Naval History Blog

Bryan Dean of The Oklahoman writes on 22 June 2010,

“The last time Ed Vezey saw the mast of the USS Oklahoma, he was sliding off the listing battleship’s deck into the oily waters of Pearl Harbor.  Monday, Vezey stood on the tarmac at Tinker Air Force Base as an 11-ton piece of the mast was unloaded from a C-17 cargo plane. The 45-foot long section of the ship will be taken by truck to Muskogee later this week where it will become part of that city’s War Memorial Park and Museum.  Vezey, 90, moved to Moore in December from Colorado and made the trip Monday to see the piece arrive at Tinker Air Force Base.”

Photographed circa 1940, with SOC seaplanes on her catapults.

For addition photos of the Battleship Oklahoma, click here.  Oklahoma’s DANFS entry can be viewed here.

 Last week, the San Diego Tribune reported that USNS Charles Drew (T-AKE-10) went to sea for the very first time out of San Diego, CA.  Here’s a litle bit of background on the namesake of the Navy’s newest dry cargo ship :

Dr. Charles Drew

“A black scientist helped save thousands of lives during World War II. Dr. Charles Drew set up and ran the pioneer blood plasma bank in Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. This bank served as one of the models for the system of banks operated later by the American Red Cross. On October 1, 1940, in response to a British appeal, Dr. Drew was appointed medical director of the plasma project of Great Britain. As director of the first great experiment in the gross production of human plasma, Dr. Drew created models for later developments in the United States and Europe. When the project ended in 1941, Dr. Drew became the first director of a new project charged with the responsibility of setting up donor stations to collect blood plasma for the American armed services. He resigned three months later and became professor of surgery at Howard University. Under an American Red Cross ruling in World War II, Dr. Drew’s blood, ironically enough, would have been segregated from the blood of white donors.” – Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America: The Classic Account of the Struggles and Triumphs of Black Americans by Lerone Bennett, Jr. , p. 534.

Getting underway for the first time is an exciting time in the history of any ship.  This sea trial was made even more special with the presence onboard of two of Dr. Drew’s children.

In 1972, the Seventh Fleet had a problem to solve in the waning years of the Vietnam War. With North Vietnamese harbors blocked by mines and the American air and surface fleet in the Tonkin Gulf, Chinese merchant ships used their neutral status to drop supplies off along the coast to be carried ashore by sampans at the Hon La anchorage. Because small craft where hard to locate and were in fact fishing boats, they were not suitable targets for carrier air and they operated to close to shore for destroyers to target.

The Marines of the 9th Amphibious Brigade and the fleet staff came up with a solution: Bell AH-1J Sea Cobra helicopter gunships would be used while flying off of the USS Denver (LPD 9). Called “Marine Hunter Killers,” they operated from June 1972 until January 1973 in support of Task Force 77 flying some 981 sorties and shooting up some 123 sampan carrying an estimated 5,444 bags of rice. This saved the U.S. Navy the use of a carrier and two destroyers.

In 1855, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, responding to Congress’ request that camels be introduced “upon this [North American] Continent, as an animal of burden and for military purposes,” asked Secretary of the Navy James C. Dobbin for the services of 42-year old Lieutenant David Dixon Porter, son of the War of 1812 hero Captain David Porter. The younger Porter had distinguished himself in the war with Mexico and had become known as an able captain, earning distinction in the merchant marine during an extended leave from the Navy.

Returning to the service in 1855, Porter brought “acknowledged professional ability and energy, and his knowledge of the east from residence there,” in addition to an “appreciation for [the expedition’s] value and a conviction of its practicability.” Porter had his command, the storeship Supply, fitted out at the New York Navy Yard for the mission. “A trunk 60 feet long was raised upon the spardeck . . .12 feet wide, with a large hatch, 11 feet 3 inches by 6 feet 8 inches and amid-ships to let the camels down on the lower deck.” He also had special harnesses made of “strong canvas . . . so arranged that when the vessel rolls the camel is kept perfectly steady.”

Supply sailed for the Mediterranean on 5 June 1855, and over the next few months fulfilled her assigned mission. She brought back “thirty-four camels and dromedaries . . . in better condition than they were when they came on board” due to a regimen of good food and good grooming. Supply transferred the animals to the steamer Fashion in the southwest pass of the Mississippi River on 10 May 1856. Supply subsequently conducted a second camel-gathering mission, and ultimately the experiment proved that the camel could be adapted to service in the U.S. southwest.

The expedition to transport those “ships of the desert” on board Supply showed the Navy’s versatility. It also showed that the Navy’s people, such as Commander Porter and his men, could carry out any mission—however unique—that was entrusted to them.

This summary of Naval Legislation between 1922-1944 was prepared by Senator David I. Walsh, Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs, United States Senate, and inserted into the Congressional Record on June 7, 1944.  The full report was entitled, The Decline and Renaissance of the Navy 1922-1944:  The United States Navy from the Washington Treaty of 1922 to 1944.  

Sen. Walsh of Massachusetts: 

“Mr. President, in view of the fact that the United States Government will be confronted with the problem of the kind and size of the Navy following the present World War, it seems to me that a brief history of the deterioration and rejuvenation of the Navy following World War No. 1 would be timely, and informative. Accordingly, I have personally prepared a concise history of the Navy from 1922 to 1944, pointing out the policy of the Government during these years and the steps taken in recent years to rebuild our Navy to its present strength.

“This naval history is divided into three parts: 1922-30, the period of decline; 1932-36, the period of awakening; 1936-44, the rebuilding and expansion of the Navy. Subjects considered are the effect on the size of the Navy of the limitation of armaments treaties, the Hepburn report, Guam, and a summary of the expansion legislation from 1938 to the present time. “

To read the entire report, click here.

USS Texas (BB-35) dressed with flags for Navy Day, 27 October 1940. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

In a 15 June 2010 Houston Chronicle article entitled “Near-Sinking Of Battleship Texas A ‘Wake-Up Call’“, Amanda Casanova writes:

Millions of dollars and major repairs have kept the iconic Battleship Texas afloat over the years, but last weekend it was a pump and a rag that stopped it from sinking into the Houston Ship Channel.

On Thursday, an employee at the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site, where the Texas is moored, noticed the 96-year-old ship was sitting lower in the water than usual when he left the park…

… A combination of a pump failure and leaks — at least one new one — had caused the ship to take on at least 105,000 gallons of water and sink nearly three feet into the channel. By Saturday, replacement pumps and a rag stuffed into the new leak had righted the ship, and it was stabilized on Sunday… Tours of the ship continued throughout the weekend.” 

2014 marks the Centennial of the USS Texas’ commissioning.  

For a complete history of the USS Texas (BB- 35 ), click here.  For additional photos of the USS Texas from our photo archives, click here.

For the period 1 April 1942 – 18 June 1942, Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance, USN, was “operating with a major task force of the Pacific fleet under the conditions of war according to his reporting officer, Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher, USN.

To view the rest of Spruance’s Fitrep after the Battle of Midway, click here.

How does it compare to your fitreps?

A “ball of flame” passed beneath Clementine 02, a Kaman UH-2A, as the North Vietnamese fired a rocket at the Seasprite on the moonless night of 18 June 1968. The pilot, 27-year-old Ltjg. Clyde E. Lassen of Fort Myers, Florida, serving with HC-7 Detachment 104, had launched from frigate Jouett (DLG 29) in the Gulf of Tonkin to rescue Rootbeer 210, a McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom flown by Lieutenant Commanders John W. Holtzclaw and John A. Burns of VF-33, shot down by a surface-to-air missile.

Lassen and his crew spotted the burning Phantom but the dense foliage prevented them from landing. Holtzclaw and Burns signaled Lassen and he heroically took the Seasprite in, but the “impenetrable jungle” prevented his crew from dangling the rescue harness. Undaunted, Lassen came about and landed but the enemy opened fire and the stranded men frantically radioed “Come get us, come get us!” Lassen and his crew returned fire as they tried again, but the aircraft began to run out of fuel.

North Vietnamese chased Holtzclaw and Burns as they ran for the helo and clambered on board, and with “both guns returning enemy fire” the helo lifted off and returned to Jouett with barely five minutes of fuel remaining. “It’s kind of strange” Lassen explained. “Once I crossed the beach going inland, I figured I was dead. The longer we stayed in there, the more I thought there was a chance we might survive through it.”

After graduating from high school in Venice, Florida, Lassen enlisted as a seaman recruit in 1961 and commissioned as an ensign four years later. The brave pilot received the Medal of Honor for the rescue, and retired as a commander to Florida. On 21 April 2001, the Navy commissioned destroyer Lassen (DDG 82), named in his honor.