Three Destroyers Named for Civil War USS Marmora Sailors Awarded Medals of Honor

I have been writing a lot about the USS Marmora from the Civil War in my Running the Blockade Civil War Navy blog.  Also, I have been writing about three of its sailors awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for their action on land at the March 5, 1864, Battle of Yazoo City in Mississippi.

The three sailors names were  William J. Franks, Bartlett Laffey and James Stoddard.

It turns out that all three of them had World War II destroyers named after them.

USS Franks  (DD-554)

USS Laffey  (DD-459)  Sunk at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942

USS Laffey  (DD-724)

USS Stoddard   (DD-566)

I'll have to write about these ships.

You can read about the Civil War USS Marmora and what these three sailors did in my Running the Blockade Civil War Navy blog.

--GreGen

The Two USS Laffeys

From Wikipedia.

USS Laffey  (DD-459)  Named for Bartlett Laffey, a Civil War Naval Medal of Honor winner (see my Running he Blockade blog August 9, 2018, for more on him).

Commissioned 31 March 1942.  Sunk at the Battle of Guadalcanal 13 November 1942.  This was quite a remarkable ship.  Her final battle was something else.

USS Laffey  (DD-724)  Commissioned 8 February 1944  Decommissioned 30 June 1947.  Recommissioned 1951.  Decommissioned 1975.  Served in the Korean War.  Today is a museum ship at Patriots Point, Charleston, South Carolina.  This is "The Ship That Would Not Die" after receiving multiple strikes from kamikazes, the one they will star in a movie.

Another Remarkable Ship.  --GreGen

There Were Two Ships Named the USS Laffey

In the last post, I said that Mel Gibson would be directing the movie "Destroyer" about the the USS Laffey.  I have written about it before, and one man said he was on it when it sank, only there is now a USS Laffey at Patriot Point in Charleston, South Carolina.

How could it be there if is sank?  Unless, of course, they raised it.

Then, I found out that there were two destroyers named USS Laffey.

The first one was sunk and then a second destroyer received the name and the second one is the one the movie will be about.  My March 24, 2016, post was about the death of Bob Flaherty who was at Pearl Harbor during the attack and then on the first USS Laffey which was sunk.

Question Resolved.  --GreGen

Mel Gibson Asked to Direct Movie "Destroyer"

From the April 30, 2018, Variety"Mel Gibson asked to direct World War II drama 'Destroyer'" David McNary.

The movie will be based on the book "Hell From Heaven:  The Epic Story of the USS Laffey and World War II's Greatest Kamikaze Attack" by John Wukovits.

The Laffey was known as "The Ship That Wouldn't Die."

Mel Gibson directed the movie "Hackshaw Ridge" about the Battle of Okinawa.

--GreGen

Pearl Harbor Survivor Robert "Bob" Flaherty Dies

From the March 22, 2016, St. Joseph-Benton Harbor (Mich.) Herald Palladium "Pearl Harbor survivor, longtime mayor dies" by John Matuszak.

Robert "Bob" Flaherty, 96, one of Barrien County's last Pearl Harbor survivors died March 17, 2016.  He was mayor of Watervliet for 18 years.

He enlisted in the Navy in 1940 and shipped to Pearl Harbor in February 1941, serving on the USS New Orleans and escaped injury in the attack December 7, 1941..  In 1942, he was forward gunner on the destroyer USS Laffey off Guadalcanal when it was sunk with much loss.  Uninjured, he drifted in the ocean for five hours before being rescued.

At the end of the war he was stationed in Miami training to pilot landing for the planned assault on Japan.

--GreGen

WWII's "Ship That Wouldn't Die" Survives Again-- Part 2

The USS Laffey is also the only surviving World War II destroyer that served in the Atlantic and took part during D-Day. It was decommissioned in 1975 and brought to Patriot Point in 1981.

Lee Hunt, 89, said, "It's where I spent my youth. I grew up on that ship." He is a Plankholder, meaning that he was a member of the original crew. "I was on it when I was 17 and spent my 18th birthday killing people in Germany in the invasion of France and right on to Okinawa and the Philippines and what have you."

Hunt was not surprised on that March 1945 attack. "We knew we were going to get hit. Every destroyer out there on picket duty knew they were going to be attacked."

Renovation of the Laffey was paid by a state loan which the museum intends to pay back from operating expenses.

Next Time in Charleston, I Know Where I'm Headed. --GreGen

World War II's "Ship That Would Not Die" Survives Again-- Part 1

From the January 23, 2012, Washington Post "WWII destroyer USS Laffey returns to SC home after 29 million in repairs."

"The Ship That Would Not Die" returned Jan 25th to its berth at the Patriot Point Naval and Maritime Museum in Charleston (SC) Harbor. It was towed doen the Cooper River after two years in drydock.

A group of fifty, including more than a dozen former crew members watched from the deck of another World War II ship, the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga.

The USS Laffey was built at the Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine in 1943 and got its nickname in March of 1945 when it was attacked by at least 25 Japanese planes, hit by four bombs and five kamikazes and suffered 103 casualties, but did not sink.

Quite a Valiant Ship. --GreGen