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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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Posted on 01/22/2003 5:38:10 AM PST 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. Welcome to "Warrior Wednesday". 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.  To list previous Foxhole Threads or to add The Foxhole to your sidebar Click on the Logo
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Jack Miller and his shipmate, Clifford Olds joined fellow sailor John Szawerda for a night at the "Monkey Bar". It was December 6, 1941 in Pearl City, Oahu, and Miller and Olds were on liberty from the USS West Virginia. A barmaid snapped their picture and offered it for sale. "What a scam" they thought-keep it. Within 10 hours, this photo was to be the last reminder of peace and the terrifying beginning of Clifford Olds demise.  Left to right: Jack Miller, John Szawerda and Clifford Olds The "WeeVee" was moored next to the USS Tennessee and just ahead of the USS Arizona. The choicest of targets, she took 9 torpedo hits December 7, 1941. Her port side was literally blasted off. The USS Oklahoma, just ahead of the WV, suffered similar wounds and immediately capsized, but BB48 was of a more advanced water-tight construction. The fast thinking of Lt. Claude Ricketts (THE hero of this ship) prevented the Battleship from turning over. Instead, she settled in the mud on an even keel. This was accomplished by closing all hatch compartments and counter-flooding the starboard side of the ship in a procedure called "set zed". Every sailor knew fate could place them in a doomed area to be drowned like rats. Old Timers would tell 17 and 18 year old "boots" that if that time came "just inhale water quickly and get it over". This, the "grizzled Ones" claimed, was preferable to a slow death in a pitch-black void. For Clifford Olds(20),Ronald Endicott(18) and Louis"Buddy"Costin(21), this would tragically come to pass. Trapped in the forward fresh water pumping station known as area A-111, their fate was sealed when "set zed" was announced after the first Japanese torpedo struck shortly before 8am. Sinking straight down rather than "turning Turtle" enabled hundreds to escape. Those in the lower compartments were drowned, but Olds, Endicott and Costin were alive and well in their air-tight compartment at the bottom of the ship. They did not know what had happened, nor the extent of the carnage above them. Above deck, the Captain was disemboweled by a bomb blast and the Arizona's explosion 50 yards aft rained "Dante's Inferno" onto the WeeVee. Over 100 died in every way possible. BB48 sank into the Harbor amid burning oil. She burned for 30 hours.  When her fires were extinguished late Monday Dec. 8, Guards were posted on the shoreline of Ford Island, next to "Battleship Row". Jittery over rumors of invasion, Sentries at first didn't hear the noise. WeeVee Marine Bugler Dick Fiske recalls: "When it was quiet you could hear it...bang, bang, then stop. Then bang, bang, pause. At first I thought it was a loose piece of rigging slapping against the hull". Then I realized men were making that sound-taking turns making noise". After that night, no one wanted guard duty, but someone had to do it. Bang, bang. It went on for 16 days, slowing in frequency until Christmas Eve. Then silence. The adjacent Oklahoma was upside down and holes were drilled in her bottom to allow a precious few to escape their coffin. The pressure of water inside the hull, pushing up on air pockets, meant as soon as the hull was breached, little time was left before remaining air escaped. Shipmates often drowned in front of rescuers eyes before a hole could be made large enough for escape. Cutting torches ignited trapped gasses and exploded, killing more. Jack-hammers jammed and men drowned while looking at a small holes of light. Knowledgeable Mates quickly learned to "rip open" hull plates fast to insure victims survival. A macabre Naval "C-section" with the same purpose. Olds, Endicott and Costin were sitting on the harbor floor completely surrounded by water, 40 feet down. Cutting through the side of the hull for rescue was out of the question. The smallest of holes in a pressurized compartment would cause a "blow-out", something Submariners knew well. Besides, considering the destruction and carnage above, the problems of three men didn't amount to a "hill of beans" to busy Navy Brass. All Sailors know they are expendable after "set zed". Concerned Shipmates pin-pointed their banging as coming from the bow section, but could do nothing.  Clifford Olds' friend Jack Miller had a sinking feeling Olds was trapped. He knew the pump station well, as Cliff would often invite him there for "bull sessions". It was so air-tight, they often closed the hatch and dared people to hear them cursing wildly inside. Late Spring 1942 found Navy salvage teams finally getting to work on the WV. An Inventive series of tremic cement patches were fitted to her port side, and enough water pumped out to partially float the once grand ship. BB48 was nudged across the Harbor into drydock and the grim task of finding bodies began. For Commander Paul Dice, compartment A-111 was expected to be like the rest: Put on gas masks, place some goo into a bodybag and let the Medical boys worry about identification. They had seen it all, but this compartment was different. Dice first noticed the interior was dry and flashlight batteries and empty ration cans littered the floor. A manhole cover to a fresh water supply was opened. Then he saw the calendar. It was 12"x14" and marked with big red Xs that ended December 23. Hardened salvage workers wept uncontrollably as they realized the fate of these men. Word quickly spread among salvage crews: Three men had lived for 16 days to suffer the most agonizing deaths among the 2800 victims at Pearl Harbor.  The Navy told their Parents they were killed in the attack on the 7th. Buddy Costins brother, Harlan, was the first family member to discover the truth. He joined the Navy in October of 1942, at age 17 and was assigned to the USS Tuscaloosa. A 1944 chance meeting with a friend serving aboard the rebuilt WeeVee brought the awful tale to his attention. It was legend on BB48. Harlan determined never to tell his family; they had suffered enough. A brother had died of meningitis at age 9, and their Father had been killed in a fist fight when shards of bone punctured his brain. The Navy had sent Costin's Mother a wristwatch, found in his locker. Broken and water-logged, it was to be Buddy's Christmas gift to her. She had it restored and wore it until her death in 1985 at age 92. Buddy's sister didn't find out until 1995, when she read a local story revealing the sad story. Duke Olds learned of his brother, Clifford's fate from a cousin who worked at the Bremerton, Washington Shipyard, where BB48 was rebuilt. It was legend there too, talked about in hushed tones. He too, never told his family. Clifford earned $21/month and always sent $18 to his poor parents. They didn't need to know anything more. Ron Endicott's Parents last known address was listed in the Aberdeen, Washington City directory of 1956. No one knows where they went, but it is assured they never knew either. Commander Paul Dice mailed the infamous calendar to Chief of Naval Personnel in Washington, D.C., where it was lost. Bernard Cavalcante (head of Operational Archives for Navy History), has looked for it for 32 years. It remains elusive. A Seth Thomas 8-day clock, retrieved from the pump room was taken by Dice, perhaps as a memento. In later years, Dice donated it to West Virginias Museum at Parkersburg, where it resides today. Ronald Endicott and Buddy Costin are buried at the National Memorial Cemetery Of The Pacific-the "PunchBowl". Clifford Olds remains were shipped home to Stanton City, North Dakota. All headstones list December 7 as their date of death. Jack Miller volunteered aboard the USS Lexington and was at sea for two weeks following the attack, looking for the Japanese fleet. When he returned to Hawaii, he made a bee-line for the "Monkey Bar" and located the girl who had snapped their photo "light years" before. She found the negative and gave it to him for free out of respect. This photograph shows from left to right: Jack Miller, John Szawerda and Clifford Olds-Camel cigarette dangling from his care-free fingers. Shipmates, and our Country are represented in this amazing picture of the last hours of peace.
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| 'As any 19-year-old boy would be, I was scared after I figured out what was going on, but once I realized my captain was dead, that fear was replaced with anger and I looked for any weapon I could get my hands on. There weren't any weapons available except the four or five 50-calibers we kept with us on the bridge. The rest were down below -- a frustration I'm not sure I could ever fully express.' 'It's hard to accept that some people don't know just exactly what that flag means. Our blood is mingled with those red stripes' -- Master Sgt. Disk Fiske, |
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Today's classic warship, USS Topeka (CL-67)
Cleveland class light cruiser
Displacement. 10,000
Lenght. 608' 4"
Beam. 66' 3"
Draft. 25' 0"
Speed. 31.6 k.
Complement. 1,410
Armament. 12 6", 12 5", 28 40mm., 10 20mm
The USS Topeka (CL-67) was laid down on 21 April 1943 by the Bethlehem Steel Co. yard located at Quincy, Mass.; launched on 19 August 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Frank J. Warren, and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 23 December 1944, Capt. Th omas L. Wattles in command.
After shakedown in the West Indies and post-shakedown repairs, Topeka departed Boston on 10 April 1946 for duty with the Pacific Fleet. The following day she joined Oklahoma City (CL-91); and the two ships steamed via Culebra Island a nd Guantanamo Bay to the Panama Canal. They transited the canal on 19 April and reported for duty with the Pacific Fleet on the 20th. The next day, Topeka and her steaming mate headed for Pearl Harbor, where they arrived on 2 May. Following almost three weeks of gunnery exercises in the Hawaiian Islands, the cruiser sailed west from Pearl Harbor as the flagship of Cruiser Division (CruDiv) 18. She entered Ulithi Atoll in the Western Carolines on 1 June and, after three days in the anchorage, put to sea with Bon Homme Richard (CV-31), Oklahoma City, Moale (DD-693), and Ringgold (DD-500) to rendezvous with Task Force (TF) 38.
On her first cruise with the fast carriers, she screened them against enemy air attack while their planes made three raids against targets in the enemy's home islands and the Ryukyus. On 8 June, TF 38 aircraft hit Kanoya on Kyushu-the home of Japanese nav al aviation. The next day, they struck the Ryukyu Islands-specifically Okino Daito, located a little over 200 miles west of Okinawa. The third and final strike of her first combat cruise came on 10 June and provided the cruiser with her initial opportunity to join the fray. While TG 38.1 aircraft bombed and strafed the airfield on Minami Daito, the ships in the screen-Topeka among them- moved in and took the other installations under fire. At the conclusion of that action, Topeka moved off with the rest of TG 38.1 bound for San Pedro Bay, Leyte.
After spending the latter half of June at Leyte for relaxation and replenishment, the light cruiser returned to sea on 1 July with TF 38 for the final six-week carrier sweep of the Japanese home islands. The task force made a fueling rendezvous on the 8th and then began a run-in toward Tokyo which the American planes bombed on 10 July. Next, the ships moved north to Honshu and Hokkaido for a two-day antishipping sweep of the area around Hokadate and Muroran. They retired from the area for another fueling rendezvous on the 16th, but returned to the vicinity of southern Honshu and resumed the aerial blitz of Tokyo on the 17th and 18th. On the night of the latter date, Topeka had another opportunity to strike the enemy directly when she joined Atlanta (CL-104), Duluth (CL-87), Oklahoma City, and the destroyers of DesRon 62 in an antishipping sweep of the entrance to Sagami Nada near the sea approaches to Tokyo. During that sweep, she fired her guns at Japanese installations located on Nojima Zaki, the point of land which marks the eastern terminus of the entrance into Sagami Nada. Completing another replenishment retirement between 19 and 23 July, the task force resumed its air raids on central Japan with two extensive forays against shipping in the Inland Sea on the 24th and the 28th, respectively.
A typhoon at the end of July forced the task force to take evasive action and postpone further air operations until the second week in August. At that time, Topeka steamed north with TF 38 while the carriers moved into position to send sortie after sortie against heavy concentrations of enemy aircraft on northern Honshu. Those raids-launched on 9 and 10 August-proved eminently successful, wiping out what was later learned to be the transportation for 2,000 shock troops being assembled for a one-way, suicide mission to destroy the B-29 bases on Tinian. The carrier planes paid return visits to Tokyo on the 12th and 13th and were taking off to repeat those attacks when a message arrived on the 15th, telling of Japan's capitulation.
Topeka patrolled Japanese waters until mid-September, at which time she entered Tokyo Bay. She remained there until 1 October, the day she began her homeward voyage to the United States. The cruiser stopped briefly at Okinawa on the 4th to embark 529 veterans and resumed her eastern progress on the 5th. On 19 October, she arrived in Portland, Oreg., and disembarked her passengers. Ten days later, she steamed south to San Pedro, Calif., for overhaul. On 3 January 1946, the warship put to sea to return to the Far East. She reached Yokosuka, Japan, on the 24th and began duty supporting American occupation forces in Japan, China, and in the Central Pacific islands. During that tour of duty, which lasted until the following fall, she called at Sasebo, J apan, Tsingtao and Shanghai in China; Manila in the Philippines; and Guam in the Marianas. The cruiser returned to San Pedro, Calif., on 20 November.
Following an overhaul and operations along the west coast, she headed back to the Orient on 22 September 1947. Upon her arrival at Yokosuka, Japan, on 10 October, she became a unit of TF 71. Operating from bases at Shanghai and Tsingtao, the warship patro lled the north China coast while civil war raged on shore between Nationalist and communist factions. She concluded that duty early in March and entered Nagasaki, Japan, on the 8th. Following visits to Sasebo and Kure, Topeka sailed for the United States on 25 April and arrived in Long Beach on 7 May. Later that month, she moved to Pearl Harbor for a four-month overhaul at the completion of which she returned to the west coast. Late in October, the warship resumed local operations out of Long Beach and out of San Diego. She remained so occupied until February 1949. On 25 February, she arrived in San Francisco to prepare for inactivation. Topeka was decommissioned there on 18 June 1949 and berthed with the local group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet.
Early in 1957, Topeka was towed from San Francisco to the New York Naval Shipyard which she entered on 15 April to begin conversion to a guided missile cruiser. On 23 May she was officially redesignated CLG-8. During the almost three years it took to convert her, the cruiser was extensively modified. She retained only half her original gun battery, losing her two after 6-inch triple turrets and her three after 5-inch double mounts. The removal of those guns made room for the installation of her twin Terrier surface-to-air missile launcher and related ancillary equipment.
On 26 March 1960, Topeka was recommissioned, Capt. Frank L. Pinny, Jr., in command. In July, she made the passage from New York to the west coast. From August to October, the refurbished cruiser conducted shakedown training in the southern Californ ia operating area and then reported for duty at her home port, Long Beach. During the ensuing three years, Topeka alternated two peacetime deployments to the western Pacific with repair periods and local operations on the west coast. Her two tours in the Orient were characterized by visits to such places as Hong Kong, the Philippines, Okinawa, and a number of ports in Japan as well as exercises with other ships of the 7th Fleet and of Allied navies. When not deployed to the Far East, she conducted training operations, upkeep, and repairs.
In March 1964, she embarked upon her third deployment to the western Pacific since being recommissioned. That deployment began routinely enough with fleet exercises in May and calls at Japanese, Taiwanese, Malaysian, and Philippine ports. However, in August, North Vietnamese torpedo-boats attacked Maddox (DD-731) on the 2nd and then returned to attack Maddox and Turner Joy (DD-961). This action-known as the Gulf of Tonkin incident-gave the remaining part of Topeka's deployment a more wartime character. Topeka cruised the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin while American involvement in the Vietnam conflict began to gather momentum. It was more than a year, though, before she steamed into war in earnest. Late in October, she started for home and reentered Long Beach near the end of the second week of November. For the next 12 months, she viewed the developing war from afar-operating out of west coast ports, undergoing repairs and modifications, and conducting exercises with the 1st Fleet.
On 29 November 1965, however, she headed back to the western Pacific for the first deployment during which her primary mission was to support the American and South Vietnamese forces fighting the communists. On that tour of duty, she served as the flagship for the Commander Cruiser-Destroyer Group, 7th Fleet. In that capacity the ship operated in the South China Sea and in the Gulf of Tonkin providing naval gunfire support for the troops ashore and supporting carrier air operations by conducting search and rescue missions for downed aircrews. She punctuated tours of duty in the combat zone with port visits to Yokosuka, Japan, Hong Kong, and the Philippine ports of Manila and Subic Bay. Her six-month deployment ended on 28 May 1966 when Topeka reentered Long Beach.
Five months of normal west coast operations-upkeep, training exercises, and the like-followed. On 31 October, the guided missile cruiser entered the naval shipyard for an overhaul during which her weapons systems were updated, and her engineering plant was overhauled. On 13 March 1967, she completed the yard overhaul and began sea trials and, later refresher training. She finished those evolutions early in June and resumed local operations. On 1 August, the warship put to sea from Long Beach for her first deployment to the Mediterranean Sea. She stopped at Norfolk on 12 and 13 August to embark the Commander, Cruiser-Destroyer Flotilla 12, and his staff and then sailed for Palma de Majorca on the 14th. On the 20th, Topeka joined the 6th Fleet and, on the 22d, relieved Galveston (CLG-3) as flagship for TG 60.2. During her five months with the 6th Fleet, she ranged the length of the "middle sea." In late September and early October, the warship participated in NATO exercise "Eager Beaver," conducted in the eastern end of the Mediterranean. In mid-October, she conducted operations in the Ionian and Tyrrhenian Seas on her way back to the western end.
In January 1968, she concluded her first tour of duty in the Mediterranean with another NATO exercise-this one an amphibious operation. On the 12th, she was relieved by Columbus (CG-12) at Rota, Spain. The cruiser then headed back to the United States. After stops at Puerto Rico and in the Canal Zone, Topeka reentered Long Beach on 29 January.
On 2 February, the warship began a five-week availability at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard. The guided missile cruiser departed Long Beach again on 15 March, bound for her new home port, Mayport, Fla. After arriving at her destination on 21 March, Topeka remained in port for upkeep until 6 May when she returned to sea for refresher training at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Returning to Mayport on the 26th, the ship began preparations for another deployment to the Mediterranean-the last deployment of her career.
Topeka departed Mayport on 29 June and, after gunnery exercises at Culebra Island near Puerto Rico, she headed across the Atlantic. On 9 July, she relieved Columbus at Malaga, Spain, and began 6th Fleet operations. The warship's final deploy ment proved to be routine in nature. She visited ports all along the Mediterranean littoral and conducted operations in all portions of the middle sea from the Aegean and Ionian Seas in the east to the Riviera ports in the west. Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and France-as well as the islands of Malta, Crete, and Majorca-provided her with interesting ports of call. Topeka concluded her assignment with the 6th Fleet on 9 December at Rota when she was relieved once again by Columbus. That same day, she headed for Mayport, arriving 10 days later.
On 30 January 1969, Topeka steamed out of Mayport and proceeded north for inactivation. After a stop at Yorktown, Va., to off-load her ordnance, she arrived in Boston on 5 February. There, she completed inactivation preparations; and, on 5 June, Topeka was placed out of commission. The warship was towed to Philadelphia and was berthed with the reserve fleet group there. On 1 December 1973, her name was struck from the Navy list, and, on 20 March 1975, she was sold to the Southern Scrap Material Co., Ltd., for scrapping.
Topeka was awarded two battle stars for her World War II service and three battle stars for her Vietnam service.
Big guns in action?
This is more like it!
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