USS Fulton (AS-11)-- Part 3: A Busy Ship and At Operation Crossroads

The USS Fulton was at Midway until 17 October and Brisbane from  9 November.

  There she established a submarine base and rest camp, and in addition to refitting submarines between their war patrols, acted as a tender to other ships.

Milne Bay, New Guinea, was her station from 29 October 1943 to 17 March 1944 when she sailed for the U.S. West Coast for an overhaul.

Returning to Pearl Harbor 13 June 1944,  the Fulton took care of submarines for a month, then to Midway and later to Saipan.    Then to Guam where she fitted out submarines until the end of the war.

In Operation Crossroads, the testing of nuclear weapons at Bikini Atoll for the six submarines assigned to the project and also served as a repair ship to others involved in it.

Decommissioned in 1947.

--GreGen

Pearl Harbor Survivor's Children, Grandchildren Carry Out Final Request

From the June 28, 2016, DVIDS by Johans Chavarri.

William F. White, 87, joined the Navy in 1938 and served on the USS Beaver, Sperry, Bushnell, Submarine Base Midway Island and the USS Matthews.

He was at Hickam Air Force Base waiting for his Navy discharge on Dec. 7, 1941.  He had been sleeping with his weapon and gear getting ready to turn them in when he heard the distant explosions.

According to Jim Taylor, Pearl Harbor survivors' liason, "When he realized the loud noises were bombs exploding, he and another sailor dived beneath the same desk and they banged heads.  It was his only injury for the entire war."

Of course, his discharge was cancelled.

He asked to have his ashes scattered at the USS Utah Memorial in Pearl Harbor.

--GreGen