have been lots of bickering around if we had taken him alive.”
Gen. Daniel I. Sultan
Gen. Dan I. Sultan, commander of the India-Burma Theater, on V-E Day, paid tribute to the fighting men who won the European war in a short statement to the troops of the India-Burma Theater broadcast over the American Army radio stations in the Theater. The text of Gen. Sultan’s statement:
“Today in Europe, German military might has been broken. After almost six years, organized hostilities have ceased. The great work of reconstruction of the shattered continent can now begin.
“We recognize the tremendous achievements of the Allied Armies in Europe who won this victory, for we too have been fighting. We know the cost of driving back a tenacious enemy – we know the necessity for close co-operation of all branches of our forces, the close union with our allies in the common cause. We know the heartbreaking conditions of combat under adverse weather and over difficult terrain – the back-breaking work of construction and supply in support of combat operations. So, as fighting men, we pay tribute to the fighting men in Europe.
“Their victory is in part our victory. We have done with less man and supplies, so that they might have more. Their victory brings our victory nearer. The men who broke the German ground defenses in the west, who destroyed her essential industries from the air, can now turn their attention to the war with Japan. The industrial strength of the United States, until now producing for the war both in Europe and in Asia, can turn its full productive force to the Far East.
“This is the day of Germany’s defeat and Europe’s liberation, but we must not forget that there is still a tough battle to be fought before the Japs are licked. Every one of us knows his part in that fight; and if every one of us will do his part to the utmost, Japan’s defeat and the liberation of Asia will come surely and swiftly.”
The Pacific War
The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia greeted V-E Day with the question, “Since when has it been customary to celebrate victory halfway through a contest?” The war with Japan had been the great threat to Australia itself, and the country’s sons were still fighting and dying in that war. Accordingly, the mood was more somber than in Europe. On May 9, some 100,000 people attended a service at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne.
For the most part New Zealanders observed V-E Day on May 9, although there was some spontaneous dancing in the streets. Preparations had been underway for weeks, in part to keep celebrations from getting out of control. Events included speeches, thanksgiving services, and the singing of the national anthems of New Zealand, America and the Soviet Union. A People’s Victory March in Christchurch drew 25,000.
In the U.S., many communities attempted to subdue celebrations, wanting to give the occasion the solemnity they felt it deserved and reminding Americans that, as Truman said, “Our victory is only half over.” Across the country, however, joyous celebrations broke out. Thousands gathered in New York’s Times Square. New Orleans took on the appearance of Mardi Gras, with people dancing in the streets. Church bells rang out the glorious news in small towns and major cities.
In the Soviet Union, Stalin himself seemed less than enthusiastic. His deputy Nikita Khrushchev telephoned to congratulate the Soviet leader on his victory, and Stalin reportedly snapped at him, “Why are you bothering me? I am working.” The USSR’s official victory parade took place in a downpour over a month later, on June 24.
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‘Bring back rationing!’
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Harold Bishop – Sacramento, CA; US Navy, WWII, submarine service
Christopher A. Celiz – Summerville, SC; US Army, Afghanistan (7th deployment), Sgt. 1st Class, KIA
Dallas ‘Chris’ Christenson – Pensecola, FL, US Air Force, WWII, Korea & Vietnam, MSgt. (Ret.)
John Hart – Keesville, NY; US Army / US Navy
Melvin Hilscher – Kulm, ND; US Army, WWII
James McLean – AUS; RA Air Force # 428761, WWII, Flight Sgt., 83rd Squadron
George Meyer – Bristol, CT; US Navy, WWII, Medical Corps
Ruskin Reddoch – Troy, AL; USMC, WWII, 1st Lt., Silver Star, Purple Heart
Elliot Seidman – Delray Beach, FL; US Navy, WWII, PTO, radioman
Maria Swafford – Boydton, VA; Civilian, US Map Service, D.C., WWII
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Jul 14
This gallery contains 11 photos.
Originally posted on USS Hornet (CV-12)-A Father's Untold War Story:
John T. Ryan US Navy It is May 1945, the world is still at war and my father, Seaman First Class, John Thomas Ryan is still serving on the USS Hornet (CV-12). In my last posts, I began the Battle of Okinawa and…
Treasures from the USS Evans
The USS Evans and Hadley departed from the Hagushi anchorage at Yomitan, Okinawa on the afternoon of 10 May 1945, under orders of CTG 51.5, and arrived on Radar Picket Station #15 about 1500. Other ships in support on that station were LSM 193, LCS 82, LCS 83 and LCS 84. The latter four ships were disposed in a diamond formation 1000 yards on a side, their course reversed about every half hour by signal, speed maintained at 10 knots. Hadley and Evans were in column in that order, speed 15 knots, distance 1500 yards, circling the support formation at a distance of about one mile. Hadley was Fighter Director Ship and controlled a small Combat Air Patrol. Evans was Fire Support Ship. At 1934 hours that evening a Japanese “Kate” was shot down by this ship.
From 0151 until 0340, 11 May 1945, remained at General Quarters as there were enemy aircraft in immediate vicinity, probably on reconnaissance missions. Early in the morning of the 11th, a general warning was received from Commander Fifth Fleet to expect heavy air raids during the day.
Enemy aircraft were again in the area from 0640 to 0654, after which we were in the clear until commencement of the action which this report covers.
At 0835 with Evans closing Hadley from 3500 yards on his starboard quarter, Evans and Hadley both opened fire with 5″ on an enemy aircraft (type undetermined) closing on Hadley’s starboard beam. Hits were observed and the plane was splashed dead ahead of Evans.
At 0839 a “Zeke” approached from high on starboard quarter in steep dive, taken under fire by Evans’ 5″ battery at 7000 yards, by 40MM at 3500 yards, and shot down in flames at 2500 yards. At 0841 a “Zeke” approached from high on starboard quarter in steep suicide dive and was shot down by 40MM and 20MM fire, hitting the water 800 yards on starboard beam.
At 0845 a “Tony” approached on Evans port bow in a shallow dive at high speed and was taken under fire by main battery at 5000 yards. Hits were observed and plane splashed close aboard Hadley on her port quarter.
aircraft identifier
Less than two minutes later a “Tony” approached from high and deep on port quarter in a very steep dive, was taken under fire by 40MM and 20MM and set on fire. It dropped a bomb close aboard on starboard bow, and was shot down by 5″ battery at 1500 yards off the starboard bow going away. At 0849 an “Oscar” approached from port quarter in shallow dive at high speed. Taken under fire by 5″ battery at 6000 yards and 40MM battery at 4000 yards, it crashed in flames 1000 yards off port quarter of Evans. Less than a minute later, without ceasing fire, and with 5″ guns in automatic, the director was slowed forward from port quarter to port beam and approaching “Jill” was taken under fire at 10,000 yards. This “Jill” was shot down at 7,000 yards.
“Zeke”
At 0851 a “Kate” was observed closing Evans rapidly on a bearing of 330° relative, and taken under fire at 5000 yards by main battery. The enemy plane, although hit and burning severely, continued to close until at about 200 yards nearly broad on port bow it launched a torpedo. Hard left rudder was applied, with the ship making about 10 knots, and fortunately the torpedo crossed just ahead of bow less than 25 yards. The “Kate”, already on fire, was shot down going away 2000 yards off starboard bow by 5″ fire.
At 0854 a “Tony” approaching from Evans port bow was taken under fire by Hadley and Evans’ main batteries at 7000 yards, with hits observed from both ships. Plane was shot down an equal distance from Hadley and Evans at 3500 yards (an assist with Hadley).
0856 observed “Val” coming in from high and deep on port quarter. It was taken under fire by main battery at 6000 yards, by machine guns at 4000 yards. Numerous hits were scored and the enemy plane set on fire. Although he attempted to suicide, it appeared the plane was out of control as it crossed over ship and crashed in water 2000 yards off starboard bow.
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Henry Arnold – Huntsville, AL; US Navy, WWII, PTO, USS New Orleans / US Army, Lt.Col. (Ret.)
Robert ‘Don’ Bass – Tampa, FL; US Coast Guard, WWII, radioman 3rd Class
John DeLang Jr. – Boston, MA; US Army, WWII
Robert Foster – Denmark, NY; US Army, WWII, PTO
Leonard Gamble – Waikato, NZ; RNZCI # 652525, WWII
Wasil Glushko – Simpson, PA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, B-24 navigator
Frank Johnston – Lowell, MA; US Army Air Corps, 187th/11th Airborne Division
Stanley McChristian Sr. (100) – Miami, FL; US Army Air Corps, WWII, B-24 co-pilot, 454th/15th Air Force
Shirley Richardson – Moose Jaw, CAN; RC Air Force Women’s Corps, WWII
Glen Snoddy – Shelbyville, TN; US Army, WWII, (Fuzz Tone engineer)
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IJN Yamato
By early 1945, Japan’s strategic situation was grim. Japanese conquests in the Pacific had been steadily rolled back since the Allied landings on Guadalcanal in August 1942. The Philippines, Solomons, Gilberts and Carolines had all been lost and the enemy was now literally at the gates. Okinawa, the largest island in the Ryukyu island chain was the last bastion before the Home Islands itself. The island was just 160 miles from the mainland city of Kagoshima, coincidentally the birthplace of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
From: Kyle Mizokami
In early 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy made a difficult decision: it would sacrifice the largest, most powerful battleships ever built to protect Okinawa, the gateway to Japan’s Home Islands. The decision sealed the fate of the battleship Yamato and its crew, but ironically did nothing to actually protect the island from Allied invasion.
Yamato under construction
The battleship Yamato was among the largest and most powerful battleships of all time. Yamato has reached nearly mythical status, a perfect example of Japan’s fascination with doomed, futile heroics. Built in 1937 at the Kure Naval Arsenal near Hiroshima, it was constructed in secrecy to avoid alarming the United States. Japan had recently withdrawn from the Washington Naval Treaty, which limited battleship tonnages, and was free to build them as large as it wanted.
Unfortunately for Yamato and its crew, it was obsolete by the time it was launched in 1941. The ability of fast aircraft carriers to engage enemy ships at the range of their embarked dive and torpedo bombers meant a carrier could attack a battleship at ranges of two hundred miles or more, long before it entered the range of a battleship’s guns. Battleships were “out-sticked,” to use a modern term.
At 0800 hours on April 7, scout planes from Admiral Mitscher’s Fast Carrier Force, or Task Force 58, located IJN Yamato, still only halfway to Okinawa. Mitscher launched a massive strike force of 280 fighters, bombers and torpedo planes, and the fight was on.
IJN Yamato
For two hours, the Surface Special Attack Force was subjected to a merciless aerial bombardment. The air wings of 11 fleet carriers joined in the attack—so many planes were in the air above Yamato that the fear of midair collision was real. The naval aviators were in such a hurry to score the first hit on the allegedly unsinkable ship plans for a coordinated attack collapsed into a free-for-all. Yamato took two hits during this attack, two bombs and one torpedo, and air attacks claimed two escorting destroyers.
A second aerial armada consisting of one hundred aircraft pressed the attack. As the Yamato started to go down, U.S. naval aviators changed tactics. Noticing the ship was listing badly, one squadron changed its torpedo running depth from ten feet—where it would collide with the main armor belt—to twenty feet, where it would detonate against the exposed lower hull. Aboard Yamato, the listing eventually grew to more than twenty degrees, and the captain made the difficult decision to flood the starboard outer engine room, drowning three hundred men at their stations, in an attempt to trim out the ship.
Yamato in battle, artist unknown
Yamato had taken ten torpedoes and seven bomb hits, and was hurting badly. Despite counterflooding, the ship continued to list, and once it reached thirty five degrees the order was given to abandon ship. The captain and many of the bridge crew tied themselves to their stations and went down with their ship, while the rest attempted to escape.
At 14:23, it happened. Yamato’s forward internal magazines detonated in a spectacular fireball. It was like a tactical nuclear weapon going off. Later, a navigation officer on one of Japan’s surviving destroyers calculated that the “pillar of fire reached a height of 2,000 meters, that the mushroom-shaped cloud rose to a height of 6,000 meters.” The flash from the explosion that was Yamato’s death knell was seen as far away as Kagoshima on the Japanese mainland. The explosion also reportedly destroyed several American airplanes observing the sinking.
Yamato at the end, artist unknown
When it was all over, the Surface Special Attack Force had been almost completely destroyed. Yamato, the cruiser Yahagi and three destroyers were sunk. Several other escorts had been seriously damaged. Gone with the great battleship were 2,498 of its 2,700-person crew.
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Frank Beasley – Athens, OH; US Navy, corpsman
Ainslie Boyd – Marlborough, NZ; RNZ Navy # 7544, WWII & Vietnam, K Force
Francis Drake Jr. – Springfield, MA; USMC, WWII, PTO, KIA (Tarawa)
David Douglas Duncan (102) – Kansas City, MO; US Army, WWII, PTO, combat photographer / Civilian, Korea & Vietnam Wars, Life Mag. photographer
Donald Freeman – Mobile, AL; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 187th/11th Airborne Division
Howie Judd – Rensselaer, NY; CIA (Ret.)
Harvel Moore – Chatham, LA; USMC, WWII, PTO, KIA (Tarawa)
James Robinson – Leavenworth, KS; US Navy, WWII, PTO, USS Mustin
Dee (Berglin) Robinson – Fairmount, ND; VA hospital nurse, WWII
Robert Southall – Cleveland, OH; US Army, WWII
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Bill Kelly keeps a photograph in his room at the Claremont Center nursing home where he lives. The picture is of him in a football uniform on Thanksgiving Day, 1942 at Manasquan High School where he was an outstanding football. He says that the very day after the picture was taken, he went to New York and enlisted in the Navy at the age of 17.
A few years later, Kelly was photographed holding the tattered remnants of a flag. The flag is the US flag that flew over the USS Laffey during the Battle of Okinawa. It is tattered because of the damage received from the kamikaze attacks, some of the worst in history, that took place on April 16, 1945.
Kelly says that the Japanese “knocked the hell out of it,” but the ship stayed afloat.
Now 94-years-old, Kelly sits in a wheelchair, but his mind is still sharp. While some details of that fateful day have faded from his memory, his bravery has been chronicled by historians. Last month, he received a flag that had flown over the US Capitol from US Representative Chris Smith.
Kelly with Rep. Smith.
“Bill Kelly’s brave, selfless and outstanding service to this nation aboard the U.S.S. Laffey stands as a shining example of the best our country has to offer,” Smith stated
Kelly worked as a signalman, with expertise in Morse code, on the starboard side of the ship.
Ship historian Sonny Walker said that a Japanese plane flew into the mast and knocked down the American flag. Kelly went out and retrieved the flag from the main deck and headed back to the signal room with it.
On the way back, he found a sailor with his leg missing. It turned out to be Kelly’s good friend, Fred Burgess. He was leaning against a gun mount on his good leg with blood pouring out his missing leg. He cried for Kelly to help him, so Kelly and some other men rushed Burgess to the sick bay.
Once there, Burgess asked Kelly for the flag and Kelly gave it to him. He died, still clutching the flag, before a doctor had a chance to see him.
The Laffey was attacked by 22 Japanese planes that day. She was struck by six planes and four 400-pound bombs. Kelly narrowly missed being crushed by a falling 2-ton antenna. Another blast tossed him fifteen feet in the air.
A shipmate hung a new flag on the deck – “so the Japanese knew who they were fighting,” Kelly remembered, 32 men were killed on the Laffey that day and 71 were wounded. Kelly is amazed that anyone was able to walk away from that attack.
After the war, Kelly worked as a milkman and started a cleaning service while raising five children. He never spoke of the war. His daughter, Margie Moore, only learned of his bravery five or six years ago.
Today, there are just four surviving crewmen from the Laffey. The ship, known as “the ship that would not die,” is a floating museum off the coast of South Carolina.
Kelly was just 20 years old when the attack occurred but he remembers it like yesterday. His room holds mementos of that day: the tattered second flag raised by the shipmate, a photo of the Laffey badly damaged after the attack, his medals which include the Purple Heart.
Laffey after the attacks.
And now the folded congressional flag. When asked about what this flag meant to him, he was humble. “I take this for my shipmates, not me,” he said.
The USS Laffey was present at the D-Day invasions of Normandy where she fired on shore defense locations with her two five-inch gun turrets. She was then moved to the Pacific to help with the attacks on the Japanese where she provided support for the US troops in the Battle of Okinawa, which is when the kamikaze attacks took place.
Patriot’s Point, Laffey and Yorktown
After the war, the ship was repaired and went on to serve in the Korean War and the Cold War before being turned into a museum. It rests at Patriot’s Point, South Carolina next to the aircraft carrier Yorktown and the submarine Clamagore.
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“ALL RIGHT, SAILOR! LET’S GET THAT HAT SQUARED AWAY!!”
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Clifford Black Sr. – Commerce, GA; US Army, WWII, Korea, Bronze Star
Kern Lum Chew – Courtland, CA; US Army, WWII, PTO, Bronze Star, Purple Heart
William Donnellan – Massapequa, NY; US Army, WWII, PTO, Bronze Star
Tony Duva – Lake Worth, FL; US Army, WWII
William Harth Jr. – Columbia, SC; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, 2nd Lt., 329th Bomber Squadron/93rd Bombardment Group, KIA
Fred “Dipper 19” Kovaleski – NYC, NY; Cold War, CIA
Randall Mosher – Bolivar, MO; US Army, Vietnam
Jimmy Simoneaux – LA; US Navy, WWII, USS Spearfish & Snook
Ray Smith – RI; US Navy, WWII & Korea
Arthur Wells – Paw Paw, IL; US Army, Vietnam, Col. (Ret.), 1st Armored Div., 11th Airborne Div., 24th Div.,& 1st Div. District Adviser, West Point grad, Bronze Star, Purple Heart
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This story was contributed by fellow blogger, Mike Tuggle, in tribute to his father, who sailed his final voyage this past Saturday.
My account of the Invasion of Okinawa
By: Clayton C. Tuggle
I was one of the approximately twelve hundred men aboard the USS Birmingham CL-62. We set out for Okinawa in March, 1945.
Clayton Tuggle
Arriving in Okinawa, we were stationed about five miles from shore. We bombarded the island with 6-inch guns at night hitting several ammunition dumps and shore guns of several sizes. This went on until the invasion began on April 1, 1945. This battle was something entirely different from any the Navy had experienced. Torpedoes were exploding all around our ship, the skies were full of explosions from guns on both sides.
On the 5th of May, 1945, I was cleaning officers’ quarters when the captain [John Wilkes] came on the PA system. He said he’d just got word that 300 Kamikaze planes were headed for our fleet. He said, “The odds are against us but, men, for God’s sake, go down fighting.”
USS Birmingham
My battle station was fire control on the 40 mm guns. I received orders from the gunnery officer and relayed the message to the gun crews as per instructions to aim the guns at the oncoming planes. This was done by the radar system.
In my battle station I could see almost everything around our ship. Kamikaze planes were coming in from the port side, some would crash just before hitting our ship, some would be on fire and head for a ship of any size to hit. I saw one ship get hit by two planes at the same time. I saw several planes get shot out of the sky and crash into the sea. Some would fall near our ship.
Our Marines fired the 20 mm guns constantly as planes came as close as 50 ft from us. The sky was full of explosions. After the all-clear signal came, we headed toward the island for more bombardment. About a half-hour later everyone was back on regular duty.
USS Birmingham ripped apart by kamikaze plane, 1945
One Kamikaze having hidden in the clouds undetected by the radar came down. This tragedy killed forty-seven and wounded eighty-one on our ship. One sailor standing next to me was blown away. I never saw him again.
I was down below in officers’ quarters when the chaplain came to me and commanded me to take him topside. He was burned bad and suffering smoke inhalation. I was suffering from smoke inhalation, and something told me to get in the shower and turn it on for air. I stayed close to the shower for about a minute, then I was able to get the chaplain topside. He died three days later on a hospital ship.
I saw mangled bodies all over the deck, arms and legs were everywhere, bodies without limbs. I had known them personally. I walked by my living quarters and heard men screaming as the rescue squad was closing the hatch on them to keep the compartment from flooding. I then walked to the back of the ship and sat down for a while.
I was elected pall bearer as most of them were from my own division and I knew most of them. We were friends. They were all buried at sea.
Burial at sea.
We went back to normal duties. All my belongings had been destroyed, and I was assigned to another division temporarily and started out again as a sailor going about normal duty. We headed to Pearl Harbor for repairs. We were there for three months.
After repairs were finished we sailed to Tokyo Bay. We were preparing to attack, but the Enola Gay dropped some bombs and peace was declared.
Clayton Tuggle
3-14-1995
April 10, 1925 – May 12, 2018
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Jeremiah Adams – Oswego, IL; US Navy, USS Nimitz
Robert Buchert – Cincinnatti, OH; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 152nd AAA/11th Airborne Division
Bill Cooley – Seattle, WA; US Army, WWII, Lt.
Thomas Davis – Albuquerque, NM; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, Major, Silver Star
Thomas Eager – Lacona, NY; US Navy, WWII, USS Princeton
Felix Cruz-Gomez – Brandon, FL; US Army, WWII, KOrea, Vietnam, MSgt. (Ret.)
Ballard Marshall – Richmond, KY; US Army, Korea & Vietnam, Sgt.
Art Paul – Chicago, IL; US Army
Jhoon Rhee – Asan, So.KOR; civilian employee US Air Force, Korea War, interpreter
Emil Smith – Paeroa, NZ; RNZ Navy # 10828, WWII
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USS Montpelier
From “Pacific War Diary” by James J. Fahey of the USS Montpelier
Friday, March 16, 1945 – We left Subic Bay, traveled to Mindoro and anchored. We may be ordered to troops on the southeast side of Mindanao. We had plane recognition every day as usual. We have movies of our planes and the enemy’s so we can tell the difference. Tonight many B-24 bombers returned after a raid on China. One of the planes came in on 3 motors.
The Press News reported that the Japanese lost approximately 4000 airplanes in the Philippine campaign. British Lancaster bomber loads were increased to carry 11-ton bombs for the first time yesterday. They are capable of destroying 5 city blocks each, being the largest bombs in the world.
James J. Fahey
Tuesday, March 20, 1945 – B-29s dropped leaflets on Japan telling the inhabitants that the bombing would cease when they stopped fighting. They also warned people to stay away from military areas, Bomber from Iwo Jima will bomb Japan soon.
I left the ship today for recreation on the beach at Mindoro. We received a ride from an Army truck and went to the town about 10 miles away. HQ for the 5th Air Force was also accommodated on the island. I saw a couple of Red Cross girls there. Some of the men bought corn whiskey from the soldiers. They paid $17 for one pint. That must be some kind of record.
Sunday, March 25, 1945 – Today is palm Sunday, our third in the Pacific. The Australian cruiser Hobart was here, but left yesterday with the Phoenix and Boise. The Cleveland, Denver and Montpelier are the only cruisers here now. The men would like to join Bull Halsey’s Third Fleet, but they are only letting the newer ships go with the 3rd.
The other night we were ordered to battle stations. Around midnight, Jap bombers struck at Manila. They did not attack the ships in the bay.
USS Franklin, in the Task Force, 60 miles off the coast of Japan. This is what Seaman Fahey was missing. One Japanese “Betty” bomber dropped 2 bombs. All planes on deck were lost as were 832 crew members.
The Press News reported that 274 tons of bombs have been falling on Germany every hour for the past 3 weeks. This is more than England received during the entire war. The Japs lost 10,000 aircraft in the past 7 months.
Sunday, April 1, 1945 – A British task force is now operating with the American Fleet off Japan. Today at noon approximately 100 LCIs arrived. Some action must be in store.
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Ted Brewer – Omaha, NE; US Army Air Corps, WWII, Korea & Vietnam, CM Sgt. (Ret. 26 y.)
Willie Cardin – Hartford, CT; US Army, 11th & 82nd Airborne Divisions
Robert Gilmour – Manitoba, CAN; RC Navy, WWII
Wendell Hawley – Burlington, VT; US Army, WWII
Alan Konzelman – Patterson, NJ; US Navy, engineer, 6th Fleet
William Lynch – Washington DC; US Navy, WWII, Radioman 3rd Class
Mark Pitalo – Biloxi, MS; USMC, WWII & Korea
Harry Sergerdell – Broad Channel, NY; US Coast Guard, WWII
Thomas Turner – Gaffney, SC; US Navy, WWII, submarine service
Willis Williams – Memphis, TN; US Navy, WWII, Korea & Vietnam, Commander (Ret.)
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May, marked officially as Military Appreciation Month, is a special month for both those in and out of the military.
Not only do we pause on Memorial Day to remember the sacrifice and service of those who gave all, but the month also holds several other military anniversaries and events, including Military Spouse Appreciation Day and Armed Forces day.
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Walter Black – Marion, IN; US Army Air Corps, WWII, navigator
George Casseb – San Antonio, TX; US Army Air Corps, WWII, CBI / Korea, meteorologist, Captain
Charles Crittenden – Seattle, WA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, CBI
Francis Fleck – Louisville, KY; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 547th Fighter Squadron, Bronze Star
Richard Lowe – Northglenn, CO; US Army, WWII, CBI
Putnam McDowell – Pittsburgh, PA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, P-38 pilot, photo recon
Robert Mumford – York, PA; US Navy, WWII, PTO, PT 288, torpedoman
William Punnell – Flandreau, SD; US Navy, WWII, PTO, Lt., Hellcat pilot, USS Wasp, KIA (Palau)
Ora Sharninghouse – Findlay, OH; US Navy, WWII, Aviation Ordnance, Avenger pilot, USS Intrepid, KIA (Palau)
Robert Welch – Byron, MI; US Army Air Corps, 187th/11th Airborne Division
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Seaman Sal Murino
The pages, unearthed 70 years after their origin, are stark in simplicity and detail: One young man, one typewriter, together aboard the U.S.S. Doyen.
“Hello everyone!” reads a handwritten greeting on the top of page one, followed by a single-spaced report complete with wisecracks and World War II talk direct from young Sal Murino to his family.
The long, yellowing letter from the U.S. Navy man offers a first-person recitation of the fighting from Dec. 1944-March 1945 as the devastating war finally enters its final year..
page 1
page 2
“To hear one combat fatigue(d) Marine put it who was smoking an endless chain of cigarettes — said, ‘Those bastards had us surrounded and throwing everything at us.’ Incidentally, this Marine wanted to go back and fight as he did not want to leave his buddies.”
The letters were in the custody of Murino’s niece, Marie, who across the decades tended carefully to the pages that preserved an unseen slice of history. Marie’s husband Jim, a regular reader of the Daily News, convinced her to share the letter seven decades after it reached her Brooklyn mailbox.
The missive was mailed to the entire Italiano family, living on DeGraw St. in South Brooklyn. Marie’s mother had three sisters and four brothers — Sal, Johnny and Tony were all fighting overseas.
USS Doyen
Yet progress against the tenacious Japanese fighters was slow despite the firepower — and came at a price.
His description of the war’s cost: “The task of removing the wounded was another hard job … These same wounded men not so long ago came walking up the gangplank with their rifles and equipment and now, some were able to walk by themselves and the others had to be assisted not only minus their rifles and equipment but a few with (out) their arms and limbs.”
He laid out the scene on the island of Guam, another hub of intense fighting.
“During our invasion last June it was without a question of doubt a place of ‘agony and hell’ (a partial payback for the sneaky attack on Pearl Harbor),” the sailor writes. “We saw many caves in the mountains — some as large as the tunnel of love you would find at amusement places.”
But months later, the only signs of battle were “remnants of Jap tanks, large guns still remained alongside the beaches. The natives were happy to see the Americans return.
“The majority of them wore American clothes and girls were painted with lipstick,” he wrote. “Mingling with them was entirely out, due to the old baloney of ‘military secrets.’”
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Taylor Conrad – Baton Rouge, LA; USMC, LCpl., 465th Squadron/3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, KIA
Arnold Harrison – Detroit, MI; USMC, WWII, PTO, Pfc, Co. B/1/2/2nd
Marine Div., KIA (Betio)
Richard Holley – Dayton, OH; USMC, GSgt., 465th Squadron/3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, KIA
John Kiefer – Fairport, NY; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 11th Airborne Division
Charles Lazarus – WA; US Army, WWII, cryptographer
Zell Miller – Young Harris, GA; USMC, U.S. Senator & Governor
Samuel Phillips – Pinehurst, NC; USMC, 1st Lt., 465th Squadron/ 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, KIA
E.R. Reece – Klondike, OK; US Army, WWII & Korea, 24th Infantry Division
Samuel Schultz – Huntingdon Valley, PA; USMC, Captain, 465th Squadron/ 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, KIA
James Vincent – No. Sioux Falls, SD; US Army, WWII / Korea, Sgt.
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