Great Grandfather's Boat - The USS Indiana

Today I found a documentary video on the USS Indiana, the ship my great grandfather served on during the Spanish-American War and the Boxer Rebellion. The Indiana was famous not only for being one of the first battleships, it was the first modern battleship in the United States Navy. (Modern designation BB-1) The same fleet that produced the Maine and the Olympia made this boat that bridged two centuries, two different eras of warfare and evolved into the first Dreadnought-class battleship.

This comprehensive and incredibly well-researched video is brought to you by Lance Geiger, aka "The History Guy" who is obviously the leading expert in his field on the subject, so without any further explanation I will let him do what he does best...

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Bonus content!

Here is the hat ribbon we found in Grandpa's belongings that says USS INDIANA on it. Below that is an original crew photo that was framed. He's somewhere in the picture.

The Long Voyage Home

Yesterday I finally had an opportunity to display my Grandfather's artifacts on board a Navy vessel that served in the battle of Leyte Gulf. Not just any ship, the Admiral's flagship.

In the Captain's stateroom aboard the Battleship New Jersey, in Grandma's birth city of Camden, across the river from the Philadelphia Navy yard where he enlisted in 1942. In a way, I brought him home. There is no better place to tell a story than to go back to where it all started.

He has been gone for 31 years.

We lost our family hero a long time ago and I was very young when it happened, but the military honors  at his burial left such an impression on me it changed my life. Ever since I was a kid, I've always liked to talk about him as if he never left. As long as I recreate history, his memory is kept alive and that legacy is here to stay. I have worked tirelessly to make him proud, in everything I do.

All of it was made possible because I met the museum curator at the Fort Miles event over a year ago. This is why I go to so many events and try to make as many connections as I can, you never know where it's are going to lead. Sometimes it takes months or years for an opportunity to develop. 

Most WWII history events are all about the Army, Marines & Air Force, the Navy rarely gets any attention. But here I had a captive audience. The genuine interest of the public, from families and docents and veterans-even teenagers- made it all worthwhile, many website cards were taken and QR codes scanned. I don't think I ever worked so hard or so long to prepare for an event in advance.

This particular journey started in 2012 when the family was cleaning out the house and I brought everything home. For now, it will be a traveling exhibit. One day when I too have passed on, I hope the collection will find a forever home in a permanent museum.

On Eternal Patrol - 30 Years

 June 16, 1995 I said goodbye to my family's hero.  I was eleven. It left such an impression on me here I am still thinking about it, 30 years later.

 

 

Remember...

It was the veteran, not the preacher

Who gave us freedom of religion.

It was the veteran, not the reporter

Who gave us freedom of the press.

It was the veteran, not the poet

Who gave us freedom of speech.

It was the veteran, not the lawyer

Who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It was the veteran, not the campus organizer

Who has given us freedom to demonstrate.

It is the veteran who salutes the flag,

who served under the flag ,

And whose coffin is draped by the flag.

[It is the veteran to whom we owe our lives.]

--Edward O'Brien, USMC

 

 One more I would like to add...

It is the veteran, not the politician,

who helped win the war and keep our country free from tyranny.

Darter's Lost Ship Log at US Navy Memorial

 

Darter

Ship Designation: 

SS-227

Date Lost: 

Tuesday, October 24, 1944

Abandoned after Running Aground on Bombay Shoal

On 1 September 1944, DARTER, commanded by Cdr. D.H. McClintock, left Brisbane for a period of training en route to her fourth war patrol. She topped off with fuel at Darwin on 10 September and left that place on the same day to perform routine reconnaissance duty in the Celebes Sea from 14 September to 24 September.

Proceeding thence to the South China Sea with DACE commanded by Cdr. B.D. Claggett, DARTER formed a coordinated attack team with that vessel. The period of 12 October to 24 October was productive of many targets and attacks for DARTER, and she sank 9,900 tons of enemy shipping and damaged 19,990 tons in this time.

In the early morning of 23 October 1944 both DARTER and DACE contacted and tracked a large enemy force heading north through Palawan Passage en route to engage our forces in the Battles for Leyte Gulf. They attacked while the enemy were unable to alter course appreciatively, and in brilliant pre-dawn submerged attacks, sank the heavy cruisers ATAGO and MAYA, and so severely damaged the heavy cruiser TAKAO that she was useless for the rest of the war. During daylight, DARTER tried a submerged attack on TAKAO, which had been stopped, but was driven off by screening destroyers. Thus a night coordinated attack was drawn up by the two boats.

Since she could not surface to takes sights, DARTER was forced to navigate on a 24-hour-old dead-reckoning plot. At 2200 TAKAO got underway, and Darter began a surface attack. Detecting two radars sweeping, she decided to do an end round, and then make an attack at radar depth. At 0005 on 24 October 1944, DARTER grounded on Bombay Shoal at 17 knots and rode up to a draft of nine feet forward. Efforts to get off the reef were unsuccessful and a message was sent to DACE requesting assistance.

DACE closed DARTER and, after confidential gear had been smashed and classified matter burned, the men of DARTER were transferred to DACE. This was all done before dawn, and there were no losses of DARTER personnel.

DARTER’s demolition charges failed to go off properly, and DACE used her remaining torpedoes in trying to destroy her without success, the torpedoes hitting the reef and exploding before they reached their target. She did, however, score 21 4-inch hits on DARTER. ROCK was called in and fired ten torpedoes at DARTER, with similar lack of success due to their hitting the reef.

NAUTILUS, on her thirteenth patrol, arrived on 31 October 1944, and scored 55 6-inch hits on DARTER. Her report states, “It is doubtful that any equipment in DARTER at 1131 this date would be of any use to Japan- except as scrap. Estimated draft of DARTER- 4 feet.” Apparently the Japanese got no use out of her, for an American naval officer recently (1962) was amazed to see her hulk still intact, appearing to be indestructible.

It must be understood that Commander McClintock understood fully the dangers involved in the end around maneuver in which DARTER grounded—indeed, the incident is a classic example of calculated risk, and he was not in any way held at fault in the incident. It was simply one of those unfortunate tactical losses which must be expected in wartime, but which, in this case, was minimized by the fact that the full complement of DARTER’s personnel was saved. In order to keep this fighting and successful crew together the entire DARTER crew was ordered to take over the submarine MENHADEN, then building at Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

DARTER’s four patrols (including her last) resulted in 23,700 tons of enemy ships being sent to the bottom, and 30,000 tons being damaged. She began her patrolling career south and west of Truk in January and February 1944. She damaged a freighter on this first patrol. In the second patrol of this vessel, she covered an area in and around the Celebes Sea; she sank a freighter here. DARTER’s third patrol was again in the eastern Celebes Sea, and she sank the large minelayer TSUGARU on 29 June 1944. She was credited with sinking the heavy cruiser ATAGO and damaging the heavy cruiser TAKAO on the night of 23 October 1944, shortly before she stranded. DARTER was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation for the last patrol.

Source: https://navylog.navymemorial.org/darter

Welcome back, shipmates!

After a long hiatus, I'm back and blogging again because at last, I have some fresh content. My Dad brought home a few more folders of papers I can scan through to add to my knowledge base. 

To the new cadets who just came aboard, welcome to a virtual museum dedicated to a man who I barely knew when he was alive.
 

Grandpa lived the kind of epic life the rest of us can only read about in books. He was born in 1919, the year after the First World War ended. As a baby, he survived the first influenza pandemic. He kept himself busy during the Depression by teaching himself how to build radios from spare parts. In 1942, he enlisted in the Navy and went to war, overcoming his fear of confined spaces to be in the submarine service, about the most terrifying job imaginable. He became a radio crewman and radar operator on a diesel submarine named the USS Darter, where he had an experience that changed him forever.

The Darter story is a Navy legend. The night before the battle for Leyte Gulf, his submarine made a surprise attack on the entire Japanese fleet that could have turned the tide of the Pacific war. (They almost sunk an Admiral)  Trying to escape, the sub went off course and plowed into a reef, and as the radio operator he sent a distress signal that rescued his crew from enemy capture. Thanks largely to him, all of his buddies made it home.

His military career spanned three decades and two wars. I wish I could have heard the stories he used to tell, but I was too young to understand.  Hugh loved history, especially Navy history. He had quite a library of books about Navy ships and maritime subjects, dating back as far as the Civil War. He attended every crew reunion and helped to launch several boats. They say you never really get out of the Navy, you're in it for life.

I wanted to serve when I was the right age but my health never allowed it. But I think --I hope-- he'd have been proud of what I do. By attending WWII reenactments and volunteering on museum ships like the USS New Jersey, I try to keep his memory alive any way I can, because it brings him a little closer to me. 

True, my grandfather is long gone, as are most of the people who knew him. There is an ocean of time that separates me from him. He's buried so far away I can't visit his grave. All his shipmates he served with are gone too. His old boat is a wreck on a coral reef on the other side of the world, and 80 years of weather has eroded it away to nothing. Only his memory remains.

If I don't remember him, who else will? He was a great man and he deserves to be remembered.

That is why we are here. Welcome aboard.

Thank You To Our Veterans

Group photo of all the surviving DARTER & DACE crew with both Capt McClintock and Capt. Claggett at the dedication of the Darter-Dace memorial in Marquette, Michigan. Taken in 2000.

 THANK YOU TO ALL OUR VETERANS AND THE GREATEST GENERATION