Dec 7, always reminds me to remember our vets - A Personal S


[Follow Ups] [Post Followup] [Dodge Power Wagon Forum]


Posted by Bob Stopka on Saturday, December 08, 2007 at 01:56:09 :

We all have special people in our lives that were vets or currently serve in the Military. We need to always remember them in our prayers, as they have all done so much for all of us. I am sure there are many that read this web site that are among those special people. Just like many of you, I have known one vet that has always been very special to me, my Dad. Deceased since 1978, I do think of his early days, of when he and his first cousin volunteered together at age 17 in early 42, leaving High School and joining the Navy to defend this great country of ours. He grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, and had basic in Quonsett Point, Rhode Island, near Newport. He was assigned to the USS Iowa, Battleship BB61. He was what they refer to in the Navy as a Plank Owner, or one of the original crew, being assingned to Iowa during the winter of 42 - 43 in Brooklyn, at the Navy yard, prior to Iowa's commishioning. Dad spent his whole WWII career on Iowa, and witnessed the surrender of Japan in Tokyo Bay, 200 feet away from it all, as the Iowa was parked next to sister ship USS Missouri BB63 where the formal surrender was signed. All through the war Dad was assigned to the left (port) 16 inch gun barrel of the # 2 (2nd from front) 16" gun turret. He was the powder rammer, and his job was to hydraulically ram three 100 lb bags of powder in behind the 2000 lb 16 " shell rammed first, in preparation to firing. There were 41 guys assigned to each 16" turret during battle. That turret Dad was in is the one that exploded and killed 41 sailors in 1989 off of Puerto Rico, due to the the experimentations done with older unstable powder that was being used. I have include a link below, of official Iowa photos and history. Whenever I look at photos of Iowa from WWII, I kind of feel a special feeling inside, as I know, that in every one of thow WWII Iowa photos, my Dad was somewhere on the ship, at that very moment, way before I was born... USS IOWA is the only US Battleship still in the US Gov't Fleet. She is mothballed in the reserve fleet in Suisun Bay in San Francisco. Her sisters are all museums now.
BB62 USS New Jersey in Camden, NJ, BB63 USS MISSOURRI at Pearl Harbor, and BB64 USS Wisconsin in Norfolk. I was very fortunate to ride on my Dad's ship the IOWA, after he passed on. I rode her in 1988, from Newport, Rhode Island into the harbor in New York City. It was a 9 hour trip, and I actually was allowed to go into turret 2 and see exactly the spot my dad worked, at the back end of the left barrel. The whole trip was one of those life long memories we all have that we can never forget. Just fantastic. Coming into NYC Harbor, hundreds of sailors were lining the edge of the deck in their dress whites. I actually was standing on top of turret 2 as we went under the farthest bridge out inthe harbor, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. I looked up at it when going underneath and it made me think of when Dad told me how they came into San Francisco Bay in January 46, and how they had to lower the Antennaes on the ship to get under the Bay Bridge. Dad never liked to travel, and, in the 60's todrive the car from Ct 100 miles to Cape Cod was like something he hated. When mom used to say to him, come on, let's take a trip, Dad would say, no thanks, as he traveled as much as he could stand, 190,000 miles on the Iowa ! And that is really how much they rode that ship in 3.5 years. You can look here also if you like, to the USS IOWA Veterans Association web site www.ussiowa.org if you like.
Iowa BB61 Legnth 887', width 108' (Panama Canal is 110' wide, so the ships were limited to 108' max width.)
How about someone posting a reply with another personal Vet Story !
Please thank a Vet when you see one !



Follow Ups:



Post a Followup

Name:
E-Mail:
Subject:
Message:
Optional Link
URL:
Title:
Optional Image Link
URL:


This board is powered by the Mr. Fong Device from Cyberarmy.com