How Lieutenant Ford Saved His Ship

NY Times ^ | December 28, 2006 | ROBERT DRURY and TOM CLAVIN

[E. Pluribus Unum]

FOR Americans under a certain age, Gerald Ford is best remembered for his contribution to Bartlett’s — “Our long national nightmare is over”

Sounds suspiciously like "Mission accomplished" to me.

[thiscouldbemoreconfusing]

Great story and from the infamous nytimes. I can not help but wonder if all this great news coming out after Fords death from the leftist is not in hopes that the right will do the same for comrade james earl carter when he too faces his Maker.

[Young Werther]

and no ball bearings in sight!

He was part of the "Greatest Generation" which included the likes of Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable, Capatin Kangaroo, and Scotty from Star Trek!

One of the local talk show pundits who fashions himself a conservative says that the Ford defining handle is "Mediocre".

Doofus!

[seamusnh]

"Like his fellow World War II veterans, Mr. Ford returned home and resumed his life, rarely speaking publicly of his heroism."

John Forbes Kerry, take note of this

[ChiMark]

Now Mr. Ford is a hero? These stories seem suspicious in lieu
of the press coverage given Ford.

[RexBeach]

Quite right. The NYT hated Mr. Ford's guts. So did most of the press. Period.

But, as someone said earlier today, "Mr. Ford finally did something that the liberals liked. He died."

[KingArthur305]

God Bless Gerald Ford

[Little Ray]

... tore out the hull of the nearby Australian cruiser Canberra ...

Boy, Aussie cruisers named Canberra are unlucky - wasn't an HMAS Canberra sunk at Savo?

[Gator101]

Three destroyers were eventually capsized by Typhoon Cobra, a dozen more ships were seriously damaged, more than 150 planes were destroyed, and 793 men lost their lives. It was the Navy’s worst “defeat” of World War II.

Aside from Gerald Ford, that's an interesting sentence. The author calls this the Navy's "worst 'defeat'"? Uh, what about Pearl Harbor (over 2000 sailors and soldiers killed) or even the Battle of Savo Island in '42 (over 1000 allied sailors lost). This guy needs to do a little research before saying something like that.

[Gritty]

My father was on a destroyer that survived that typhoon and many years later he still shuddered when he told about the experience. It was one of his most fearsome experiences, and he had several others to choose from - and he wasn't fighting a fire, either.

Frankly, abandoning ship didn't seem like too good an option for the crew of the Monterey.

[Gator101]

Here is the view from a similar ship to USS Monteray (USS Independance) during the same storm:

[Gator101]

Oops. USS Monteray (USS Independance) should be: USS Monterey (USS Independence).

I have a bad habit of putting a's where "e's should be.

[hc87]

Agreed. Three destroyers ran out of fuel in that typhoon and sank with heavy loss of life, something like 360 of 450 men involved.

[quikdrw]

I agree. Abandoning ship in a storm would NOT be something that I would want to do. DC training is never a waste of time.

[hc87]

Boy, Aussie cruisers named Canberra are unlucky - wasn't an HMAS Canberra sunk at Savo?

Yes, the Australians, like us, adopted the practice of naming the new ships after ones lost earlier in the war.

[Gritty]

Yikes!

[hc87]

My mistake. The ship referred to in the article was USS Canberra (CA-70), not HMAS Canberra. USS Canberra was named for the Australian cruiser which went down at Savo Island.

[VaFederalist]

Don't think that was the same storm as, to the best of my knowledge, no WWII flattop had catapults.

[Ciexyz]

I feel seasick just looking at that ship being battered during the storm.