Took my Dad down to the USS Hornet for Memorial Day. He is 88 and don't know if he will be around for the next one since he wants me to check on funeral homes now. Anyway he was in starting from April 17, 1943 to March 1946 spanning New Guinea, the Leyte landing, the Battle of Manila and the Occupation of Yokohama. Left as a Sgt. in the Army Signal Corps.

Down there was Ed who was at Pearl Harbor aboard the USS San Francisco waiting to go into dry dock. The dry dock where the Pennsylvania was along with the destroyer Shaw. His ship was untouched until the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. The San Francisco was badly beaten up and her Admiral killed. When the ship reached Mare Island he was eventually detached to be one of the first new crew members of the new carrier USS Hornet.

The invocation was given by our Navy Chaplin, retired Commander Berger, 94 years old. A short educational speech was given by an author about the early China National Aviation Corporation. There was even one of their former pilots in attendance who is now 101 years old. He looked great! Unknown at the time he took off on his last refugee flight out of central China to India was a scruffy looking Army Major Jimmy Doolittle. Date June 4th, 1942.

 

My Grandfather fought in Europe in WWI. He got hit with mustard gas and had a respiratory problem the rest of his life. The only story he ever related to me was being on the ship crossing the Atlantic, and he hated the food. So, the only thing that he ate on the trip was Fig Newtons. He never ate another Fig Newton, for the rest of his life. My other Grandfather was in the Navy stationed in Florida during WWII getting troops ready to deploy. My Dad was in the Army during Korea. Those three men showed me what it means to be a man, father, and husband. I spent 6 years in the Air Force, during one of the most peaceful times in this nation from 1984-89. I get chills, and stand at attention, when the Star Spangled Banner is played. To all vets, my thanks and admiration.

Kurt

 

The dry dock was flooded during the initial phase of the attack, the Cassin and Downes were sunk, but were not striken. Some of their fittings were installed in two new DD's that retained their names.

The Pennsylvania was damaged, later repaired and lived to fight on thru WWII. The 4 OBB Pearl Harbor 'ghosts' got their revenge at the Battle of Surigao Strait.

The Pennsy was atomized during the first Bikini A-Bomb test.

The USS Shaw was in a separate drydock and a USN photographer captured one of the most remarkable pictures of WWII the moment the Shaw exploded, after being hit by a Japanese aerial bomb.

The bomb blew off everything forward of the stack, sinking both the Shaw and the drydock. In 1942, the Shaw was fitted with a temporary bow, then it sailed to Mare Island to be repaired.

During the night Battle of Guadalcanal, Admiral Callahan did not trust the new radar and so he ordered the searchlights turned on...which told the Japanese exactly where the San Francisco was.

 

Subscribing. I hope to be well enough tomorrow to tell about the movie
that was made from the log books of my dads sub. The USS Rock.
Just to tired tonight.

To All that served in any capacity. Thank you for your service and your life.

 

You know, of course that during WWII, the USN ran out of fish names for subs, so had to invent some!

 

Yer so right Bill. Both you and Pop said it was named after the Rock Fish.
We have talked of this before me thinks.

As Paul would say, tomorrow "The Rest Of The Story". Bill I hope you tune in in the morning and help me remember witch movie it was. Like "Run Silent Run Deep" maybe? brain is goon right now. Took 10 trys to post this.

Say good night Dick

Witch movie? See what i mean. Dont think it was a horror movie. May have seemed that way when they came back into Pearl and got shot at.

 

Run Silent, Run Deep, 1958 flick starring Clark Gable & Burt Lancaster.

I looked it up at IMDB.com, it was based on a novel written by Commander Edward L. Beach, that was published in 1955.

 

nice post. my uncle served in WWII and just passed away. they sent a full colonel as part of the honor guard. pretty special.

 

Okay I will try and post what I remember Pop saying the best I can remember.
They went into a Jap occupied harbor on a suicide mission to sink as much
shipping as they could. Was a small harbor and they sunk several. Than
had to back out back through the net and mine field with charges going off around them.
When they surface coming into Pearl they were shot at and forced to stop.
All were arrested and put in the brig after being striped necked. He said
it was several days before they sorted it out and was sure the crew wasn't Jap or had been somehow influenced by them.
Pop said he was scared more at Pearl than anytime in the Jap Harbor.

Ya all have seen the movie what was the name? Pop told us the story
only after we seen it on TV. During the movie he was dead quiet. And
snow white.

Although he did make a few comments about what was going to happen next. And this was the first time any of us had seen the movie.

 

I've seen dozens of WWII PTO flicks, cannot recall this one. A USN sub being shot at while entering PH doesn't make much sense, her crew being put in the brig makes no sense at all.

Being shot at in the (not Pearl) harbor, being stripped naked and put in a brig is something that the Sons of Dai Nippon did with POW's

The 1943 Cary Grant film Destination Tokyo has a similar story line, but the USN didn't shoot at it, the crew wasn't arrested when the sub reached PH