Author Topic: Any questions for WWII Subvets?  (Read 19304 times)

Offline Mark Sarsfield

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Re: Any questions for WWII Subvets?
« Reply #15 on: March 17, 2008, 11:33:40 AM »
Great stuff.  I never knew that Pappy got captured by the Japs.

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Mark Sarsfield
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Offline K0EFV

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Re: Any questions for WWII Subvets?
« Reply #16 on: March 17, 2008, 12:14:10 PM »
TRAVIS:
OK I will send some direct to you and mayve a cc to Lance and you can post them in the forum
Semper Fi
K0EFV Tom USMC
Tom USMC

Offline K0EFV

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Re: Any questions for WWII Subvets?
« Reply #17 on: March 25, 2008, 05:42:51 PM »
Travis:
Sorry to be late with this reply. Re USS Tang SS-306 and Clay Decker.  In my visits with Clay he mentioned Jesse Da Silva who was another Survivor and was taken POW also.  I forgot I had found an account of the Tang's sinking written by Jesse Da Silva.  I was just looking at it yesterday and remembered Jesse made reference to Clay receiving the Silver Star and Greg Boyington's role.  It is a rather sad account of both the sinking and their treatment by the Japanese, and his return home.  I did notice he did not mention the incident where the POW camp commander assembled Boyington and some of the prisoners , and commited Hari Kari  (suicide) in front of them just before the liberation.  You can find Jesse's acount at  http://freehosting.net/tang.html  If tou can't find it let me know and I will send it to you.  Finaly If you get to see the video see if Clay mentions the book he was doing.  He gave me a copy of it and I loaned it out and it never came back.  I fogot the title and that would be a big help for me to get a replacement.
K0EFV    
Tom USMC

Offline Travis McLain

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Re: Any questions for WWII Subvets?
« Reply #18 on: March 25, 2008, 06:01:14 PM »
I talked to the local subvets that knew him about the book, and they were not aware that he wrote a book, however they are looking into it. I will let you know as soon as they come back with the answer.

I was not able to get the webpage to come up.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2008, 06:06:38 PM by Travis McLain »
"Uncommon Valor Was A Common Virtue" Adm. Nimitz on the Marines at Iwo Jima.

"USS Batfish relentlessly tracked down the enemy and in three separate, brilliantly executed attacks, launched her torpedoes with devastating speed and skill and demolished three Japanese submarines."

Offline K0EFV

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Re: Any questions for WWII Subvets?
« Reply #19 on: March 25, 2008, 06:34:37 PM »
I am sorry here is the correct web address.  amh.freehosting.net/tang
K0EFV
Tom USMC

Offline Lance Dean

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Re: Any questions for WWII Subvets?
« Reply #20 on: March 25, 2008, 06:46:13 PM »
http://amh.freehosting.net/tang.html

is the address you seek.

Offline Travis McLain

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Re: Any questions for WWII Subvets?
« Reply #21 on: March 25, 2008, 07:37:01 PM »
Roger that, thanks Lance.
"Uncommon Valor Was A Common Virtue" Adm. Nimitz on the Marines at Iwo Jima.

"USS Batfish relentlessly tracked down the enemy and in three separate, brilliantly executed attacks, launched her torpedoes with devastating speed and skill and demolished three Japanese submarines."

Offline K0EFV

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Re: Any questions for WWII Subvets?
« Reply #22 on: March 25, 2008, 08:43:19 PM »
RE: Clay Decker
The email I sent you had a picture of Clay & Ann.  In the picture Clay is holding the book.  It is very possible that he never got a chance to have it published and in print in that case we will not find it.  It does show Boyington on the cover of the book.  Thanks for the help and I will attach the photo to this reply.
K0EFV  
Tom USMC

Offline Paul Farace

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Before you submarine interior decorators open a can of paint, read this...
« Reply #23 on: April 03, 2008, 03:30:14 AM »
Don't ask a WW II subvet what color anything was. They were not in the job of taking notes and remembering that stuff. Your boat will tell you what colors it was painted, just ask... as in take a paint chip from an interior surface and inspect it.  There is a handbook from the Secretary of the Interior on general guidelines for preservation and restoration of historic ships... please read it.  Most of the boats got a general white coat at the time of construction that aged to a beige due to the oil content and the massive amounts of tar and nicotine from smoking. In 1944 the Navy instituted a program to increase the habitability of the boats and this included installation of both fluorescent lights and incandescent lights with the seafoam green and butter yellow colors on surfaces in crew spaces. The Officers staterooms were pretty much always the light green (I believe LING's very odd green is not standard issue). My guess is most of the boats never got painted in reserve days. It was not important. Sadly, at COD, a subvet got a ton of flat white housepaint from a neighbor who bought too much for his house... yes, before you knew it, active-duty era paint in the galley and crew's berthing space was covered (badly) with paint. Luckily, the painters were so bad that the tops of pipes and other shadow areas were left in their original (before 1959) colors.

Back to the warning about subvet memory:  we at COD were very proud that we were able to restore our WWII vintage ice cream machine. During a reunion, we got it running for the crew. One of the vets of virtually all of COD's patrols took our director aside and said quietly "I don't want to rain on your parade, but COD NEVER had an ice cream machine!"  My skipper told me what the veteran crewman said and later that night, at our banquet, I handed the vet a photograph of him standing in the galley, just a foot away from the ice cream maker that never was aboard.  No one individual can remember anything from 65 years ago clearly. Take a bunch together in a room and give them a question, and chances are they will come to a correct answer, but individually, it's really a crap shoot.  You have to know the answer yourself, using the evidence at hand and researching photos.

Paul
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Offline Lance Dean

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Re: Any questions for WWII Subvets?
« Reply #24 on: April 03, 2008, 08:24:08 AM »
Seafoam green....I like that color!

Offline Travis McLain

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Re: Any questions for WWII Subvets?
« Reply #25 on: May 17, 2008, 08:40:40 PM »
Today was the memorial for the U.S.S. Grayling (the boat given to Colorado SubVets to memorialize). They had a flyover, 7 gun salute, and tolling of the boats. Many WWII SubVets were in attendance, and I got to meet all but two, one of them after WWII put Nautilus into commision and sailed with her under the North Pole. One was on the Cavalla when they sank the aircraft carrier (name has escaped my mind) . I will try to post a video of the ceremony later on.
The SubVet from the Cavalla invited me to his house to chat about his WWII experiences.
"Uncommon Valor Was A Common Virtue" Adm. Nimitz on the Marines at Iwo Jima.

"USS Batfish relentlessly tracked down the enemy and in three separate, brilliantly executed attacks, launched her torpedoes with devastating speed and skill and demolished three Japanese submarines."

Offline Mark Sarsfield

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Re: Any questions for WWII Subvets?
« Reply #26 on: May 18, 2008, 10:09:00 AM »
Get it on video, if you can. Can't wait to hear what he has to say.

Regards,
Mark Sarsfield
USS Batfish reenactor



"If you have one bucket that can hold 5 gallons and one bucket that can hold 2 gallons, how many buckets do you have?" - IQ test from Idiocracy