CONNECTICUT MEN of the United States Navy Demobilization, Lido Beach Separation Center December 14 to 17, 1945 STATE OF CONNECTICUT EXECUTIVE CHAMBERS HARTFORD RAYMOND E. BALDWIN GOVERNOR To Connecticut Naval Veterans of World War II: Connecticut has a great seafaring tradition. In every war her men have fought gallantly for freedom. In days of peace her sons have officered and manned ships that have carried our American commerce everywhere in the world. Connecticut people are proud of that tradition. In this greatest of all wars just ended you, as a son of Connecticut, have courageously and faithfully maintained that tradition. Indeed, you have raised it to new glorious heights. You have added to that enduring list, started when Midshipman Nathaniel Fanning of Stonington took part in the historic encoun• ter of John Paul Jones' Bon Homme Richard and HMS Serapis in 1779, immortal names - Macassar Straits, Java, Guadalcanal, Savo Island, Coral Sea, Santa Cruz, Midway and Lunga Point. To the lot of some of you fell the burden of the train• ing and supply services at home and in ports, great and obscure, the world over. In fact, there are now new ports for the air arm and for the fleet, some of which will endure as monuments to that new arm of the Navy, the Seabees. Your fellow citizens in Connecticut are proud of your service. Yours very sincerely, Governor HERE ARE THEIR STORIES War correspondents of World War II frequently embellished and often overwrote the action stories of modest sailors. The aggregate result pleased editors, made headlines, and, on occasion, embarrassed the sailors. In retaliation, the correspondents and their victims were labelled, in characteristic service language, "Joe Blow". Actually, the "Joe Blows" were few and far between in this war. The purpose of these stories is to record without embellishment, the mood, the impressions, the exciting events, of the worst and best of the great days, before time blurs memories with resulting confusion as to events, dates and places. These are Navy men's stories, here recorded as near verbatim as possible in their own words—The Editor. Aleksejczyk, Walter W., F 1/c, Am• planes — which boosted our morale to a munition Ship Akutan, Hartford. high level." "I spent nine months aboard the Aku• Bernier, Robert A., SC 2/c, 1050th tan and my job was to take care of the Seabees, Danielson. evaporation system aboard her. We served "When my outfit left California there the Third Fleet with munitions and went was much speculation as to where we within 50 miles of Tokyo with her. We were heading as we could not be told our also served at Leyte and Okinawa. We destination beforehand. Scuttlebutt had never hit any real tough spots although it we were heading for almost every place the suspense was always there." in the Pacific and some of the optimists Baker, Michael C, SK 3/c, Repair had it we were going around the Panama Ship Oceanus, Bridgeport. Canal and into the Atlantic, but we wound "I'll never forget the time we were at up at the Admiralty Islands, probably the Palu. We had many air attacks at night last place most of us expected to get to. but they couldn't see us for we were We repaired the ships, took care of all the always under a smoke screen, but neither heavy equipment and did minor repairs could we see them as the nights were around the island; but my job was the dark and the moon was very small. galley for I am a cook. I did the cooking There was a ship tied up alongside of us for about 600 men a day and can't kick that was hit in her ammunition room but much for some of the men had tough jobs the fire control men put the fire out before to do." any serious damage was done. It had us Campaga, Salvatore P., AMM 1/c, scared though for if the munitions went Carrier Hancock, Middletown. up we would have gone up with them." "I went aboard the Hancock when she Baril, Philip J., BM 2/c, Destroyer was commissioned in May of '44 and ac• Taylor, Bridgeport. cording to the records I sailed 127,859 "The major sea battle at Guadalcanal miles on her. We made major strikes was where I saw the most action. The against Formosa, the Philippines, French Nips were trying to take a foothold on the Indo China, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Wake island again and came in with every sort Island and Tokyo. Okinawa was our of ship imaginable. We intercepted them worst for it was a 52-day campaign and and sank quite a few of their ships as we suffered a Kamikaze attack there on well as all their landing barges. They put April 7th and had to go back to Pearl up a fight, sending their planes over us at Harbor for repairs. On September 10th regular intervals and sinking about 32 of it was a dream come true for I went on our ships. We foiled their plans, sunk liberty in Tokyo. Everything was in their ships and brought down their shambles but I felt quite at home there 3 for I am very short and the people seemed quarters almost all the time. The convoy much shorter. Tokyo was the first place suffered many Kamikaze attacks, one of we visited where we could see the de• which struck near enough to cause me to struction our planes had done." be hit by shrapnel in the eye. I was offered Chinigo, Frank J., MM 2/c, Attack but refused the Purple Heart. The ship Transport Colbert, Norwich. I was aboard at the time was the Half "I had my biggest thrill more than a Moon, a seaplane tender. After the battle month after the Japs had decided to sur• I was stationed at the Philippines and our render. We were on our way to Okinawa squadron was engaged in air-sea rescue with a shipload of former American work, day and night patrols and night prisoners of war from Mukden when we bombing attacks. In November of '44 hit a mine. In the engine room where I we left our mark at Leyte, to soften the worked there was a hole 20 feet high and Japs for the forthcoming invasion." 30 feet wide. We were lucky enough to Czernicki, Edward F., M 1/c, Repair get towed into Okinawa, but the explosion Ship Zaniah, Hartford. had killed four men and wounded others. "We were the first ship into Kerama What made us feel especially bad was the Rhetto at Okinawa and immediately set fact that a lot of the passengers we were to the task of repairing the sunken vessels. carrying had been captured at Bataan and It wasn't as easy as it sounds for the Nips some of them had been in the Death had other ideas as to how wre were to March." occupy our time and they came in over us Clark, Byron M., MMS 2/c, loth in bombers all day and night. There Seabees, East Hampton. were a few seaplane tenders lying nearby "We were warned a typhoon was about and they received many direct hits and to strike our base; at Okinawa and took were being knocked off steadily. We came whatever precautions we could to make out of it without any damage to our ship things fast. I spent about two hours but many of the ships we thought we making our tent fast and I think the fact could salvage were sent to the graveyard." that it stood up while most of the others Czyz, Louis M., CM 2/c, 7th Seabees, went down proved that if more precau• Hartford. tions had been taken less loss would have "We came in at Okinawa just as our resulted. Just after the blow passed over ships were bombarding the shores to five Japs were shot trying to sneak into soften things up for a landing. It was an Army hospital across the road. One quite an impressive sight at night for the of them was a doctor who had a number of hypo's in his pocket. The conclusion THREE FIGHTING SHIPS was that he was trying to steal some fluid USS KIDD—Two thousand ton destroyer (top), to treat wounded Nips somewhere but a saw much active service in the Pacific, including a part in engagements at the Marshalls, Gilberts search for the wounded men proved Wake, and Raboul. fruitless." USS SANTA FE — Ten thousand ton cruiser, Colella, Guy A., ART 1/c, Patrol (center), in a 25 months' continuous tour of duty participated in 42 air strikes, 12 shore bombard• Bombing Squadron 25, Waterbury. ments, and four surface actions. "The Mindoro campaign was filled with USS NEVADA— Thirty-two thousand ton pre- perilous moments. Our convoy was under World War I battleship was a familiar sight to the hundreds of thousands of servicemen who took steady attack and we stood at general part in the Mediterranean and European D-Days. 4 shells would light up as they hit the killed. The only survivors were the four shore and sometimes you could swear men who had set out to the shore." you saw bodies flying through the air as Dowling, John H., EM 2/c, 14th the shells struck. A suicide boat hit the Seabees, Hartford. KA-74 that was just alongside of us, kill• "We were just finishing construction on ing many of the crew. We managed to get a bridge at Okinawa when one night the in on the beach the next day without too Japs blew it all to smitherines.