At 18, James Friel was on liberty in Honolulu with the rest of the fleet during World War II. Photo provided
It was pitch dark 64 years ago this past week, when Seaman 1st Class James Friel of south Punta Gorda, Fla. jumped from the fantail of the USS Walke (DD-416) into Iron Bottom Sound at Guadalcanal after his destroyer was hit by a Japanese torpedo. Read the rest of this entry »
Seaman Ken Rivers of Port Charlotte, Fla. is pictured in 1944 after graduating from boot camp at 17. He served aboard the destroyer, USS Mansfield (DD-728) in the Pacific during World War II. Photo provided
By the time Ken Rivers of Port Charlotte, Fla. was 20 he had taken part in seven major engagements in the Pacific in World War II aboard the destroyer USS Mansfield (DD-728), participated in the first naval battle of the war in Tokyo Bay and attended the Surrender Ceremony on Sept. 2, 1945 when the Japanese officially called it quits. Read the rest of this entry »
2nd Lt. Ken Stetson of Englewood, Fla. is pictured when he graduated from flight school and received his wings during WW II. He flew a B-29 bomber on 30 combat missions over Japan. Photo provided
1st Lt. Ken Stetson, was at the controls of a B-29 “Superfortress” the crew named “Tanaka Termite” when it was attacked by Japanese fighter planes while flying in formation over Mount Fuji on their first of 30 combat missions to Japan. Read the rest of this entry »
It's been togetherness for Rudy Ricci (left) and Jack Callahan these past several months after Rudy saw Jack's war story in the Sun newspaper. Neither had seen anyone from their World War II ship, the attack transport USS St. Mary's, since they got off the boat 65 years ago. Sun photo by Don Moore
The headline on the story in the Sun read: ‘Jack Callahan served aboard USS St. Mary’s at Okinawa.’ Rudy Ricci of Windmill Village mobile home park in Punta Gorda, Fla. couldn’t believe his eyes.
Leonard Hieber sits in the cockpit of his Helldiver Dive Bomber ready to fly off the deck of the carrier USS Bennington and attack the Japanese on their home islands near the end of WWII. Photo provided
When the Japanese surrendered abroad the Battleship Missouri on Sept. 2, 1945 America’s airborne military might was on display. An armada of U.S. fighters and bombers flew low and slow over the “Mighty Mo” to hammer home to the Japanese they had been vanquished.
Fresh out of boot camp, 18-year-old Tony Inzerillo of Chicago went aboard the submarine USS Thornback as a mechanic very late in World War II. He and the sub he served on made one combat mission a few weeks before war's end. Photo provided
Tony Inzerillo of Seminole Lakes subdivision, south of Punta Gorda, Fla. almost missed World War II. He and the rest of the crew of the submarine USS Thornback, SS-418, made one combat cruise off the coast of mainland Japan a month before the Japanese unconditionally surrendered ending the Second World War.
Nick Gassera was a teenage sailor serving aboard the destroyer USS Collett when this picture was taken of him in his Navy uniform in Honolulu in 1944. Photo provided
There’s not much Nick Gassera remembers about serving as a seaman aboard the destroyer USS Collett, DD-730, during World War II. But three images still vividly stick out in his mind about World War II after more than six decades—Okinawa, the typhoon and being aboard the first American ship to sail into Tokyo Bay when the Japanese surrendered. Read the rest of this entry »
This was Ken Schank when he was in his early 20s before he went to sea aboard the USS Helena in the Pacific during World War II. Photo provided.
A spread of three “Long Lance” Japanese torpedoes struck the light cruiser USS Helena at 2 a.m., July 6, 1943 off Vella Lavella Island, part of the Solomon Island Chain in the South Pacific. Machinist Mate Ken Schank of Port Charlotte was at his battle station maintaining an electric generator controlling the cruiser’s main guns in the bowels of the ship deep below the surface when disaster struck. Read the rest of this entry »
Al Trombi is pictured shortly after completing basic training.
Like a Biblical plague of locusts, the kamikazes swept across the Allied fleet in the Southwest Pacific during the closing months of World War II. The Japanese called them the “Divine Wind.” The sailors in Adm. “Bull” Halsey’s Task Force 38 called them “hell.”
The Imperial Navy’s suicide pilots sunk or damaged 232 ships in that battle alone. Some 3,500 kamikazes were shot down in this attack. Before they went down in flames, the Japanese aviators sent 30 Allied ships to the bottom.
Thousands of Japanese pilots went to their fiery deaths crashing headlong into 122 destroyers, 19 aircraft carriers, 10 battleships, 12 cruisers and 69 auxiliary ships during the 82-days it took to defeat enemy forces on Okinawa.
