There Were Heroes By The Hundreds: Attack on the USS Franklin

Chaplain O'Callahan giving the last rights to a sailor. The sailor actually survived.

On the morning of March 19, 1945, John “Jack” Hensel, from Utica, New York,  a 20-year-old turret gunner on a TBM Avenger torpedo bomber, went to his torpedo bomber squadron’s ready room to be briefed on his next mission.1 His ship The USS Franklin, an Essex-class carrier, was within one hour’s flying time of nearly…

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The WW II Alliance Between Germany and Japan

German Wreckage on the retreat from Rome 18 June 1944

“Our greatest triumph lies in the fact that we achieved the impossible, Allied military unity of action.”1 –General George C. Marshall, 1945 When you look at the history of the Second World War and see the success of the alliance among the Allies, especially the U.S. and the United Kingdom, you may ask, what prevented the…

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USS Texas Plays Role In Introduction of Radar

USS Texas (BB35) circa 1943

My love of history has been sparked by many things, but chief among them was living in San Antonio as a young boy.There I visited the Alamo and other historic missions, saw John Wayne’s movie, “The Alamo,” and visited the battleship USS Texas (BB-35) on a trip to Houston. Our parents, my sister, and I…

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34th Annual Symposium “1942: The Perilous Year”

Ahhh, September!!!! There are three things I look forward to in September. First, (American) football-college and pro. You never know how things are going to turn out. (Ask LSU about that missed extra point the other day!) Second, the prospect of cooler weather. Here in Texas, we usually get a cool(er) front through about the…

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#ASkMKeAboutLidice

Marie Šupíková, one of the children kidnapped from Lidice, testifies at the RuSHA trial

I’m departing from my usual posts about the USS Franklin and World War II in the Pacific Theater to repost this. I hope you will read it. The following post is from the Facebook page, “Historia Obscurum.” In the summer and fall of 1942, a strange phenomenon began springing up in distant corners of the…

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Three Things We Can Learn From Someone Awarded The Medal Of Honor

President Truman presents Lt (j.g.) Donald Gary with the Medal of Honor

Today’s post discusses three things we can learn from a Medal of Honorrecipient. On 19 March 1945, the USS Franklin, an Essex-class carrier wasattacked just after dawn by a Japanese bomber. She was part of a huge US Navyfleet called Task Force 58. The bomber dropped two bombs of 550 pounds eachthat started a conflagration…

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Attending The 2022 USS Franklin Reunion

Portion of a plank from the deck of the USS Franklin

Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a reunion of crewmembers and their families of the USS Franklin. The three-day reunion was held in Fredericksburg, TX at the Museum of the Pacific War and at the Inn on Barons Creek. There were two of the three surviving crew members present and 30 to…

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