Burials At Sea by USS Franklin, 1944
Recently, I received an email from the brother of a crew member killed during the 30 October 1944 Kamikaze attack on USS Franklin. He had always wanted to know the latitude and longitude of the ship when his brother was buried at sea. The ship was part of the US Navy’s Task Force 58, assigned to eliminate or otherwise damage Japanese air and naval assets before the Invasion of Okinawa during World War II.
I looked up the deck logs for that action and found two burials the following day, 31 October. (The exact locations are in the image below.)
It occurred to me that other family members might want to have this information, so I’m posting it here and in the Franklin Facebook groups.
I also checked to see if burial locations were given for those who died on 19 March 1945. Unfortunately, they were not. The ship conducted a series of burials as she traveled from the coast of Japan back to Ulithi. I checked Franklin’s Action Report, War Diary, and deck logs for March 1945 to no avail.
I am always happy to help family members of the crew answer questions. Feel free to reach out to me through the contact form on this website.
Did you arrive here via a search engine? I am the author of the forthcoming book Heroes By The Hundreds: The Story of the USS Franklin (CV-13). In addition to writing about the bravery of the crews that saved her, I will discuss the lessons we can learn in leadership and decision-making and the changes the US Navy made because of those lessons.
Feel free to follow me on Facebook. There, I am M. Glenn Ross, Author. I also write a monthly newsletter, Glenn’s Action Report, about subjects I find interesting in my research. You can sign up for it below. Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question. Thanks for reading.
-Glenn
