Shipmates on Parade USS Rankin (AKA-103)
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Shipmates on Parade USS Rankin (AKA-103) Table of Contents Year Rank/ Years PDF Name Born Rate Aboard Page Lawson P. "Red" Ramage .... 1909 ......CAPT ...........1953-1954 ..................... 3 Roland “Drew” Miller .......... 1922 ......LTJG(MC) .....1946-1947 ..................... 5 Elmer Mayes ........................ 1925 ......HMC ............1962-1965 ..................... 6 Fernando "Fred" Golingan .. 1925 ......SD3 .............1952-1957 ..................... 7 Paul Allen ............................ 1926 ......ENS (SC) ......1946-1947 ..................... 8 Hillyer “Billy” Head .............. 1926 ......S2C ..............1945 ............................ 13 Melvin Munch ..................... 1926 ......S1C ..............1946 ............................ 17 Tom Jones ........................... 1926 ......S1C ..............1945-1946 ................... 18 Lucien Trigiano .................... 1926 ......ENS .............1945-1946 ................... 19 Harry Berry .......................... 1928 ......EM3 ............1946-1947 ................... 21 Ed Gaskell ............................ 1928 ......LT ................1954-1956 ................... 24 Billy M. Weckwerth ............. 1928 ......MM3 ...........1946-1947 ................... 25 Dennis Heenan .................... 1929 ......LTJG ............1952-1953 ................... 27 Bob Hilley ............................ 1929 ......ENS/LTJG .....1952-1953 ................... 29 Vern Smith........................... 1929 ......ENS/LTJG .....1956-1958 ................... 31 Marshall Carrick .................. 1931 ......QM3 ............1952 ............................ 38 Ed Slomkowski .................... 1933 ......FN ...............1952-1954 ................... 38 Gary Montalbine ................. 1934 ......LT ................1961-1963 ................... 39 Howard Hardegree .............. 1935 ......ENS .............1960-1961 ................... 41 Richard B. Lacy .................... 1935 ......ENS .............1958-1959 ................... 43 Paul Beaty ........................... 1938 ......PN2 .............1957-1959 ................... 45 Tom Drayton ....................... 1938 ......PN3 .............1961 ............................ 47 Lee Lathrop.......................... 1938 ......SN ...............1957-1959 ................... 48 John Mazzarini .................... 1939 ......RM2 ............1960-1962 ................... 49 Bob Reynolds....................... 1940 ......ENS/LTJG .....1962-1964 ................... 49 Mike Fulton ......................... 1942 ......LTJG ............1966-1968 ................... 51 Alfred J. Roy ........................ 1942 ......RM2 ............1962-1966 ................... 54 James Michael Dousman ..... 1942 ......FTSN ............1962 ............................ 56 Dave Beeler ......................... 1943 ......ET3 ..............1963-1966 ................... 58 Harvey McCubbin ................ 1943 ......RD2 .............1962-1965 ................... 59 Greg Kristof ......................... 1946 ......EMFN ..........1965 ............................ 61 Ron Sirois ............................ 1946 ......SM2 ............1965-1966 ................... 62 Mark Thomas ...................... 1947 ......IC3 ..............1967-1969 ................... 63 Lyle White ........................... 1947 ......ENS/LTJG .....1969-1971 ................... 65 John Haddox ........................ 1950 ......QM3 ............1968-1969 ................... 67 - 2 - Lawson P. "Red" Ramage – Born 1909 CAPT, 1953-1954 Probably the most distinguished man to serve aboard the USS Rankin was Lawson P. “Red” Ramage, who was her captain from April, 1953 to July, 1954. He is remembered as a good captain, a war hero, and a serious drinker when on liberty. He’s our only Medal of Honor winner, and one of the most famous submarine heroes of WWII. Wherever submarine exploits are memorialized, you’ll likely see the story of Red Ramage and the USS Parche. Those who attended our 2007 reunion saw it in the Nautilus Museum in New London. Red died in 1990, and his life is best captured in his obituary from the Washington Post: Lawson P. Ramage, 81, a retired Navy vice admiral who as a World War II submarine commander won the Medal of Honor and two Navy Crosses, the Navy's highest awards for gallantry, has died. Adm. Ramage served 43 years in the Navy before his retirement in 1970 as commander of the Military Sea Transport Service. He spent much of his career as a submariner, beginning in 1935. He was assigned to Pearl Harbor as radio and sound officer for the submarine commander of the Pacific fleet when the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941, brought the United States into WW II. He was assigned his first sea command, the submarine Trout, in June 1942. There he directed war patrols in the Pacific from Aug. 27, 1942, to Feb. 25, 1943. During that time, three enemy ships totaling 19,725 tons were destroyed and another 51,600 tons of enemy shipping, including an aircraft carrier, were damaged. Later on the Trout, he won the Navy Cross for valor in action at Midway, Truk, the Solomons and in the South China Sea. The Trout's crew was also awarded a Presidential citation. He won a Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for gallantry, for action in waters off Taiwan on July 31, 1944. According to the citation accompanying the - 3 - award, Adm. Ramage, as commander of the submarine Parche, penetrated the screen of a heavily escorted enemy convoy, then engaged the Japanese in 46 minutes of surface combat operations, during which he sank two transport ships and two tankers, and seriously damaged a freighter. In this period the Parche fired 19 torpedoes, 15 of which hit enemy targets. At one point, with “terrific shellfire passing close overhead,” he sent his men below but remained on the bridge of the submarine. He avoided being rammed by an onrushing Japanese transport by less than 50 feet by swinging the stern of the Parche out of the way as the submarine crossed the bow of the transport, which he then sank with four torpedoes, while being caught in an enemy crossfire. The Parche's crew received a Presidential Unit Citation, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt personally presented Ramage, then a commander, and six other Army and Navy heroes with the Medal of Honor on Jan. 10, 1945. He won his second Navy Cross as commander of the Parche from March 29 to May 23, 1944, when he sank four enemy ships totaling more than 30,000 tons. Adm. Ramage was born in Monroe Bridge, MA. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1931 and served aboard destroyers before being assigned as a submariner. His post-World War II assignments included command of a four-submarine operation conducting cold water temperature tests in the Arctic. In 1947, he was assigned in Washington as a guided missile specialist in the office of the assistant chief of naval operations. Later assignments included service on the staff of the commander of the submarine force of the Atlantic Fleet, command of a submarine squadron and then of an attack cargo ship, and an assignment as special assistant to Adm. Arleigh A. Burke, chief of naval operations. He also commanded a cruiser division in the Mediterranean, was deputy commander of the submarine force of the Atlantic Fleet, then in 1964 became commander of the First Fleet in Coronado, Calif., where he trained forces for service in Vietnam. Before his final assignment, as commander of the Military - 4 - Se3a Transportation Service, he was deputy commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet. Admiral Ramage's decorations also included two Distinguished Service Medals, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star. Roland “Drew” Miller – Born 1922 LTJG(MC), 1946-1947 I was the Rankin's LTJG medical officer in 1946-47. A good friend of mine was Paul Allen, our paymaster. In those days, the ship's nickname was "The Mighty R." Some of the crew modified that to "The Reekin’ Rankin." Soon after the war, The Rankin joined the occupation forces in Japan, which at that time was a mass of twisted steel. After one practice landing at the south end of Honshu in late 1946, we headed off for the China fleet in Tsingtao and stayed through Christmas and New Year’s. Then we evacuated the 7th regiment of the 1st Marine division from Tientsin (now Tianjin) back to San Diego. When the Rankin was decommissioned in 1947, I was assigned to Naval Ordnance Test Station, Inyokern, CA, where I stayed until being discharged in 1948. After that, I was a physician at Mayo Clinic for 45 years, specializing in pulmonary medicine. I stayed in Mayo’s ready reserve in a unit and retired as a Captain, MC, USNR, with a small pension. I’m now living in a 22-story retirement facility owned by Mayo. At 92 years old, I’m possibly the oldest surviving Rankin veteran. I went to the Norfolk reunion in 2004, and to the one in San Antonio in 2013, and I got a kick out of both of them, especially when I reconnected with Paul Allen. - 5 - Elmer Mayes – Born 1925 HMC, 1962-1965 Elmer Mayes, Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman (retired), was Chief Corpsman aboard the Rankin from 1962-1965. Elmer was born in Ellwood City, PA, and raised in Canton, Ohio. He graduated from high school in 1943, enlisting soon thereafter at Cleveland, Ohio. After Recruit and Hospital Corps training at Great Lakes, Illinois, he was assigned various duty stations in preparation for assignment to Base Hospital 4 during the Okinawa Offensive in 1945. On returning to the United he was assigned as a reservist to the Navy Reserve Station in Canton,