Matthew Lynch Oral History Interview

JAMES LINDLEY: Today is the --

MATTHEW LYNCH: October 28th.

JL: Right. All right. This is Dr. James Lindley, and this is

an oral history interview that is being collected over the

telephone. The purpose of the National Museum of the

Pacific War Oral History Project is to collect, preserve,

and interpret the stories of World War II veterans’ home

front experiences, the life of Fleet Admiral Chester W.

Nimitz, and the old Nimitz Hotel, by means of audio and/or

video recordings. The audio and video recordings of such

interviews become part of the Center for

Studies, the Archive of the National Museum of the Pacific

War, and the Texas Historical Commission. These recordings

will be made available for historical and other academic

research by scholars, and members of the interviewee’s

family. We, the undersigned, have read the above and

voluntarily offer the National Museum of the Pacific War

full use of the information contained on the audio and/or

video recordings, and written text of these oral histories,

for the purposes of research. In view of the scholarly

value of this research material, we hereby assign rights,

title, interest pertaining to it to the National Museum of

1

the Pacific War, and the Texas Historical Commission. And

I’d like you at this point in time to indicate your

approval of this statement.

ML: I’m in agreement with the statement.

JL: All right. And the next statement is: I give permission

for excerpts of my oral history to be used in the Nimitz

Foundation publication, The Nimitz News; the programs; the

publications; and exhibits of the National Museum of the

Pacific War.

ML: I do.

JL: All right, very good. This interview is Mr. Matthew James

Lynch. Mr. Matthew James Lynch. And Mr. Lynch is being

interviewed on the telephone. Mr. Lynch lives in

Wilmington, Delaware. And, again, this is the 27th of

October, 2011. We certainly thank you for your time this

afternoon, and we appreciate your service to our country

during the Second World War. Would you please begin by

telling us a little bit about yourself, and then tell us

your experience during the conflict in World War II?

ML: Okay. Leading up to the travels of the USS Conner, DD-582,

during World War II, the year was 1941 --

JL: Let’s start by telling us a little bit about yourself,

where you were born --

2

ML: Okay. I, Matthew J. Lynch, was a happy senior at La Salle

Academy, looking forward to graduation in June 1942. I was

born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island, and happily

planning my future college career. However, December 7th

changed all my well laid out plans. The war, in the

beginning, did not seem to affect my plans right away, but

in July 1942, all 18-year-olds had to sign up for the

draft. Since I lived all my life around the ocean, I

started to think Navy. On September 8th, 1942, I joined the

Navy and headed for boot camp at Newport, Rhode Island.

After a short stay at Newport, where we took a battery of

tests, I was assigned to gunnery school, where we learned

to repair and clean all types of firearms, gear. After 15

weeks, some of us were selected to attend advanced electric

hydraulic school in Washington, D.C. And we then proceeded

for 15 more weeks of training. We concentrated primarily

on the 5”/38 multipurpose gun, found on all ships in the

fleet. I was promoted to third-class gunner’s mate, and

assigned to new construction. That turned out to be the

USS Conner DD-582, being built in Boston, Massachusetts.

The USS Conner was a new type of the Fletcher

class. are built for speed, and are built of

one quarter inch steel, with no armament. The Conner was

constructed in the shadow of Old Ironsides, and was soon to

3

live up to the fine tradition of that great ship. The

Conner is a story of ships built after Pearl Harbor. It is

the account of the new Navy, which wrested -- W-R-E-S-T-E-D

-- control of the Pacific from the torturous enemy, which

won temporary advantage by that infamous attack. Her

track: the route of the triumphant advance upon the

Japanese empire. Her history is studded with the scenes of

American victories at such places as Tarawa, Kwajalein,

Majuro, Eniwetok, Kavieng, Hollandia, Sea, Iwo

Jima, , , Okinawa, , , Bay, and

Balikpapan. The USS Conner DD-582 was placed in full

commission June 8th, 1943, after a shakedown cruise to

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the crew was motored into a

fighting unit. The Conner returned to Boston. It was

during the return to Boston the Conner saw its first

action: trailing an enemy and dropping depth

charges, before being relieved to continue back to Boston.

Our post-shakedown overhaul was completed on August 23rd,

1942, and we left Boston for good, with two other destroyers, headed for the Panama Canal and . The

Conner arrived in Pearl Harbor on 9/24/42. Forty days out of Boston the Conner was in an antiaircraft screen, protecting aircraft carriers whose plans were neutralizing

Jap-held outposts. After a daring raid on , the

4

USS Conner returned to Pearl Harbor. The Conner started

training for the invasion of the Gilbert Islands. During

this invasion, the Conner experienced extensive (pause) air

raids, and warding off . The Conner assisted in

shooting down one plane. After the Gilberts, the Conner

bombarded Narm Island, N-A-R-M, celebrating six months in

the warzone. On Christmas Day, a large group, including

the Conner, swarmed Kavieng, K-A-V-I-O-N-G [sic], New

Ireland, and that night was under heavy attack from Jap

planes, with no damage to any US ships. About January

1944, the USS Conner joined Task Force 58 and headed for an

attack on the , in preparation for

invasion. The next action for Task Force 58 was set for

March 22nd. Raids were made on [Blav?], B-L-A-V, [Yapa?],

Y-A-P-A, and Woleai, W-O-L-E-A-L [sic]. After working over

the islands, the Conner and Task Force 58 provided for the

Marshall Islands, where we remained until June 6th in training. The Conner proceeded westward, with Task Force

58, for strikes on Guam, G-U-A-M, and Rota, R-O-T-A, islands of the Marianas group on June 16th and 17th. This

operation was in support of a greater operation of Saipan,

Tinian, T-I-N-I-A-N, and Guam. During this action, the

Conner picked up a plane’s survivors from the USS Hornet.

Again, on June 18th the Conner recovered 18 Japanese

5 soldiers whose transport had been sunk by American subs.

The first battle of the Philippines Sea began on June 19th, and the Conner was in the thick of it. On the night of the

20th, with all running lights on, the Conner dashed about looking for downed US pilots that had run out of fuel, and luckily we were not able to find any floating pilots. On the 23rd of June, the Conner rejoined the Task Force, and headed for for a sweep of the islands, then headed for Eniwetok, and some baseball. After three days at

Eniwetok, the force headed for Saipan, and then made a fighter sweep over Iwo Jima to neutralize the airfield. On

July 4th, strikes were made at Iwo Jima, , H-A-H-A, and Chichi, which is C-H-I-C-H-I. That afternoon, the

Conner used real firepower to celebrate the 4th of July, blasting the airfield on Iwo Jima. In addition, the Conner drove off three Jap Zeros, which were attacking our spotter planes. A few well-placed shells soon convinced the Jap pilots we were for real, and they left in a hurry. On July the 15th, the Conner joined the USS Lesuth, L-E-S-U-T-H, and the USS Claiborne, C-L-A-I-R-B-O-R-N-E [sic], to escort them to Eniwetok for boiler repairs. And once we did, the three cans joined Task Force 38 and spent several days in training. Task Force 38 made strikes on , P-A-L-A-U, and , M-I-N-D-A-N-O [sic], to provide coverage for

6

landing on [Thailand?], T-A-L-A-N-D, and [Loro?], L-O-R-O-

T-A-I. These operations were carried out to maintain

control of the eastern approaches through the Philippine

Islands, and the Formosa/ coasts. On September 13th,

the Conner rescued two pilots who had been found to land --

who had been forced to land their plan in the water. One

pilot was from the USS Wasp, and the other was from the USS

Boston. On September the 14th, the Conner was assigned to the fleet to assist in landing on Morotai, M-O-R-O-T-A-I, and the Conner joined Task Force 38 the following day. On

September 21st, the Conner shot down a plane attacking the

USS Hornet. On the 24th of September, the Conner rescued

the crew of the Bunker Hill plane, after it crashed off the

port bow, as it was returning from a strike against

Corregidor. On October 2nd, the Task Force 38 proceeded to

strike shipping and installations in Okinawa, Jima, and

then proceeded Formosa and Luzon, to support the capture

and occupation of Leyte Gulf, and Negros areas, N-E-G-R-O-S

areas. The Conner then proceeded to Seeadler Harbor, S-E-

E-A-D-L-E-R, for rearming and provisions. One of the

outstanding performances participated in by the Conner

while in actual contact with the enemy took place during

the Fast Carrier strikes on Formosa on October 13th and 14th.

The Conner was operating with a group which was subjected

7 to attacks by some 129 Japanese planes during the strike. On the night of (audio breaking up; inaudible), the USS Canberra, in the adjacent screening station to this vessel, approximately 1,700 yards distance, was torpedoed by a low-flying Japanese bomber. During the torpedo run, the Conner was caught in the fury of the Canberra’s guns.

The put up a terrific barrage of antiaircraft shells in desperate attempt for survival. The shrapnel sprayed on the decks of the Conner, resulting in the injury of 26 men, six seriously wounded, two of whom survived the next few days. Immediately following the torpedoing of the

Canberra, the Conner and the USS Burns stood by the stricken vessel, now dead in the water, circling clockwise at a range of about 2,000 yards, while the remainder of the

Task Force continued on in evasive tactics. The Task Group remained in the same area of the Canberra throughout the next day, and was subjected to another furious attack at dusk on the 14th. In an attack similar to the night before, the USS Houston was torpedoed and severely damaged. During this attack, the Conner shot down one enemy torpedo bomber and received credit for assisting in two others. On

October 20th, the Conner picked up the pilot and the crewmen of the USS Wasp plane, which had crashed. The task group proceeded on October 23rd to , U-L-I-T-H-I, Island, in

8

order to rearm and re-provision. The next day, while the

group struck at Yap, Y-A-P, Island, shortly after the

strike the group was ordered to head westward at the best

possible speed, due to reports of enemy surface contacts,

indicating movement of enemy combatant ships. The

resulting action was the second Battle of the Philippine

Sea. After the famous victory in that battle, the group

returned to Ulithi, arriving there on the 29th of October.

The group remained at Ulithi, awaiting orders to carry out

further offensive strikes against the enemy, until November

2nd, when it was ordered to commence a high-speed run

towards Luzon for strikes against aircraft and shipping in

northern Luzon on the 5th and 6th, and on Leyte Island on the

10th. After refueling, the group returned to the Task Force

of destroying enemy aircraft and shipping in Luzon. The

mission against Luzon Island was completed on the 19th of

November, and the Conner was ordered to proceed to Kossol

Roads, K-E-S-S-O-L [sic], in the Palau Islands, and report

to the Commander of the Seventh Fleet for duty. She

anchored in that anchorage on November 21st. While at

Kossol islands, the Conner became a unit of DesRon 51 and

Des Division 102, in accordance with the Pacific Destroyer

Reorganization of December 1st. On November 27th, the Conner received orders from the Commander of the Seventh Fleet to

9

proceed in company with the USS Portland to Leyte, to

arrive before noon on the 29th. On the 29th, the Conner reported to the Task Group in Leyte Gulf, having operated almost exclusively with the Fast Carrier Task Force of the

3rd and 5th Fleets previous to this time. At 19:30 on that

date, the task group commander ordered Comm DesRon 22 to

carry out a sweep of Camotes Bay -- that’s spelled C-A-M-O-

T-E-S -- and with emphasis on the destruction of targets in

Ormoc, O-R-M-O-C, Bay, to be conducted by four destroyers.

The Conner, along with the USS Waller and Renshaw, was

chosen to participate in the sweep. By 22:00, the Conner,

the third ship in column, was rounding the tip of Panaon

Island, P-A-N-O-A-N [sic], en route to Ormoc Bay, at a

speed of 34 knots, heading through the narrow, treacherous

waters at the south end of the island. For 24 hours, the

men of the Conner stayed at their battle stations, running

a gauntlet of enemy bombers throughout the night, and into

the following day. On 09:00 this next morning, the Conner

had traveled 400 miles, swept the , and

eliminated and fired on a number of visible surface and

shore targets around Ormoc (inaudible) Bay. During the

trip, there were five near misses from enemy bombers.

However, no damage was done to the ship, and there were no

casualties. On completion of the mission, the ship was

10

proud to receive a very well done from the Captain R. H.

Smith, Commander Destroyer Squadron 22, for its action.

The Conner remained in Leyte Gulf, covering landing

operations, until December 4, when she returned to Kossol

Passage. On the 10th she left Kossol Roads with a heavy

covering, and with the heavy covering and carrier group of

the Mindoro Attack Force, whose task it was to destroy

enemy surface forces encountered, and to provide air

coverage for the landing on Mindoro Island, M-I-N-O-D-O-R-O

[sic], in the Philippines on December 15th. The group

passed through Surigao Strait, S-U-R-I-G-A-O, during the

night of December 12th to 13th. The following day, the group

was subjected to a suicide attack in which the USS Haraden,

H-A-R-A-D-E-N, stationed next to the Conner, was struck by

an enemy dive bomber, with the loss of several men killed

and wounded. On December 15th the Conner shot down a Kate,

K-A-T-E, during an attack in which the USS Marcus Island was attacked by two enemy suicide dive bombers. Following the attack, the Task Force proceeding on a retirement course through the Mindanao Sea, having been relieved of responsibility in connection with the Mindoro operation.

After refueling at Kossol Roads on the 19th, the group

continued on to Manus Island. The conquest (audio breaking

11

up; inaudible) on January 2nd, 1945 (audio breaking up;

inaudible) --

JL: Your phone is breaking up a little bit.

ML: Oh, really? How about that?

JL: There you go. Yeah, that’s better.

ML: Landings at -- that’s L-I-N-U-A-Y-A-N [sic] -

- in Luzon, scheduled for January 19th. After that

invasion, the Conner returned on the 15 to the Port of San

Jose in Mindoro for provisioning, before covering the

landings at Subic Bay, Luzon on the 29th of the month. With

60 months of hard fighting, fast action, and high-speed

steaming behind her, the Conner on February 1st headed for

Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, with her

division for a navy yard overhaul. After the modernizing

overhaul, the Conner got on the way from the Puget Sound

area for San Diego, on April 15th. Four days

later, she entered San Diego Channel. The following day,

on the 20th, the Conner proceeded to Pearl Harbor. The

Conner remained in , conducting shore bombardment and

antiaircraft firing exercises for April 26th until May 1st.

On the latter date, the Conner proceeded to Manus Island,

stopping off en route at [?] (inaudible) for fuel on

May 6th. Upon her arrival on Manus on May 9th, the Conner

reported to the Commander of Transport Squadron 11. The

12

next day, as an escort for the transport, the Conner

continued on the Leyte Gulf, where she anchored in San

Pedro Bay on the 16th. On the 5th, the Conner got underway

to assist in covering a simul... (laughs)

JL: Simultaneous.

ML: Yeah. Attack, landing on the Australian military forces at

Brunei Bluff -- that’s B-R-U-N-E-I -- in Muara Island, M-U-

A-R-A, and Victoria Town, and seizure and securing Brunei

town, and in [Lebrun Aidrome?] in the Brunei Bay sector of

northwest . Three days later, the Conner led the

Task Force into Brunei Bay, and spent the day bombarding

the landing area, the Conner supporting the Brunei Bay

operation on various fire [qualt?] stations until June 17th,

when she left for Tawi-Tawi, T-A-W-I-T-A-W-I, Bay. The

Conner remained at Tawi-Tawi from June 19th until June 24th,

before proceeding to Morotai Island in the Halmahera group.

On June 28th, the Conner left M-O-R-O-T-A-I to cover the

landings in , Dutch east Bornoe. The Conner was

on several fire support missions from July 2nd until July

8th, when she left for Subic Bay. During the period of July

31st through August 4th, the Conner conducted, in support of

the intercepting, boarding, and taking prize of the

Japanese , Tachibana, which is spelled T-A-C-

H-I-B-A-N-A, Tachibana Maru in the [Panda?] Sea area.

13

Tachibana, a prewar Jap liner, and a wartime transport

masquerading as a hospital ship, was seized when the

boarding party from USS Conner and the USS Charrette

discovered her cargo marks, which red crosses contained

hundreds of rifles, small arms, and (audio breaking up;

inaudible). All (audio breaking up; inaudible) 1,562

(audio breaking up; inaudible).

JL: Your phone is breaking up again?

ML: Huh?

JL: Your phone was not...

ML: How about now?

JL: Now it’s clear, yeah.

ML: Okay. (overlapping dialogue; inaudible) --

JL: How about repeating those numbers? Because it was those

numbers, when you were giving the numbers, that it...

ML: Okay. Also aboard were 1,562 Jap soldiers, veterans of the

New Guinea campaign, who were being transported back on

this fake hospital ship as patients. Two destroyers

brought their prize into Morotai Harbor, M-O-R-O-T-A-I, in

the Halmahera group on August 6th. At Morotai, the

Tachibana was given a thorough cleaning, and the contraband

removed before continuing on to Manila, where the Jap ship

was turned over to the Commander of the Seventh Fleet on

August 21st. The Conner entered Buckner Bay, Okinawa

14

September 2nd. On the 4th, she sortied with the USS Shields,

[Hart?], and Metcalf en route to to rendezvous with

other units of the Seventh Fleet, and to provide firepower

for landings at Jinsen, G-I-N-S-E-N [sic], Korea on

September 9th. The Conner remained in Jinsen until

September 26th, when she proceeded to Tsingtao, China --

that’s T-S-I-N-G-T-A-O -- to support US forces in the China

theater, in the enforcement of the surrender terms imposed

on the Japanese empire. During the latter part of October

and early November, the Conner made the omnibus run between

various Yellow Sea ports, stopping at Jinsen, ,

[Wuhan?], [Chefee?], [C-H-E-F-E-E?], and Taku, before

returning to Tsingtao November 11th. I would like to close out this review by stating that during my time on the USS

Conner, the ship traveled over 330,000 miles, and as gun captain on gun one, I fired over 35,000 rounds of 5-inch ammunition. I left the Conner in Tsingtao, China, on about

November 20th, and headed back to the USA for discharge in

Boston. In February 1946, I was discharged. Using the GI

Bill, I returned to college, graduating in June 1950, and

became a research pharmacist for Abbott Laboratories and

AstraZeneca, and have been awarded over 100 patents, and

have published many scientific articles on my research.

The GI Bill was the single greatest act of the USA as a

15

part of World War II. The Conner was awarded the following

medals: the World War Victory Medal; the Asiatic Pacific

Theater Medal, with 11 Bronze Stars; the American Theater

Medal; and I rate the Good Conduct Medal. Signing off.

Matthew J. Lynch.

JL: Well, I thank you very much for the story. Let me ask you

if you can recall any of your personal experiences during

this incredible period of time, things that you think were

unusual, maybe humorous, or not so humorous, that occurred,

maybe when you were picking the individuals, the pilots out

of the ocean, or anything during any of these battles. Any

stories that you might like to share with us?

ML: Well, one experience I can recall right away is that on one

occasion we picked up two Japanese airplane people -- I

think one was a pilot and the other was a gunner -- and the

pilot had been wounded in the head, severely. And our

ship’s doctor saved his life, removed these pieces of skull

that were causing him difficulty, and it was told to us

unofficially that he was so thankful for the US fixing him

up that he revealed that the Japanese would shut down their

when they got in a dogfight. And this provided

unbelievable strategic advantages to US pilots, because

they knew that. Now, that’s one story I remember. We had

an awful lot of good times crossing the Equator. We

16

crossed the Equator many, many, many times. And we would

initiate any new people that came aboard. And, as you

would expect, pretty soon everyone on the ship was a

shellback, and they had very few polliwogs to work on.

(laughter) So it got to lose some of its fun then. And so

that’s another story I can think of. Actually...

JL: What did they do to you when you crossed it for the first

time?

ML: Terrible. (laughter) I’ll tell you a funny... That’s

right, I can tell you a funny story about that. I was sort

of a ringleader, and we, the polliwogs, outnumbered the

shellbacks the first time that we went over the Equator by

a significant number. And it just occurred to me, what the

hell are we doing? And I said, “What do you say we take

over these guys?” (laughter) So we decided that we would

take over these shellbacks and beat the hell out of them.

And about the time we got started in this endeavor the

skipper came on the loudspeaker and indicated to us if we

didn’t ship up, shape up and take what was coming to us, he

would pull alongside a carrier, and get 1,000 shellbacks

(laughter) to come over and work us over. So that changed

our mind pretty quick. So we just subjected ourselves to

it. But it was kind of a hilarious experience when it

17

first started. Didn’t end up too good, but that’s another

thing that struck me as being something never to forget.

JL: How was the food?

ML: Well, not very good, as you would expect. I don’t think...

We had a what we called a spud locker for potatoes, and

that’s what we used as a brig for the Japanese officers

that we took off that Jap hospital ship. We put ’em in the

spud locker. And so we never had potatoes for way over a

year. That’s kind of a sign of one thig we never got. And

another thing we did with the Japanese that we would pick

up, we would give them, as a treat, genuinely as a treat,

we’d give them maybe some ice cream, but they couldn’t

tolerate it. They would get very sick on it. So we quit

doing that. Yeah, a destroyer’s kind of a rough ship, in

that it bounces around a lot, and people would tend to get

very seasick when they first came onboard. So these poor

suckers would really be hurting pretty bad. So --

JL: What did you --

ML: -- we’d try and entertain ’em a little bit. But it was a

failure. They didn’t appreciate the ice cream.

JL: Yeah. What did you generally do with the prisoners? Were

they transferred to another ship, or did you keep ’em till

you --

18

ML: Yeah, we would keep ’em onboard in the spud locker, but

they would complain about that, because the spud locker was

right around one of the stacks, so it was kind of hot and

uncomfortable. And so we would get rid of ’em, put ’em on

a carrier. We’d pull alongside a carrier and transfer them

over when it was convenient for us, and safe. You know, we

had to pick a good time to do that. And we would fuel up

these carriers and battle wagons and , because we

couldn’t carry enough fuel to be at sea as long as we were.

I think I was at sea for a solid year one time. So we

always fueled and got ammunition and food from these bigger

ships. They would provide the cans with enough to get by.

And at that time, the food would kind of slip pretty bad.

But then they eventually tried to make it up. So it wasn’t

all that bad. You have any other questions?

JL: Well, tell me about the gun. You were gun captain for

number one gun. Tell me --

ML: Yeah.

JL: -- what was your --

ML: The 5-inch-38 gun is a multipurpose gun, in that it can be

used for surface craft, and it also can be used for planes,

antiaircraft. The shell would weigh 54 pounds, and the

case -- it was semifixed ammunition. There was a brass

case. You would load that on the tray first, and then put

19

the projectile in front of that case, and then I, as the

gun captain, would keep an eye on this, and then ram that

home into the chamber. Now, once you closed that breach,

let’s say the bullet didn’t go off. This was the scariest

part of the whole setup, in that, you know, when you take

that gun out of service, that reduced your firepower by

25%, almost, and your mean battery. And so the captain

didn’t like to have that gun laying idle, because you were

supposed to let this thing lay idle for a half hour before

you open that breach, because you had a lot of delayed

firings, where -- because it didn’t go off in the first

shot doesn’t mean it’s not going to go off; it's just

delayed. So you had to make sure that it really was a

misfire before you opened that breach. Once you opened the

breach, you would’ve blown that tarp right off the ship.

So that was the most dangerous thing, and --

JL: How often did that happen?

ML: -- I would usually pick a big guy to stay with me and empty

the gun, and he would usually help me in that I would

slowly open the breach, which would eject this case. And

he’d have the hatch door open, and we’d throw it into the

ocean. But that was the scariest part of shooting that

five-inch gun. It could five miles accurately. The gun

was connected automatically through the computers of that

20

day to a director, which was on the top of the ship, and

that’s where the gunnery officer would sit. Now, he was

able to put the system into automatic, and when he did that

he would have control of all the five-inch guns so that he

could lay up a pattern for the planes to try to fly

through. And he decided when to close his firing key,

which would fire this five-inch pattern up there. Then,

towards the end of the war, we got what we referred to as

magnetic shells. Now, these magnetic shells were such that

they would become armed after they went through the barrel.

Once they reached 12,000 revolutions, the bullet would

become armed, and these magnetic shells would explode

within 50 feet of any metal. So you’d lay a pattern up of

five five-inch shells with these magnetic fuses on ’em, and

then no plane could ever get by that. So...

JL: What was your firing rate?

ML: We, on a five-inch gun -- we had 40-inch and we had 20-

inch, which were faster than a five-inch, but we, for a

very short period of time, we could fire 20 rounds a

minute. But you got fatigued very fast, because this

ammunition was extremely heavy. And this ammunition had to

be hauled from the floor of the ship. The magazine, the

major magazine for the gun, was on the bottom of the ship,

laying practically on the keel. So it had to come up to

21

hoist. It had to come up into the upper handling room, and

then from the upper handling room up into the gun. There

were about 18 or 19 guys in a five-inch crew going all the

way down to the lower magazine. Now, those guys in the

lower magazine, they would dog down there. In other words,

the ship would go into watertight integrity once you went

to general quarters, which meant those guys were not only

down there, they were dogged down there. They couldn’t

really get out. So it was really not a very nice

assignment. But they would automatically -- when they went

to general quarters, they would immediately load that hoist

with a projectile and a case, a powder case. So they would

come up into the upper handling room, where there were

probably six guys, and they would be able to push this

ammunition up to me into the mount. There was a hoist for

the projectiles, and the hoist had the capability of

setting the fuse on the projectile. So we’d be changing

the setting on those fuses constantly, depending on the

range of the enemy. And so we would --

JL: Would the firing officer -- he would be the one giving you

the ranges to set it?

ML: Yeah, the gunnery officer would usually keep us informed as

to -- yeah -- as to what we were shooting at, and how far

22

it was. And actually, he had a rangefinder, and so he was

pretty accurate.

JL: These were all optical rangefinders at that time.

ML: At that point, yeah, but they were very good. We didn’t

miss much. After this crew came back from shakedown in

Cuba, we were capable of doing some unbelievable things.

We could really hit anything. And we used to fire at

surface targets, and we got to the point -- I remember we

were supposed to be in training, and we went out, and we

started shooting at this plane that was kind of like a deal

that -- I forget what we called it now, but he would haul a

target, and we’d shoot at that. And (laughs) we were out

there about 20 minutes, and the commodore that was running

this training thing says, “Get them guys back in the port!

They’re going to shoot that plane down! (laughter) They’re

going to shoot the pilot down!” So we got pretty good,

there’s no kidding about it. We could hit... Well, you

know, the projectiles, those barrels had rifling in ’em,

and you might understand that. And so the projectile, once

it went through that rifling, it would travel pretty

accurately. It was like a football, throwing a football,

see.

JL: Yes.

23

ML: And so you’d usually hit what you pointed it at. So you

get five five-inch guns throwing up a patter, that would be

pretty dangerous, pretty difficult to ever fly through. As

long as you had all five-inch guns going. You know,

sometimes something would happen to your gun. You’d have

to fix it. And the problem with fixing my gun was that it

got awful hot. We’d have to hose the barrel down, and we

have to do a lot of stuff like that, you know. And so in

the meantime the skipper would be raving mad. If he lost a

five-inch gun, he just went bonkers. So you had to get the

thing back in action as fast as you could, which we managed

to do most of the time. If something happened to gun two,

I’d help the guy. I’d go back there, you know, and find

out what was wrong. And then we all kind of worked, the

whole five-inch group. They were all five-inch gun captain

gunners’ mates. And pretty shortly after I went on the

ship I became second class, and all the five-inch gun

captains were second class, so we were pretty experienced

with what might go wrong with these five-inch guns. By the

way, a five-inch gun was an extremely, extremely reliable

firearm. That’s what I did in Washington, D.C. is they had

you strip those things down. You changed the hydraulics,

the oil, and you learned pretty thoroughly what made that

thing tick. But it was a very dependable gun. The 40s had

24

some problems, and the 20s -- when you’re shooting a 20,

they’re making a landing on -- you know, it’s kind of late.

They’re in on you. But we were able to keep those five-

inch guns going at a pretty good... We always thought we

were pretty good, I don’t know, and I had nothing to

compare it to. (laughs) So...

JL: Who -- what company made those things? Do you know?

ML: I did know. I believe the 5-inch-38 was made down in

Washington, D.C. in that gun factory by the US Navy.

JL: Yeah, the Navy [Gun Works?]. Huh.

ML: Yeah, I believe that was the Navy Gun Factory. They made

16-inch guns there, too, for the , and so...

And we operated, of course, in these Task Force 58 and Task

Force 38 -- they had all the battleships in that group.

And you know what happened, as I indicated in the story

here, when you got transferred into the Seventh Fleet, your

ship was beginning to be a little bit worn down, and they

were more concerned with getting new construction coming up

to screen for them. So the Seventh Fleet was the

amphibious fleet, and that was kind of the dregs. I mean,

it was bad news when you got assigned to the Seventh Fleet.

That was MacArthur’s force. So I was with the Seventh

Fleet for quite a while at the end of the war there, so...

He was kind of a show-off kind of guy. I can tell you one

25

story. I saw him -- he was going ashore, and the kid that

was running this little landing boat wanted to make a good

landing to put ’em on the beach right away so it wouldn’t

get wet. (laughs) And so he was probably -- I watched this

thing -- he was probably pretty proud of his landing. And

you know MacArthur made him back off so he could walk

ashore in the water, (laughter) get his picture taken. So

that I saw with my own eyes. So it was... (laughter) And

--

JL: Well, he had to have the right photo opp.

ML: Yeah, he had to have the right photo, right. And at Iwo

Jima -- you might appreciate this -- at Iwo Jima we were

providing bombardment for the Marines, ’cause they didn’t

have artillery, and so we would kind of fire over their

heads. We were so close to the beach at Iwo Jima, we could

not fire all our 5-inch at once, because the concussion was

so great the bottom of the ship would hit the bottom of the

ocean there. So we had to fire one, three, and five, and

then two and four, so that we wouldn’t bump the bottom. So

that’s how close we got. So I saw that flag go up on that

mountaintop. You see that famous picture all around about

those guys putting -- it didn’t look anything like that

shot, believe me. That’s a posed deal. It didn’t look

that way at all. But they posed for one afterwards, I

26

guess. Somewhere they posed for one. That ain’t the

picture that I saw, with that --

JL: Was this --

ML: -- flag going up. Those guys were struggling and having a

hell of a time getting that flag up on that mount, whatever

it was.

JL: Mount Suribachi.

ML: Yeah.

JL: Now, there were two flags that were raised. The first one

was small, and they then sent a big one from somewhere --

I’ve forgotten where -- and sent a bigger one out there.

Which one did you see?

ML: I saw the little one.

JL: Oh, okay.

ML: I didn’t see a big flag.

JL: Well, the little one was too small, and some admirals sent

’em a big flag to... (laughs)

ML: I see. Well, I didn’t see the bigger one go up. And maybe

they did that in a much more organized manner, and maybe

that’s the one they took the picture of, but...

JL: I think it might be.

ML: All right, very good.

27

JL: That would be a very -- if you could send a copy to me,

that would be very interesting to put with your stories,

because that helps to get everything clarified.

ML: Yeah, especially the dates are here and that kind of... I

was having difficulty trying to figure out how to not be

repetitious too much, you know.

JL: Right, right.

ML: But...

JL: Well, I think, you know, this is a wonderful story, and I

personally like it because I served aboard a destroyer.

ML: Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.

JL: And I know exactly what you’re talking about. I was

intrigued with the life aboard the destroyer. It was

interesting. I loved it, because it was a relatively small

number of people. I think we had about 300 men aboard --

ML: Yes, we had 320. We had 320 men. We had 16 officers, and

we had 16 chiefs.

JL: Oh, yes. Yes.

ML: Is that about the size of your ship?

JL: Exactly. Exactly. So --

ML: And when we went through Ormoc Bay there, I’ll tell you,

one of those bombs hit right off my -- I was in gun one,

which was the bow, and the mud hit my gun mount with such

force, I was never able to sand that mud out to paint it.

28

JL: Good heavens.

ML: That mud remained ingrained in that metal till I left the

ship, (laughs) so... And actually, that Ormoc Bay run was

probably the most treacherous thing, I think, we did. It

was terrible. (laughs) Oh, man, oh, man. It was just

between islands, and we were going top speed all the time.

We made a big U-turn, and shot out torpedoes, and we had

ten torpedoes, and we lit depth charges. You see, we were

the only destroyer in the fleet. When we first started out

on that shakedown cruise we had a firing run, and (laughs)

we had a kid that was on the K-gun. You probably know what

the K-gun was --

JL: Right.

ML: -- on the side of the ship, that fired a small depth

charge, 3 or 400 pounds, 300 pounds. Well, this kid had

the lanyard in his hand, and the 5-inch gun went off right

over his head, and he grabbed his head, forgetting he had

the lanyard in his hand, and so he pulled the lanyard. We

were the only destroyer in the fleet to ever fire a depth

charge at an airplane. (laughter) You know, that poor

kid... I remember he was from . He was really a very

innocent kid. And he got court marshaled for that. But

the skipper, you know, he realized, what the hell happened,

29

you know? And so he let the kid go. He didn’t do anything

to him, so...

JL: I’m surprised y’all didn’t make a medal for him.

ML: We should have, (laughter) you know, that poor kid. I

mean, that barrel was right over his head. I’m saying the

distance was probably five, six feet.

JL: Oh my gosh.

ML: He was on the lower deck. The gun was on the upper deck,

right over his poor old head. He was a Swedish kid. I’ll

never forget him. He fired the K-gun, so that was funny.

JL: Well, Mr. Lynch, I certainly thank you for spending the

time this afternoon and telling us your story, and what

I’ll do is this afternoon I will download this to the

computer. I’ll make a copy of this, and I will mail this

to you. I probably won’t get it in the mail today, but

next week it’ll get in mail to you. Let me con--

ML: Okay.

JL: Let me confirm your address as 1200 Graylyn Road,

Wilmington, Delaware 19803.

ML: Right. I’m right down the road from your friend Charlie.

JL: Oh, okay. All right, very good.

ML: He lives right up the street.

JL: Well, he’s a very nice fellow. We certainly enjoy him.

30

ML: Oh, yeah. He’s quite a guy. I talk with him quite a bit.

You would appreciate this story he told me, and I didn’t

understand him, but one day we were passing each other --

we always talk a little bit when I’m walking, he’s walking.

And one day -- I think it was around our veterans’ holiday,

and he had maybe a flag on, or he had something on, and so

I suspected that he was a service man. And so I said, “Are

you in the service, Charlie?” He says, “No.” He said, “I

was in the Bastard Brigade.” And I says, “What was that,

Charlie?” And then I got closer to him and could hear him.

My hearing’s pretty bad. And he said he was in the Bastard

Brigade. And I said, “What’s that?” “Well,” he said, “I

didn’t want to go in the service, and I kind of got in

school, and I stayed in school, and I kept staying in

school.” And he said, “You know, I was able to get my PhD,

and I avoided the draft. (laughter) So I was in the

Bastard Brigade.” “Well,” I said, “I never heard that

before, Charlie, but if that’s what you wanted, I’m sure

glad you got it, you know?” So he’s a chemist. He’s a PhD

chemist.

JL: Right, right.

ML: So... Did you go to the same school as he did, Texas A&M

or something?

31

JL: No, I just know him. My sister-in-law is a cousin of his,

and that’s how I met him. My sister-in-law lives up on the

ranch where Charlie grew up. They’re in the next ranch

over. And I know his brother, who lives there on the

ranch, and that’s how I came to know Charlie.

ML: I see.

JL: So...

ML: I see. Well, he’s a very, very pleasant guy to talk with,

I’ll tell you. I enjoy our conversations so much. I knew

he was from Texas, you know, so...

JL: Right. Well, he’s a --

ML: Good conversationalist.

JL: Yes, he is. He’s a nice fellow. He’s done some wonderful

things, and we certainly appreciate his help steering you

to me. So I --

ML: Yeah, well... So this story is all right, huh?

JL: Absolutely. This is perfect. So what I’ll do is I’ll get

this taken care of today, and then early next week I’ll

mail it to you. I would expect you would get it toward the

end of the week next week.

ML: And what do you want me to do with it now?

JL: Well, it’s yours. It’s for you.

ML: Oh, that’s great.

32

JL: I will make a copy of this audio file, and I will make it

so it can be played on your computer. It’ll be an mp3

file, if you can do that.

ML: Oh, yeah, I see. Yeah.

JL: Okay.

ML: Yeah, I can.

JL: All right, well, I’ll do that for you, and --

ML: Okay, I appreciate that very much. And this has been a

pleasure, really. You forced me to sit down and think, and

search through all the papers that I have. And so it

forced me to take an opportunity to kind of try and tie it

all together. Years ago, when I was on the ship, in the

early days (audio breaking up; inaudible) I attempted to

write a history of the Conner while I was on the ship, but

that was in the very early days, when we hadn’t done

anything, you know. So it wasn’t much. But anyway, we

gave it out to the crew, and so... It was a happy ship.

We had a great crew. They were very, very good at what

they did. And...

JL: Well, you served the country well.

ML: Well, I’ll tell you what, I was only very happy to do it,

believe it or not. I was kind of a nitwit, I guess, but I

was very happy to do it. (laughs)

JL: Well, I think --

33

ML: James, what kind of a doctor are you?

JL: I’m a kidney doctor. I take care of, or took care of,

people who had kidney failure that were dialysis or

transplant patients.

END OF AUDIO FILE

34