USS West Virginia (SSBN-736): The Third USS West Virginia

USS WEST VIRGINIA (SSBN-736)

(1989 to Present)

The USS West Virginia nuclear submarine was commissioned in 1990 with a Blue Cews and a Gold Crew.  Although it has been most active in tests  and strategic deterrance patrols, the submarine made headlines in October 2022 when General  Michael "Eric" Kurilla, commander of  U.S. Central Command,  made a public visit to the ship while it was in the Arabian Sea.

The public visit was made after Russian President  Vladimir Putin threatened to use  nuclear weapons with his forces losing ground in the war with Ukraine, and the Navy Times called it "a rare  move that highlighted U.S. underseas nuclear capabilities during tense times with Iran and Russia."

The USS West Virginia (SSBN-736)  is still active in the U.S. Navy today.

--GreGen

The Second USS West Virginia (BB-48)-- Part 2: The One at Pearl Harbor

USS WEST VIRGINIA (BB-48)

(1923-1959)

It was launched in 1921 and commissioned in 1923 and was the last battleship to be launched before World War II.  It traveled the world and received six  of the "MeatBall," or battle Efficiency Pennants in the 1930s, an honor given to the battleship achieving the best score in gunnery, communications and engineering combined.

In 1940, it was sent to Pearl Harbor and during the attack, was hit by seven aircraft torpedoes and two bombs.  It sank, despite frantic attempts by the crew to prevent it.  Sixteen of the crew died.

However, the ship was raised in 1942 and after many repairs, was able to rejoin the fight in May 1943.  It was present during the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

On August 31, 1945, the USS West Virginia steamed into Tokyo Bay, Japan and two days later was anchored a few miles away from the USS Missouri.  Thus it became the only ship that was present at both Pearl Harbor and the official Japanese surrender.

The mast of the ship was later moved to West Virhinia University in Morgantown where it sits in Memorial Plaza.

--GreGen

Three U.S. Navy Ships Named USS West Virginia: The First (ARC-5)

From the January 27, 2023, 12 BOY (West Virginia) "From 1905 to now:  How the 3 Navy ships called 'West Virginia' served the US" by Sam Kirk.

The versions of the USS West Virginia served in both World War I and World War II and continues as a deterrent to Russian aggression in the Ukraine.

USS WEST VIRGINIA (ARC-5)  1903-1920

The first-ever USS West Virginia was an armored cruiser that was christened with a bottle of champagne and launched at Newport News, Virginia, on April 18, 1903.  It served  on fleets in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and was renamed the USS Huntington in 1916 to give the name West Virginia to a new battleship (the one at Pearl Harbor).

Under the name Huntington, the cruiser served in World War I.  After the war, it helped transport American soldiers home from Europe.  The ship served until1930 when it was stricken according to the London naval Treaty and sold.

The bell from the ship  is engraved "USS West Virginia 1905" and is in Memorial Plaza at West Virginia University.  The masthead from the USS West Virginia (BB-48) is also there.

--GreGen

Keith Tipsword Comes Home-- Part 3: The Ceremony

Tipsword's family lived in tiny Moccasin in Effingham County.  Their house was just a mile from the cemetery, but is long gone, with only a silo remaining.  The family still has a salt-and-pepper shaker that Tipsword made aboard his ship and brought home to his mother while visiting.

The Patriot Guard motorcycle group escorted Tipsword's casket from a military base in the East St. Louis to Effingham, with firetrucks on overpasses and bystanders saluting.  Many members of the local veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion and Disabled American Veterans attended.  

Sailors folded the American flag on the casket and presnted it to Tipsword's sister.

"It was pretty moving," said Sapp.

--GreGen

Keith Tipsword Comes Home-- Part 2: On the USS West Virginia

When Japan mounted the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, Tipsword's ship, the battleship USS West Virginia, was hit by torpedoes and bombs and sank.  The explosions rendered many of the victins impossible to identify.

They were buried in mass graves and labeled as "unknown" in a cemetery located in a volcano crater known as the Punchbowl in the island of Oahu.

In 2015, the federal government began matching the remains to DNA from family members of service members who were missing or killed in action but unidentified.  The program has identified hundreds of missing service members from around the world who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

--GreGen

Illinois Veterans' Remains Finally Come Home from Pearl Harbor-- Part 1: Keith Tipsword

From the December 7, 2022, Chicago Tribune by Robert McCoppin.

In a cemetery amidst the cornfields of downstate Illinois last month, a military honor guard fired shots in salute before the remains of World War II veteran Keith Tipsword were lowered into the ground.

Tipsword, a machinist's mate, was 22 when he died on the battleship USS West Virginia in the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.  In the wake of the attack, his body was never identified, and he was listed as m missing in action, until the Navy recently identified his remains through DNA.

His sister, who was 5 years old when he died, and is now 86, vaguely remembers a man in uniform who visited their home in tiny Moccasin, Illinois, her son Greg Sapp said.

"My mom said that her mother always had an expectation the door would open  and Keith would be there," Sapp said.  "She never thought he wouldn't come home. "  Well, he finally has."

With his burial in November, Tipsword is among dozens of Pearl Harbor veterans who have been identified and brought home to be reburied with loved ones.  Through new DNA techniques, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) has been able to sort through remains that were long considered to be unidentifiable.

--GreGen

Keith Tipsword's Death Notice

In the last post I wrote about his burial in Illinois after years of not being identified.  I am very thankful for the DPAA and all their efforts to identify American unknowns.

This death notice from 1942 accompanied the article from yesterday and had a picture of him.

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KILLED IN ACTION

Keith Warren, son of  Mr. and Mrs. Frank Tipsword of Effingham, has been killed in action, his parents were notified by the U.S. Navy department Tuesday.  He was a first-class machinist.

The date of his death and details were not given.    Keith, who was  27 last June, had been in the  navy since 1936.

He was born and reared in Effingham county.

Besides his parents, he leaves two brothers, Dean, in the army, and Hugh, in Idaho, and four sisters, Mrs. Gail  Stanford,   Mrs. Frances  Jean White, Betty Fay and  Dalyne Tipsford, all of  Effingham.

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--GreGen

Illinois Sailor Killed on USS West Virginia at Pearl Harbor Laid to Rest: Keith Tipsword

From the November 16, 2022, Stars & Stripes.

Beecher City, Illinois

An Illinois sailor who died in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor has been laid to rest in his home state more than eighty years after his death.

U.S. Navy Machinist's Mate 1st Class Keith Tipswood was buried Thursday alongside his parents and other relatives at Moccasin Cemetery near the rural  Central Illinois village of Beecher City.

Tipsword was 27 years old when he was killed aboard the battleship USS West Virginia.

His remains were buried as unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, but they were identified this year by the defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA)

Dalyne  Sapp of Effingham, the last of his siblings surviving attended Tuesday's  funeral sefrvice.  Sapp, 86,  said her brother is now buried near the family farm where he grew up  among the "hills and hollers" of Effingham County's Moccasin Township.

--GreGen

USS West Virginia Victim to be Buried in Effingham, Illinois, This Month: Keith Tipsworth

From the November 7, 2022, Effingham (Illinois) Radio "Former Navy machinist mate 1st class and Effingham County native Keith Tipsworth  returning home."

More than  eighty years after his death at Pearl Harbor, Effingham  native Keith Tipsworth is coming home.  He was a Navy Machinsit Mate 1st Class stationed on the battleship USS West Virginia that fateful day and one of 106 crewmen aboard the ship who were killed.

His remains will arrive at St. Louis Lambert Airport on Thursday, November 10 and will make their way to Effingham to Johnson Funeral Home.  Funeral services will  be held Tuesday, November 15 at the funeral home with visitation prior to the service from  10 to 11 am.

Burial will be at Moccasin  Cemetery in rural Beecher City, Illinois.

--GreGen

Sailor Killed at Pearl Harbor Coming Home to Mississippi: John Russell Melton

From July 3, 2022 Kicks 96 News.

In 1941, as the holidays approached, a Mississippi sailor from Liberty stationed at Pearl Harbor on the USS West Virginia wrote home to his family that he was looking forward to coming home for Christmas.  But Seaman First Class John Russell Melton never made it.

He was among those killed on the battleship USS West Virginia when it was hit by at least seven Japanese torpedoes and two armor-piercing  bombs on December 7, 1941.

His remains were never identified and were buried along with other unknowns in a grave in Hawaii.  But, they were disinterred in 2017 and sent to a lab for analysis -- and his family contacted for DNA samples which led to his identification.

And, he'll be coming home to Mississippi this Wednesday, July 6.  His remains will be sent to New Orleans and then a motorcade will head to his hometown where flags will be displayed and people will pay their respects.

Saturday there will be a funeral with full military honors.  The family intends to have him buried in a church cemetery along side his parents.

GreGen

New Exhibit at National World War II Museum on Pearl Harbor 80th Anniversary-- Part 2

The story about Elvis Presley and the USS Arizona Memorial is a relatively light-hearted story  in contrast to the rest of the new Pearl Harbor exhibit at the museum which is called "Infamy:  Pearl Harbor Remembered" which has its official opening on November 16 and will be on view until June 7 at the museum's Joe W. and Dorothy D. Brown Special Exhibit Gallery.

Visitors can see a 20-inch steel fragment from the USS Arizona, which shares a glass case with a chunk of wood from the USS Oklahoma.  In a frame on a nearby wall is the flag that was raised on the USS St. Louis when the Japanese raid began.

"Remember Pearl Harbor" became a rallying cry for the United States afterwards and there are several propaganda posters in the exhibit on this theme.

Also in the exhibit, there are thumbnail sketches of people involved in the attack in what President Roosevelt called "The Day of Infamy."

One was Doris "Dorie" Miller, a Navy  mess attendant aboard the battleship USS West Virginia.  Even though he had never had training, he took over one of those guns and shot down two Japanese plan.  A machine gun similar to the one he manned  is also on display.

For this action, Miller became the first black person to receive the Navy Cross, which is one step below the Medal of Honor.  Sadly, Doris was killed in November 1943 in the South Pacific when he was just 24.

--GreGen

USS West Virginia Unknown Identified and Buried May 31 in Kentucky: Wellborn Ashby

"Pearl Harbor  casualty arrives  in Kentucky 80 years later --  Honolulu, Hawaii"  June 4, 2021

Martha Christian once traveled to Pearl Harbor and dipped her feet in the water as she cried thinking about her long lost brother from that Day of Infamy.   His name was Wellborn Ashby.  His body was later recovered after the ship was raised, but was unidentifiable.

That is, until DNA and other testing became available.

All his family knew for sure was that some of the West Virginia's crew died instantly  and that as a Navy Firefighter he probably was involved in the effort to keep the ship from capsizing like the USS Oklahoma as it sank.

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From Honor States.com

Wellborn Lee Ashby

Born October 19, 1917  Died December 7, 1941

Fireman 3rd Class

Enlisted in US Navy September 24, 1940

Identified  20 November 2020.

--GreGen

Memorial Day Burial Planned for USS West Virginia Sailor Killed at Pearl Harbor

From May 7, 2021 14 NBC News by Jill Lyman.

Navy Fireman 3rd Class  Welborn Ashby of Centertown, Kentucky, was aboard the USS West Virginia when it was sunk at Pearl Harbor.  His remains were finally identified in November  2019.  He will finally come home to Centertown, Ky., for burial this Memorial Day.

Mr. Ashby was born in Centertown on October 19, 1917, and nicknamed "Tiddly" because of his fondness of play tiddlywinks.  He graduated from Centertown High School in 1936 and enlisted in the Navy in 1940.

He was the first World War II  casualty from Ohio County, Kentucky.

The Centertown American Legion and Route 96 through town are named for him.

Visitation and a service will be held at Bevil Brothers  Funeral Home in Beaver Dam on May 31 from 10 am to 2 pm.

Welcome Home "Tiddly."  --GreGen

USS West Virginia Pearl Harbor Victim Welborn Ashby Identified

From Jan. 24, 2021, Tennessee 10 News (Tennessee) "Kentucky WWII soldier who died at Pearl Harbor identified" by Conner Farrell.

According to a release from the  Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), the remains of Navy Fireman 3rd Class Welborn L. Ashby from Centertown, Kentucky, have been identified.  He was 24 when he died on the battleship USS West Virginia on December 7, 1941.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 106 crew members aboard the ship.  During salvage of the ship, the remains of at least 66 individuals were recovered.  Those who could not be identified, including Mr. Ashby, were interred as Unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl in Honolulu.

To identify Ashby, dental, anthropological analysis and DNA were used.

He will be buried May 31 in his hometown.

A Hero Comes Home.  --GreGen

Remains of USS West Virginia Sailor Identified: William L. Barnett

From the January 5, 2021, KMBC News, Fort Scott, Kansas  "Remains of Fort Scott, Kansas, sailor identified decades after Pearl Harbor attack."

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency reported Tuesday that the remains of  a sailor from Fort Scott, Kansas,  have been identified nearly 80 years after his death.

Navy Fireman 3rd Class William L. Barnett was 21 and assigned t the battleship USS West Virginia moored by Ford Island at Pearl Harbor when the attack came and William died.  The ship lost  106 crewmen, including him.  Sixty-six were unable to be identified.

By the time his remains were recovered, there was no way to determine who was who and he and the other 65 were buried in 35 caskets of West Virginia crewmen.  Those were exhumed a short time ago and DNA analysis used to identify them.

His remains were identified back on September 14 2020.

His remains will be transferred to Fort Scott and buried on May 29.

It Is So Wonderful That the Government Is Making This Effort to Identify These Men.  --GreGen

Bits of War, Nov. 2019; Two USS West Virginia Unknowns from Pearl Harbor Identified, 1st U.S. Flag on Normandy Beaches Shown

**  Navy Fireman 1st Class Bethel E, Walters, 25, was killed on board the USS West Virginia n December, 7, 1941.  His remains were recovered but couldn't be identified.  He was from Bellevue, Texas and his remains were identified with DNA.

**  Hadley Heavin's body was among those unknown from the USS West Virginia when it was attacked at Pearl Harbor.  No decision has been made as to where he will be buried, in Hawaii or back home at his family's cemetery in Baxter Springs, Kansas.

**  The first U.S. flag flown on the beaches on D-Day was displayed at the  Lodge Casino in Billings, Montana, on Saturday, Nov. 23.  Sgt. John Horvath flew it and then sent it home to  his wife in Ohio. This year, Navy veteran Steve Billey saw the flag was for sale and bought it for $162,500.  He also got Horvath's dog tags and Purple Heart.  The flag also has a bullet hole in it.

--GreGen

Remains of USS West Virginia Sailor Killed at Pearl Harbor Identified: Hadley Heavin

From the February 4 2020,Four States Home Page.com

The defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has identified the remains of two Kansas sailors killed at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

One was Rex Wise who I wrote about earlier.

The other was Navy Fireman 1st Class Hadley Heavin who was 23, one of 106 killed aboard the USS West Virginia that day. He was from Baxter Springs.  He will be buried May 23, 2020, in Baxter Springs, Kansas.

--GreGen

New Aircraft Carrier to be Named After Doris Miller

It was announced that a future Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier will be named after Pearl Harbor  hero Dorie Miller.  It is the first aircraft carrier ever to be named after a black sailor or an enlisted man because of heroic actions.

He was ship's cook on the USS West Virginia when the attack came and manned a .50 caliber Browning anti-aircraft gun until he ran out of ammunition and then helped other sailors.

Later,he died on the USS Liscome Bay when it was hit by a torpedo and sank in 1943.

This is the second Navy ship named for him.  The other one was the USS Doris Miller (FF-1091) which served 1973-1991).

A Well-Deserved Honor.  --GreGen

Death of Pearl Harbor Survivor Phillip G. Tveten, 99

From the April 16, 2020, Cavalier County (ND) Republican.

Died April 9, 2020, in his sleep.

Born October 28, 1920, on his family farm in Hatton, N.D..  Went to elementary school in a one-room schoolhouse and graduated from Hatton High School in 1938.  Enlisted in U.S. Navy  in December 1939 and went through training at Great Lakes Naval Training Station and was assigned the the battleship USS West Virginia.

He was on it during the December 7, 1941, attack which he survived and spent the rest of the war serving on destroyers in the Pacific.    He was on the USS Henley (DD-391) when it was sunk by a torpedo off the coast of New Guinea in October 1943 and spent six hours in the water before rescue.

The rest of the war he was on the USS Leutze (DD-481).  Aboard this ship, he survived a kamikaze hit that resulted in 38 casualties and put the ship out of commission for the remainder of the war.

Mr. Tvetin was discharged from the Navy in December 1945.

Quite a Naval Record.  --GreGen

Another WW II Veteran's Death: Olison Oliver Wheeler, USN

From the April 22, 2020, Thomasville (Ga.) Times-Enterprise.

Born December 21, 1924, in Alabama.  Volunteered for the Navy in August 1941 and was a gunner on the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown and fought in nine major actions during the Pacific War, including Coral Sea, Midway, Iwo Jima, Okinawa,  and Philippines.

During the Battle of Midway, considered the turning point of the war in the Pacific, he spent hours in shark-infested waters after the Yorktown was sunk.  Then. he was transferred to the battleship USS West Virginia and served on that vessel for the rest of the war.

He was present at Tokyo Bay when the Japanese surrendered, ending WW II.

After the war, he founded the Fabulous Flamingos, a popular North Florida dance band during the 1960s and 1970s.

Another of the Greatest Generation Gone But Not Forgotten.  --GreGen