The FReeper Foxhole Remembers the USS Liscome Bay (11/24/1943) - Sep. 12th, 2005

World War Two Magazine | July 1992 | William B. Allmon

[SAMWolf]

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 Liscome Bay

As the escort carrier Liscome Bay turned to launch its aircraft off Makin Atoll on November 24, 1943, Lt. Cmdr. Sunao Tabata of I-175 found himself presented with a target that submariners dream of.

She began life as a nameless Hull in the Kaiser shipyards in Vancouver, Washington, on December 12, 1942. And she ended her short, 11-month span in 23 terrifying minutes off Makin Atoll in the Pacific, after being struck by a single torpedo from a Japanese submarine.

She was the first of her flock to go, but before war's end in 1945, the ill-fated CVE-56 would be joined by five more American-built escort carriers (CVEs) sunk by enemy action. They were: Block Island (CVE-21), sunk by the German submarine U-549 in the Atlantic on May 29, 1944; Gambier Bay (CVE-73), sunk in the Battle of Samar by Japanese cruiser gunfire on October 25, 1944; St. Lo (CVE-63), sunk by a Japanese kamikaze plane attack on October 25, 1944; Ommaney Bay (CVE-79), scuttled after being struck by a kamikaze on January 4, 1945; and Bismarck Sea (CVE-95), sunk by a kamikaze off Iwo Jima on February 21, 1945.

The loss of these ships, tragic and costly in lives as they were, did not compare to the shock that went through America's CVE crews when that first escort carrier was sunk in November 1943. Relatively speaking, it should also be noted, no other single carrier in World War II, escort, light or fast, suffered higher casualties -- 600 men killed out of a crew of 900, 70 percent of the crew gone in only 20-plus minutes.

CVE-56 had a name, of course -- the USS Liscome Bay.

She began her life as Maritime Commission Hull No. 1137. And when work began on her in earnest as an auxiliary aircraft tender, her designation was changed to Kaiser Shipyards Hull No. 302.

The name she would be given upon her completion, and when she was turned over to the British Royal Navy, would be HMS Ameer (ACV-56).

By April 19, 1943, Ameer's Hull and part of her flight deck were finished. She was launched in a special ceremony at the Kaiser shipyards by her sponsor, Mrs. Clara Morrell. Mrs. Morrell was the wife of Rear Adm. Ben Morrell, founder of the U.S. Navy "Seabees." Also attending the ceremony was Mrs. Walter Krebs, matron of honor; Lt. Cmdr. H.C. Zitzewitz, liason officer at the Vancouver yards; and James MacDonald, the British consul in Portland, Ore., who spoke at the ceremony.

After an invocation by Dr. Perry C. Hoffer of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mrs. Morrell stepped up to the platform built near the bow of the partially finished Hull and smashed the traditional bottle of champagne against the bow section, sending Ameer sliding down the ways into the Columbia River.

On the same day, tugs took the powerless Hull and towed it downstream 100 miles from Vancouver to the Astoria (Oregon) Naval Station for final fitting out and delivery.

By that time, 3 1/2 months later, in August 1943, the Ameer would have new owners and even a new name.

On June 28, 1943, the vice chief of U.S. Naval Operations, Admiral J.H. Newton, endorsed a recommendation that 29 auxiliary aircraft carriers built for the British navy be assigned to the United States. He further recommended changing their British names and redesignating their class as CVE (aircraft carrier, escort) instead of ACV (auxiliary aircraft carrier).


Kaiser / Casablanca Class Escort Carriers

And so HMS Ameer, formerly Hull No. 302, become USS Liscome Bay, named after a small bay on the south coast of Dall Island, which lies off the southern coast of Alaska. This followed the practice of naming escort carriers after bays, islands and sounds of the United States, or after major U.S. operations, battles and engagements.

On July 15, 1943, Liscome Bay's redesignation from ACV-56 to CVE-56 was completed. The fitting out continued in Astoria. On August 7, 1943, Liscome Bay was delivered to the U.S. Navy. Her log records the event: "1105. Pursuant to orders.... Vessel commissioned U.S.S. Liscome Bay....Capt. I.D. Wiltse assumed command."

Like all escort carriers, Liscome Bay was built mostly from a converted merchant-ship Hull. Her primary functions were to serve as a convoy escort, to provide aircraft for close air support during amphibious landing operations, and to ferry aircraft to naval bases and fleet carriers at sea.

Accordingly, she was built no larger than her original Hull, given no more armament than was considered necessary for self-defense, and allowed no more speed than she needed to perform the tasks assigned her.

She was 512 feet long, with a beam of 108 feet. She displaced 7,800 tons. Her flight deck was only 400 feet long and 80 feet wide. Two elevators had been installed, one forward, one aft, and a single catapult was located forward on the port side, over the bow.

Her armament consisted of a single l5-inch, .38-caliber open gun mounted in a gun tub overhanging her square stern. Sixteen 40mm cannons in two mounts and twenty 20mm machine guns, scattered below the flight deck on both port and starboard sides, were her chief anti-aircraft armament.

Liscome Bay's "black gang" worked with her two Skinner Uniflow reciprocating steam engines in twin, split-plan engine rooms, using superheated steam running at 4,500 ihp (indicated horsepower) and 161 rpm to turn the ship's twin propellers and produce her top speed of 16 knots.


USS Liscome Bay - Undated, underway, deck loaded with aircraft.

Liscome Bay carried a crew of 960 men. Most were recent graduates from boot camp. Others, like the aerology crew, had served on board the aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-7) before she was sunk in the South Pacific by a Japanese submarine in September 1942. Others had served on the ill-fated heavy cruiser Quincy (CA-39), sunk in the Battle of Savo Island in August 1942. A few had been on the legendary carrier Enterprise (CV-6), and several of her crewmen had witnessed the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Veteran or recruit, old salt or recent landlubber, all had to consider that the most important member of the crew was their skipper, Captain Irving Day Wiltse, 56, Liscome Bay's first and last commanding officer. He had served as a navigator on the U.S. carrier Yorktown (CV-5) during the Battle of Midway and had commanded a seaplane tender, the Albemarle, before assuming command of Liscome Bay on the day of her commissioning. Wiltse was respected by his crew.

A month after the commissioning, after all the initial trials and shakedown cruises around Astoria, Liscome Bay got underway under her own power for the first time.

Arriving at Puget Sound on September 8, Liscome Bay proceeded to Bremerton Naval Station for degaussing and adjusting of her compasses and radio equipment. She spent four days undergoing further ship's trials before sailing for Seattle, Wash. There, her 20mm AA guns were test-fired. She docked until September 17, 1943, and then sailed for San Francisco. Liscome Bay docked at the Alameda Naval Air Station for refueling and to take on more personnel. The next stop would be San Diego, for an extensive series of shakedown drills and exercises off the southern California coast.

On October 11, while the escort carrier was docked in San Diego for refueling, she received an addition to her complement in the form of Rear Adm. Henry Maston Mullinnix, who would be commanding a carrier division, with Liscome Bay as his flagship.

Called by a former classmate "one of our outstanding young admirals," Henry Mullinnix had graduated first in his Navel Academy class of 1916, had served in World War I on a destroyer, had helped design the Navy's first diesel engine, had become a Navy pilot, and had commanded the carrier Saratoga (CV-3) before being appointed to the rank of admiral on August 28, 1943.



A sailor who served on his staff later said, "As a man, you couldn't find a person any better... "

He was accompanied by his chief of staff, Captain John G. Crommelin. An outstanding pilot and officer, Crommelin had served aboard the Enterprise at the Battle of Santa Cruz in 1942, and was the oldest of five brothers, all Annapolis graduates, all naval officers who would serve in the war. "He was as fine a man as the admiral," one sailor said of Crommelin. "You could talk to him about any problem you had."

Crommelin's job as chief of staff was to ensure the efficient operation of the staff for Carrier Division 24, Mullinnix's first flag command. At 1000 hours in October 11, Mullinnix, in the words of the log, "Hoisted his flag aboard Liscome Bay."

More time was now spent in extensive drills and shakedown cruises. On October 14, the carrier received its aircraft, 12 FM-2 and F4F Wildcat fighters and 16 TBM-1C Avenger torpedo bombers as Composite Squadron No. 39. The commander of Composite Squadron 39 (known as VC-39 in Navy records), Lt. Cmdr. Marshall U. Beebe, became responsible for flight operations of the squadron and for the lives of its 36 officers and 41 enlisted men.

After further drills, along with landing and takeoff practice by VC-39's planes, Liscome Bay set sail October 22 for Pearl Harbor -- and the new ship's first battle mission.

The carrier reached Pearl Harbor on October 28 and moored at the Ford Island Naval Air Station. There were additional drills and exercises in Hawaiian waters, including rehearsals for the upcoming Gilbert Islands invasion, until on November 10, Liscome Bay, accompanied by her sister ships Coral Sea (CVE-57) and Corregidor (CVE-58), sortied from Pearl Harbor with the ships of Rear Adm. Richmond Kelly Turner's Northern Attack Force, Task Force 52. Included in the force were the battleships New Mexico, Mississippi, Idaho and Pennsylvania, four heavy cruisers and 14 screening destroyers, all escorting six transports carrying units of the 165th Regimental Combat Team of the 27th Infantry Division.

[SAMWolf]

The Liscome Bay and her companion ships soon joined the most powerful U.S. naval force assembled in the Pacific up to that time-13 battleships, 8 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers, 4 Essex-class and 4 Independence-class aircraft carriers, 4 escort carriers, 70 destroyers and destroyer escorts. In all, 191 warships in four task forces, coming together from six different directions, all closing in on three tiny Japanese-held atolls in the Central Pacific: Tarawa, Makin and Abemama in the Gilbert Islands.

The pending operation was code-named Galvanic. Its objective was the capture of all three atolls as a steppingstone for future landings in the nearby Marshall Islands. The planners wanted to establish airfields and naval bases in the Gilberts, and to give U.S. forces valuable experience in amphibious operations.

The Southern Attack Force, or Task Force 53, under the command of Rear Adm. Harry W. Hill, was assigned the capture of Tarawa Atoll in the central Gilberts. The northern Attack Force, Task Force 52, under Admiral Turner, was given the objective of capturing Makin Atoll in the northern Gilberts. Marine raiders, operating from the submarine Nautilus, would take Abemama in a separate operation while the main forces were assaulting Tarawa and Makin.

It was with these objectives laid out that Task Force 52 had sortied from Pearl Harbor on the morning of November 10, 1943.


General Motors FM-2 Wildcat

Between November 11 and 19, Liscome Bay, along with the other carriers of CarDiv24, conducted flight operations and anti-aircraft gunnery practice and provided aircraft for anti-submarine patrols around the task force as it steamed for its distant objective.

Even these routine aircraft operations were not without cost. On November 15, Liscome Bay suffered her first operational casualty when Ensign F.C. Fairman's FM-1 Wildcat crashed at sea three minutes after launching. Ensign Fairman was killed in the crash.

By "Dog Day," November 20, Task Force 52 had arrived off Makin Atoll and commenced its pre-landing bombardment of the landing beaches. There was no reply from the outnumbered Japanese defenders on Makin's main island, Butaritari, but an accidental explosion in the main gun turret of the battleship Mississippi killed 43 men and wounded 19 others.

The landing forces went ashore and, overcoming fierce Japanese resistance, secured the island on November 23 after nearly 76 hours of fighting.


Grumman F4F Wildcat

Throughout this time, Liscome Bay's aircraft played their assigned part by providing direct support of the landings and subsequent ground operations, and flying combat air patrols and anti-submarine patrols around the task force. But again, not without cost. One Avenger was lost in a crash at sea, another in an emergency landing near Makin Island; and a Wildcat was so seriously damaged in a barrier crash that it was dismantled for spare parts.

Then on November 23, five Wildcats took off from Liscome Bay on a late-afternoon patrol. After takeoff the patrol was vectored out to intercept radar "bogies" northwest of Makin. The patrol, led by Lieutenant Foster J. Blair, proceeded a distance of 40 miles from the ship, then lost contact with her.

When the patrol returned to the spot where Liscome Bay should have been, they could not find her. Bad weather and growing darkness, along with the lack of real navigational equipment carried by the planes (hardly more than a compass and a plot board), compounded their problem.

They radioed for help and were directed to land on the big carriers of Rear Adm. C.A. "Baldy" Pownall's Task Group 50.1, 60 miles south of Makin and the escort carriers. Two of the Wildcats successfully made night landings on the Yorktown, but the third had trouble. This plane bounced off the carrier's flight deck and into the planes parked on Yorktown's bow.


Dauntless SBD

The Wildcat's pilot bolted clear of his plane without injury, but its belly tank exploded, killing five deck crewmen and setting fire to the parked aircraft. Only quick thinking and heroism by Yorktown's crew saved the carrier from further damage. The two remaining Liscome Bay Wildcats landed safely on the nearby USS Lexington.

As the five VC-39 pilots in the errant flight hit the sack that night, they had no idea how lucky they were.

Near Makin, a tragedy was in the making.

At sundown on November 23, the ships of the now precisely named Task Group 52.13 had maneuvered into night cruising disposition, forming a circular screen around the three escort carriers.


TBM Avenger

Liscome Bay was in the middle, as guide for the surrounding ships. In the first circle surrounding Liscome Bay were battleships New Mexico and Mississippi, the cruiser Baltimore on the left flank, and Coral Sea and Corregidor on the right flank. The outer circle was formed by the destroyers Hoel, Franks, Hughes, Maury and Hull.

The task group, commanded by Rear Adm. Robert M. Griffin on the New Mexico, steamed at 15 knots, without zigzagging, throughout the night 20 miles southwest of Makin.

At 0400, the destroyer Hull left the task group and proceeded to Makin. Hull had been operating off Liscome Bay's starboard rear quarter, so her departure did not alter the task group's disposition.

At 0435, the Franks, also operating off Liscome Bay's starboard side, reported a dim light on the surface in the distance and was directed to investigate.

A minute later, New Mexico's surface search radar picked up a radar contact six miles from the formation-"apparently closing," in the words of the official report. A few moments later the contact faded from the radar screen without any identification being made.

[SAMWolf]

On Liscome Bay, preparations were being made to launch the day's first aircraft. For the carrier's crew and the men of VC-39, the past three days had been hectic, and they expected the 24th to be the same.

Today was also the eve of Thanksgiving. Down in the galleys, the cooks broke out the frozen turkeys that had been packed aboard at Pearl Harbor. There was a lot of work ahead if the traditional meal was to be done up right.

At 0450 flight quarters were sounded. The deck crew began manhandling 13 planes into position on the flight deck in preparation for a dawn launch, while seven planes rested on the hangar deck, armed but not fueled, ready for later launch. Stowed in the carrier's magazine were more than 200,000 pounds of bombs, including nine 2,000-pound, semi-armor-piercing bombs, 78 1,000-pound bombs, 96 500-pound bombs and a large number of torpedo warheads.


Type KD6 IJN Submarine

At 0505 Liscome Bay's crew was called to general quarters. Dawn was only 30 minutes away as pilots and aircrewmen climbed into their planes.

Five minutes later, Rear Adm. Griffin ordered the task group to turn northeast. Liscome Bay, as guide of the formation, started her turn, followed by the other ships. The formation was a bit ragged because of the absence of the two destroyers, so Admiral Griffin ordered the remaining destroyers to close up the gap left by the Franks' departure.

Not far away, hidden by the blackness of night, lay the Japanese submarine I-175, under the command of Lt. Cmdr. Sumano Tabata. Having approached Task Group 52.13 on the surface to avoid detection, Tabata found that his submarine was perfectly positioned to attack through the hole left in the outer circle by the double departure of Hull and Franks. With the American ships now turning toward him, no zigzagging, at 15 knots, Tabata had a setup that submariners dream of.

He made the most of it. Taking a firing bearing on the ships with I-175's sound gear, he gave the fateful order-a spread of torpedoes streaked from I-175's four bow tubes toward the unsuspecting task group. That done, he took the submarine deep to escape the depth-charging sure to follow.


Japanese Submarine I-175

None of the destroyers in TG 52.13 detected I-175 on sonar, nor did anyone see a torpedo wake on the surface until it was too late.

At 0513, an officer stationed at one of Liscome Bay's 40mm guns on the starboard side screamed, "Here comes a torpedo!" into his telephone.

A moment later, it struck the carrier with a shattering roar, throwing up a column of bright orange flame, flecked with white-hot pieces of metal. Seconds later a larger explosion followed, as the torpedo warheads and bombs stowed below the ship's waterline detonated.

The consecutive explosions hurled large fragments of the ship and the airplanes that had been parked on its flight deck 200 feet into the air. A huge mass of wreckage, thrown into the sea, drifted away from the carrier, burning fiercely. The intensity of the blast stunned lookouts on the surrounding vessels. Debris from the stricken carrier rained down on them. New Mexico, 1,500 yards away, was showered with oil particles, burning deck fragments 3 feet long, molten metal droplets, bits of clothing and human flesh.



The destroyer Maury, 5,000 yards astern, was also splattered. The flames from Liscome Bay were so intense they lighted up the sea around the task group and were seen from the battleship Pennsylvania near Makin, 16 miles away.

Liscome Bay had been hit in the worst possible spot-the bomb stowage area, which had no protection from a torpedo hit or fragment damage. The bombs stowed there had detonated en masse. The resulting explosion disintegrated half of the ship. No one aft of the forward bulkhead of the after engine room survived. In an instant, the interior of the aft portion of the carrier blazed with blast-furnace intensity.

Few survived on the flight deck. The blast caught most, flying shrapnel cut down the others.

Flaming material was flung the length of the hangar deck and into the forward elevator well. The hangar deck became a roaring wall of flame.



The blast sent the ship's bullhorn and radar antenna crashing down on the bridge, killing two men. Lieutenant Gardner Smith, a radio announcer before the war, went to the open bridge looking for Captain Wiltse and found it a shambles. Two sailors were pinned alive beneath the bullhorn; Smith had to try several times before he could free them.

Tremendous waves of heat engulfed the carrier's island, making the bridge rails too hot to touch. From the nearby Corregidor, Liscome Bay's bridge seemed to "glow a cherry red." The heat abated for a moment, and the men threw knotted lines over the bridge railing on the island's inboard side and scrambled down to the flight deck.

Marshall U. Beebe, commander of VC-39, had been in the head when the torpedo hit. "There was a terrific rumbling throughout the ship, and an explosion that lifted me off the deck. The next thing I knew I was trying to get out the door in the darkness, but I could find no passage...."

Additional Sources:

www.beadee.com
www.navsource.org
www.ussmullinnix.org
www.rb-29.net
www.astrosurf.org
www.dixiewing.org
www.amazon.com
www.anft.net
www.angelfire.com/fm/odyssey

[SAMWolf]

Beebe somehow made it to the flight deck and found it ablaze, with oil burning on the water near the bow, and nearby ammunition beginning to explode.

Captain Wiltse ordered all hands to go as far aft as possible, then go over the side. On his way aft he met Beebe, and they proceeded aft along the remains of a catwalk. "The fire was spreading rapidly," Beebe recalled, "making it apparent that we weren't going to get very far. I called to the captain to go over at this point, but he did not answer...." Wiltse instead disappeared into the mass of flame and smoke, never to be seen again.

Beebe lowered himself into the water by a line running from the catwalk, holding an uninflated life raft he had found. Unable to maintain his grip on the line due to an injury to his left arm, Beebe fell heavily into the water and surfaced next to the raft, where two of his pilots joined him. They pushed the raft 200 yards from the carrier before inflating it.

All over the ship, crewmen realized that it was hopeless to try fighting the raging fires without water pressure in the fire mains, and they began to abandon ship. One sailor, trapped below decks, groped his way to a ladder so overcrowded he could not go up. He then climbed a superheated steam pipe, burning both his hands.

Another climbed 40 feet up electrical wires to a gun plot before jumping overboard. A pilot, Frank Sistrunk, of VC-39, recovering from an appendectomy done only six days earlier, and no swimmer, jumped overboard and managed to make it to a life raft several hundred yards away with the help of his friends and a small piece of floating debris.

Other VC-39 pilots, scheduled for a later flight, had been asleep when the torpedo hit. The explosion trapped some in their bunks temporarily and threw some out of theirs. Like most survivors, they had to crawl through the jumble of wreckage scattered throughout the ship before going over the side. Fifteen VC-39 pilots were later picked up by destroyers. Fourteen others had died in their planes when the aft flight deck disappeared in the fireball caused by the torpedo.

The fate of Admiral Henry Mullinnix is unknown. He was in air plot when the torpedo struck and was apparently injured by the blast. Several men remembered seeing him seated at a desk, head cradled on his folded arms; others recalled seeing him swimming away from the ship after it went down. In any event, he did not survive.

John Crommelin, Admiral Mullinnix's chief of staff, was stepping out of the shower when Liscome Bay exploded. "The violent shaking knocked me off my bare feet," he recalled, "and I hit the deck. The lights went out but flames lighted the ship's interior instantly...."

Naked, Crommelin fought his way through burning compartments of the flight deck. "I felt like a fool-caught stark naked when even a boot [recruit] knows one should be protected against fire. My fingers looked like boiled wieners popped open." He received burns on the right side of his face, legs and arms. Despite this, he took charge of the men in his area and directed the evacuation at that point before jumping overboard himself.

"I jumped off the flight deck with less than I was born with," he later said, "on account of the fact I left part of my hide behind." Crommelin swam for nearly an hour, supported only by a cork float, before being rescued, still stark naked. In Liscome Bay's final moments, the ship's senior medical officer, Lt. Cmdr. John B. Rowe, displayed what survivors called "splendid" conduct in his concern for the safety of his patients and in administering to the wounded aboard a rescue ship, despite a leg injury of his own.

Rowe rushed into the operating room to prepare his patients for evacuation. The flight deck was ablaze, and Dr. Rowe made a number of trips back and forth through the sick bay, forming his group for evacuation and picking up first aid gear. Rowe's group grew to 15 men, including the ships' damage control officer, Lt. Cmdr. Welles W. "Buzz" Carroll, who refused Rowe's offer to dress his wounds, and Liscome Bay's chaplain, Lt. j.g. Robert H. Carley.

Chaplain Carley, like Beebe, had been in the head when the blast came. Carley picked himself up from the jumble of smashed sinks, toilets and urinals, and staggered out into the passageway. There he joined up with Dr. Rowe and his group.

Carroll and his men attempted to fight the fires they saw flickering through holes in the overhead, but were unable to get any water pressure in the fire main. Giving that up, Carroll and his men groped their way through smoke-filled passages and joined Rowe and Carley's party.

The group clambered over piles of debris and squeezed through passageways crushed inward like tin cans until they reached the forward elevator well, where a sailor named Hunt was trying to extinguish the blaze with portable CO2 bottles. Seeing that Hunt's efforts were useless, Carroll told him to get out before he was trapped, but Hunt refused to leave and returned to his firefighting.

The group climbed to the flight deck. To them the scene was Dante's Inferno brought to life. The fire was roaring so loudly that men had to shout to be heard. Constant explosions of ammunition added to the tumult.

Three men huddled around a 20mm gun made no reply when Carley told them to abandon ship-they were dead. Three other sailors standing numbly nearby "woke up" when they heard Carley's order and slid down a rope into the water, followed by Carley.

Carroll, although weakening due to blood loss from his injuries, paced up and down the flight deck giving orders and helping men to abandon ship.

Carroll refused to leave the ship until Seaman Hunt (who had come up from below after giving up his firefighting efforts) told him that he would not leave without him. Medical officer Rowe, Carroll and Hunt all went over the side together. Once they were in the water, Hunt swam off to find a raft for the injured Carroll, while Rowe held his head out of the water. Hunt returned with a raft a short time later and asked how the commander was. Rowe looked down at the man he was holding. "He's dead," he said and let Carroll's body slip beneath the water.

Twenty-three minutes after the torpedo hit, Liscome Bay sank stern first, still burning furiously. "Looking like a gigantic Fourth of July display," said one survivor.

"I watched her go," said aerographer Lyle D. Blakely, "and heard her death gurgle. There was no suction, only a loud hissing."

"Liscome Bay went down gracefully," said Commander Beebe. "Settling by the stern, going down fast, and sliding backwards. Her final farewell was an audible hiss as the white hot metal cooled. The ships' bow was enveloped by a cloud of steam obliterating our view."

Liscome Bay was gone, taking with her Admiral Mullinnix, Captain Wiltse, 51 other officers and 591 enlisted men. Only 55 officers and 217 enlisted men, many badly injured with shattered limbs, frightful burns, and severe concussions from the enormous blast, had survived.

They were rescued from the oil-thick water-many clinging to life rafts, bits of wreckage, or floating in kapok life jackets -- primarily by the destroyers Morris and Hughes. The destroyers picked up the last few by 0730. Morris and Hughes then transferred them to the transports Neville and Leonard Wood, anchored in Makin lagoon.

Neville and Leonard Wood set out for Pearl Harbor with the Liscome Bay's survivors on November 25, arriving December 2, 1943, after an eight-day voyage.

The same day, the Navy Department issued an epitaph of sorts for CE-56: "The USS LISSCOME BAY (an escort carrier) was sunk as a result of being torpedoed by a submarine on November 24, 1943, in the Gilbert Islands area. This is the only ship lost in the Gilbert Islands operation.

"The next of kin of casualties aboard the Liscome Bay will be notified as soon as possible."

[SAMWolf]

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Good Monday Morning Everyone.

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[oyez]

There were two CVE's used as part of the set for Clint Eastwood's "Magnum Force". They were in San Francisco harbor waiting to be scrapped. I have always wondered which ones they were. Its a shame not a single CVE got adopted as a museum.

[Iris7]

My uncle Fred served aboard Enterprise from late 1939 until summer of 1943 when he was assigned as cadre on new construction.

Fred very much wished that Enterprise could have been saved as a memorial to the dead and for the formation of new generations. Enterprise was scrapped despite the best efforts of her survivors.

Fred regretted her passing for the rest of his life.

Fred saw very heavy action. He told me that the Battle of Santa Cruz was the hardest. Memories were still very vivid for him; you could see him change.

There are horrible stories Fred told his father, who told his mother, who told my mother, about Santa Cruz. Fred himself never mentioned them to me.

[Iris7]

"The outer circle was formed by the destroyers Hoel, Franks, Hughes, Maury and Hull."

USS Hoel was the first destroyer sunk at the Battle of Samar Island. Three fourths of her crew were lost.

As you all recall, the escorts of TASK UNIT 77.4.3, "TAFFY III, made repeated attacks against the Imperial Japanese Navy main force consisting of four battleships including the giant Yamato ( the largest warship in the world ), 10 heavy and 2 light cruisers, and 15 destroyers. These ships were USS Hoel, USS Johnston, USS S. B. Roberts, and USS Heermann.

TAFFY III was stationed at the northernmost end of the landing on Mindanao Island in the Philippines. Leyte Gulf.

Just before 7am lookouts on the escort carriers saw the masts and fighting-tops of Japanese battleships and cruisers appear above the northern horizon. A minute later heavy shells began falling near Taffy Three.

The surprise was complete. Taffy Three was in a desperate situation, facing an exceptionally powerful force which also had a great superiority in speed over the escort carriers, while the only ships which Clifton Sprague had available to protect his flattops were the three destroyers and four destroyer escorts of his screen.

At 0657 Admiral Clifton Sprague, commander of TAFFY III, had turned his carriers due east, begun working them up to their maximum speed of seventeen-and-a-half knots, ordered all his ships to lay smoke, and started to launch every available aircraft. At 0701 he issued a contact report and a call for assistance from anyone able to give it.

At 0716 Sprague ordered his three Fletcher-class destroyers - Hoel, Heermann and Johnston - to counter-attack the Japanese formation. This they did with remarkable heroism and tenacity. They unflinchingly took on the battleships and cruisers, engaging these heavy ships with their 5-inch guns as well as their torpedoes.

At about 0750 the American destroyer escorts with equal heroism joined the counter-attack. At 0754 the vast battleship Yamato, now serving as Kurita's flagship after the sinking of Atago on 23 October, was forced to turn away for ten minutes by torpedoes from the American destroyers and was never able to get back into the action.

A very confused struggle by the DDs and DEs against the Japanese force continued for over two hours. By 0945 the Hoel and Johnston, and the destroyer escort Samuel B. Roberts, had been sunk by Japanese gunfire. At least one torpedo hit was made on Kurita's ships, and probably more, but what was of much greater importance was that the Japanese heavy ships had been forced into repeated evasive action and that this had slowed their advance, caused increasing confusion in the already badly disorganised Japanese formation, and deprived Kurita of any chance of regaining effective control of his force.

While the small ships of Clifton Sprague's screen were conducting these desperate counter-attacks the Japanese ships were also subjected to incessant assaults by aircraft from the three Taffies. Many of these attacks were carried out by aircraft armed with weapons intended for ground support and quite unsuited for attack on large warships, and many others were dummy attacks by unarmed aircraft.

Nonetheless, with the weapons available to them, the aircraft succeeded in sinking three heavy cruisers and damaging several other ships. These air attacks also played a vital role in support of the destroyers and DEs in distracting the enemy ships from the escort carriers, forcing them into evasive maneuvers, and disorganizing the Japanese formation.

Despite all these heroic efforts the escort carrier Gambier Bay was eventually hit repeatedly by 8-inch gunfire, was crippled, and sank at 0907.

But then, entirely unexpectedly, and although his cruisers and destroyers were now on the verge of annihilating Taffy Three, Kurita at 0911 ordered his ships to break off action.

If Kurita had got among the American invasion fleet, transports, amphibious ships, and thousands of troops - disaster is too weak a word.

I honestly would be surprised and disappointed if there has been a Navy man since who does not know this story.

[alfa6]

Off to work and hi-de-hi-ho Bump for the Freeper Foxhole Monday Edition.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Freeper foxhole.

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone.

[Professional Engineer]

Good morning ladies. Flag-o-Gram.

[Samwise]

This was in my Inbox this morning. Don't read it unless you have plenty of Kleenex.

Daddy's Poem



Her hair was up in a pony tail, her favorite dress tied with a bow.

Today was Daddy's Day at school, and she couldn't wait to go.

But her mommy tried to tell her, that she probably should stay home.

Why the kids might not understand, if she went to school alone.

But she was not afraid; she knew just what to say.

What to tell her classmates of why he wasn't there today.

But still her mother worried, for her to face this day alone.

And that was why once again, she tried to keep her daughter home.

But the little girl went to school eager to tell them all.

About a dad she never sees, a dad who never calls.

There were daddies along the wall in back, for everyone to meet.

Children squirming impatiently, anxious in their seats

One by one the teacher called a student from the class.

To introduce their daddy, as seconds slowly passed.

At last the teacher called her name, every child turned to stare.

Each of them was searching, a man who wasn't there.

"Where's her daddy at?" she heard a boy call out.

"She probably doesn't have one," another student dared to shout.

And from somewhere near the back, she heard a daddy say,

"Looks like another deadbeat dad, too busy to waste his day."

The words did not offend her, as she smiled up at her Mom.

And looked back at her teacher, who told her to go on.

And with hands behind her back, slowly she began to speak.

And out from the mouth of a child, came words incredibly unique.

"My Daddy couldn't be here, because he lives so far away.

But I know he wishes he could be, since this is such a special day.

And though you cannot meet him, I wanted you to know.

All about my daddy, and how much he loves me so.

He loved to tell me stories, he taught me to ride my bike.

He surprised me with pink roses, and taught me to fly a kite.

We used to share fudge sundaes, and ice cream in a cone.

And though you cannot see him. I'm not standing here alone.

"Cause my daddy's always with me, even though we are apart

I know because he told me, he'll forever be in my heart"

With that, her little hand reached up, and lay across her chest.

Feeling her own heartbeat, beneath her favorite dress.

And from somewhere here in the crowd of dads, her mother stood in tears.

Proudly watching her daughter, who was wise beyond her years.

For she stood up for the love of a man not in her life.

Doing what was best for her, doing what was right.

And when she dropped her hand back down, staring straight into the crowd.

She finished with a voice so soft, but its message clear and loud.

"I love my daddy very much, he's my shining star.

And if he could, he'd be here, but heaven's just too far

You see he was a policeman and died just this past year

When airplanes hit the towers and taught Americans to fear.

But sometimes when I close my eyes, it's like he never went away."

And then she closed her eyes, and saw him there that day

And to her mother's amazement, she witnessed with surprise.

A room full of daddies and children, all starting to close their eyes.

Who knows what they saw before them, who knows what they felt inside.

Perhaps for merely a second, they saw him at her side.

"I know you're with me Daddy," to the silence she called out.

And what happened next made believers, of those once filled with doubt.

Not one in that room could explain it, for each of their eyes had been closed.

But there on the desk beside her, was a fragrant long-stemmed pink rose.

And a child was blessed, if only for a moment, by the love of her shining star.

And given the gift of believing, that heaven is never too far.



They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.



Take the time...to live and love.

Until eternity. God bless.

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on September 12:
1788 Alexander Campbell founded Disciples of Christ
1806 Andrew Hull Foote Rear Admiral (Union Navy), died in 1863
1818 Richard Jordan Gatling US, inventor (hand-cranked machine gun)
1880 Henry L Mencken Baltimore, Md, newspaperman/critic (Prejudices)
1888 Maurice Chevalier Paris, thanked heaven for little girls (Gigi)
1892 Alfred A Knopf US, publisher (1966 Alexander Hamilton Medal)
1902 Margaret Hamilton Ohio, wicked witch of the west (Wizard of Oz)
1909 Spud Chandler baseball player (AL MVP 1943)
1913 Jesse Owens track star, spoiled Hitler's 1936 Olympics with 4 gold
1921 Frank McGee Monroe La, news anchor (NBC Evening News)
1921 Stanislaw Lem Poland, science-fiction writer (Solaris)
1931 George Jones country singer (White Lightning, Oh Lonesome Me)
1931 Ian Holm Ilford Essex England, actor (Himmler-Holocaust)
1934 Gunther Gebel-Williams lion tamer (Ringling Bros Circus)
1940 Linda Gray Santa Monica Calif, actress (Sue Ellen Ewing-Dallas)
1940 Stephen J Solarz (Rep-D-NY)
1943 Maria Muldaur Greenwich Village, NY, singer (Midnight at the Oasis)
1944 Barry White Galveston Tx, singer (Love's Theme)
1949 Irina Rodnina USSR, pairs figure skater (Olympic-gold-1972, 76, 80)
1954 Peter Scolari New Rochelle NY, actor (Jerry-Newhart)
1958 Wilfredo Benitez PR, boxer (world champ at 17)

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Deaths which occurred on September 12:
0352 Maximinus van Trier, bishop of Trier/saint, dies
1015 Lambert I, count of Leuven, dies in battle at about 65
1185 Andronicus I Comnenus, Byzantine emperor (1183-85), lynched
1591 Richard Grenville, vice-admiral (Roanoke) dies in battle at 49
1647 Joos Banckert Swiss admiral (Spanish silver fleet), dies at 48
1806 Christian Gottfried Thomas composer, dies at 58
1878 Friedrich August von Alberti geologist (Triassic Age), dies at 83
1972 William Boyd cowboy (Hopalong Cassidy), dies at 77
1977 Steven Biko S African black student leader, dies in police custody
1980 Lillian Randolph actress (Roots, Amos n Andy), dies at 65
1988 Lauris Norstad NATO commander/CEO Corning Fiberglass, dies at 71
1991 Regis Toomey actor (You're in the Army Now), dies at 93
1993 Raymond Burr, actor (Perry Mason/Ironsides), dies of liver cancer at 76
1994 Tom Ewell, [S Yewell Tompkins], US actor (7 Year Itch), dies at 85
1995 Jeremy Brett, English actor (Sherlock Holmes), dies at 59
2000 Stanley Turrentine, saxophonist, dies age 66
2003 Johnny Cash, singer/actor
2003 John Ritter, actor, son of Tex Ritter

---

Take A Moment To Remember
GWOT Casualties

Iraq
12-Sep-2003 2 | US: 2 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Master Sergeant Kevin N. Morehead Ramadi - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire
US Sergeant 1st Class William M. Bennett Ramadi - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire

12-Sep-2004 5 | US: 2 | UK: 0 | Other: 3
POL Corporal Grzegorz Nosek Al Hillah (4 mi. E of) - Babil Hostile - hostile fire
POL 1st Lieutenant Daniel Ró¿yñski Al Hillah (4 mi. E of) - Babil Hostile - hostile fire
POL 1st Lieutenant Piotr Mazurek Al Hillah (4 mi. E of) - Babil Hostile - hostile fire
US Private 1st Class Jason T. Poindexter Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire
US 1st Lieutenant Alexander E. Wetherbee Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire


Afghanistan
A GOOD DAY


http://icasualties.org/oif/
Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
//////////
Go here and I'll stop nagging.
http://soldiersangels.org/heroes/index.php

---

On this day...
1213 Battle at Muret: Crusade of Simon de Montfort defeat Pedro II of Aragon
1556 Emperor Charles resigns, his brother Ferdinand of Austria takes over
1609 Henry Hudson discovers Hudson River
1624 1st submarine tested (London)
1635 Sweden & Poland sign ceasefire Treaty of Stuhmsdorf
1649 Oliver Cromwell captures Drogheda, Ireland. 3,000 inhabitants massacred and all Catholic Churches were blown up by cannon.

1683 A combined Austrian and Polish army defeats the Turks at Kahlenberg and lifts the siege on Vienna, Austria. The severed head of Kara Mustapha, Turkish grand vizier, was preserved by Austria as a souvenir of the siege of Vienna.

1683 Cappuccino first made. Turks left behind sacks of coffee at Vienna which the Christians found too bitter, so they sweetened it with honey and milk and named the drink cappuccino after the Capuchin order of monks to which d'Aviano belonged. An Austrian baker created a crescent-shaped roll, the Kipfel, to celebrate the victory. Empress Maria Theresa later took it to France where it became the croissant.
1695 NY Jews petition governor Dongan for religious liberties
1733 Polish Landowners select Stanislaw Lesczynski king
1758 Charles Messier observes the Crab Nebula & begins catalog
1776 Nathan Hale leaves Harlem Heights Camp (127th St) for spy mission
1814 Battle of North Point fought near Baltimore during War of 1812

1814 A British fleet under Sir Alexander Cochrane began the bombardment of Fort McHenry, the last American defense before Baltimore. Lawyer Francis Scott Key had approached the British attackers seeking the release of a friend who was being held by the British. Key himself was detained overnight on September 13 and witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry from a British ship. As the sun rose, Key was amazed to see the American flag still flying over the battered fort. This experience inspired Key to write the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner" and adapt them to the tune of a well-known British drinking song. "The Star-Spangled Banner" was officially recognized as the national anthem in 1931.

1862 Battle of Harpers Ferry VA
1866 The first burlesque show opened in NYC.
1885 Highest score (35) recorded in any 1st-class soccer match is set
1878 Cleopatra Needle installed in London
1895 Defender (US) beats Valkyrie III (Engld) in 10th America's Cup
1908 Winston Churchill marries Clementine Hozier
1918 During WW I, US forces launch an attack on German-occupied St Mihiel
1919 Adolf Hitler joins the German Worker's Party.
1923 Britain takes over Southern Rhodesia from British South Africa Co
1928 Katharine Hepburn's NY stage debut in "Night Hostess"
1934 Baltic Pact signed by Lithuania, Estonia & Latvia
1938 Adolph Hitler demands self-determination for Sudeten Germans in Czech
1939 In response to the invasion of Poland, the French Army advances into Germany and on this day made their furthest penetration-five miles.
1940 The Lascaux Caves in France, with their prehistoric wall paintings, are discovered.
1940 49 die & 200 injured when Hercules Powder Co plant explodes (NJ)
1941 1st German ship in WW2 captured by US ship (Busko)
1942 Battle of Edson's Ridge begins at Guadalcanal
1943 Waffen-SS troops under Otto Skorzeny freed Fascist leader Benito Mussolini from the Italian resistance forces. Mussolini was greeted by Hitler later in the day.
1947 Pirate Ralph Kiner hits his record 8th HR in 4 games
1953 Jacqueline Bouvier marries John F Kennedy
1953 Nikita Khrushchev becomes 1st Secretary of USSR Communist Party
1956 Black students enter & are barred from Clay Ky elementary school
1958 Jack Kilby invented the Integrated Circuit.
1958 Little Rock High School in Arkansas is ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court to admit blacks.
1959 "Bonanza" premiers
1959 Luna 2 launched by USSR; 1st spacecraft to impact on the Moon
1961 NASA civilian pilot Joseph A Walker takes X-15 to 34,840 m
1962 Washington Senator Tom Cheney strikes out record 21 Orioles in 16 inn game
1964 1st football game at Shea Stadium, Jets defeat Denver 30-6
1964 Typhoon Gloria strikes Taiwan killing 330, with $17.5 million damage
1965 Hurricane Betsy strikes Florida & Louisiana kills 75
1966 "The Monkees," premier on NBC
1966 Gemini XI launched for 71-hour flight
1970 Dr. Timothy Leary escapes from Calif jail
1970 USSR launches Luna 16; returns samples from lunar Sea of Fertility
1972 Lord Michael Killanin succeeds Avery Brundage as head of Olympics
1972 Cod War: Icelandic gunboats sink 2 British trawlers in North Sea
1973 2 bettors win the largest US Daily Double ($19,909.60 in Detroit)
1974 Coup overthrows Emperor Haile Selassie in Ethiopia (National Day)
1974 Jeff "Skunk" Baxter joins Doobie Brothers
1974 Opposition to court-ordered school "busing" turns violent on the opening day of classes in Boston, Massachusetts
1976 Seattle Seahawks play 1st regular-season game (St L 30, Sea 24)
1976 White Sox Minnie Minoso at age 53 hits a single
1978 Taxi premiers on ABC television
1979 Indiana Pacers cut Ann Meyers, 1st woman on an NBA club
1979 Pietro Mennea of Italy sets the 200m record (19.72) in Mexico City
1979 Red Sox Carl Yastrzemski gets his 3,000th hit off Yankee Jim Beattie
1980 Military coup in Turkey
1981 Elizabeth Ward (Arkansas) is crowned Miss America
1983 Albert Rizzo trod water at sea for 108 hours 9 minutes
1983 Security guard Victor Gerena robs West Hartford company of $7 million
1983 USSR vetoes UN resolution deploring its shooting down of Korean plane (great moments at the UN #5,284)
1984 Country singer Barbara Mandrell is badly injured in a car accident
1984 NY Met Dwight Goodin sets rookie strike out record at 251
1985 Flight readiness firing of Atlantis' main engines; 20 seconds
1986 US professor Joseph Cicippio is kidnapped & held hostage in Beirut
1987 Vince Coleman steals his 100th base for 3rd straight year
1988 1st NFL regular-season game played in Phoenix; Cowboys beat Card
1988 Gilbert, strongest hurricane ever (160 mph), devastates Jamaica
1990 US, England, France, USSR, East & West Germanys sign agreements allowing the 2 Germanys to merge
1991 Space shuttle STS 48 (Discovery 14) launched
1994 A pilot crashed his small plane on the White House lawn, killing himself and creating an alarm over presidential security.
2000 Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first first lady to win an election as she claimed victory in the New York Democratic Senate primary, defeating Dr. Mark McMahon.

2001 Amid a frantic beehive of activity that followed the attacks the previous day, around-the-clock workers continued to search for unlikely survivors in the World Trade Center wreckage. With President Bush given the go-ahead by a supportive Congress to use all "necessary and appropriate force" needed against those responsible, the U.S. sought international backing for an all-out war on terrorism. While most Middle Eastern leaders joined in deploring the attacks, Iraq's Saddam Hussein(Ruler of all he surveys. ie a small....very small prison cell) called them the result of America's "evil policy."

2001 Mohammad Omar, the Taliban leader, goes into hiding.
2002 Pres. Bush addressed the UN and laid out his case against Iraq's Pres. Saddam Hussein.

---

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
China : Daylight Savings Time ends
Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau : National Day
Japan : Respect for the Aged Day
Maryland : Defenders Day (1812)
Southern Rhodesia : Occupation Day (1923)
International Chocolate Day
Chocolate Milk Shake Day
National P.O.W./M.I.A. Recognition Day
Swap Ideas Day
Southern Gospel Music Month

---

Religious Observances
Christian : Feast of the Holy Name of Mary
Ang : Commemoration of John Henry Hobart, bishop of NY

---

Religious History
1771 Pioneer Methodist bishop Francis Asbury, 26, on his maiden voyage to America, wrote in his journal: 'Whither am I going? To the New World. What to do? To gain honor? No, if I know my own heart. To get money? No, I am going to live to God, and to bring others to do so.'
1851 Birth of Francis E. Clark, American Congregationalist clergyman. In 1881, at age 29, Clark organized the world's first church "youth fellowship" in Portland, Maine. Clark's original name for this Christian group concept was "The Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor."
1922 The House of Bishops of the U.S. Protestant Episcopal Church voted 36-27 to delete the word "obey" from the vows of their denomination's official marriage service.
1908 The Bible-distributing mission agency known as the Pocket Testament League was incorporated in Birmingham, England. (The U.S. branch of this outreach is headquartered in Lititz, PA.)
1958 In Canada, a two-day church convention closed in Winnipeg, Ontario. At this assembly the Lutheran Church of Canada (LCC) was organized.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

---

Angry women sue doctor for online dating lies
12 September 2005

NEW YORK: A Manhattan fertility specialist has been sued by two women who say he broke their hearts after meeting them through an online dating site on which he pretended to be single.
In their lawsuits the two women, Tiffany Wang and Jing Huang, accused Dr Khaled Zeitoun, 46, of pretending to be single and using mind games to entice them into sexual relationships with tales of past lives.

According to court papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court and made public this week, Zeitoun is married with three children. Wang said she met him in March 2001 through a website on which he said he was single and had never married.
"Zeitoun claimed he and Wang had been married to each other in previous lives," Wang's lawsuit said, adding that the doctor told her he had mistreated her in that life and "searched for her in this lifetime to correct his past mistakes."
Wang says that in May 2002, he asked her to marry him but only proposed "to see the look of joy on her face."

In a separate suit filed earlier this year, Huang said she met the reproductive endocrinologist in October 2003 through an online dating service. He fed her a similar line about being single and having been married to her in a previous life.
Huang eventually realised he was cheating on her and the relationship ended in July 2004.

Both women are seeking unspecified money damages for infliction of severe emotional distress "outside the boundaries of human decency and social norms."
In a written response to the court papers filed by Huang, Zeitoun admitted that he told her he was single and had relationships with other women he met on the internet.

---

Thought for the day :
"A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground."
H. L. Mencken

[Wneighbor]

Mornin'

That is one incredible F-O-G PE!

I think I need to save that one.

[snippy_about_it]

Take the time...to live and love.

Amen.

[Professional Engineer]

Hi miss Feather

[Professional Engineer]

wow

[Professional Engineer]

1814 A British fleet under Sir Alexander Cochrane began the bombardment of Fort McHenry, the last American defense before Baltimore. Lawyer Francis Scott Key had approached the British attackers seeking the release of a friend who was being held by the British. Key himself was detained overnight on September 13 and witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry from a British ship. As the sun rose, Key was amazed to see the American flag still flying over the battered fort. This experience inspired Key to write the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner" and adapt them to the tune of a well-known British drinking song. "The Star-Spangled Banner" was officially recognized as the national anthem in 1931.

[Professional Engineer]

Howdy neighbor