The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The USS Mount Hood (AE-11) - March 12th, 2004

see educational sources

[snippy_about_it]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


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USS Mount Hood (AE-11)


1944 -1944

USS Mount Hood, a 13910-ton ammunition ship, was built at Wilmington, North Carolina, and converted for Naval service at Norfolk, Virginia. Commissioned in July 1944, she transited the Panama Canal in August and was assigned to the South Pacific area to provide ammunition to the fighting forces. On the morning of 10 November 1944, while she was moored at the Manus Naval Base, Admiralty Islands, Mount Hood's cargo of explosives detonated in a massive blast. The ship was utterly destroyed by the accident, which killed all those on board her. Damage and casualties were also inflicted on ships anchored as far as 2000 yards away. Personnel casualties on Mount Hood and on other vessels totalled 45 known dead, 327 missing and 371 injured.


Off the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia, 16 July 1944. She is painted in camouflage Measure 32, Design 18F. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.


Underway in Hampton Roads, Virginia, 6 August 1944. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.




Explosion, 10 November 1944
Photographs of the actual explosion are presented in approximately the same order as taken.


The photograph was taken by a sailor from Spencer, West Virginia, who gave it to the donor. Donation of Admiral Felix B. Stump, 1963. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.


Photographed by a photographer of the 57th Construction Battalion, who had set up his camera to take pictures of the Battalion's camp.
Note smoke trails left by fragments ejected by the explosion, and splashes at their impact points.
Collection of Commander Lester B. Marx, Commanding Officer of the 57th C.B. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.


Note smoke trails left by fragments ejected by the explosion. Copied from the War Diary, Manus Naval Base, for November 1944. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.


USS Mount Hood (AE-11) Explosion as seen from the Naval Supply Depot on Manus. Copied from the War Diary, Naval Base, Manus, for November 1944. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.


Smoke cloud expanding, just after she exploded. Photographed by a photographer of the 57th Construction Battalion, who had set up his camera to take pictures of the Battalion's camp.
Collection of Commander Lester B. Marx. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.


Salvage and rescue work underway on USS Mindanao (ARG-3) shortly after Mount Hood blew up about 350 yards away. Note heavy damage to Mindanao's hull and superstructure, including large holes from fragment impacts. View looks forward from alongside her port quarter.

USS Mindanao had 180 crewmen killed and injured by this explosion. She was under repair until 21 December 1944.
Small craft alongside or nearby include (from left) YPB-6 (probable identification), two LCVPs and YPB-7.
Copied from the War Diary, Manus Naval Base, for November 1944. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.


Four motor minesweepers (YMS) alongside the starboard side of USS Mindanao (ARG-3) shortly after Mount Hood blew up about 350 yards away from Mindanao's port side. These wooden minesweepers were protected from most of the direct force of the blast by Mindanao's hull, but received some damage.

USS YMS-340 is second from the left. Note that her open bridge bulwarks have been blown down. Also note differing types of retracting accoustic "hammer box" mountings on the bows of these ships.

Copied from the War Diary, Manus Naval Base, for November 1944. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.


Damage to Quonset huts atop the barge YF-681 from concussion from the explosion that destroyed USS Mount Hood. The barge is alongside USS Argonne (AG-31), which was also damaged by the blast.
Copied from the War Diary, Manus Naval Base, for November 1944. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

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FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links

[Diva Betsy Ross]

Hi Sam.. It is better than my last name...My last name was so.. well,so 2000....This name suits me much better! Thanks for the welcome!

[SAMWolf]

Even as a mortarman, I learned to treat all the ammo with respect. Thank God my crew never had to handle a real hung round or misfire even though we trained constantly for it.

[SAMWolf]

The AE29 was the one I got to tour.

[SAMWolf]

I think you're the first person to ever say I had patience, most people call it pig-headedness or "damn stubborness"

[SAMWolf]

The Foxhole didi threads on the Port Chicago Disaster and the FORRESTAL Fire

The FReeper Foxhole Remembers the USS Forrestal Fire (7/29/1967) - Oct 14th, 2003

The FReeper Foxhole Remembers the Port Chicago Disaster (7/17/1944) - Aug. 17th, 2003

[Professional Engineer]

a FINE LOOKING SHIP SHE IS.

[SAMWolf]

I'm sorta stuck on my original name. Never find one I liked better.

[SAMWolf]

LOL! All I see is a red x. :-(

[Professional Engineer]

I checked the properties and viewed the picture that way.

[SAMWolf]

I have to do that sometimes too.

[snippy_about_it]

most people call it pig-headedness or "damn stubborness"

LOL. I'm nicer than "most".

[SAMWolf]

THE MT. HOOD TRAGEDY, an Eye-witness Accounting.

On the evening of November 9, 1944 a contingent of 30 recent Torpedoman graduates arrived at Manus Harbor, scheduled to be put ashore the following morning at the recieving station, and to be re-assigned later where needed. I was one of the 30, (later to be known for months as the "Dirty 30", another story unrelated to the Mt. Hood explosion.) Early the morning of the 10th., our sea bags were packed and we were ready for small craft transfer to shore.

What I describe next is my vivid personal recollection of that day, and, a number of days that followed.

I was coming up the ladder from below decks when a tremendous blast threw me against the bulkhead and partially down the ladder...my first thought was that we had been hit by a torpedo. Got topside in a matter of 2 or 3 seconds, just in time to see the initial smoke and flame of the Hood's explosion. I was mesmerized by what I saw next...the column of smoke rose straight up, and "mushroomed" at the top... a complete preview of how the A-bomb looked a year later. Within one or two minutes a terrific wave rocked the ship.

As I watched the mushroom cloud, I became instantly aware of large and small objects falling from the sky, landing in the water, some very close to us. I can not speak for the thoughts of the skipper of our ship, but suspect that he felt that the harbor was under attack, wanted to get the hell out of there, and wanted to dump us 30 Torpedo men ASAP...we were ferried to shore at once.

About the time we got to shore, the first small craft with casualties started to come in...do not recall if it was raining, but do recall that there was "red mud" everywhere. The utter chaos was a scene from hell.

Initially I thought that because the 30 of us were "ammo savvy", that was the reason we were immediately pressed into service...the reality was, that here were 30 strong backs that were badly needed. As the various types of small craft arrived at the beach for the next few hours, it was our job to carry the individual metal "litters" up from the beach, to a growing line of ambulances. Each litter held a body, or parts of a body...as we got near the first ambulance, a corpsman checked each litter, quickly determining the ones that held a "live" body...those were taken to the next waiting ambulance. The corpsman would say "he's dead, over there" or "in the ambulance". Those that were dead or contained only body parts, were laid out three abreast, and soon piles were made with three litters laid crosswise, and three high.

After a few hours in the tropic heat, someone initially decreed that a bulldozer should dig a deep and long trench for burial purposes, basically one big "mass grave", and the bull dozing began. It was at this point a Chaplain (I do not know his name or denomination) stepped in, and with God-given fury , he stopped the concept of a mass grave and demanded INDIVIDUAL graves for each and every body. He prevailed, and, there were a number of Japanese prisoners of war on the island who were forced to dig the individual graves. All I could think when I heard that, was "GREAT ! HOW APPROPRIATE !"

One of the speculations of what caused the explosion at that time, was that it had been "Washing Machine Charlie", a lone Japanese plane that had been making intermittent low flights over the island for some time and had been reported seen that day. I have absolutely no personal knowledge of exactly what caused the explosion, but have read several theories since and have no opinion on the matter.

What happened next, any man that has ever served on an AE will relate to. The "Dirty 30" remained on Manus for two weeks, before moving on to Guadacanal, MTB 9 on Stirling Island, New Georgia, Hollandia, and, finally to Guiuan, Samar. But before we left Manus, we were assigned to load another ammo ship...(it may have been an AE, I really don't recall; but...I only too well recall what happened next, right on the heels of the Hood tragedy.)

A couple miles up the coast on Manus, there was a very large ammo dump that had to be transported to the Phillipines. Enter the "ammo savvy(?) Dirty 30"; we were detailed to load that ship, working in three ten man crews around the clock, 8 hours on & 8 hours off. The 8 hours on were ALL work; the 8 hours off included transport time to & from the ammo ship, eating & sleeping. The main ammo that I recall was 5" shells, packed two to a wooden crate, each crate weighing about 108 pounds.

As we would board the ship, all matches, cigarette
lighters, metal belt buckles, and anything else metal was confiscated from us, and returned when we left ship. At night we worked in semi-darkness, and when the break came to eat four hours later, we were given sandwiches. The bread baked at Manus was loaded with weevils, which we could pick out during daylight hours...at night we were so damn tired and hungry that no one bothered to go to that trouble in the darkness. We would joke, "more meat in the sandwich"....

Personel on shore would load large numbers of these crates into a huge cargo net, the ship's boom would then swing the cargo net over the deck, gently lower it, we would open the net, and individually carry crate after crate into the holds. One week straight this went on. About the third or fourth night that my crew of 10 was unloading the net, one load swung high over the deck...and the rope to the cargo net broke. We all watched as those crates were falling to the steel deck of the ship, every man could only think Mt. Hood and say a silent goodbye. They crashed to the deck with a horrible sound.

But the only explosion was in a few skivvies. After that, the rest of the war went easy.

And one final personal "ammo" note. In late 1946 I was assigned to DE 219, the J.D. Blackwood; shortly thereafter our sister ship blew up at dock in New London. We were told to immediately deep six our ENTIRE ammo locker, as "old & rotten" ammo was the cause of the New London explosion. We sailed to blue water off Cape Hatteras, lined all the ladders with mattresses, formed a human chain, and every last item from the ammo hold went swimming...with no problem.

But, one crew member in that human chain was thinking of the Mt. Hood the entire time....

D.D. (Cap'n Dee) Haverley
Grantsburg, Wisconsin

[SAMWolf]

Dear Mr. Freeman

My dad was on the USS Mount Hood when it exploded (I was 3 years old at the time). My mom received the usual telegrams and form letters regarding what happened. Around March 1945 she received a letter from Lt. Lester Wallace who was the senior surviving officer from the Mount Hood. He and several others (including Archie Trader that is noted in your Web page articles) had gone ashore to take care of the ship's business when the explosion occurred. Lt. Wallace's letter meant so very much to my mom and later to me. It was a letter from a real person that had been there. Mom said many times over the years that she would so like to meet "that kind Lt. Wallace" that had written her about my dad.

I have searched for Lt. Wallace for many many years. Through your Web Page and the Mount Hood story, I found Archie Trader's name and tried to contact him last year (2000). He had died about 2 months earlier. I thought that would likely be the end of my search.

Early this year (2001) more Internet searches led me to the AE Sailor's Association where I found a Mount Hood entry with a service date of 1944 (there have been two USS Mount Hoods). It was Grover Clingman (one of the survivors) who, as it turns out, had been the mail clerk. The last letter we received from my dad was dated the day before the explosion so it is likely that his letter was in Clingman's mail bag that morning. I found Grover's phone number from the Internet and called and talked with him. It was a very special phone call for me! During that conversation, Grover (now 86 years old) asked why didn't I call Lester Wallace. I told him that I had been trying to find Lester Wallace for at least 45 years. He said that I should call him, he lives in Pensacola.

Well, I called Lt. Wallace ... what a thrill for me! We had a long and enjoyable conversation. My wife and I met Lester and his dear wife Mildred at their summer home in the North Carolina mountains on June 23, 2001. We plan to visit with them again in Pensacola this winter. He is 85 years old and doing very well. Sorry to say that my mom didn't live to meet that "kind Lt. Wallace". He is truly a kind person.

Thank you so very much for your information on the USS Mount Hood. The photos and photo links provided on your site are the first I knew that such photos existed. There was one photo of the explosion in a newspaper clipping that my mom had but has been lost along the way.
Thank you again. I would certainly be interested in any additional information that you might get in the future on the USS Mount Hood.

Best Regards,
Lucien (Luke) Talley

[SAMWolf]

Interesting short interview

This Sailor says a lone Jap plane dropped a bomb on the USS Mount Hood.

[Professional Engineer]

[SAMWolf]

LOL! I want to see the "Kerry Sucks" hat.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

Well yours is a good name.. a keeper. Mine was a bit dull, and had bad memories attached to it. It did reflect how I was feeling at the time I decided to sign up.

[SAMWolf]

I've known a few Freepers that changed screen names. I think I keep mine because it's easy to remember.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

Well it did feel strange to have a new name after freeping with the old one for three+ years. But now I am used to it. It took me a few days. The problem is- no one knows it is me until I tell them. Some even think I a am newbie.. Gasp.. the horror!

[SAMWolf]

I wouldn't want to go through the "newbie" thing again. Even though you'd have an "edge" because you already know the ropes. :-)