15 George Carlin Quotes-- Part 3: On Finding Happiness Through Possessions

9.  ON TEACHING YOUR CHILDREN:  "Don't just teach your children to read.  Teach them to question what they read.  Teach them to question everything."

10.   ON THE HOLLOWNESS OF MODERN LIFE:  "We have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values.  We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate to often.  We've learned how to make a living but not a life.  We've added years to life, not life to years."

11.  ON FINDING HAPPINESS THROUGH POSSESSIONS:  "Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body."

12.  ON THE AMERICAN DREAM:  "That's why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it."

--RoadPossession

15 George Carlin Quotes That Are as True Now as They Were Then-- Part 2: On Buying Bottled Water

Again, I accidentally entered these blogs onto this site and am too lazy to go back and retype them.

5.  ON ARGUING WITH IDIOTS:  "Never argue with an idiot.  They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience."

6.  ON BUYING BOTTLED WATER:  "Ever wonder about those people who spend $3 apiece on those little bottles of Evian water?  Try spelling Evian backwards."

7.  ON MOB RULE:  "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."

8.  ON THE AVERAGE PERSON'S INTELLIGENCE:  "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

A Real Funny Guy  --RoadIdiot

15 George Carlin Quotes That Are As True Now as They Were Then-- Part 1: 'On Consumerism'

Well, I did an oops on this blog entry and the next three.  They should have been in Cooter's History Thing.  But, I am not going to retype them so you'll see them here.  Should bring a chuckle or two.  You couldn't put one over on George.

1.  ON THE NATURE OF LIFE:  "Some people see things that are and ask, 'Why?'  Some people dream of things that never were and ask, 'Why not?'  Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that."

2.  ON STAYING AT YOUR JOB:  Most people work just hard enough not to get fires and get paid just enough money not to quit.

3.  ON CONSUMERISM:  "A house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff."

4.  ON CATERPILLARS AND BUTTERFLIES:  The caterpillar does all the work, but the butterfly gets the publicity."

Give Me My Stuff. Must Have My Stuff.  --RoadDog

Only Two USS Nevada Crew Members Remain-- Part7: 'Ciest la vie'

Pilots from spotter planes would fly inland, view German targets and radio in the coordinates from grids on maps to direct the ship's cannon fire and call in corrected coordinates when the shells missed the targets.

While the ships fired at and destroyed seawalls and other German targets, with a 51 percent accuracy rate-- including knocking out 90 German tanks overall-- "the USS Nevada was hit not at all" despite being a stationary target, according to Dick Ramsey.

The Nevada left Utah Beach and turned to firing upon Omaha Beach, where landing Allied troops "were getting slaughtered" by German machine gun fire.

After the Allied invasion on D-Day which led to Germany's fall, the Nevada shifter to the Pacific Theater and was at the bloody battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

"For 16 days we fired on Mount Suribachi (on Iwo Jima island), he said.

Ramsey served aboard the Nevada for 34 months during the war.

At the end of the war, Ramsey turned down an offer to re-enlist in the Navy, deciding to return to his old job at the Brooklyn Naval Yard, where he worked on the aircraft carrier USS Franklin and later became a lithographer for a newspaper.

"Why me?" he mused on his survival.  "Ah well, as they say in France, 'C'est la vie.' "

--GreGen

Only Two USS Nevada Crew Members Remain-- Part 6: 'It Looked ike a Giant Kaleidoscope'

"It looked like a giant kaleidoscope.  The sky was all lit up," Richard Ramsey said.  "There were many, many men shot down who never got out of their planes."

Aboard the Nevada, Ramesy was on the third-deck powder magazine, passing out rounds of ammunition requested for use in the ship's guns, including armor-piercing rounds to hit German tanks and "star shells" that exploded in the air to illuminate targets at night.

Ramsey was one of more than 2,000 sailors on his ship who would remain at their battle stations for 80 straight hours, while the Nevada's four gun turrets fired hundreds of salvos of 1,000-pound projectiles that could hit and destroy a German tank up to 17 miles away, he said.

Not only was it exhausting, but the air circulation into the ship also had to be shut off, by closing air ducts every hour as a precaution to "maintain watertight integrity" and prevent water from flowing inside, Ramsey said.

"It made it very hot," he said.

--GreGen

Only Two USS Nevada Crew Members Remain-- Part 5: Like Field Artillery

For D-Day, Admiral Morton Deyo chose the Nevada to serve as the "fighting battleship" where the officer would command Operation Neptune and also be directly involved by firing its guns at German shoreline defenses as Allied troops landed at Utah Beach.

During the shoreline battle, the Nevada's guns took out 71 German tanks with the help of inland spotter planes.

Dick Ramsey said that in the early morning of D-Day, airplanes from the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions of the U.S. Army Air Corps dropped paratroopers behind enemy lines on France's Normandy region with the Nevada training its naval guns towards German targets.

"We became field artillery for the 101st and 82nd," Ramsey said.  "We arrived at 1 a.m. in the morning.  We could see all the paratrooper planes coming and going."

--GreGen

Only Two USS Nevada Crew Members Remain-- Part 4: A State License Plate for the Battleship

In April of this year, the USS Nevada was honored with the debut of a commemorative Nevada state license plate called "The Battle Born State's Battleship," designed by Las Vegas resident John Galloway, who is the head of the USS Nevada Remembrance Project.

Galloway, asked about the importance of the license plate, cited what Sehe once said-- that visiting the State of Nevada was more important than Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and the D-Day landing in France.

"That (state) is where the soul of the ship is," says Galloway.  "That's where the heart is."

"It's a way to teach," he added.  "The fact that the ship and the state are intertwined, I can make a teaching moment for our brave ancestors."

Galloway also designed, and covered expenses for, a plaque honoring the USS Nevada at the state's memorial to the battleship in Carson City.  It was mounted there in 2016, the 100th anniversary of the ship's commissioning.  He also had another plaque prepared to celebrate the Nevada's service for the 100th anniversary of Pearl Harbor in 2041.

--GreGen

Only Two USS Nevada Crew Members Remain-- Part 3: 'The Honor of Firing the First Shot'

Dick Ramsey has received the French Foreign Legion of Honor and said he still has the letter sent by General Dwight D. Eisenhower telling the troops how significant the Allied landings were.

"Eisenhower had requested some battleships with big guns," said Ramsey.  

"So they sent them the three oldest battleships in the Navy-- the Arkansas, the Texas and the Nevada."

Outside Utah Beach, U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Morton Deyo ordered the Nevada to open fire.  "The Nevada had the honor of firing the first shot."  And doubly impactful in that the Nevada was the only one also at Pearl Harbor,

And, another honor for the USS Nevada in the next post.

--GreGen

Only Two USS Nevada Crew Members Remain-- Part 2: 'It Feels So Lonely'

"It feels lonely," said Dick Ramsey, who at age 100 is talkative and spry.  "We're down to two people.  We had many reunions."

On Wednesday, one day before the 80th anniversary, Ramsey arrived at Normandy-- his third trip there to commemorate D-Day-- for the first of two days of ceremonies.

He visited museums and the Pegasus Bridge.  "There are a lot of beautiful places here," said Ramsey.  "Even with all of the crowds, I was able to see people who I had met the previous year.  And I continue to meet lovely people.  The younger generation takes good care of us."

The Pegasus Bridge, a famous strategic crossing over the Caen Canal captured by British airborne troops, "paved the way for the Allied invasion of Europe" and "was the first engagement of D-Day, the turning point of World War II," wrote the late historian Stephen E. Ambrose in his 1988 book "Pegasus Bridge: June 6, 1944."

--GreGen

Only Two USS Nevada Crew Members Remain

From the June, 6, 2024, Las Vegas Review-Journal "It feels very lonely": 80 years after D-Day, only 2 USS Nevada crew members remain" by Jeff Burbank.

Dick Ramsey was on the USS Nevada off the coast of Normandy during the Allied invasion on D0Day on June 6, 1944, just two and a half years after his ship was nearly sunk at Pearl Harbor during that Day of Infamy.

The ship had undergone painstaking work after the attack to repair damage sustained from bombs and torpedoes and now, the ship was in payback mode using its ten 14-inch guns to pound German positions on Utah Beach as well as tanks and enemy artillery miles inland.

Built just before World War I, it was the only ship to be at both major points in the U.S. participation in WW II.  

Now, 80 years after D-Day, Ramsey, a former coxswain in the U.S. Navy is one of only two surviving crew members from the ship.

The other one, Charles Sehe, 101, is the only one to have been on the ship at both events.  He is in hospice care in Minnesota.

--GreGen

Death of 102-Year-Old Pearl Harbor Survivor Herb Elfring

From the June 8, 2024, Michigan Live "He served his country and community.  Jackson Pearl Harbor survivor dies at 102" by Chloe Miller.

Elfring was born in South Dakota in 1922, but the Dust Bowl forced his family to sell their farm and move to Montana in 1933.  He was one of nine siblings, and after graduating high school, he moved to San Diego to live with his brother and sister-in-law.

At 18 years old in 1940, Elfring joined the California National Guard while attending San Diego State University, "just to make an extra dollar," he said.

On September 16, 1940, he was sent to Hawaii, a little over a year before Pearl Harbor was attacked.

He was at Camp Malakole, about three miles from Pearl harbor on December 7, 1941.  Bullets barely missed him a couple times.

"I was reading the bulletin board at the barracks when the first plane shot down at us," Elfring remembered.

Afterwards, he was deployed to multiple other locations in the war before being officially discharged on November 18, 1945, as a captain.

--GreGen

WW II Vet Dies En Route to D-Day Commemoration-- Part 2:

Robert Persichitti served as a radioman second class on the USS Eldorado, responsible for communications during the operations at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.  he was on the deck of his ship on February 23, 1945, when he witnessed the famous raising of the U.S. flag by U.S. Marines on Mount Suribachi.

After the war, he taught carpentry in Rochester and frequently visited local schools to share his wartime experiences.

In 2019, at the age of 96, Persichitti returned to Mount Suribachi.  "When I got to the island, I just broke down."

Persichitti recalled seeing severe injuries suffered by Marines as they were brought on board his ship as well as numerous burials at sea.

--GreGen

WW II Vet, 102, Dies on Way to D-Day Event: Robert Persichitti

From the June 6, 2024, Newsweek by Jesus Mesa.

An American Navy veteran who was there when U.S. troops raised the flag on Iwo Jima in 1945 has died en route to France to make today's 80th anniversary of D-Day.

Robert "Al" Persichitti from Rochester, New York was 102 years old and passed away in a German hospital on May 31 after being airlifted from a ship sailing to Europe according to Honor Flight.

He was traveling with the National World War II Museum Group to participate.

Before he left, he said: "I was really excited to go to Normandy," despite having a history of heart problems.

--GreGen

80th Anniversary of D-Day-- Part 5: Bombing the Germans

"We did our job and we came home and that's it.  We never talked about it I think.  For 70 years I didn't talk about it," said Ralph Goldsticker, a U.S. Army Air Force captain who served in the 452nd Bomb Group.

Of the D-Day landings, he recalled seeing from his aircraft "a big chunk of the beach with thousands of vessels," and spoke of bombing raids against German strongholds and routes that German forces might otherwise have used to rush in reinforcements to push the invasion back into the sea.

"I dropped my first bomb at 06:58 a.m. n a heavy gun placement," he said.  "We went back home and landed at 9:30.  We reloaded."

--GreGen

80th Anniversary of D-Day-- Part 4: 'War Is Hell'

Dozens of World War II veterans are converging on France to revisit old memories, make new ones, and hammer home a message that survivors of D-Day and the ensuing Battle of Normandy, and of other World War II theaters, have repeated time and time again-- that war is hell.

"Seven thousand of my marine buddies were killed.  Twenty thousand shot up, wounded, put on ships, buried at sea," said Don Graves, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served on Iwo Jima.

The youngest veteran in the group is 96 and the most senior 107, according to their carrier from Dallas, American Airlines.

--GreGen

80th Anniversary of D-Day-- Part 3: Parachutists

Today is the 80th anniversary of D-Day.  I am writing about it in this blog and my Cooter's History Thing Blog.

Along with the men parachuting into German-occupied France early morning of June 6, 1944, were men making hair-raising descents in gliders.  (Now, I think that would be more scary than parachuting.)  The goal of both groups was to secure roads, bridges and other strategic points inland of the invasion beaches and destroy gun emplacements that raked the sands and ships with deadly fire.

The re-enactor parachutists took off Sunday from Duxford, England, for the 90-minute flight to Carentan.  This Normandy town was the heart of D-Day drop zones in 1944.

Sunday's jumpers were from an international civilian team of parachutists, many of them former soldiers.  The only woman, 61-year-old Dawna Bennett, felt history's force as she exited the plane.

"It's the same doorway and it's the same countryside from 80 years ago, and it's like, 'Oh my God, I'm so thankful I'm not doing this at midnight," she said.

--GreGen

80th Anniversary of D-Day Commences-- Part 2: Largest-Ever Air, Land and Sea Armada

Part of the reason for the fireworks shows, parachute jumps and solemn commemorations and ceremonies  that world leaders will attend this week is to pass the baton of remembrance to the current generations now seeing war in the Ukraine.

U.S. President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and British Royals are among the VIPs that France is expecting for D-Day events.

**************************

The Parachute Drop

Looping around each other, the C-47s dropped strings of jumpers, 70 in all, dressed in WW II-era uniforms.  A huge crowd, estimated in the thousands, whooped and hollered as the round chutes opened while listening to tunes from Glenn Miller and Edith Piaf.

Two of the planes, christened "That's All Brother" and "Placid Lassie"were D-Day veterans themselves.  They had been among the thousands of C-47s and other aircraft that on June 6, 1944,  formed what was the largest-ever sea air and land armada.

--GreGen

80th Anniversary of D-Day Commences

From June 2, 2024, PBS News Hour "Week of ceremonies for D-Day's 80th anniversary kicks off with parachute jump over Normandy" by John Leicaster, AP.

Carentan-Les-Marais, France.

Parachutists jumping from World War II-era planes hurled themselves Sunday into now peaceful Normandy skies where war once raged, heralding a week of ceremonies for the fast-disappearing generation of Allied troops who fought from D-Day beaches 80 years ago to Adolf Hitler's fall, helping free Europe from his tyranny.

Eighty years ago, young soldiers from the United States, Britain, Canada and other Allied nations waded ashore on five beaches on June 6, 1944.

The ever-dwindling number of veterans in their late nineties and older who are coming back to remember fallen friends and their  history-changing exploits are the last.

Of course, even before the troops came ashore on the beaches, Allied paratroopers were landing in occupied France.

--GreGen

The Wreck of the USS-Harder (SS-257)-- Part 2: Locating the Wreck

The submarines found targets.  In a battle with the Japanese escort ship CD-22 on the morning of August 24, 1944, the Harder fired three torpedoes at the ship.  All three missed.  Then the CD-22 started tracking the Harder and launched four depth charge attacks before sinking the Harder on the fifth try (according to Japanese records).

The location of the Harder's wreck was confirmed by the Lost 52 Project, an effort led by Tim Taylor, CEO of Tiburon Subsea, to find the 52 U.S. subs lost at sea in World War II.

The group had previously located at least six of those subs.

The U.S. Navy's History and Heritage Command (NHHC) reports:  "We are grateful that the Lost 52 has given us the opportunity to once again honor the crew of the 'Hit 'em Harder' submarine.  (That was the vessel's motto.)

The wreck is "the final resting place of Sailors that gave their life in the defense of the nation and should be respected by all parties as a war grave."

--GreGen

The Wreck of the USS Harder (SS-257)-- Part 1

From May 23, 2024 CNN "USS Harder: Wreck of famed US Navy World War II sub found off Philippines" by Brad Lendon.

The wreck of one of the most storied US Navy submarines has been found in the South China Sea eight decades after its last patrol according to the Navy's History and Heritage Command.

It lies under 3,000 feet of water off the northern Philippine island of Luzon, sitting upright and intact except for damage behind its conning tower from a Japanese depth charge.

The Harder was lost in battle August 24, 1944, along with its crew of 79 while on its sixth war patrol as the US sought to retake the Philippines.  The Harder had sunk two Japanese escort vessels off the Bataan Peninsula on August 22, 1944, and then headed north along the Luzon coast with two other submarines in search of more targets.

--GreGen

U-853-- Part 9: The Wreck

On 6 and 7 May 1945, Navy divers attempted to enter the wreck to recover the captain's safe and the papers within it, but failed.  Recreational divers first visited the site in 1953.  In 1960, a recreational diver brought up a body from the wreck.  This provoked admirals and clergy to petition the U.S. government for petitions on disturbing the dead.

The German crewman was buried with full military honors in Newport, Rhode Island.

As of 1998, two recreational divers had died from exploring the wreckage.  Stephen Hardick died in 2005 while filming the submarine.  He surfaces unconscious and could not be revived.  He was 60 years old and died as a result of saltwater drowning associated with poor according to the Rhode Island  Medical Examiner's office.

On October 26, 2022, a live depth charge was found near the wreckage by fishermen based out of Rhode Island.  It contained 267 pounds of TNT.

--GreGen

U-853-- Part 8: The Wreck

The ship lies 7 nautical miles east of Block Island in 130 feet of water.  Most of the 55 crew member bodies are still inside the hull which is classified as a war grave.  It is one of the most popular dive sites in southern New England.

The hull has depth charge blast holes:  one forward of the conning tower at the radio room and another in the starboard side of the engine room.

Entering the wreck is dangerous due to debris, sharp metal edges and confined spaces.

On May 6 and 7 May 1945, Navy divers attempted to enter the wreck to recover the captain's safe and papers, but failed.

--GreGen

U-853-- Part 7: Legacy: Propellers

LEGACY

The submarine's two propellers were on display for many years at the Inn at Castle Hill in Newport and are now in custody of the U.S. Naval War College Museum at Newport Naval Station.

The USS Atherton was transferred to Japan and served as part of the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force until 1975 when she was returned to the United States.  She was then given to the Philippines in 1978 and served as the BRP Rajah Humabon (PS-11) with the Philippine Navy until 2018.

Interest has been expressed in returning the Atherton to the United States so she can be restored to her World War II appearance to be opened to the public. The Rajah Humabon was decommissioned on 15 March 2018 and is planned to be part of the Philippine Navy museum in Sangley Point.

--GreGen

U-853-- Part 6: Battle of Point Judith

The Black Point was the last U.S.-flagged merchant ship lost in World War II.  One of the ships rescuing the survivors, the Yugoslav freighter Kamen sent a report of the torpedoing to authorities.

The U.S. Navy organized a "hunter-killer" group that included four American warships:  USS Ericsson, USS Amick, USS Atherton and USS Moberly.

They discovered the U-853 on the bottom in 108 feet of water and dropped depth charges and hedgehogs during a 16-hour attack.  At first, the U-boat attempted to flee, then tried to hide by lying still.  Both times it was found by sonar.

On the morning of 6 May 1945, two K-Class blimps from Lakehurst, New Jersey, K-16 and K-58, joined the attack, locating oil slicks and marking suspected locations with smoke and dye markers.

K-16 also attacked with 7.2-inch rocket bombs.  Numerous depth charge and hedgehog attacks from the Atherton and Moberly resulted in planking, life rafts and an officer's cap floating to the surface.

The U-853 was one of the last U-boats sunk during WW II and the last to be sunk in U.S. waters.  (The U-881 was sunk on the same day in the North Atlantic.)

The Atherton and Moberly were given credit for the kill.

--GreGen

U-853-- Part 5: Sinking the USS Eagle 56 and Battle of Point Judith

Although several survivors of the Eagle claimed to have seen a submarine sail with yellow and red insignia, a Navy inquiry attributed the Eagle's sinking to a boiler explosion.  The Navy reversed its finding in 2001 to acknowledge that the sinking was due to hostile action and awarded Purple Hearts to the survivors and next-of-kin of the deceased.

BATTLE OF POINT JUDITH

On 5 May 1945, the new president of Germany, Karl Donitz ordered all U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases.

The U-853 was lying in wait off Point Judith, Rhode Island at the time.

Either the submarine didn't receive this order or ignored it.

Soon afterwards, a torpedo from her blew the stern off of the collier Black Point underway from New York to Boston.  Within 15 minutes the Black Point had sunk in 100 feet of water less than four nautical miles south of Point Judith. Twelve men died and 34 were rescued.

--GreGen

German Submarine U-853-- Part 4: Third and Final Patrol

SECOND PATROL

In seven weeks between 27 August and 14 October 1944, the U-853 was on it second patrol, but sank no ships.  The ship had been fitted out with a Schnorchel, a retractable air intake and exhaust that allowed it to remain submerged while running her diesel engines.  This reduced the need to spend dangerous periods on the surface charging batteries.

LAST PATROL

ON 23 February  1945, the U-853 was sent on her third war patrol to harass U.S. coastal shipping.  She did not sink any targets during the first weeks of patrol.  On 1 April she was ordered to the Gulf of Maine.

On 23 April, she fatally torpedoed the USS Eagle 56  near Portland, Maine.  The Eagle has been towing targets for the US Navy dive bomber training exercise 3 nautical miles off Cape Elizabeth when she exploded amidships and sank.  Only 13 of her 67 crew survived.

The same day, the USS Selfridge dropped nine depth charges on a suspected submarine.  The next day, the USS Muskegon made sonar contact and attacked the U-853, but failed to destroy her.

--GreGen

German Submarine U-853-- Part 3: First War Patrol, Weather-Watching and the Queen Mary

On her first war patrol from May to June 1944, the U-853 was assigned weather watching duty.  German intelligence believed weather would have a major impact on an expected Allied invasion of Europe.  On 25 May, she spotted the RMS Queen Mary, loaded with American troops and supplies.  (The Queen Mary most likely was carrying 15,000 soldiers at the time.)

The U-853 submerged to attack but was outrun by the much faster ship.  As she surfaced in the Queen Mary's wake, she was attacked by British aircraft from an oil tanker and a grain ship converted into Merchant Aircraft Carriers.

No major damage took place to the submarine, however.

Meanwhile, the escort carrier Croatan had been hunting weather boats for nearly a month and had already sunk  the U-488 and U-490.  German radio messages were intercepted from the submarine and the Croatan and six destroyers went looking for her.

The U-853 proved elusive, but on 17 June, a weather report from the U-853 was picked up just 30 nautical miles away.  Planes were scrambled and an attack made within minutes.  Strafing runs were made and two sailors were killed and 12 wounded.  The submarine crash dived to safety.

The U-853 returned to its base at Lorient in northwest France, ending the patrol.

--GreGen

German Submarine U-853-- Part 2: The 'Tightrope Walker'

The U-853 was built by DeSchiMAG AG Weser of Bremen, Germany.  Ordered on 5 June 1941, her keel was laid on 21 August 1942 and commissioned on 25 June 1943.

The Germans nicknamed the ship "der Seiltanzer" meaning "The Tightrope Walker" and her crew pained an emblem of a yellow shield with a red horse on the sail.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

LENGTH:  251 feet 10 inches

BEAM:  22.6 feet

SPEED:  18.3 knots surfaced, 7.3 knots submerged

TEST DEPTH:  750 feet

COMPLEMENT:   4 officers, 44 enlisted

ARMAMENT:

6 torpedo tubes (4 bow, 2 stern)

one 4.1-inch deck gun

one 31.5-inch AA gun

one twin 2 cm FlaK 30 AA guns

--GreGen

German Submarine U-853

From Wikipedia.

This was the German ship that is now given credit for sinking the USS Eagle 56.

Was a Type IXC/40 U-boat.  Her keel was laid down on 21 August 1942 and commissioned  on 25 June 1943.  She saw action in the Battle of the Atlantic, conducting three war patrols, sinking two Allied ships.

On her final patrol she had been sent to harass Allied ships along the United States coast.  She destroyed the USS Eagle 56 near Portland near Portland, Maine, and just days before the German surrender torpedoed and sank the collier Black Point during the Battle of Point Judith.

Then, the day before the surrender, American warships located the U-583 and sank her 7 nautical miles  east of Block Island, Rhode Island, resulting in in the loss of her whole crew of 48.

Today the wreck is a popular deep sea diving spot in 121 feet of water.

--GreGen

USS Eagle 56-- Part 6: General Characteristics

BUILDER:  Ford Motor Company

COMMISSIONED: 26 October 1919

LENGTH:  200 feet 9 inches

BEAM:  33 feet 1 inch

DRAFT:  8 feet 6 inches

SPEED:  18.32 knots

COMPLEMENT:   Officers: 5, Enlisted :56

ARMAMENT:

2 4" caliber guns

1 3" caliber gun

2 .50 BMG machine guns

--GreGen

USS Eagle 56-- Part 4: Afterwards

On 5 May 1945, the U-583 sank the collier Black Point off the coast of Cape Judit, Rhode Island, causing the loss of 12 lives.  During the ensuing Battle of Point Judith, the U-583 was chased and sunk by Navy and Coast Guard ships on 6 May.

Because the Allies had cracked Germany's codes, the U.S. intelligence knew in 1945 that U-boats had been sent across the North Atlantic to disrupt shipping in hopes of obtaining better surrender terms.  However, only general warnings rather than specific information about this plan were passed to commanders.

RECLASSIFICATION

In 2001, the Naval Historical Center reviewed the case and reclassified the sinking as a combat loss. In June 2001 Purple Heart medals were awarded to three survivors and the next of kin of those killed.

As of 2007, this is the only time that the U.S. Navy has overruled its own Court of Inquiry.

WRECK DISCOVERY

The ship's wreckage was located in June2018 and visited by a civilian dive team later that same month.  It lies 5 miles off the coast of Maine at a depth of 300 feet.  A video taken by the divers shows that the Eagle 56's boilers intact.  The ship's steel plating is starting to waste away, but the site has been designated a war grave and has all the protections associated with it.

GreGen

USS Eagle 56-- Part 3: The Sinking Was It a Boiler Explosion or U-Boat?

Next, the Eagle was assigned to Naval Air Station Brunswick from 28 June 1944.  

At noon 23 April 1945, the Eagle exploded amidship and broke into two pieces 3 miles off Cape Elizabeth, Maine.  The destroyer USS Selfridge was operating nearby and arrived 30 minutes after the explosion to rescue 13 survivors from the crew of 62.

The Selfridge obtained a sharp, well-defined sonar contact during the rescue and dropped nine Mark X Mod 2 depth charges without obvious result.  According to a classified U.S Navy report, the German submarine U-853 had been operating in the waters off Maine.

At a Naval Board of Inquiry in Portland the following week, five of the 13 survivors claimed to have seen a submarine. Several spotted a red and yellow emblem on the submarine's sail.  These insignia match the markings of the the U-853: a red horse on a yellow shield.  The Eagles boiler had been overhauled just two weeks before she sank and none of the other boilers on the Eagle boats had ever exploded.

Nevertheless, the official Navy inquiry concluded that Eagle 56 had suffered a boiler explosion.

--GreGen

USS Eagle 56-- Part 2

The Eagle 56 was patrolling off the Delaware Capes in January 1942 and remained at sea  almost constantly during the Second Happy Time of the Battle of the Atlantic, referring to German U-boats attacking Allied shipping along the east coast of the U.S.

When her depth charges were expended, a small ship from Cape May, New Jersey, would come out with a new supply.

The Eagle 56 rescued survivors of the Jacob Jones off Cape May in February 1942.  It was damaged by a collision with the submerged wreck of Gypsum Prince while rescuing survivors from a British freighter that had collided with the British tanker Voco on 4 March at the entrance to Delaware Bay.

It was repaired by using parts from another Eagle-class boat.

Next it was assigned to the Key West Sonar School in May 1942.

--GreGen

USS Eagle 56

From Wikipedia.

The USS Eagle 56 (PE-56) was a U.S. Navy World War I-era patrol boat that remained in service through World War II.  On 23 April 1945, while towing targets for U.S. Navy bomber exercises off the coast of Maine, it was sunk by German U-boat U-853.

Only 13 of the 62 crew survived

The loss was classified as a boiler explosion until 2001, when historical evidence convinced the Navy to reclassify the sinking as a combat loss due to enemy action.  The Eagle was the second to last Navy warship to be sunk by German during the war.

It was one of 60-Eagle Class patrol craft built by Henry Ford late in World War I as submarine chasers, none of which saw action.  Unpopular due to their poor sea handling, only eight remained in service by the time WW II began for the United States.

It was the second to last U.S. warship to be sunk by Germany during WW II.

--GreGen

Naval Ceremony for the USS Eagle-- Part 2

This was held this past Tuesday.

The sinking occurred during the waning days of World War II, with the Germans surrendering just two weeks later, on May 7, 1945.  Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945, ending the war.

*  The vessel was one of a class built by Henry Ford at the end of World War I.

**  The U-583 didn't survive the Eagle by long.  The submarine was discovered in 18 fathoms (108 feet) and depth charges and hedgehogs were dropped during a 16-hour attack.  At first, it tried to hide by lying still.  Both times it was found by sonar.

On the morning of 6 May 1945 two K-Class blimps from Lakehurst, New Jersey, the K-16 and K-58 joined the attack, locating oil slicks and marking suspected locations with smoke and dye markers.  The K-16 also attacked with 7.2-inch rocket bombs.

Numerous depth charge and hedgehog attacks from the USS Atheron and USS Moberly resulted in planking, life rafts, a chart tabletop, clothing and an officer's cap floating to the surface.

The U-853 was one of the last U-boats sunk during World War Ii and the last to be sunk in U.S. waters.

--GreGen

Naval Ceremony for USS Eagle This Tuesday

From the April 20, 2024, Portland (Maine) Press Herald "Navy vessel sunk off Maine coast during World War II to be remembered at ceremony" by Joel Lawlor.

The ceremony will be held at 11 am Tuesday, 79 years to the day since the USS Eagle 56 was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Cape Elizabeth.

The U.S. Navy will host a wreath-laying ceremony Tuesday, April23, to commemorate the sinking of the USS Eagle 56, a Navy patrol vessel that was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat in the waning days of the war with Germany.

It is believed that the German submarine U-853 sank the Eagle.

Forty-nine sailors died in the sinking off the coast of Cape Elizabeth (Maine) on April 23, 1945-- exactly 70 years ago Tuesday.  Just 13 were rescued.

The ceremony is set to begin at11 a.m. at Fort Williams Park, will be at the plaque memorializing the USS Eagle, which is located on the south side of the Portland Head Light driveway.

--GreGen

Search for Richard Bong's Plane-- Part 4: His Death

Richard Bong married Marge Battendahl in 1945 and was assigned duty as a test pilot in Burbank, California, after his three combat tours in the South Pacific.

He was killed on August 6, 1945, when the P-80 jet fighter he was testing crashed. That was the same day that the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

Vattendahl was 21 when he died and went on to become a model and magazine  publisher in Los Angeles.  She died in September 2003 in Superior.

The search for Bong's plane comes just weeks after a deep sea exploration team searching for the wreckage of Amelia Earhart's lost plane in the South Pacific said it captured sonar image that "appears to be Earhart's Lockheed 10-E Electra aircraft.

--GreGen

Search for Richard Bong's Plane-- Part 3

Richard Bong's Medal of Honor reads: "For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty in action in the Southwest Pacific area from October 10 to November 15, 1944.

"Though assigned to duty as gunnery instructor and neither required nor expected to perform combat duty, Major Bong voluntarily and at his own urgent request engaged in repeated combat missions, including unusually hazardous sorties over Balikpapan, Borneo, and the Leyte area of the Philippines.

"His aggressiveness and daring resulted in his shooting down enemy airplanes totaling eight during this period."

Bong also earned the Distinguished Service Cross, two Silver Stars, seven Distinguished Flying Crosses and 15 Air Medals.

--GreGen

Searching for Bong's Plane-- Part 2: A Good Chance the Wreckage Will Be Found

Another pilot, Thomas Malone, was flying the plane in March 1944 over what is now known as Papua New Guinea when engine failure sent it into a spin.  Malone bailed out before the plane crashed into the jungle.

Pacific Wrecks founder Justin Taylan will lead the search for the plane and plans to leave for Papua New Guinea in May.  He believes the search could take almost a month and cost $63,000 generated through generations.

Furthermore, he is confident that he will be successful since historical records provide an approximate location of the crash site.  But, he is not sure that there is enough left to positively identify the plane as the Marge.

Bong shot down more planes than any other American pilot, earning him celebrity status.  General Douglas MacArthur awarded him the Medal of Honor, the highest U.S. military decoration in 1944.

--GreGen

That Land and Those Waters Are Still Dangerous-- Part 2

Continued from April 13.

In the water surrounding the islands, hundreds of corroding shipwrecks from the war still contain trapped oil supplies that some describe as a ticking time bomb.  A major oil spill from one of these rusting wrecks could be a massive disaster.

Indeed, Savo Sound by Guadalcanal was renamed Iron Bottom Sound because of all of the ships sunk in it.

The Solomon Islanders believe those who fought the war on their land should be doing more to clean up the mess they left behind.

In the words of one local:  "When the war ended US, Japanese and allied forces went home in peace. We still do not have peace, until we are safe in the Solomon Islands."

--GreGen

Searching for Bong's Plane

From the March 26, 2024, CBS News "WW II ace pilot Richard Bong's plane crashed in 1944.  A team has launched a search for its wreckage in the South Pacific."

The Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center in Superior, Wisconsin, (far northern part of the state) and the nonprofit World War II historical group Pacific Wrecks announced a search for the plane's remains on Friday according to Minnesota Public Radio.  

Bong grew up in Poplar, Wisconsin and is credited with shooting down 40 Japanese aircraft during World War II-- the most ever, according to the Air Force.

He flew a Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter plane nicknamed "Marge" in honor of his girlfriend, Marjorie Vattendahl.  He plastered a blowup picture of her on the nose of his plane (known as nose art).  At the time, Bong said that Vattendahl "looks swell, and a hell of a lot better than these naked women painted on most airplanes."

Bong was not in the plane when it crashed.

--GreGen

That Land and Those Waters Are Still Pretty Dangerous

From the April 11, 2024, ABC News "Video: How World War II is still wreaking havoc in the Pacific" by Stephanie March.

More than eight decades ago in the 1940s, WW II rages across the Pacific as ferocious battles between the Allies and Japanese took place.

One of the most significant ones was at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands where the Japanese advance across the ocean was finally stopped and where 30,000 lives were lost.

Now, over eight decades later, the deadly legacy of the battle continues.

On land, the islands are littered with unexploded devices-- almost 50,000 have been discovered since 2011.

Accidental detonations of the bombs and other munitions have caused deaths and injuries and survivors are left to struggle for themselves with very little support.

--GreGen

Lou Conter, Last Surviving Crew Member of USS Arizona Dies at Age 102

From April 1, 2024, KRA 3 NBC, Sacramento, Ca., News.

Lou Conter, the last living surviving member on board the USS Arizona during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, has died.  He was 102.

He had been in hospice the last four weeks and was surrounded by family in Grass Valley, California.

To me it is another in the passing of the Greatest Generation.  Not too long ago, we lost the last surviving member of Doolittle's Raid.

I knew this was coming, but it sure doesn't make it any easier.

--GreGen

USS California Unknown David Walker Has Been Identified

From March 28, 2024, WVEC News "Over 80 years after he was killed in Pearl Harbor, a Portsmouth sailor will be laid to rest at Arlington" by Christopher Colette.

A Virginia sailor who died at Pearl Harbor aboard the USS California, has been identified and is returning home to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

The remains of 19-year-old Navy Mess Attendant 3rd Class David Walker were accounted for on November 27, 2023.

Walker was one of 103 crew members on the California who died that day.

He attended I.C. Norcom High School and whose family lived in Portsmouth, Virgina.

His body was recovered but no identification could be made at the time.  He was eventually buried as an unknown at the National memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

The burial will be at the cemetery on September 5, 2024.

--GreGen

Pearl Harbor Survivor Richard Higgins Dies at 102-- Part 2: There Are Now 22 (PHSA) Survivors of Pearl Harbor

Richard Higgins died March 21, 2024.

He was born on a farm near Magnum, Oklahoma, on July 24, 1921 and joined the Navy in 1939, retiring 20 years later.  He then became an aeronautics engineer for Northrup Grumman, and other defense contractors.  

He worked on the B-2 Stealth Bomber.

His wife, Winnie Ruth, died in 2004 after 60 years of marriage.  Shortly after checking into hospice care Thursday, he told his granddaughter, "I'm ready to go see Winnie Ruth."

There are now just 22 survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack according to Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors.  She said that other survivors may still be alive because not all joined the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association (PHSA) when it was formed in 1958.

About 87,000 military personnel were on Oahu on December 7.

--GreGen

100-Year-Old D-Day Veteran Getting Married Near Beaches of D-Day-- Part 3

Harold Terens later got dysentery which almost killed him.  He later had another close call when a British barkeeper refused to serve him past closing time despite his pleadings for just one more drink.  Moments after he was kicked out, a German rocket destroyed the pub.

Following the German surrender, Terens again helped transfer freed Allied prisoners back to England before he shipped back to the U.S. a month later.

He married his wife Thelma in 1948.  She died in 2018 after 70 years of marriage.  His bride-to-be, Jeanne Swerlin married at 21 and then had a second husband who died after 18 years and a long term boyfriend who died in 2019.

The couple and their families will travel to Paris in late May where Terens and a handful of Americans will be honored.  It will be his 4th D-Day commemoration.

So Happy for Them.  --GreGen

100-Year-Old D-Day Vet Getting Married-- Part 2: D-Day and a Secret Mission

It is so nice writing about this instead of the sad deaths of our Greatest Generation.

On D-Day, Harold Terens helped repair planes returning from France so they could rejoin the battle.  He said half his company's pilots died that day.  He went to France twelve days later and helped transfer captured Germans and newly released Allied POWs back to England.

To him, the Germans seemed happy that their war was over and they might survive it, but he was angered at how badly the Allied prisoners had been treated by the Germans.

Later he went on a secret mission.  His planes hopscotched North Africa and eventually ended up in Tehran where he survived a robbery which left him naked in the desert until he was found by an American military police patrol.

He later learned the reason for the secret mission and that was that American bombers would fly from Britain to attack Axis targets in Eastern Europe.  They wouldn't have enough fuel to return, but instead would fly to the Soviet Union.  Terens job in the USSR was to feed the crews of those planes and get them ready to fly back to Britain.

--GreGen

One of the Last Pearl Harbor Survivors, Richard Higgins Dies at 102-- Part 1

From March 21, 2024, CBS News.

Richard C. "Dick" Higgins, 102, died in Bend, Oregon, on Tuesday, March 19, of natural causes.

He was a radioman assigned to a patrol squadron of seaplanes based in Hawaii when the attack came.  Higgins recounted that day in an oral history taken in 2008.  He had been in his bunk in the screened in  lanai on the third floor of his barracks when the bombing began.

I jumped out of my bunk and I ran over to the edge of the lanai and just as I got there, a plane went right over the barracks.  He figured the plane was about 50 feet over and 100 feet above his barracks.  He then described "the big red meatballs" on the plane (which were the Japanese symbol).

"So, there was no doubt what was happening in my mind, because of the things that had been going on."

--GreGen

Sure Going to Miss That 'World War II' Magazine

I was really saddened this past week to find out several of my favorite magazines are no longer going to be published.  And one of the best of the lot was the "World War II" magazine.  I was even considering taking out a subscription to it.  Kind of glad I didn't now.

I got quite a bit of material for this blog from it.

Right now I am going through the April 2022 issue which has these articles:

* Mel Brooks Goes to War.

* A U.S. Sub Commander's Ultimate Sacrifice.

* How a British Intelligence Blunder Killed Dozens of Allied Agents in Holland.

Always interesting articles and little-known facts about the war.

Hope It Comes Back.  --GreGen

100-Year-Old D-Day Vet Getting Married Near the Beaches of D-Day-- Part 1

From the March 11, 2024, Fox News "D-Day veteran, 100, to be married at World War II liberation site in France"  AP.

Harold Terens, 100, will be marrying his fiancee in France near where he first stepped ashore in that country as a 20-year-old Army corporal in 1944, a few days after the initial landings.

He will be honored in France in June on the 80th anniversary of that country's liberation.  Then, he plans on marrying his spry 96-year-old girlfriend, Jeanne Swerlin, near those same beaches.  They were both married to others before and started dating each other in 2021.

During the war she was in high school and dated soldiers who gave her war souvenirs like dog tags, knives and even a gun, trying to impress her.

Terens enlisted in 1942 and shipped to Great Britain the following year as a member of a four-pilot P-47 Thunderbolt fighter squadron as their radio repairman.  He said that all four of the original pilots died during the war.

--GreGen

USS Oklahoma Unknown from Alabama Identified

From March 11, 2024, WAFF 48 (Alabama)  "Remains of WW II veteran from Rogersville identified."

Navy Seaman 2nd Class Cecil Thornton was accounted for in April 2019 but his family only received the news.  He was aboard the USS Oklahoma on the day of the attack which left 429 crewmen dead.  He was one of them.

He was from Rogersville, Alabama, and that is where he will be buried.

--GreGen

And Another USS Oklahoma Sailor to be Buried: Raymond Boynton

From March 7, 2024, Detroit Free Press  "Michigan native killed aboard USS Oklahoma to get military burial in Hawaii this month" by Jennifer Dixon.

Raymond Devere Boynton will be buried at the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii, on March 20.

He grew up in Grandville, near Grand Rapids and enlisted in the U.S. Navy in June 1940, shortly after his 18th birthday.  He was promoted from apprentice seaman to seaman second class in October 1940 and died just over a year later at the age of 19.

His last surviving relative, nephew Harry Zies of Springtown, Texas, says the burial would have given Raymond's sister a sense of closure as she always felt in the back of her mind that he was still alive.  However, that sister, Bette, Harry's mother, died in 2013.

So Glad the U.S. Is Doing This.  --GreGen

Another Identified USS Oklahoma Sailor to Be Buried: Charles E. Hudson

One of the more recent unidentified USS Oklahoma dead has been identified.  He is U.S. Navy Water Bidding 1st Class  Charles E,. Hudson who was 39 when he died.

He was originally from Stockton, California.

He will be buried at the National Memorial of the Pacific on Oahu, Hawaii, on September 10, 2021.

--GreGen

Wreckage of Marine Plane Found in South Pacific

From the March 2, 2024, New York Post  "Wreckage of WW II plane that vanished in South Pacific found after 80 years" by Angela Barbuti.

The wreckage of a Marine Douglas SBD Dauntless was found by Papua New Guinea locals in a jungle last month.  It went down January14, 1944, with pilot Lt. Billy Ray Ramsey and gunner Sgt. Charlie J. Sciara aboard.

The plane crashed into three pieces after having left Munda Airfield in New Georgia in the Solomon Islands to target Japanese shipping in the Rabaul Harbor as a part of a large number of planes.  The tail was shot off.

The bodies were not found and both were declared dead and MIA a year later.  Their remains have still not been found.  It is believed that Sciara survived the crash but died later in a Japanese prison camp.

--GreGen

Iowan to Receive Congressional Gold Medal Posthumously for Service in the 'Ghost Army'

From the February 28, 2024, Des Moines (Iowa) Register "This Iowan served in World War II's Ghost Army.  Years later, his service is being recognized" by Kyle Werner.

The sons of John T. Cantrell, of Des Moines, will receive a Gold Medal for him at a special service in Washington, D.C., at the Capitol on March 21.

Today, only seven members of he "Ghost Army" are still alive and all of them 100 years or older.

Information on this top secret group was classified for more that fifty years before finally being released1996.  Its 1,100 members will be receiving a Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest non-military medal.

This is coming about because of a lot of work by groups who thought they should receive the honor.

--GreGen

About Those SS Concentration Camp Guards

From the April 2022 World War II magazine "Stopped Dead on the Tracks"  mail.

Christopher Hoffmann of Colorado Springs, Co. wrote that his uncle was a member of the 41st Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron of the 11th Armored Division when they opened the gates and liberated the Mauthausen slave labor camp in western Austria they had no idea what they were walking into.

He remembered that during the cleanup of the corpses, as SS officer-turned-prisoner had refused to work, declaring to a British sergeant that officers could not be forced to work under the Geneva Conventions.  The sergeant pulled out his pistol and told him to shut up and get back to his job.

The SS office continued to refuse, at which point the sergeant shot him dead between the eyes  My wide-eyed uncle recalled that all SS members were highly motivated for the remainder of the day.

Work Will Liberate You.  --GreGen

WW II Sergeant Laid to Rest 80 Years After His Death: Harold Hammett

From Feb. 20,2024, WECT News (WDAM News Hattiesburg, Ms.) by Jay Harrison and Andrew McMunn.

Sergeant Harold Hammett, USMC, left Hattiesburg for San Francisco in 1940 and later enlisted in the Marine Corps.  Thousands like him were sent to fight in the South Pacific.  In 1943, as a member of the 2nd Marine Division, he landed on the Japanese-held island of Betio

The ensuing fight, called the Battle of Tarawa claimed thousands of lives, including that of Hammett who was just 24 years old at the time and was one of the first killed.  His family was notified a month later.

His remains were declared non-recoverable until they were found recently in  Hawaii's National Cemetery  of the Pacific, known as the "Punchbowl."

Using DNA, his family was found. This past week, he was reinterred at Roseland Park Cemetery in Hattiesburg.

I am so glad our government makes this identification effort.  --GreGen

USS Maryland

From the February 19, 2024, National Interest.

The USS Maryland was at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked and sustained damage, but not seriously.  It later played a significant role in the Pacific War.

The battleship featured eight 16-inch guns in four turrets and entered service in 1920.  As such, she was one of America's most modern battleships due to the Washington Naval Treaty's limitations on new battleships.

Post Pearl Harbor, the Maryland underwent a rapid refit to modernize for operations in the Pacific, including improved anti-aircraft capabilities and torpedo protection.

Throughout the war, she served primarily shore bombardment roles, terrifying defenders with her formidable firepower.  Despite taking a torpedo hit and suffering from kamikaze attacks, she continued to support U.S. advances, including the critical Battle of Leyte near the Philippines.

After the war, she was placed in reserve, and, despite her historical significance, efforts to preserve her as a museum ship were not pursued and she was scrapped.

--GreGen

What Did Our WW II Service Men Think?-- Part 3

**  "I'll fight of necessary to prevent racial equality.  I'll never salute a negro officer and I'll not take orders from from a negroe.  I'm sick of the army's method of treating these inferior swine as if they were human."

**  "Why do you induct us in the first place.  Even as a leopard cannot change its spots, neither can we curtail our homosexual inclinations....  I'll just try not to get caught."

**  "I have been in the jungles  26 months.  I was just wondering of they will take us back in the States before thus war is over.  This jungle life will wreck your nerves....  Of the people back home don't think the jungle is hell just let them come over and stay for a few years."

**  "Better food should be considered for men in combat.  Constant diets of Vienna sausage & spam tends to decrease morale, as well as ruin a man's stomach."

--GreGen

What Did Our WW II Service Men Think? --Part 2

Some of their comments:

**  You people can't care for us over here in the jungles ... you folks there at home have a good bed and plenty of chow.  We eat ours out of cans.  Powder eggs & milk.  Give us some of this King's stuff & let us enjoy our life.

**  The Army would be a better place to live in, and the morale higher, if the Officers and many non-coms would not think that they are so high and mighty.  Also that the privates are human.

--GreGen

What Did Our WW II Service Men Think?-- Part 1

From the April 2022 World War II magazine "Soldier Surveys Virginia Tech University has published the transcripts of 65,000 surveys made by American GIs for the U.S, War Department in the early days of the war.  Needless to say, they were anonymous and they didn't hold back with their thoughts.

Many times they were quite patriotic, but lamblasted everything from uninspired leadership to bad food.  Black soldiers complained about discrimination.  Whites often expressed a bitterly racist view as was common back then.

--GreGen

Marietta, Ga. Man Killed on USS Oklahoma to Be Buried at Arlington National Cemetery

From the February 2, 2023, Marietta (Ga) Daily Journal by Jake Busch.

John Donald, Shipfitter 3rd Class was serving on the USS Oklahoma when the attack came and was one of the 429 who died aboard the ship that day.

He was born in Ball Ground, Cherokee County on July 15, 1913, and grew up in Marietta and enlisted in the Navy in Nashville, Tennessee on July 6, 1940.  His duties aboard the battleship Oklahoma included metal work,  pipefitting and  repairing different parts of the ship.

He received three promotions.

His was one of the Oklahoma Unknowns.  After being buried in the Punch Bowl for many years, his body was disinterred and DNA testing done on his remains which resulted in his identification.

Burial will be this month at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Again, So Glad the U.S. Is Seeing to Identifying These Heroes.  --GreGen

New Fees at USS Arizona Memorial

From the March 29, 2023, Beat of Hawaii.

As of April 15, a new visitor fee will be implemented at Pearl Harbor to generate funds for the park's maintenance and provide further exhibits, new technology for visitors and security.

The fee for parking goes from free to $7 a day.  There willstill be no charge for admission and the Pearl Harbor National Memorial and USS Arizona Memorial program will remain free of charge.

To this day, the USS Arizona Memorail remains the number one in-demand destination for Hawaii tourists.

That Is Still Very, Very Reasonable.  --GreGen