The Rest of the Story
A WW2 tale...
I want to tell you a story…a WW2 story relayed to me by my good friend Eric.
He recently reached out to me about the death of the father of a friend of his. His friend’s father was a WW2 veteran. Now I’ve kept his name out of this as I got this story third hand…but it’s a hell of a story. For fun…let’s call our WW2 veteran Tony.
Tony, born in Brooklyn in 1926 , enlisted and joined the Navy in January of 1944. 18 years old.
He got his first set of orders based out of Norfolk Virginia, onboard the USS Underhill where he was to serve his initial enlistment.
Now apparently Tony was a bit of a rabble rouser and liked to have a good time.
But who can blame a Sailor for that?
Well Tony had been onboard the USS Underhill for about 5 months when they were getting ready to get underway to deploy. Of course Tony and his friends were out on the town the night before…but got so carried away…that they missed ship’s movement the next morning.
Yes…Tony had just missed his ship as it deployed to the Pacific Theater where the United States was in a terrible back and forth battle campaign for dominance.
In today’s Navy, any sailors that miss ship’s movement like that will most likely get flown out to meet the ship. They can get a ride with a helicopter or catch a transport flight out to a future port stop and meet the ship there.
But in September of 1944?
Sailors would just get transferred to the next ship. Which is what happened to Tony. The USS Underhill went on deployment to the Pacific as did Tony; but with his new ship.
A few months later tragic news came home to the states…the USS Underhill had been sunk in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1945, by a Japanese suicide submarines, causing two explosions that severely damaged and eventually sank the vessel.
We don’t know if Tony heard the news of his previous ship while he underway.
What we do know is that months later, while Tony stood on the deck of his brand new ship on September 2nd, 1945,… watching Japan surrender to the United States, he must have been incredibly proud to be serving onboard the USS Missouri.
Yes…our WW2 veteran had been transferred to the USS Missouri. The same battleship that took part in the Battle of Iwo Jima…the Battle of Okinawa…and eventually, the exact location where the surrender of Japan took place.
You would not believe how stunned I was to hear this story from my friend Eric. He sent me a picture of a special certificate that his friend’s father got for being present at the surrender.
….
Thank you Eric and to his friend’s father for his service long before those of us who serve now.