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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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Morning tax-chick. What were the results?
The Ship That Wouldn't Die
First time available on video as originally produced by NBC Television. Hosted by Gene Kelly, this is the powerful story of the most decorated ship and crew in the United States Naval History. Here is the battle scarred story of the USS Franklin, "Big Ben" and the men who brought her home. Fighting her way to Iwo, The Philippines, Guam, Okinawa, Formosa and the Japanese mainland, the USS Franklin took the kamikaze onslaught and in turn she bloodied the enemy; 160 ships, 338 aircraft downed, 3,971 sorties flown - this was an aircraft carrier savaged. Against all odds she limped her way across the Pacific, the Panama Canal and made the port of New York as the most heavily damaged ship ever to make home port under her own power. The USS Franklin ... a special definition of courage out of the hell of battle.
60 min.
http://www.militaryhistoryvideo.com/navy.html#M421
"My" candidate for State Senate won with over 60%, and is opposed in the general election by a Libertarian. I think he's safely elected :-).
The governor and U.S. House seats will both have runoffs, and it's not going to be pleasant. The N.C. FReepers are in a considerable fluff, and it's hard to tell just what to think about any of the candidates at this point. Since we're fairly new to the state, I'm happy to have no opinion until November, when we can obviously vote against the Democrat!
Carbs, gotta love 'em! Thanks and good morning Gail.
A really good article
SUPER FRIGATES - AMERICA'S HIGH TECH WEAPONS OF THE 1790's
by Steve McQuillan
http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Alley/5443/supfrig.htm
The year is 1812 and the United States is at war. Like the war of our recent past, the subject of conversation around the world was American military technology. The focus of attention at that time, however, was on America's forty-four gun "super" frigates. During the first eight months of 1812 these American 44 gun frigates had, in battles fought on the high seas with frigates of the English navy, overcome those English frigates in each of the three ship to ship actions fought between them. To understand the scope of this accomplishment and why it caught even the attention of the Emperor Bonaparte, a brief understanding of naval power in 1812 is required.
The British navy in 1812 was made up of 191 ships of the line, 245 frigates of 50 guns or more and numerous other smaller warships giving it over 860 ships altogether. (Another 56 ships were in the process of construction including three 120 gun ships of the line). The English navy time and again during the preceding twenty years had humbled the navies of France, Spain, Denmark, Turkey, Algeria, Russia and Holland. In the twenty years preceding 1812 the ships of his majesty's navy had fought in over 200 single ship to ship engagements and lost in but five. The last time an English ship had lost a ship to ship action had been seven years earlier when in 1805 the French Milan had bested the HMS Cleopatra. One consequence of this seemingly unending line of victories was that by 1812 over 170 ships on the English roll were ships captured during combat. (This total included 96 French, 39 Danish and 18 Spanish ships) English naval victories had come to be expected by captains and sailors of not only of the Brtish navy but those of the ships which they fought. That attitude was rudely shaken in 1812 when the HMS Guerre (38) was destroyed by the USS Constitution (44), the HMS Macedon (49) captured by the USS United States (44) and the HMS Java (44) taken by the USS Constitution.
The navy of the United States in 1812 consisted of some 50 ships. A congressional committee in early 1812 had determined that a fleet of 12 ships of the line and 20 frigates would be large enough to protect the U.S. because of how thinly spread the English fleet was stretched blockading France. Ships of the line were reserved for the major military and economic powers, however, and something Congress decided the United States could not afford.
I have to agree, this would make an excellent movie. Good morning EOD.
Good morning Darksheare.
Sharing the pain. Why should I be the only one to be cleaning up a keyboard?
He's doing much better. He's been doing som things in the garden and throwing frisbees for the black labrador dog.
Our newspaper arrived late this morning. Our local Tv station exrienced technical problems which cause a preemption of their morning show.
BTW, folks be sure to update your anti-virus definitons. Today's the day Norton usually updates their list.
Hi feather.
Thanks Valin.
Good morning Mayor.
I see decisions out of Congressional committees hasn't changed all that much.
Thanks PE. Good morning.
Sounds like a story and picture for PE's Friday Freeper Foxhole Flag-o-gram. ;-)
Darksheare, I don't know why you came to mind but I thought I should point this out to you. ;-)
The only similarity I see between Vietnam and Iraq is the policy not to bomb targets of the enemy openly and without mercy.
Of course, Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bush Sr. did make enough specific statements to fuel right-wing claims that America failed in Vietnam because our soldiers were "denied permission to win" (Reagan) or fought "with one hand tied behind their backs" (Bush Sr.). They further suggested, often with coded indirection, that antiwar protesters, a weak-kneed liberal Congress, and near-treasonous media had betrayed our nation and its soldiers.
Fuel right-wing claims?! If the writer would read history as it happened and policy of the Johnson Admin. he would see these statements are true.
I need more coffee.
Good news, thanks for the update on your dad and the reminder about Norton.
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