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Captain Joseph T. O'Callahan, Chaplain Corps, USNR, (1905-1964)

Captain Joseph T. O'Callahan

Joseph Timothy O'Callahan was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on 14 May 1905. He joined the Jesuit Order of the Roman Catholic Church in 1922, after graduation from preparatory school, and subsequently received degrees from several institutions of higher learning. He was ordained in 1934, and was a Professor of Mathematics, Philosophy and Physics at Boston College in 1929-37, Professor of Philosophy at the Jesuit Seminary of Weston College in 1937-38 and Director of the Mathematics Department at Holy Cross College, Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1938-40.

Father O'Callahan was commissioned as a Lieutenant (Junior Grade) in the Naval Reserve Chaplain Corps in August 1940. He was assigned to the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida, in 1940-42, to the aircraft carrier Ranger in 1942-44 and to the Naval Air Stations at Alameda, California, and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, into early 1945. Lieutenant Commander O'Callahan joined the the aircraft carrier Franklin in early March 1945. A few weeks later, when his ship was badly damaged by a Japanese air attack, he distinguished himself comforting the injured and leading damage control and ammunition jettisoning parties. The ship's Commanding Officer described O'Callahan as "the bravest man I ever saw". For his heroism on board Franklin, Lieutenant Commander O'Callahan was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Lieutenant Commander Joseph T. O'Callahan, USNR(ChC)
Gives "Last Rites" to an injured crewman aboard USS Franklin (CV-13), after the ship was set afire by a Japanese air attack, 19 March 1945.
The crewman is reportedly Robert C. Blanchard, who survived his injuries.

Promoted to the rank of Commander in July 1945, O'Callahan served at the Navy Department and at the Naval Training Station, Newport, Rhode Island, until October 1945, when he reported on board the new aircraft carrier Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1946, he served as Escort Chaplain as the body of the late Philippines President Manuel Quezon was carried from the United States to Manila. Released from active duty in November 1946, Commander O'Callahan returned to Holy Cross College as Professor of Philosophy. Upon his retirement from the Naval Reserve in November 1953, he was advanced to the rank of Captain on the basis of his combat awards. Joseph T. O'Callahan died at Worcester, Massachusetts, on 18 March 1964.

The escort ship USS O'Callahan (DE-1051, later FF-1051), 1968-1994, was named in honor of Joseph T. O'Callahan.

Medal of Honor citation of
Lieutenant Commander Joseph Timothy O'Callahan

"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Chaplain on board the U.S.S. Franklin when that vessel was fiercely attacked by enemy Japanese aircraft during offensive operations near Kobe, Japan, on 19 March 1945.

A valiant and forceful leader, calmly braving the perilous barriers of flame and twisted metal to aid his men and his ship, Lieutenant Commander O'Callahan groped his way through smoke-filled corridors to the open flight deck and into the midst of violently exploding bombs, shells, rockets and other armament. With the ship rocked by incessant explosions, with debris and fragments raining down and fires raging in ever increasing fury, he ministered to the wounded and dying, comforting and encouraging men of all faiths; he organized and led fire-fighting crews into the blazing inferno on the flight deck; he directed the jettisoning of live ammunition and the flooding of the magazine; he manned a hose to cool hot, armed bombs rolling dangerously on the listing deck, continuing his efforts despite searing, suffocating smoke which forced men to fall back gasping and imperiled others who replaced them.

Serving with courage, fortitude and deep spiritual strength, Lieutenant Commander O'Callahan inspired the gallant officers and men of the Franklin to fight heroically and with profound faith in the face of almost certain death and to return their stricken ship to port."

Additional Sources:

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

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