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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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Posted on 12/18/2002 5:39:20 AM PST by SAMWolf
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are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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USS HULL, USS MONAGHAN and USS SPENCE  As father and son go, we've known each other only in our hearts. You were all of 19 when the Lord called you into another service. Dad, thank you for giving me life and a proud lifetime memory. I love you. On 17 December, 1944, my father's ship, DD-354 .U.S.S. Monaghan was steering toward Leyte Bay on a rendezvous course with the Pacific Task Forces 38 and 58. The Third Fleet was engaged in naval air strikes against Japanese forces in the Philippines. While the planes had been attacking central Luzon in support of the Mindoro invasion, the carriers and their destroyer protectors were in desperate need of fuel. Dad's ship was assigned to escort duty for the fuel ships of the fleet, an attractive enemy target. She ran at flank speed during the operations and was riding high in the seas from lack of fuel. Then she ran into Typhoon Cobra, described below as "more powerful than any western Pacific encounter with the Japanese." "In December 1944 as Admiral William Halsey's Third Fleet was operating in support of General MacArthur's invasion of the Philippines, the Third Fleet encountered a tropical cyclone more powerful than any western Pacific encounter with the Japanese. The result was three destroyers (the USS HULL, USS MONAGHAN and USS SPENCE) sunk with 800 men lost, 26 other vessels seriously damaged, and 146 aircraft destroyed (16). The Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet Admiral Nimitz said, "It was the greatest loss that we have taken in the Pacific without compensatory return since the First Battle of Savo." Halsey himself described it best. "No one who has not been through a typhoon can conceive its fury," he wrote in his autobiography. "The 70 foot seas smash you. The rain blinds you. The battleship NEW JERSEY once was hit by a 5-inch shell and I did not even feel the impact. The MISSOURI had kamikaze crash on her main deck and repaired the only damage with a paint brush. But the typhoon tossed our enormous ship the MISSOURI as if she were only a canoe."  One eyewitness account speaks to the conditions my dad found himself and his shipmates facing. "These destroyers were escorting the carriers, and they came out. We're trying to fuel them, and the seas are choppy; I mean, when I say choppy, they're twenty, twenty-five feet waves... They were going to move to another location and commence fueling in the morning again. Well, instead of taking us out of the typhoon they took us back into it. I'm talking about waves that were fifty and sixty feet high. Sometimes you'd see a destroyer, he'd be sitting up on top of a wave and the next time he would be down so low that you couldn't even see the mast. That's how deep the troughs were. There's no way those destroyers could fuel from the tankers." Former President Gerald R. Ford in May 1943 served as a pre-commissioning detachment for a new light aircraft carrier, USS Monterey (CVL-26). This was one of the ships in may dad's group. The following is an official record of an account by Lt. Ford who served as the assistant navigator, Athletic Officer, and antiaircraft battery officer on board Monterey. "Monterey was damaged by a fire which was started by several of the ship's aircraft tearing loose from their cables and colliding during the storm. During the storm, Ford narrowly missed being a casualty himself. After Ford left his battle station on the bridge of the ship in the early morning of 18 December, the ship rolled twenty-five degrees which caused Ford to lose his footing and slide toward the edge of the deck. The two inch steel ridge around the edge of the carrier slowed him enough so he could roll and twisted into the catwalk below the deck. As he later stated, 'I was lucky; I could have easily gone overboard.' " The fueling day was the first of Typhoon Cobra that claimed 790 lives in the 3d Fleet, and sank Spence (DD-512), Hull (DD-350), and Monaghan. The six survivors, rescued by USS Brown after drifting on a raft 3 days, reported that Monaghan took roll after roll to starboard, finally going over. Of the 6 hands that survived the sinking, 3 perished after rescue. From accounts passed on by one of his shipmates, my dad and other Monaghan crew members remained in the water because some of the men were injured and bleeding. Their being in the life raft was their only hope and the area was known to be shark invested. Quietly, on the night of the second day, without notice in the darkness and the rough seas, Dad joined the watery grave of the Spence, Hull and Monaghan. Of the tragedy, Admiral Nimitz said, "represented a more crippling blow to the 3d Fleet than it might be expected to suffer in anything less than a major action." Veteran of so many actions against a human enemy, Monaghan fell victim to the sailor's oldest enemy, the perils of the sea. Monaghan received 12 battle stars for World War II service.  Survivors from the Spence and the Hull ***NOTE: This dedication and story is not about my Dad*** Thanks to Freeper Comwatch for this story
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Today's classic warship, USS Hull (DD-350)
Farragut class destroyer
Displacement. 1,395
Lenght. 341'4"
Beam. 34'3"
Draft. 8'10"
Speed. 37 k.
Complement. 100
Armament. 5 5", 4 .50 ca1., 8 21" tt.
The USS Hull (DD-350) was 1auncehed by New York Navy Yard 31 January 1934 sponsored by Miss Patricia Louise Platt; and commissioned 11 January 1935, Commander R. S. Wentworth in command.
Following a shakedown cruise which took her to the Azores, Portugal, and the British Isles, Hull arrived San Diego via the Panama Canal 19 October 1935. She began her operations with the Pacific Fleet off San Diego, engaging in tactical exercises and training. During the summer of 1936 she cruised to Alaska and in April 1937 took part in fleet exercises in Hawaiian waters. During this increasingly tense pre-war period, Hull often acted as plane guard to the Navy's Pacific carriers during the perfection of tactics which would be a central factor in America's victory in World War II. She continued these operations until the outbreak of the war, moving to her new home port, Pearl Harbor, 12 October 1939.
The pattern of fleet problems, plane guard duty, and patrolling was rudely interrupted 7 December l941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Hull was alongside tender Dobbin undergoing repairs, but quickly put her anti-aircraft batteries into operation and assisted in downing several planes. As the main object of the raid was battleships, the destroyer suffered no hits and departed next day to join carrier Enterprise and escort her into Pearl Harbor. During the next critical months of the war, Hull operated with Admiral Wilson Brown's Task Force 11, screening Lexington in important strikes on Japanese bases in the Solomons. She returned to Pearl Harbor 26 March, and for 3 months sailed on convoy duty between San Francisco and Pearl Harbor.
Hull was soon back in the thick of combat, however, as she sailed 7 December for Suvu, Fiji Islands, to prepare for America's first offensive land thrust, the amphibious assault on Guadalcanal. She departed 26 July for the Solomons, and on the day of the landings, 7 August 1942, screened cruisers during shore bombardment and then took up station as antisubmarine protection for the transports. The next day she helped repel strong enemy bombing attacks, shooting down several of the attackers, and that evening performed the sad duty of sinking transport George F. Elliott, burning beyond control. On 9 August the destroyer sank a small schooner off Guadalcanal departing that evening for Espiritu Santo. During the next difficult weeks on Guadalcanal, Hull made three voyages with transports and warships in support of the troops, undergoing air attacks 3 and 14 September.
The ship returned to Pearl Harbor 20 October, and spent the remainder of the year with battleship Colorado in the New Hebrides. She sailed 29 January from Pearl Harbor bound for repairs at San Francisco, arriving 7 February 1943. Upon completion she moved to the bleak Aleutians, arriving Adak 16 April, and began a series of training maneuvers with battleships and cruisers in the northern waters. As the Navy moved in to retake Attu in May, Hull continued her patrol duties, and during July and early August she took part in numerous bombardments of Kiska Island. The ship also took part in the landings on Kiska 15 August, only to find that the Japanese had evacuated their last foothold in the Aleutian chain.
Hull returned to the Central Pacific after the Kiska operation, arriving Pearl Harbor 26 September 1943. She departed with the fleet 3 class later for strikes on Wake Island, and operated with escort carriers during diversionary strikes designed to mask the Navy's real objective the Gilberts. Hull bombarded Makin during this assault 20 November, and with the invasion well underway arrived in convoy at Pearl Harbor 7 December 1943. From there she returned to Oakland 21 December for amphibious exercises.
Next on the island road to Japan was the Marshall Islands, and Hull sailed with Task Force 53 from San Diego 13 January 1944. She arrived 31 January off Kwajalein, screening transports in the reserve area, and through February carried out screening and patrol duties off Eniwetok and Majuro. Joining a battleship and carrier group, the ship moved to Mille Atoll 18 March, and took part in a devastating bombardment. Hull also took part in the bombardment of Wotje 22 March.
The veteran ship next participated in the devastating raid on the great Japanese base at Truk 29-30 April after which she arrived Majuro 4 May 1944. There she joined Admiral Lee's battleships for the next major invasion, the assault on the Marianas. Hull bombarded Saipan 13 June, covered minesweeping operations with gunfire, and patrolled during the initial landing 15 June. Two days later Hull and other ships steamed out to join Admiral Mitscher's carrier task force as the Japanese made preparations to close the Marianas for a decisive naval battle. The great fleets approached each other 19 June for the biggest carrier engagement of the war, and as four large air raids hit the American dispositions fighter cover from the carriers of Hull's Task Group 68.2 and surface fire decimated the Japanese planes. With an able assist from American submarines, Mitscher succeeded in sinking two Japanese carriers in addition to inflicting fatal losses on the Japanese naval air arm during "The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot" 19 June, Hull assisting in several of these brilliant antiaircraft engagements.
During July the destroyer operated with carrier groups off Guam, and after the assault 21 July patrolled off the island. In August she returned to Seattle, arriving the 26th, and underwent repairs which kept her in the States until 23 October, when she anchored at Pearl Harbor.
Hull joined a 3d Fleet refueling group, departing 20 November 1944 to rendezvous with fast carrier striking forces in the Philippine Sea. Fueling began 17 December, but increasingly heavy seas forced cancellation later that day. The fueling group became engulfed in an approaching typhoon next day, with barometers falling to very low levels and winds increasing above 90 knots. At about 1100 18 December 1944 Hull became locked "in irons", in the trough of the mountainous sea and unable to steer. All hands worked feverishly to maintain integrity and keep the ship afloat during the heavy rolls, but finally, in the words of her commander: ``The ship remained over on her side at an angle of 80 degrees or more as the water flooded into her upper structures. I remained on the port wing of the bridge until the water flooded up to me, then I stepped off into the water as the ship rolled over on her way down".
The typhoon swallowed many of the survivors, but valiant rescue work by USS Tabberer and other ships of the fleet in the days that followed saved the lives of 7 officers and 55 enlisted men.
Hull received 10 battle stars for World War II service.
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