ChezDaJez
Posts: 3436
Joined: 11/12/2004
From: Chehalis, WA
Status: offline
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ORIGINAL: ChezDaJez
quote:
ORIGINAL: ChezDaJez
I have a patient whose family told me he was on the New Orleans during Pearl Harbor. I'll have to ask him if he was onboard at Tassafaronga. I hope he can tell me his experiences if he was. He has a bit of Alzheimer's so I'm not sure that he will recall this.
Chez
Unfortunately, his Alzheimer's is a little too advanced to get any info from him. Too bad. I bet he would have some very interesting stories to tell.
Chez
A bit of good news related to this. I was talking with his daughter tonight and she was quite knowledgeable of the ship and the battle. She said that her father never spoke of the war until about 30 years ago when he discovered that one of his old shipmates lived in the same town as he. They began visiting and gradually the stories came out.
According to the daughter, her father was a quartermaster 2nd class and was on the bridge during the torpedoing. His job was relaying messages to and from aft control where the XO was. She said her father recalled that the moment of impact there was a huge, sudden flash of light followed by him being propelled backwards into the aft bulkhead. He was dazed but unhurt. He said that Capt Roper (she called him by name) was knocked out for several minutes by the explosion and that the XO was called to the bridge to take over command. The captain came round about the time the XO showed up so the XO headed down below to guide the DC teams.
He also recalled that when the bow broke off and came bumping down the side of the ship, the guns of #1 turret seemed to be pointing directly at the bridge and they prayed that they weren't loaded. He said the captain made the decision to attempt to make Tulagi by steaming in reverse but the ship just went in a circle. They ended up steaming forward at a couple of knots and made Tulagi about 10 hours later. She said one of the reasons he never talked about it was because he was one of the men detailed to retrieve bodies from #2 turret and other flooded spaces when they prepared to put on a temporary bow. She said that to this day he refuses to put his head under water, even if just in a shower.
BTW, Capt Roper was awarded the Navy Cross for this action but was later courtmartialled for mistreatment of German submarine crews interred at Norfolk Navy Yard after Germany's surrender. I found this little tidbit while checking to see how much of what she told me was accurate. AFAICT, it's reasonably accurate.
I forgot to ask her permission to be able to use his name here but will ask tonight. Plus I want to find out if she has any of his wartime photos. That would be really interesting.
Chez
_____________________________
Ret Navy AWCS (1972-1998)
VP-5, Jacksonville, Fl 1973-78
ASW Ops Center, Rota, Spain 1978-81
VP-40, Mt View, Ca 1981-87
Patrol Wing 10, Mt View, CA 1987-90
ASW Ops Center, Adak, Ak 1990-92
NRD Seattle 1992-96
VP-46, Whidbey Isl, Wa 1996-98
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