The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Clifford Olds - Warrior Wednesday - Jan. 22nd, 2003

http://www.usswestvirginia.org/stories/they_will_always_be_remembered.htm ^

[SAMWolf]

The USS West Virginia



Captain Mervyn Bennion was the commander of the USS West Virginia, at anchor just ahead of the Oklahoma. As the first torpedoes struck the Oklahoma, three more reached out for the West Virginia, opening holes in its side. Water poured into the battleship with the force of a flash flood, causing it to list dangerously to one side. From the bridge, Captain Bennion quickly took control, ignoring the crash of bombs around him and the hail of bullets spewed around him by the strafing zeroes. He ordered flooding on the side of the West Virginia opposite the torpedo strikes to balance the flooding from the gaping wounds and turn his ship upright.

The counter measures seemed to be working, the West Virginia sinking lower in the water but becoming more level. Then more torpedoes were unleashed, followed by bombs dropped from high above. Captain Bennion had moved to the starboard side of the bridge, barking out orders and and doing everything in his power to save his ship.



As intent as the intrepid Naval officer was in keeping the West Virginia afloat, the Japanese pilots were as determined to send it to the bottom of the harbor. A bomb hurtling from 20,000 feet above made a direct hit on the West Virginia, and almost simultaneously a similar strike was made on the neighboring USS Tennessee. The fiery eruptions filled the air with flying shrapnel. Up on the bridge, ragged pieces of hot metal ripped into Captain Bennion's abdomen. Struggling against the unbearable pain, the ship's Captain refused to be evacuated. Fire was breaking out all over West Virginia, secondary explosions erupted around the bridge, and there was little more to be done. Captain Bennion ordered the others on the bridge to get out before it was to late. As they departed to find shelter away from the rapidly sinking battleship, Captain Bennion continued to fight off his pain to receive reports and issue orders as long as he could think clearly. Finally, his horrible wounds became to much for human endurance and he collapsed...unconscious...and then died.

As the smoke of battle filled the heavens, the USS West Virginia slipped beneath the surface of the water. In all, 106 of her crew were killed, including the captain who refused to give up trying to save his ship...or spare his men...until he went down with the ship. Through the smoke little could be seen above the surface of the harbor to indicate that a once proud Naval vessel had floated peacefully at that location on Battle Ship Row. Yet, in its own fitting way, as the West Virginia settled into the mud at the bottom of the harbor, the United States Flag could be seen through the smoke, still waving from its fantail.

[SAMWolf]

The USS West Virginia trapped 70 sailors when it sank to the bottom of Pearl Harbor after six torpedo hits Dec. 7, 1941.

Three sailors survived under the warm waters in a compartment for at least two weeks.

Vern Jacobson of Winlock remembers finding those men's bodies.

"They had marked off a calendar until the 23rd of December," Jacobson said. "They were living off canned peaches until the air ran out."

Remembrance Day

Jacobson and a handful of other Pearl Harbor survivors recounted their memories at the Veterans Memorial Museum on Sunday for the museum's annual Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. About 50 people, most of them veterans, crammed into the front lobby of the Centralia museum to hear the stories -- and share a little cake and coffee.

Dale Gallea was on the USS Vestal -- tied up to the USS Arizona -- when two bombs struck the ship early that Sunday morning.

A piece of shrapnel struck Gallea, and the Vestal's captain was blown over the side.

The second-in-command ordered the men to abandon ship. But the captain hadn't been killed, and he climbed back aboard.

"He said, 'We're not giving up that ship,' " Gallea said.

The Vestal survived and served during the rest of World War II. Gallea stayed on that ship for two to three more years.

Cy Simmons -- the informal master of ceremonies for Sunday's event -- said he remembered going to the Vestal to ask for new clothes after the attacks.

Simmons, who was stationed on the USS Oklahoma, had lost clothes and was saturated in oil.

"I spent half an hour signing chits to get some clean underwear," Simmons said.

'This isn't a drill'

Simmons said he spotted a funny looking airplane with a red circle on it early Sunday morning. He said the plane dropped something from its belly.

"I said, 'If this goes off, this isn't a drill,' " said Simmons.



The Oklahoma sailors manned their battle stations, but the Japanese kept shooting and the boat began to roll over.

Simmons, then 23 years old, decided it was time to jump off the ship. He swam to Ford Island and joined other soldiers who were shooting at the invading planes.

"I don't know if it did anything," Simmons said. "But it sure made us feel better."

After dark, Simmons and other men loaded up a whale boat with provisions to try to reach Oahu.

"We ended up working for eight days loading up bodies," Simmons said.

The attack on Pearl Harbor killed 2,403 people.

"I remember one unpleasant incident," Simmons said. "They dropped a box. It fell open and there wasn't a body, just body parts."

It was enough to make a young Marine sick, Simmons said.

The Oklahoma never was returned to battle duty, although it was raised from the bottom of the harbor.

The West Virginia was raised from the sea floor, and Jacobson was on the ship in Tokyo Bay when the peace treaty was signed on the USS Missouri.

The West Virginia was the only ship that had been attacked at Pearl Harbor and also was present for the surrender.

"I've always said it should have been signed on the West Virginia," Jacobson said.

[SAMWolf]

'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,
bugler assigned to a Marine detachment aboard the USS West Virginia

[SAMWolf]

Thanks, Doughty!

[SAMWolf]

[Sparta]

Good job SAMWolf and good morning. Support President Bush, fly your flag during the State of the Union speech next Tuesday.

[Fiddlstix]

Good Morning Everybody.

You Know The Drill
Click the Pics

Coffee & Donuts J

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning Sparta.

[SAMWolf]

It's sure nice to know I don't have to make the coffee and donuts before I post the thread. I can always count n Fiddlstix to have them there. Thanks.

[Jen]

PING to the FReeper Foxhole daily thread in the VetsCoR Forum!

To be removed from this list, Click this link and send a BLANK FReepmail to AntiJen.

If you have comments for me to read, use this link. Thanks!

[Aeronaut]

Good morning Jen.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning Jen.

[SAMWolf]

Thank's Cote, for the poem.

It had to be a horrible way to die, trapped and wondering if anyone was coming, not knowing what was happening outside, realizing what was coming and helpless to do anything about it.

This poem brings out the horror better than all the accounts I've read of the gas attacks of WW I.

[aomagrat]

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.

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Big guns in action?

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This is more like it!

[Jen]

What an amazing story. How sad those sailors could not be rescued.

Thank you Sam and Abner for your work on this thread!

[Jen]

Good morning to you too Aeronaut!

[Jen]

Thanks for the daily bumps!!

[Jen]

I like your last pix best too. Big guns! Wooooooooooooo!!