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Posted on 07/21/2004 12:02:36 AM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans.
Where the Freeper Foxhole introduces a different veteran each Wednesday. The "ordinary" Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine who participated in the events in our Country's history. We hope to present events as seen through their eyes. To give you a glimpse into the life of those who sacrificed for all of us - Our Veterans.
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Alvin B Tidwell  USS Franklin Puts To Sea First Time February 21, 1944 The Franklin's story began on December 7, 1942, the first anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, when her keel was laid in a graving dock of the Newport News Shipbuilding Company, on Virginia's Atlantic Shore. The Franklin was the fifth ship of the Essex class to be constructed. After Pearl Harbor the American industrial complex had responded swiftly and decisively to Roosevelt's December 8th declaration that "No matter how long it may take us, America in its righteous might will overcome and win through to absolute victory." Before the end of the war America would construct 24 Essex class carriers. By February 21, the Franklin was ready to be thrust into the battles of the war that were pushing the Japanese back to their mainland, island by island and cave by cave. That day as the tugboats eased the immense carrier into Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay, her Captain, James Shoemaker, and her crew did not imagine that their beautiful lumbering giant of a ship would sail and fight through one hundred and two thousand combat miles, participating in five major pacific campaigns. Franklin's fighters, bombers and torpedo planes would down hundreds of the Japanese Empire's war planes and dozens of Japanese ships. But no one knew that morning the ultimate fate that lay ahead for the Franklin on March 19, 1945; the day on which the journey would end for 835 of her crew. The day which would be somberly commemorated each year by the men who pulled her from the precipice of destruction.  Franklin Under Attack From Her Own Rockets, Bombs, Ammunition and Aviation Fuel Burns Out Of Control On the morning of March 19, 1945, The Franklin, nicknamed by her crew as Big Ben, was 60 miles from the shores of Kyushu, Japan. Franklin was part of Task Force Fifty-Eight of the American Fifth Fleet. The task force covered a fifty square mile area of ocean. It was the greatest armada of ships the world had ever seen. Big Ben's new commanding officer was Captain Leslie E. Gehres. Her first Captain, James Shoemaker had turned over command on November 7, 1944. Gehres was a strict officer who had risen up through the ranks from an enlisted man. He was one of the pioneers of naval aviation, having flown from the first US aircraft carrier, the Langley. Joining Gehres on board the Franklin was Rear Admiral Ralph Davison; Franklin was the flagship of Task Group 58.2  This is a picture of the Franklin after being hit by two 450 lbs. bombs dropped by a D4Y "Judy" Yokosuka. Davison's flagship was a proven warrior. On March 18, 1945, Big Ben's planes once again roared down her teak wood flight deck into the skies of the Japanese home islands.Franklin had a new airgroup on board, air group five - the famed Black Sheep Squadron of Gregory "Pappy" Boyington. During the day the air group struck numerous strategic targets and downed eighteen enemy planes.  Ship's after 5"/38 twin gun mount burning, as her crew tried to control fires on 19 March 1945. The carrier had been hit by a Japanese air attack while operating off the coast of Japan. Photographed from USS Santa Fe (CL-60), which extinguished the fire in this gun mount by playing streams of water through the mount's open door. Later, the other 5"/38 twin gun mount and the 40mm quad machine gun mount (at right) also burned. Note ammunition loaded in the feed racks of the 40mm guns. The Japanese defenders reacted immediately, sending out scores of planes at the task group. Throughout the rest of the day and night Gehres sent men to their battle stations during numerous trumpetings of the general quarters alarms. Hot meals were not prepared during the state of heightened alert; cold sandwiches were passed out to the crew. Throughout the early morning hours of March 19, 1945, the alarms continued to sound. Gunner's mates helping the airgroup break out bombs and rockets on the hangar deck were constantly running back out to their gun posts at the sound of the alarm. The ship had been hit by a Japanese "Judy" divebomber, dropping two five-hundred pound bombs just aft of her island.  The Franklin, which was loaded with fully gassed and armed planes and hundreds of tons of explosives was herself a 30,000 ton floating bomb. After the initial blasts of the two bombs, the Franklin's open aviation lines ignited. The planes warming up on her flight deck turned into raging infernos; their bombs and rockets adding to the conflagration. 40,000 gallons of aviation fuel poured out of Franklin's hangar deck in a flaming niagra. Every last soul, except for two reported survivors, on the hangar deck was vaporized in the flash of an instant. Raymond Milner, Smith's best friend on the carrier, had passed into the pages of history along with several hundred other sailors.  The damage to the ship was incredible. Rockets soared across her bomb-riddled flight deck. Ready service magazines exploded. The 32 ton forward deck elevator lifted into the air and crashed back through to the hangar deck. The explosions literally lifted the carrier out of the sea and shook it from side to side. Men standing on the decks of the adjoining task force ships saw thick black smoke rising hundreds of feet in the air above the Franklin like the mushroom cloud of an atomic explosion. No one thought the Franklin would survive.  Afire and listing after she was hit by a Japanese air attack while operating off the coast of Japan, 19 March 1945. Photographed from USS Santa Fe (CL-60), which was alongside assisting with firefighting and rescue work. Big Ben's skipper reacted decisively. He swung the ship's wheel to starboard, permitting firefighters to work fore and aft. The Franklin, still pushing 24 knots was now headed on a direct course for Japan. Eventually, her boilers shut down. She began drifting toward the shores of Japan; she would come to within 50 miles from enemy shores; an easy target for the Japanese land based bombers. Rear Admiral Davison and his aide came up to the bridge and told Gehres that they would have to transfer the flag to a nearby destroyer. The Admiral's aide suggested to Gehres that he issue the order to abandon ship over the starboard bow. Gehres said years later, "That was none of his damn business. I had no intention of abandoning the ship."  In the wardroom, casualties are given emergency treatment Gehres kept in mind the lessons learned at the Battle of Midway. He remembered that when the U.S.S. Yorktown, CV 5, was sunk, our destroyers had delivered the final torpedoes that destroyed her. He had heard the rumor that men were trapped below decks on the Yorktown when she went down. He stated that he was not about to send hundreds of his own sailors to a similar fate. The Admiral and his aides left the Franklin. Captain Gehres set his mind to saving his ship and his crew.  After the Franklin was crippled, the USS Santa Fe assisted the Franklin by taking the wounded onto their ship. Meanwhile, another gallant officer on the Franklin, Lt. j.g. Donald A Gary, a 30 year navy veteran set out to find men trapped below. He donned an airbreather with a 60 minute oxygen supply and descended into the ship's smoke filled labyrinths. Gary negotiated his way through passageways filled with fallen shipmates until he came upon the mess hall filled with 300 men who were certain that death was imminent. He restored their hope, telling them that he knew a way they could all make it out alive. Gary led the men in small groups up to the flight deck past indescribable visages of death. He repeated this journey several times until all the men in the mess hall had been led to safety.  The burning Franklin with the Santa Fe alongside, transferring 833 nonessential crew members to safety aboard the cruiser while at the same time assisting in fire fighting. Above on the flight deck, the fires were still burning. The Catholic Chaplain, Joseph O'Callohan was administering last rites to the gravely wounded when he learned that a fire was threatening to blow up one of the ship's five inch gun mounts. The Chaplain assembled a work crew and jumped into the mount, throwing the ammunition overboard and saving the ship's island from certain destruction.  One of the few portside views of the Franklin, as seen from the USS Pittsburgh (CA-72), as the cruiser maneuvers to tow the carrier away from the Japanese mainland. For the meritorious actions, above and beyond the call of duty, in tyhe face of the enemy, and with no apparent regard for their own well-being, O'Callohan and Gary were both awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.  The fleet closed in around the Franklin; cruisers, destroyers and battlecruisers placed a tight screen around her. Captain Harold Fitz, of the USS Santa Fe, rammed his cruiser into the Franklin's starboard hull to take aboard the carrier's wounded and aid in fighting fires on the hangar and flight decks. Captain Gerhes called it the most daring piece of seamanship that he had ever seen. Countless numbers of men jumped from Big Ben to the cruiser.  When the Santa Fe sailed away from the Franklin, a Japanese dive bomber sliced through the taskgroup and headed right for the carrier. A 40 mm guncrew took the Judy under fire. The enemy pilot dropped his bomb 200 yard's from CV 13's starboard quarter. American pilots splashed the bomber a short distance away from the taskgroup.  Around 1:00 PM, one of the Franklin's anchors was cut from its chain so the chain could be attached to a tow line. A group of men pulled a 540 foot steel cable through the sea from the cruiser Pittsburgh. The carrier was in tow, moving at only three and one-half knots.  Funeral services for those who paid the ultimate price are attended by their shipmates Big Ben's engineers were determined to make the ship operational; she had lost all electrical power, and her four forward boilers were damaged beyond repair. Her electricians located an operating emergency diesel generator. They routed its power lines to the ship's main distribution board. Suddenly, light flooded some of Franklin's corridors, and ventilation fans started pulling out the smoke.  USS FRANKLIN approaches New York City, while en route to the New York Navy Yard for repairs, 26 April 1945. Note the extensive damage to her after flight deck, received when she was hit by a Japanese air attack off the coast of Japan on 19 March 1945. Photographed by Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey. The carrier's lack of boiler power caused by her damaged forward firerooms presented a more defiant problem. They could not be repaired at sea under the circumstances in which Franklin found herself. Big Ben's after boilers were operational, but at present were only supplying power to her after engines. The carrier moved at only 6 knots. The engineers decided to route steam pressure from the after boilers through auxiliary steam lines to her forward engines. It had never been tried before on an Essex class carrier. On March 20, before noon, the Franklin cast off its tow line and was moving away from Japan at 15 knots.  View on the flight deck, looking forward, while the carrier was in New York Harbor, circa 28 April 1945. She had just returned from the Pacific for repair of battle damage received off Japan on 19 March 1945. Note damage to her flight deck, large U.S. ensign flying from her island, and the Manhattan skyline in the background. One day after the Franklin was nearly destroyed , Captain Gerhes wrote on his bulletin board for the crew: "We are under our own power and will be making fifteen knots by noon." After the tow line was cast off, Big Ben headed toward Ulithi Atoll. She arrived at Ulithi on Sunday, March 25, 1945. Father O'Callohan led memorial services for the dead. Battle hardened sailors openly wept. Almost one-fourth of their shipmates were buried in the waters of the South Pacific. The following morning, Franklin headed for Pearl Harbor. Upon arriving at Pearl, it was determined that CV 13 would have to be repaired by the Brooklyn Navy Yard.  The USS Franklin's devastated flight deck is seen in this color photo, as she sails proudly under her own power to the Brooklyn Navy Yard in late April 1945. Two bombs that hit her on March 19, 1945 ignited fires that resulted in the most damage received by any Essex-class carrier in the war. Total casualties were 802 killed and 265 wounded. Franklin left Pearl on April 9th. Five days prior to reaching the Panama Canal, on April 12, the crew learned that the nation's President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, had passed away. The 704 men left aboard the Franklin mourned the only President they could remember. A man who was a living example of the indomitable American spirit which had saved Big Ben. The Franklin passed by the Statue of Liberty on April 30, 1945, all hands on deck, standing at salute. The 12,000 mile journey had ended for the most heavily damaged warship in the history of the US Navy ever to make it back to port under her own power. Over the next month awards for gallantry and valor were presented to Big Ben's crew. The Franklin's crew remains to this day the most decorated crew in the history of the United States Navy.  Church service on the ship's ruined hangar deck, taken upon her return to the U.S. from the Pacific for repair of battle damage received off Japan on 19 March 1945. Location is probably in, or near, New York Harbor, circa 28 April 1945. The Franklin was completely repaired over the next year. In April 1946, it was announced by the Navy that Franklin would be placed in mothballs. After her repairs, Franklin was in the best condition of any Essex class carrier in operation, according to Navy experts. Twenty years later, the Franklin was destroyed by cutter's torches; her steel was sold to the former enemy that tried to destroy her. In conclusion, I will add the words that were written 50 years ago in her crew book: I ONLY WISH MY DAD WAS HERE TO TELL THIS STORY, HE DIED 27 MAY 2001 MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND AND WAS BURIED WITH FULL HONORS ON THE ORGINAL MEMORIAL DAY. HE WAS A HERO IN THE TRUEST OF TERMS TO ME. MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PEACE IN THE ARMS OF OUR LORD.
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Subsequently promoted to the ranks of Lieutenant and Lieutenant Commander, Gary remained with Franklin until she was decommissioned in February 1947. He was then assigned to the Naval Disciplinary Barracks at Terminal Island, California, where he served until relieved of active duty pending retirement, which took place in June 1950. On the basis of his combat awards, he was advanced to the rank of Commander upon retirement. Commander Donald A. Gary died in 1977.
"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as an Engineering Officer attached to the U.S.S. Franklin when that vessel was fiercely attacked by enemy aircraft during the operations against the Japanese Home Islands near Kobe, Japan, 19 March 1945.
Stationed on the third deck when the ship was rocked by a series of violent explosions set off in her own ready bombs, rockets and ammunition by the hostile attack, Lieutenant Gary unhesitatingly risked his life to assist several hundred men trapped in a messing compartment filled with smoke, and with no apparent egress. As the imperiled men below decks became increasingly panic-stricken under the raging fury of incessant explosions, he confidently assured them he would find a means of affecting their release and, groping through the dark, debris-filled corridors, untimately discovered an escapeway. Staunchly determined, he struggled back to the messing compartment three times despite menacing flames, flooding water and the ominous threat of sudden additional explosions, on each occasion calmly leading his men through the blanketing pall of smoke until the last one had been saved.
Selfless in his concern for his ship and his fellows, he constantly rallied others about him, repeatedly organized and led fire-fighting parties into the blazing inferno on the flight deck and, when firerooms 1 and 2 were found to be inoperable, entered the No. 3 fireroom and directed the raising of steam in one boiler in the face of extreme difficulty and hazard. An inspiring and courageous leader, Lieutenant Gary rendered self-sacrificing service under the most perilous conditions and, by his heroic initiative, fortitude and valor, was responsible for the saving of several hundred lives. His conduct throughout reflects the highest credit upon himself and upon the United States Naval Service."
www.history.navy.mil
www.battleshipnc.com
www.daveswarbirds.com
ww2photo.mimerswell.com
members.tripod.com/ benfranklincv13
www.geocities.com/jbmorgan86
www.navsource.org
| 'It was early; it was the 4:00 to 8:00am watch. I picked up a bogey to the west of us, somewhere around forty miles. I reported it to our Combat Information Officer, who reported it to the flagship, which was one of the carriers. When you are operating an air search radar and you get a report like this, you hear it on the radio, so everyone up in Combat Information Center can hear it. Apparently no other ship could pick it up. I had a good track. We continued to track it and no one else was picking it up. We kept reporting this bogey to the flagship and yet no one ordered the fleet to go to air defense. Finally, one of the destroyers visually sighted the aircraft and reported it as a Japanese plane. Of course, then we went to air defense. The plane was quite close to the formation by then. I walked out on the Signal Bridge and just as I did, I could see the Japanese plane making a run right down on the FRANKLIN. The plane dropped a bomb on the forward part of the flight deck and then the after part of the flight deck. FRANKLIN had just recovered aircraft that morning and was still refueling some so that aviation gasoline started burning, exploding and, along with other types of material, created a wall of fire. She was about a thousand yards off our forward bow at that time. Many of the fellows either were blown in the water or they jumped off the deck to get out of the fire. We had to make a sharp turn to avoid running through them. We began throwing life jackets and life rafts and things to them in the water. She burned and exploded all day long and even up through the night.' -- Everett R. Beaver 'Early one morning, I was just getting off of watch and the rest of the crew was up getting ready to go to chow. Right before I was to leave we got a bogey contact about 30 miles out that was coming towards the fleet. It was really no big deal at first as we were always having something like that. I was climbing the ladder down when the antiaircraft bugle went off. I rushed to my battle station on the bow, uncovered my gun, put a magazine in it, had it cocked and ready to fire, but I couldn’t fire because the USS FRANKLIN was dead ahead of us. This plane came in dead ahead of the FRANKLIN and I watched the whole thing. He came right on down over the carrier whose flight deck was loaded with planes and dropped two bombs. They just absolutely annihilated everything. After dropping the two bombs he kept heading straight ahead which was at us and he came up right over our radar. Some of the guys who were on sky control said he came so close they could have stuck a broom right up in his prop. Then he went right down over the water and started ‘hedge-hopping’ his way out of the fleet. Of course once one’s in a fleet he is pretty much on a suicide mission and he was shot down by one of our combat air patrols. At about this time the FRANKLIN had pulled out of its line in front of us, on fire and things going off, guys in the water. I never saw so many sailors in the water, some dead, some alive and hollering and we started throwing everything we could get our hands on: life jackets and rafts, shark repellents. This went on for long time and we felt sure the ship was gone but the captain took a lot of his crew off and took that thing back, smoking, to Pearl Harbor. We were docked along side of it or right close to it. I went aboard and I don’t think there was a thing aboard that ship that wasn’t burned. It was just a skeleton and amazing that it made it out.' -- Robert L. Palomaris |
Good night Snippy.
Good night Sam.
Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Freeper Foxhole.
Naval Aviation Bump for the Hump Day Foxhole
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Good morning, everyone - great story! We had primaries here in NC yesterday ... very messy, runoffs coming, and everyone will be exhausted and not speaking to each other by the general election.
I have always wondered why a movie was not made of this heroic action. It had everything for it. The way the tow lines were finally put on, was by the blacks in the crew organizing the mating of the tow line. When the Big Ben finally limped into port, there was a tradition where a bunch of the nurses used to get on the key and start singing Hiwaian songs and such as the ships came home. The singing started, but as they saw the ship and the damage it faded away to nothing but silence. About that time what was left of the band on the Franklin and the crew started up to the tune of The Old Gray Mare, "The old Big Ben she ain't what she used to be, ain't what she used to be------" Among the nurses and sailors up to Admirals, there wasn't a dry eye on the dock from the on lookers. The book about the Franklin is incredible.
Sheesh..
and she made it home only to be scrapped and sold to Japan as scrap steel.
Read: Psalm 119:89-96
I will never forget Your precepts, for by them You have given me life. —Psalm 119:93
Bible In One Year: Psalms 29-30; Acts 23:1-15
The young woman’s quest for God began when she was 11 years old, living under atheistic communism in the former Soviet Union. That’s when she saw some artwork that depicted the baby Jesus. When she heard that this represented what authorities called a“myth”about God sending His Son to earth, she began to seek the truth.
She also heard that God had written a book of His truth, and she searched for a copy. It wasn’t until she was almost 30 that she finally found a Bible she was permitted to read. At last she had the information she needed to trust Jesus as Savior.
From 1971 to 1989, this young woman risked her own safety to search for the truth of God’s Word. Today she is a lawyer who works to protect her fellow Russian citizens from religious persecution. The message of God’s love in Christ is spreading because this one woman was a truth seeker.
God’s truth can have an impact on us and on the people with whom we interact. The psalmist wrote,“ Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction. . . . By them You have given me life”(Psalm 119:92-93).
Let’s make the Bible our delight. God will give us passion for His eternal Word if we are truth seekers. —Dave Branon
If you’re searching for nuggets of truth, the Bible is a gold mine.
Although the Flag Code does not specify a folding method, a tradition has developed over time. This method produces a triangular form like that of a three-corner hat and shows only the blue union.
Straighten out the flag to full length
Fold lengthwise once, then a second time to meet the open edge. Make sure that the union of stars on the blue field remains outward in full view. (A large flag may have to be folded lengthwise a third time.)
Then bring the striped corner of the folded edge to the open edge to form a triangular fold.
Turn the outer point inward parallel with the open edge to form a second triangle.
Continue the diagonal, or triangular, fold toward the blue union until the end is reached.
The folded flag should resemble a cocked (three-corner) hat, and only the blue union with stars should show.
Cool flag-o-gram.
Hey, I finally found a flag case for my flag from the Renegades.
Morning PE. Great info here. Thank You.
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on July 21:
1620 Jean Picard, French astronomer
1676 Anthony Collins, English philosopher (A discourse on free-thinking)
1758 Elizabeth Hamilton, author (Cats: A Celebration)
1802 David Hunter, Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1886
1804 Victor Schoelcher Guadeloupe, abolished french slavery
1815 Stewart Van Vliet, Bvt Major General (Union Army), died in 1901
1816 Paul Julius Baron von Reuter founded Reuters news service
1826 James Gillpatrick Blunt, Major General (Union volunteers)
1828 John Rutter Brooke, Bvt Major General (Union volunteers)
1832 Henrietta Marie Morse King, cattlewoman
1856 Louise Blanchard Bethune 1st US woman architect
1864 Frances Folsom Cleveland 1st lady
1895 Ken Maynard, Texas, cowboy/actor/producer (Bigfoot)
1899 Ernest Hemmingway Oak Park, for whom the bell tolled... (Nobel 1954)
1899 Hart Crane US, poet (The Bridge)
1911 Marshall McLuhan Canada, writer (The Medium is the Massage)
1920 Isaac Stern Kremenetz, Russia, violinist (debut SF Symph)
1922 Kay Starr Dougherty Okla, singer (Rock & Roll Waltz, Club Oasis)
1924 Don Knotts Morgantown WV, actor (Andy Griffth Show, 3's Company)
1926 Norman Jewison director (Moonstruck, ...And Justice For All)
1926 Paul Burke New Orleans, actor (Thomas Crown Affair)
1931 Gene Littler golfer (1961 US Open)
1931 Gene Fullmer (International Boxing Hall of Famer: World Middleweight Champion [1957], NBA Middleweight Champion [1959-62])
1938 Les Aspin, (Rep-D-Wisc, 1971-93)/Minister of Defense (1993-94)
1943 Edward Herrmann Wash DC, actor (Day of the Dolphin, Reds)
1944 Paul Wellstone, (Sen-loony left-Minnesota)(Still dead)
1945 Alton Maddox NY black activist/attorney (Tawana Brawley case)
1946 Zbigniew Kaczmarek Poland, lightweight (Olympic-gold-1976)
1947 Cat Stevens aka Yusuf Islam, rocker (Peace Train, Father & Son)
1949 Ludmila Smirnova USSR, pairs figure skater (Olympic-silver-1972)
1952 Robin Williams Chicago Ill, comedian (Mork & Mindy, Good Morning Viet-Nam)
1957 Jon Lovitz Tarzana Calif, comedian (SNL)
1973 Ali Landry, Louisiana, Miss Universe-USA (1996)
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