CONNECTICUT MEN of the United States Navy Demobilization, Lido Beach Separation Center January 5 to 7, 1946 STATE OF CONNECTICUT EXECUTIVE CHAMBERS HARTFORD 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. Antonucci, Raymond E., F 1/c, Bridge, Ralph W., F 1/c, EM, Shore Transport Holland, Meriden. Base, Guadalcanal and Tulagi, Old Green• "I was stationed in the engine room wich. which was below the water-line and I "I was land based most of the time with sweated out what would happen to me if a a unit that supplied men, food and arms torpedo got us. Chances are slim for get• to the ships from the fleets or task forces ting out of the engine room when you get that came in for them. At Tulagi the hit and I grew gray hairs worrying about weather was hot and wet most of the it. It's over now and I hate to talk about time and the work was hard. It was not the rotten war and all it stands for. Any• a nice place to have to spend a war, but body who's been away from home can tell I got transferred to Guadalcanal where what it is to be back after wondering if I did electrical work and that was a real you'd ever make it." change. The only bad thing about it was Bazzano, Anthony, MM 1/c, 58th that there was no place to go on liberty, Seabees, Winsted. so I took no leaves there at all. I don't "My outfit was attached to the 6th know whether I would have got liberty Marines and we landed with them at D- if I asked for it. The trip back to the States Day at Okinawa. I sat in the driver's seat was rough, but I stood it all right as I of a bulldozer and as soon as we hit the knew that once I got back I would never coral reef I drove it ashore. It was my have to make the trip again." assignment to get the bulldozer in and Burns, Robert J., S 1/c, LCI-591, I'm glad I was able to do it without too Naugatuck. much trouble. There was just occasional "I was one of the first men to go ashore sniping but nothing serious. I helped in Southern France. Under the plan, build a road so we could bring the casual• arrangements had to be made to pull the ties back and the munitions forward." ship into the beach in case she was hit Body cote. Judge L., Cox, 7th Fleet, while landing. Another fellow and I left East Norwalk. the LCI as it came near the beach and "In 25 months of sea and overseas duty swam into shore with lines tied around our I served with the armed guard on four waists. With a helmet and all, it was tough ships in the Atlantic and the Pacific, and swimming but we made it okay. The 591 also worked with the boat pool of the took some hits from German shore guns Seventh Fleet. Headquarters of the boat at Cavalier and the water tanks were pool were at Subic Bay and we had a whole blown open. From the ETO the 591 went lot of craft there. Ships in convoys I was all the way up to the Aleutians. Incidental• in were hit, but none that I was on ever ly, it's a special thrill for me to be dis• took a bomb or torpedo." charged at Lido as I worked at the 3 separation center there from September Army to drive me out. Just let me see of 1945 until my own name came up. Connecticut once again and I'll be satisfied After seeing so many thousands of other for the rest of my life." sailors go through for discharge, it's Duff, William H., Jr., S 1/c, Kanohe really something to go through myself." Bay Air Station, Hawaii, Fairfield. Dennis, Robert R., RM 3/c, Cruiser "Take a trip to Honolulu on leave and Denver, Meriden. come back broke. In fact any place that "It was a long haul out there in the you went in Hawaii would put a dent in Pacific and at times I wondered if I'd your pocketbook as big as your fist. That ever get out of 'blues'. Things have hap• is about the worst place for high prices pened out on the water that seem unreal I ever saw. I was stationed there for 20 now. We hit Leyte, Lingayen, Luzon, and months as a ground crewman at a bomber Mindonoro. Leyte was about as tough a base and saw enough of that territory place as any because those Jap Kamikaze to last me the rest of my life. It's a good planes were thick as flies. To me it was a place to be from, and am glad I now can lot of noise and confusion. You don't feel say that." too safe when you know that planes are Everett, William A., HA 1/c, San Juan out to get you and it seems that every (P.R.) Naval Hospital, New Haven. plane is after the ship you're on. I've sweat• "I was on my way out to the Pacific ed and swore like all good Navy men do when the Japs surrendered and they kept and now that I'm out I don't care to fight us at Pearl from May until December. the war over again." I'd expected to see some action out there DiDonno, Vito F., RM 3/c, LST-929, after fighting mostly the climate down in New Britain. the Caribbean. I spent 14 months at "The 929 was in the campaigns at the Puerto Rico, and then three months at Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. They Guantanamo Bay in Cuba before starting didn't give her the easiest job in the world for duty in the Pacific." because she was a hospital and evacuation Gentile, Nicholas A., S 1/c, Destroyer ship and had to go right in to the beaches Cassin Young, Shelton. to bring out the wounded. We had plenty "The Kamikaze planes gave the Cassin of close calls but the Nips weren't able to Young about everything they had and hit us. All the LSTs did a mighty good managed to hit her twice, both times job out there. They weren't fast but they at Okinawa. After the first hit, she was got the troops and the supplies to the beaches." DESTROYERS AND CRUISER DiNello, Carl, CM 3/c, Seabees, New Haven. USS HEALY — One of the war program de• stroyers (top), a 2,100 tonner of the Fletcher type, "My luckiest break was the time they carries five 5-inchers and ten tubes, built as an didn't let us go with the 4th Marine answer to the Jap Kagero class. Division after we had taken invasion train• USS YOUNG — Another destroyer of the Fletcher Class, shorter and beamier than the ing with them. That division saw some pre-war destroyers; flush deckers with flat stacks, pretty rough times and I wouldn't be as built at Puget Sound Navy Yard. healthy as I am now if I had gone along USS VINCENNES — Ten thousand tonner, the with them. There is nothing like being ex-Flint, commissioned in 1943, armed with twelve 6-inchers in four turrets, twelve 5-inch AAs in back in the States and it will take an twin mounts, with geared turbines and four screws. 4 repaired at Ulithi, then went back up to Seabees all the way from the South Okinawa.