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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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Posted on 12/06/2002 12:33:24 PM PST by Jen
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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. We hope to provide an ongoing source of information about issues and problems that are specific to Veterans and resources that are available to Veterans and their families. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support.
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Veterans History Project There are over 19 million veterans living in the U.S. today. With each is a personal story of battles fought, victories and defeats. Each story, though sometimes heartbreaking, is full of love, dedication and patriotism.
 War correspondent May Craig interviews a soldier, ca. 1945.
That's how Peter Bartis describes his work with the Veterans History Project. The grassroots effort that began two years ago -- and has now caught fire -- is hoping to keep those memories alive. Bartis, a senior program officer for the project, said that each day some 1,500 U.S. veterans die -- and with them a treasured part of the nation's past. "These are some of the most amazing stories; when you put them all together you get a story of the nation," he said. Over the past year alone, the project's staff of 16 has already collected more than 14,000 items, such as letters and other memoirs, and video and audiotape interviews. "We're all just blown away by these stories," he said. "The information has been very rich, it's been emotional, and it's very heartening to listen to the stories, to learn how and why they (veterans) joined, their war-time experience." With the idea that future generations could learn from the histories of the nation's veterans, the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, began the effort to collect video and audio recordings of personal histories and testimonials of American war veterans -- men, women, civilians who served in World Wars I and II, and the Korean, Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars. The center needs contributions of civilian volunteers, support staff, and war industry workers also. Bartis said the amount of regular mail and the number of e-mails and phone calls vary from day to day, "but the response to this project has been enormous." "We get to know a lot of these people personally. That's the fun part," he said. Aside from the thousands of items received from everyday Americans each year, Bartis said the project has gained tremendous support from the corporate community as well. The Veterans History Project's official Web site lists more than 50 national partners and support organizations from every state. The military services contribute through offices such as the Army's U.S. Center of Military History and the Naval and Marine Corps Historical centers, as well as DoD's official committee commemorating the 50th Korean War anniversary. Major national veterans associations are well-represented also. "This is not our project or the library's project. This is the nation's project," Bartis said. "We want people of all walks of life to feel ownership of this project." Learn more about the Veterans History Project.
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Thanks for your service, if you put on the uniform you helped the war effort and don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise.
I'll do that, thanks. Much success to you. : )
Today's classic warship, USS Ward (DD-139)
Wickes class destroyer
Displacement. 1,247
Lenght. 314'4"
Beam. 30'11"
Draft. 9'10"
Speed. 35.0 k.
Complement. 231
Armament. 4 4", 2 3", 12 21" tt.
USS Ward (Destroyer No. 139) was laid down on 15 May 1918 by the Mare Island Navy Yard; launched in a record 15 days on 1 June 1918, sponsored by Miss Dorothy Hall Ward, and commissioned on 24 July 1918, Comdr. Milton S. Davis in command.
Under the pressure of urgent First World War needs for destroyers, her construction was pushed rapidly from keel-laying on 15 May 1918 to launching on 1 June and commissioning on 24 July 1918. Ward transferred to the Atlantic late in the year and helped support the trans-Atlantic flight of the NC flying boats in May 1919. She came back to the Pacific a few months later and remained there until she was decommissioned in July 1921. She had received the hull number DD-139 in July 1920.
The outbreak of World War II in Europe brought Ward back into active service. She recommissioned in January 1941. Sent to Pearl Harbor shortly thereafter, the destroyer operated on local patrol duties in Hawaiian waters over the next year. On the morning of 7 December 1941, Ward was conducting a precautionary patrol off the entrance to Pearl Harbor when she encountered a Japanese Midget Submarine. The first shot of the Pacific war barked from Ward's gun at 0645 and splashed harmlessly beyond the small conning tower. As Ward pounded past at 25 knots, number three gun atop the galley deckhouse amidships commenced fire its round passed squarely through the submersible's conning tower. As the Japanese midget wallowed lower in the water and started to sink, the destroyer swiftly dropped four depth charges signalled by four blasts on the ship's whistle. Black water gushed upwards in the ship's boiling wake as the bombs went off sealing the submarine's doom. Thus USS Ward fired the first shots of the Pacific War a few hours before Japanese carrier aircraft formally opened the conflict with their attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet inside the harbor.
In 1942, Ward was sent to the west coast for conversion to a high speed transport. Redesignated APD-16 in February 1943, she steamed to the South Pacific to operate with U.S. forces in the Solomon Islands area. She helped fight off a heavy Japanese air attack off Tulagi on 7 April 1943 and spent most of the rest of that year on escort and transport service. In December, she participated in the Cape Gloucester invasion. During the first nine months of 1944, Ward continued her escort and patrol work and also took part in several Southwest Pacific amphibious landings, among them the assaults on Saidor, Nissan Island, Emirau, Aitape, Biak, Cape Sansapor and Morotai.
As the Pacific War moved closer to Japan, Ward was assigned to assist with operations to recover the Philippine Islands. On 17 October 1944, she put troops ashore on Dinagat Island during the opening phase of the Leyte invasion. After spending the rest of October and November escorting ships to and from Leyte, in early December Ward transported Army personnel during the landings at Ormoc Bay, Leyte.
On the morning of 7 December 1944, three years to the day after her Number Three Gun fired the opening shot of the War, she was patrolling off the invasion area when she came under attack by several Japanese aircraft. One bomber made a suicide crash into her hull amidships, bringing the ship to a stop. When the resulting fires could not be controlled, Ward's crew was ordered to abandon ship and she was sunk by gunfire from USS O'Brien (DD-725), whose Commanding Officer, William W. Outerbridge, had been in command of Ward during her action off Pearl Harbor three years before.
Ward received one battle star for World War II services as a destroyer and eight as a fast transport.
"A Shot for Posterity -- The USS Ward's number three gun and its crew-cited for firing the first shot the day of Japan's raid on Hawaii. Operating as part of the inshore patrol early in the morning of December 7, 1941, this destroyer group spotted a submarine outside Pearl Harbor, opened fire and sank her. Crew members are R.H. Knapp - BM2c - Gun Captain, C.W. Fenton - Sea1c - Pointer, R.B. Nolde - Sea1c - Trainer, A.A. De Demagall - Sea1c - No. 1 Loader, D.W. Gruening - Sea1c - No. 2 Loader, J.A. Paick - Sea1c - No. 3 Loader, H.P. Flanagan - Sea1c - No. 4 Loader, E.J. Bakret - GM3c - Gunners Mate, K.C.J. Lasch - Cox - Sightsetter." (quoted from the original 1942-vintage caption)
This gun is a 4"/50 type, mounted atop the ship's midships deckhouse, starboard side.
Afire after she was hit by a "Kamikaze" in Ormoc Bay, Leyte, on 7 December 1944. She sank later in the day. Exactly three years earlier, on the morning of 7 December 1941, while on patrol off Pearl Harbor, Ward fired the first shot of the Pacific War.
D1
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