Naval History Blog

Navy Chaplains have a long and distinguished history of administering to the spiritual needs of Marines. One such man was Father Vincent R. Capodanno. After his ordination in June 1957, Father Capodanno served from 1958-1965 as a Maryknoll Missionary for the Catholic Foreign Mission Society in the Far East. As the conflict in Vietnam escalated in early 1965, Father Capodanno felt the call to enter Naval Service. He subsequently accepted an appointment on 28 December 1965 as a Lieutenant, Chaplain Corps, U.S. Naval Reserve, and received indoctrination at the Naval Chaplains School in Newport Rhode Island.

In April 1966, Lieutenant Capodanno deployed to the Republic of Vietnam, and was assigned as a Chaplain with the First Marine Division. Battle hardened Marines soon came to seek out and appreciate the consolation and understanding they found in the tall, soft-spoken “Grunt Padre.” Lieutenant Capodanno always seemed to be on the go, and most of the time he was to be found with Marines in the field. While serving as Chaplain for the 3d Battalion, 5th Marines on 4 September 1967 in Quang Tri Province, he heard reports that 2d Platoon, Company M, was in danger of being overrun by a strong enemy force. Lieutenant Capodanno immediately requested to leave his secure station and attend to the Marines. In the words of the citation that would accompany his posthumously awarded Medal of Honor, Father Capodanno “ran to the beleaguered platoon through an open area raked with fire…and despite painful, multiple wounds to his arms and legs, refused all medical aid, and continued to move about the battlefield and provide encouragement by voice and example to the Marines.” Seeing a wounded Corpsman directly in the line of fire of an enemy machine gun, he rushed forward to the man’s aid, but was struck down by a burst of machine-gun fire. By his heroic conduct and inspiring example, Chaplain Capodanno upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service, and gallantly gave his life in the cause of freedom.

Today, Lieutenant Capodanno is recognized as having been one of the Navy’s most dedicated Chaplains. There are monuments in his honor, and both a Chapel at Camp Pendleton California and a U.S. Navy fast-frigate bears his name. The devoted service of Lieutenant Capodanno during the Vietnam War to “his” Marines, his “chosen flock,” remains a shining example of one man’s willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice for his country.

In June 1944, Allied forces launched an offensive to capture the Marianas Islands from the Japanese. Invasion forces stormed the islands of Saipan, Guam and Tinian in succession, supported by ships and aircraft of the United States Navy.

Offshore, the Battle of the Philippine Sea proved a decisive victory for the Allies. This United States Marine Corps “Official Operations Report,” produced during the war, provides a detailed examination of each phase of the campaign. Using maps and animations, the three films outline landing assignments, naval gunfire support, and air support for each phase of the campaign.

 The story of the battle on each island is brought to life with extensive combat footage of land, sea, and air operations.

These films, with a running time of nearly two and a half hours, stand as an excellent history of a crucial phase in the Pacific island-hopping campaign.

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From The Marine Corps History Division…

The 24 July – 1 August 1944 campaign for the assault and capture of the Mariana Islands played a vital role in the final defeat of Japan. Planners deemed the islands of Guam, Saipan, and Tinian of critical importance because the Army Air Corps needed bases from which its long-range bombers could make non-stop strikes on Japan. Additionally, the Navy wanted the islands developed as advance bases, and hoped that a Marianas operation would draw out the Japanese Combined Fleet so that it could be engaged in a decisive battle.

After the capture of Saipan in early July 1944, the next step in this campaign was Tinian, whose relatively flat terrain was ideally suited for the construction of airfields for the new American B-29 bombers. Vice Admiral Richmond Kelley Turner, USN, commanded the approximately 800 ships and 162,000 men of the Marianas Joint Expeditionary Force. Turner also led the Northern Attack Force, designated specifically for Saipan and Tinian. The task of taking Tinian fell to the 2d and 4th Marine Divisions, under the overall command of Major General Harry Schmidt, USMC, Commander, V Amphibious Corps.

Tinian underwent over 40 days of preliminary naval gunfire and bombing from the air. Shore fire control was improved from previous campaigns as fire-control parties worked out procedures on board the gunfire ships designated to support the landings. Photo reconnaissance flights and captured enemy documents on Saipan gave a clear picture of the topography of Tinian, and for the first time napalm was used extensively and proved successful in burning off ground cover.

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This multi-part World War II documentary, produced by the United States Marine Corps, provides a detailed examination of the campaign to take the Marianas from the Japanese.

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 Last week the Naval History and  Heritage Command was host to the 2010 National Historical Conference and Naval History Workshop.  This conference brought together those working to preserve and share naval history, allowing talk about how historians, museums, and libraries and archives are getting the job done and to learn from each other.  One of the sessions focused on libraries and archives, highlighting the amazing naval history collections that are available. 

Staff members from the Library of the Marine Corps, Archives and Special Collections; the library at the National Naval Aviation Museum; and the Operational Archives of NHHC shared with attendees some of the interesting items they have in their collections, and why these collections are just as important as the objects held in the museums. 

Libraries and archives tell the stories behind the objects.  The Marine Corps Archives and the NHHC Operational Archives mainly tell the official stories of the US Navy and Marine Corps.  These are the command histories submitted annually, the after action reports, and deck logs.  They also tell the more personal stories through collections of personal papers and diaries of both influential and not so well known Sailors and Marines.  These collections also tell the social history of the organizations through recruiting posters, photographs, and menus from major events. 

Libraries such as the one at the National Naval Aviation Museum help to humanize the objects in the museum and provide the social history aspect of the conflicts and battles.  Collections of photos, diaries, flight log books, maps, and film footage help tell the story of naval aviation to future generations long after those original aviators are gone.

The Navy Department Library helps to tell the scholarly and social history of the Navy.  With over 150,000 volumes of naval history and an extensive manuscript collection there are many stories waiting to be discovered.  We have everything from cruise books to ordnance manuals and most anything in between.

Whether you are looking for the official history or what it felt like to be a part of history, libraries and archives are the place to look.  Call and arrange a visit to one of the historical libraries or archives, and let us help you research and tell your story.

This cover was mailed from Quartermaster Clerk L. F. Shoemaker, a Marine with the Marine Detachment, Tientsin, China (now known as Tianjin). The letter was posted in early 1941 apparently to his wife at home in rural Texas.

The cachet appears to be hand drawn, and shows a street vendor with his monkey. Many old China hands would be familiar with this kind of sight on any street in the China of that era.

At a time when Shanghai was only a small, unremarkable town among the paddies along the Huangpu River, Tientsin was already a vibrant ancient walled Chinese city. The city is situated about 37 miles up the Peihao River from the ocean at Taku and approximately 80 miles from the capital at Peking (now Beijing).

World War Two began in China July 7-8, 1937 with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident near Peking. As a result Japan invaded Northern China from its puppet state, Manchukou (Manchuria). Within a few short weeks Japan controlled most of Northern China. On July 29, Japanese air forces bombed and destroyed most of Nankai University to discourage the students who were anti-Japanese. Japanese forces occupied Tientsin July 30, 1937.

With its protecting mission now compromised by Japanese forces, the US Army’s 15th Infantry departed from Tientsin on March 12, 1938 after a 26 year stint representing American interests in the region. It was replaced by a small U.S. Marine detachment (49 officers and men) guarding the Consulate-General and showing the flag. The Marines stayed at Tientsin until ordered out on November 14, 1941, essentially leaving control of all of the old foreign concessions in the hands of the Japanese.

For 125,000 Vietnamese-Americans and their descendants, April 30, 1975 marks the day their lives changed forever. On that date, Saigon fell to the forces of North Vietnam and thousands of “at risk” Vietnamese joined the dwindling number of Americans still left in Vietnam to be evacuated by Operation Frequent Wind a massive assembly of aircraft and ships that became the largest helicopter evacuation in history.

With the fall of Saigon imminent, the United States Navy formed Task Force 76 off the coast of South Vietnam in anticipation of removing those “at risk” Vietnamese who had ardently supported our efforts to stop the Communist takeover of South Vietnam. 

Task Force 76

Task Force 76 USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) (command ship)

Task Group 76.4 (Movement Transport Group Alpha)

• USS Okinawa (LPH-3)
• USS Vancouver (LPD-2)
• USS Thomaston (LSD-28)
• USS Peoria (LST-1183)

Task Group 76.5 (Movement Transport Group Bravo)

• USS Dubuque (LPD-8)
• USS Durham (LKA-114)
• USS Frederick (LST-1184)

Task Group 76.9 (Movement Transport Group Charlie)

• USS Anchorage (LSD-36)
• USS Denver (LPD-9)
• USS Duluth (LPD-6)
• USS Mobile (LKA-115)

The task force was joined by:

• USNS Sgt. Andrew Miller
• USS Hancock (CV-19)
• USS Midway (CV-41)

each carrying Marine, and Air Force (8 21st Special Operations Squadron CH-53s and 2 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron HH-53s^[28]) helicopters.

Seventh Fleet flagship USS Oklahoma City (CLG-5).

Amphibious ships:

• USS Mount Vernon (LSD-39)
• USS Barbour County (LST-1195)
• USS Tuscaloosa (LST-1187)

and eight destroyer types for naval gunfire, escort, and area defense, including:

• USS Cochrane (DDG-21)
• USS Kirk (FF-1087)
• USS Gurke (DD-783)

The USS Enterprise (CVN-65) and USS Coral Sea (CV-43) carrier attack groups of Task Force 77 in the South China Sea provided air cover while Task Force 73 ensured logistic support.

At noon, April 30, 1975  the familiar wop-wop of single rotors announced the arrival of VNAF Huey helicopters that began circling the USS Blue Ridge as they waited to off-load their passengers, then quickly lift off to ditch in the sea along side the ship.

Vietnamese pilot jumping

Over the next 24 hours, scores of helicopters would appear like bees returning to the hive, to land on the LPD’s and the carriers, Midway and Hancock, disgorging hundreds of stunned  men, women and children clutching what few possessions they could carry in their arms. As each group was rushed below to the hanger deck, their ride was jettisoned to make way for another crowded bird.

In one feat of ingenuity, the pilot of a small observation plane buzzed the deck of the Midway and dropped a note asking them to move the helicopters so he could land. The note was signed, “Please rescue me. Major Buang, wife and 5 child. The Midway’s Captain immediately ordered the deck cleared and the Major came in for a perfect three point landing.

Welcoming committee for Major Buang and family

The evacuation continued all through the day and into the next. Thousand of refugees crammed on vessels of every description fled to the ships waiting offshore.  Finally, on May 2, the ships of TF 76 sailed for Guam and the Philippines carrying 6000 souls along with another 44,000 on Military Sealift Command vessels; their cargo would turn out to be a pretty remarkable group of new citizens. The first stop for many became Camp Pendleton in Southern California where the Marine Corps provided refuge and a helping hand to over 50,000 Vietnamese as they transitioned to life in the United States. This month, the base opened an exhibit to commemorate the 35th anniversary of Operation New Arrivals.

Refugee tent city, Camp Pendleton, 1975

Like all military operations, Operation Frequent Wind and Operation New Arrivals were debriefed, reviewed and studied to determine their success or failure.  The true measure of the success of the two operations, began to show in the next generation of those whom the Navy and Marines helped the spring and summer of 1975. Those 125,000 were followed by tens of thousands more, until today, Vietnamese-Americans number over 1.6 million.  As noted by the Manhattan Institute in 2008, the Vietnamese community has one of the highest rates of civic assimilation of any immigrant group in the United States. Signs of this civic mindedness is apparent in the military where Vietnamese-born United States Naval officer Cmdr H.B. Le  commanding the USS Lassen DDG 82, recently returned to make a port call in Vietnam, after an absence of 35 years.  And in the Army, Col Viet Luong, commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division is preparing to lead the brigade to Afghanistan this spring. Both of these men were small children among that first wave of citizens rescued by Task Force 76.

Cmdr H.B. Le

As a veteran of that much maligned war. I look back at what the Navy and Marine Corp did that spring of 1975 and find a sense of redemption for all who served; that out of the chaos of seeing South Vietnam fall, we have gained thousands of new citizens who have strengthened the fabric of this nation.

The past month the HBO series The Pacific has drawn long overdue attention to the War in the Pacific as it followed the United States Marine Corps in a series of amphibious assaults that were designed to cut off the tentacles of the Japanese war machine and provide for unsinkable aircraft carriers from which to launch bombers against the Japanese mainland. This caused me to reflect on how far back the strategy and tactics of amphibious warfare went in history. I settled on one crucial battle that reflected what at the time was a combined sea and land attack that when studied was a forerunner of the successful amphibious assaults of the Navy and Marines in World War II.

We have to travel back in time to the Eastern Mediterranean in 332 BCE as Macedonian king Alexander the Great stood before the one roadblock that prevented him from controlling the approaches to the Middle East and Persia. The city state of  Tyre was situated on an island 1/2 mile off the coast of today’s Lebanon.  The city was surrounded by walls 150 feet high on the landward side and boasted two harbors and a fleet of 80 Triremes to keep the seas open.

The Tyrians decided on a strategy of resisting Alexander since their strong defensive position had withstood sieges by Assyrians in the seventh century and a Babylonian siege that lasted 13 years before giving up. Alexander was different. He first tried to approach the city walls by constructing a causeway from the mainland with the dismantled stones of the old city of Tyre.  The Tryians modified a transport ship and turned it into a fire ship by packing it with pitch and flammable material and by lowering the stern were able to run the ship high aground on the mole where the fire destroyed the Macedonian siege towers.

Alexander recognized he needed a navy to defeat the Tryians so he collected ships from the previously surrendered Phoenician cities and soon bolstered with the arrival of a fleet from Cyprus had a fleet of over 225 vessels at his disposal.  In a quick naval battle the Tryian fleet fled back to port where they remained blockaded in the two Tryian harbors.  the Tryians attempted to break out of the north harbor where they sank several Cypriot ships before Alexander lead his Phoenician squadron around from the south harbor to crush the breakout and send the Tryian ships fleeing back to the harbor. 

At the same time Alexander’s land forces began to construct a new wider mole that would withstand the currents. Taking his ships he tied ships together to create strong battering rams and a stable platform to support his catapults. When Tryian drivers cut the anchor cables, Alexander ordered a switch to mooring chains which also were useful in removing large boulders that the Tryians had placed in the sea at the base of the walls. The siege went on for months and by mid-summer the mole was across the channel and an assault was mounted only to be defeated by the Tryians. In the meantime, the ship mounted battering rams had been probing the walls on  the south side of the city. In early August, a weak spot was discovered and Alexander prepared to launch an assault on all sides of the city with a special concentration by a seaborne attack in the breach. He loaded two transports with his strongest troops and leading the attack broke through the breach into the city streets. More troops were carried across by ship and began pouring into the city. The Phoenician and Cypriot fleets at the same time sailed into the harbors and attacked the moored Tyrian fleet. Within a few hours the city was taken and after a orgy of bloodletting and the selling into slavery of 30,000 women and children, Alexander turned his sights to the east and Persia.

The capture of Tyre gave Alexander the ability to insure both his overland and sea lanes were secure from Macedon. The result of his successful use of amphibious and naval power ensured that the eastern Mediterranean, Phoenicia and Palestine would remain in Greek hands for two centuries.  Alexander has been remembered as a great military strategist and most known for his land conquests, but at Tyre he proved himself to be a master at naval warfare and what today would be called the use of a  combined arms strategy to achieve his objectives.  In the final analysis the Siege of Trye was the first truly amphibious assault in history.