About M Glenn Ross

Disobedient USS Franklin Sailor Put on Bread and Water

By Glenn | March 9, 2026 |

US Navy Carrier USS Franklin on fire 19 March 1945. Dense smoke rises from fires aft of the ship's island.

Eighty-one years ago today, 9 March 1945, USS Franklin (CV-13) was headed to Ulithi Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. She was one of 16 US Navy carriers and more than 90 other ships making up Task Force 58. They left Ulithi on 14 March heading to the coast of southern Japan, where their mission was…

Admiral William Halsey Displeased With USS Franklin’s Readiness

By Glenn | March 6, 2026 |

Two carriers burning after separate kamikaze strikes. USS Franklin (CV-13), at right, and USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) afire after being hit by Japanese kamikaze suicide planes, while operating off the Philippines on 30 October 1944. Photographed from USS Brush (DD-745). US Navy 80-G-326798

USS Belleau Wood (left) and USS Franklin pictured after being struck by kamikazes on 30 October 1944. Both would be knocked out of the war for months.

For US Naval Aviators, Non-Combat Deaths Outnumbered Those in Combat

By Glenn | February 16, 2026 |

USS Franklin Deck Log for the afternoon and evening of 16 February 1945. It mentions the deaths of two pilots in a training exercise.

16-18 Steaming as before. 1622 F4U-1D Bu. No. 82533, pilot 2nd Lieut. Clare R. Beeler, (132162), USMCR, and F4U-1D Bu. No. 82559, pilot 2nd Lieut. Herbert D. Scramuzza, (031516), USMCR, collided in mid-air during diving practice on ship. Both pilots were lost at sea at Lat. 20-00 N., Long. 158-39 W.

102nd “Ozark” Infantry Division Oral History of Maury Ross

By Glenn | February 10, 2026 |

I’m pausing my research into USS Franklin to tell you a little about my father, who was a World War II veteran, seeing combat as a private first class in the U.S. Army’s 102nd “Ozark” Infantry Division. Dad grew up in Rome, MS, a very small farming town in the Mississippi Delta. He had a…

AI—Artificial Intelligence or Actual Ignorance?

By Glenn | December 9, 2025 |

“EU Pixelated” by Creative Commons was cropped from an image generated using Artificial Intelligence (AI) by the DALL-E 2 AI platform with the text prompt “pixel art of computer code streaming across an EU flag.” CC dedicates any rights it holds to the image to the public domain.

How credible is AI in researching history?

Captain Leslie Gehres Assumes Command of USS Franklin

By Glenn | November 7, 2025 |

Captain Leslie Gehres in his Patrol Wing Four headquarters. Photo US Navy

Commodore Leslie Gehres, shown here in Alaska.

Kamikazes “Body Crash” USS Franklin and USS Belleau Wood

By Glenn | October 30, 2025 |

Two carriers burning after separate kamikaze strikes. USS Franklin (CV-13), at right, and USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) afire after being hit by Japanese kamikaze suicide planes, while operating off the Philippines on 30 October 1944. Photographed from USS Brush (DD-745). US Navy 80-G-326798

USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) left, and USS Franklin (CV-13) right, on fire after being struck by kamikazes 30 October, 1944.

Websites Essential to Researching U.S. Navy Ships and Crews

By Glenn | October 14, 2025 |

A group of US Navy officers including women who are WAVES attend the commissioning of the USS Franklin, 14 October 1943. The picture shows a vew of the ship's bow, wrapped in bunting taken from a lower angle so the bow looms overhead.

US Navy WAVES shown at the christening of USS Franklin on 14 October 1943.

Accurate Information Is The Lifeblood of Effective Decision-making

By Glenn | October 10, 2025 |

The Japanese battleship Musashi down at the bow after being hit by U.S. Navy carrier plane attacks in the Sibuyan Sea. Courtesy of Lieutenant Tobei Shiraishi. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 63434

IJN Musashi, down in the bow while under attack by Task Force 38 aircraft, including those from USS Franklin

Stories From The USS Franklin: Caught Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea

By Glenn | September 23, 2025 |

USS Franklin Listing to one side after being attacked on March 19, 1945 as seen from USS Santa Fe

Radio interview with USS Franklin shipmates Alfred Amos and Stanley Olander.