A Ship To Remember
Recently, my wife and I were in San Antonio, Texas. Having some free time on our hands, we visited a used bookstore, The Antiquarian Book Mart, which turned out to have an extensive collection of military history.
I came across this book, “A Ship To Remember: The Saga of the USS Hornet,” authored by Alexander R Griffith and published in 1943 during the middle of WWII. It describes the story of the crew and the ship of CV-8 and does it quite well.*
What I found most interesting was the name written on the inside of the book’s endpaper. It appears to be “FJ Regan, C Pho M,” which I take to be “Chief, Photographer’s Mate.”
Then on page 72, I found a handwritten note saying, “This is when I came aboard.” And next to it was a piece of stationery** (see photo) saying that he arrived aboard the Hornet on May 9, 1942. Which means he was present at the Battle of Midway and served aboard her until she was sunk at the Battle of Santa Cruz.
The book itself was written during the war and is very readable. It does get some of the facts wrong, for example, we didn’t score quite that many bomb and torpedo hits during the battles, but that’s to be expected. The book does a great job of telling the stories of some of the officers and men of the Hornet, including their off duty habits and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
If anyone here knows the Chief’s family, I’d be happy to get the book and the note back to them.
*The Intelligence Officer (unnamed in the book) that served aboard the Hornet during her missions was Lt. Cmdr. Stephen Juricka, who later was the navigator onboard the USS Franklin, CV-13, when she was badly damaged. Juricka attended school in Tokyo before the war and served in the embassy there as well. The book mentions that he briefed Doolittle’s Army pilots about the layout of the city of Tokyo. “The ship’s intelligence officer, in lectures, took the Army fliers up and down every alley in Tokio.”
**I recognize the paper the note was written on as the same type used by adults in my family to write me when I was a child. The paper came in a pad or tablet and could be torn off and easily folded so that a small envelope could be used.
If you are interested in the book, you can find a copy at abebooks.com.
