USS Jouett (DD-396)-- Part 1: Early Duty

The other ship that was with the USS Omaha when the German blockade runner SS Rio Grande was sunk was the destroyer YSS Jouett, named for Civil War naval officer James Jouett.

From Wikipedia

The USS Jouett was a Somers-class destroyer and was laid down  26 March 1936 by Bath Ironworks in Bath, Maine, and launched  24 September 1938, commissioned  at Boston, Massachusetts, on 25 January 1939, Commander  G.W. Clark in command.

She soon began work on the U.S. Neutrality Patrol along the U.S. east coast and the Gulf of Mexico.  She  stood out of Pensacola, Florida, on 15 February 1940 as one of the escorts of the USS Tucaloosa (CA-37) carrying President Roosevelt to Panama.

She then had duty at Pearl Harbor from 10 April 1940 until April 1941.  She then accompanied the carrier USS Yorktown through the Panama Canal.  She then joined a cruiser/destroyer fleet charged with protecting American shipping from German surface and submarine attacks.

On 7 December 1941, the Jouett was in Port of Spain, Trinidad, and immediately began offensive anti-submarine patrols between Brazil and Africa.

--GreGen

USS McCall (DD-400)-- Part 3: Operations in the Pacific and the Battle of the Philippine Sea

1942 and 1943

In February 1842, the McCall escorted the carriers Yorktown and Enterprise for attacks  on Japanese installations in the southern Marshall Islands and northern Gilbert Islands.  Next were surprise attacks on Wake and  Marcus Islands.

March and April, the ship spent patrolling the Hawaiian Islands and then to Fiji and Somoa islands.  On the summer she was involved in the Aleutians.

After an overhaul in Hawaii, she  joined the Battle of Guadalcanal and then was in the Solomon Islands for the next ten months.

1944

Starting early in 1944, the McCall screened carriers for various operations around the Pacific, being involved with seven operations.  In June, after a short repairs in Hawaii, she joined another Task Force headed for the Marianas Islands.  

On 18 June, word was received of a major Japanese fleet headed for them and on June 19, the Battle of the Philippine Sea began.  By the end of the two-day battle, the Japanese had lost three carriers an 72% of its float planes.  This was a disastrous loss for them.

--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

USS Fulton (AS-11)-- Part 2: Battle of Midway

I wrote about the five ships that have been in the U.S. Navy by this name, of course, after the inventor of the steamboat Clermont, earlier this month.  This ship participated in World War II and for many years afterwards.

From Wikipedia.

The USS Fulton  (AS-11) was the lead ship of her class of seven submarine tenders.   It was launched December 1940 at Mare Island Navy Yard in San Francisco and sponsored by Mrs. A.T. Sutcliffe, the great granddaughter of Robert Fulton.   Commissioned 12 September 1941.

529.6 feet long,  73.4 beam, 1303 crew and four 5-inch guns.

It was on its shakedown cruise out of San Diego when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.  She was ordered immediately to the Panama Canal, arriving December 9.   During the next month, the Fulton established several seaplane bases.

Then she tended submarines out of Pearl Harbor from March 1941 to July 1942, when she put out to sea during the Battle of Midway.  She transported many of the survivors of the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown back to Pearl Harbor, arriving  8 June.

--GreGen

The USS Yorktown a Shot in the Arm for a Newport News Shipyard-- Part 1

From the June 4, 2012, Newport News (Va.) Daily News by Michael Welles Shapiro.

The aircraft carrier USS Yorktown was sunk at the Battle of Midway on June 5, 1942.

However, it and its sister ship, the USS Enterprise, two ships being built because of the new naval warfare strategy based on the use of aircraft carriers and their squadrons of planes instead of battleships, were just what a struggling Newport News shipbuilding company needed.

The two Yorktown-class carriers were big for the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company which had been struggling before receiving the contracts because of the Great depression and the post World War I Naval limits on warships.

The company had resorted to building locomotives, rail cars and even traffic lights in the 1920s to stay afloat.

As war clouds in Europe approached, the U.S. government decided to help jump start the end of the Depression economy with war production.

--GreGen