Families of USS Arizona's Unknowns Press for Identification

From the November 2021 Military History magazine.

I knew about the USS Oklahoma's unknowns but had never thought about the unknowns of the USS Arizona.  Everyone knows of the ones entombed in the hull of that stricken ship, but what about those whose bodies were recovered, but were too messed up to identify?

The remains of 85 USS Arizona sailors are entombed at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (aka Punchbowl Cemetery) in Honolulu.  They are buried as "Unknowns."

The Defense POW/MIA  Accounting Agency (DPAA)  has announced plans to reinter ths group's remains on the wreck of the ship.  What galls the families of the 85 is that there are no plans to attempt to identify  them like was done with the Oklahoma unknowns.

--GreGen

Minelayer Was Converted Into a Brewery During WW II

From the May 5, 2023, The WarZone "This minelayer was converted into a floating brewery during World War II" by Oliver Parken.

In 19544, the British converted the HMS Menestheus into an amenities ship for Allied forces in the Pacific, complete with a brewery.

The Menestheus was originally a Blue Funnel Line shipping company vessel launched in 1929 by the same name.  The British Navy requisitioned it for use as an auxiliary minelayer early in the war.

As conflict in the European Theater waned and ended, the war in the Pacific was going strong and it was determined that some of the now unneeded minelayers could be altered into so-called amenities ships to help with Allied morale in the Pacific.  One of those amenities was to provide freshly brewed beer.

Before this, beer often spoiled that came from Britain or Australia.

At the behest of Winston Churchill himself, the Admiralty ordered the Menestheus and sister ship Agamemnon be converted for such duty in 1944.  Both ships sailed to Vancouver, British Columbia where their conversion began.

--GreGen

Newly Restored WW II Tower in Delaware

After 15 years and nearly $2 million in renovations and repairs a World War II-era  watch tower is now open to the public at the Delaware  Seashore State Park.

The newly rehabilitated tower, known as Tower  3, is  one of 15 fire control towers built as part of Fort Miles to defend Delaware Bay and River from German attack and ultimately Philadelphia.

There are elevenof these towers still standing.

Fort Miles had 16-inch naval guns, 12-inch and 8-inch guns as well.

These towers were expected to last just ten years.  Each tower took 8 days to complete.  They ranged in height from 40 to 90 feet.  They were built to keep watch on the ocean and direct gunfire in case of an attack (which never happened).

GreGen

USS Oklahoma Survivor George Coburn Dies at Age 103-- Part 2

George Coburn and those others that he escaped with were the luckyones of the battleship.  Because 429 of their shipmates remained trapped inside and died.

Coburn continued to serve in the Navy after that in many of the Pacific Campaigns  He was aboard the heavy cruiser USS Louisville afterwards and received a Purple Heart during a kamikaze attack on his ship during the Battle of Okinawa.

The Louisville was struck by two kamikazes on consecutive days.  The first one struck on 5 January 1945 and hit the No. 2 main battery (turret) of 8-inch guns, knocking it completely out of commission.  It killed one and injured/burned 17 others, including the ship's commander Captain Rex  LeGrande Hicks.

The second kamikaze hit the starboard side of the signal bridge 6 January 1945.  Rear Admiral Theodore E. Chandler, commander of Cruiser Divisin  4, was fatally injutred while helping the sailors to man fire hoses to put out the massive fires.  Forty-two were killed and 125 wounded.

George Coburn left the Navy in May 1946,  but then worked as a civilian with the Navy  doing contractor and electrician work.  He and his wife Jenny settled in San Diego.

--GreGen

USS Oklahoma Survivor George Coburn Dies at 103

From the April 29, 2023, Honolulu Star Advertiser "George Coburn, who served throughout  Pacific Campaign, dies at 103" by Kevin Knodell.

USS Oklahoma survivor, George Coburn died April 19 in Oceanside, California,  at age 103.

He was born in Mankato, Minnesota, on October 26, 1919, but his family moved to San Diego shortly after he was born and he grew up in Southern California.  Enlisting in the Navy in 1939, he was eventually assigned to the USS Oklahoma and was on board completing an inspection of the ship when the attack came

As he and his shipmates began climbing  to the ship's main deck, several torpedoes hot the ship.  The men became  trapped beneath a sealed hatch as the ship quickly listed  45 degrees to its port side.  The blast also ruptured onboard  oil tanks and they found themselves slipping in oil that had pooled on the floor.

The lights went out and Coburn could hear water pouring into the ship as sailors on the ladder tried frantically to open the hatch to the deck above.  They eventually got the hatch opened and he and the others managed to escape through a side porthole that by then was overhead.

--GreGen