Adventures in Paradise

USS SAN FRANCISCO - The Memorial

For those of you who live in the Bay Area, there's a small memorial to an amazing ship tucked away near the trail head at Land's End. If you happen to visit around 12 or 13 November, bring some flowers and pause for a moment to consider the incredible heroism required for a single ship in a single battle to produce FOUR Medal of Honor winners - two of which were not posthumous, including the only one ever awarded for Damage Control efforts, to LCDR Herbert Schonland. I was honored to have attended a Memorial Day ceremony at the memorial, and met some amazing men.

A fair number of these gentlemen survived not only the Sea Battle of Guadalcanal while serving in SAN FRANCISCO, but also the attack on Pearl Harbor. During the ceremony, the MC asked veterans of conflicts from WWII on to rise and be recognized, and several of the DECATUR contingent stood for Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. At the end of the ceremony, I mentioned to the Sailors who came that I wanted to be sure to get a photo of the survivors present and it warmed my heart to hear one of them say "Yeah, and I want to meet some real heroes."

The list of men who died in the ship - a number that would have been so much larger had they not been able to save their ship...JUNEAU was sunk days later by a Japanese torpedo, but because the ships that had survived were directed to continue steaming without stopping for survivors, only 10 survived their 8 day wait for rescue. The dead from JUNEAU included the five Sullivan brothers.

A highlight of the ceremony, though unintentional, was USS NIMITZ, named for another WWII Naval icon, passing under the Golden Gate.

 

Memorial

The first day after we arrived in Hawaii, one of my Sailors reenlisted at the Arizona Memorial. This is a particularly special place to Engineers, because so many of those who died at Pearl Harbor were trapped deep in the engineering spaces. It's a nice piece of symmetry to have had one of my Engineers choose to continue his career here.

They open the Memorial early for those conducting ceremonies, which means that we were the first ones there that morning, and the only ones present for the 30 minutes we were allotted. It allowed for some greeat photos, like this one from the entrance through to the shrine in back.

And of course, the group shot.

This Day in History

On 25 October 1812, sailing 500 miles south of the Azores, Captain Stephen Decatur, Commanding Officer of
USS UNITED STATES, sights, engages and captures HMS MACEDONIAN.

Living History

Just so you know...though I'm sure you've figured it out, most of my
posts are time late. Partly because I don't have enough time in the day
but also because in general I don't like posting exactly where I am when
I am there. Bad security practice, you know.

So at sunrise on one of the last few days we passed through the Surigao
Strait, from the Pacific Ocean into the Philippine Sea via Leyte Gulf.
Surigao Strait was the very first major naval engagement in the Battle
for Leyte Gulf in October 1944. It was a hard fight and included some
infamous moments in the history of the war in the Pacific, including
Bull Halsey's distraction by a Japanese decoy force. Good stuff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leyte_Gulf#The_Battle_of_Surigao_

Strait_.2825_October.29

How Cool it Is!

Can I just tell you guys that this week I got an invitation
to the change of command for the Supreme Allied Commander of Europe? That’s
like the greatest title on the face of the earth and one of my old bosses will
be taking over in October – and he invited me. Okay yeah, I can’t
go, but still. 
 
When was the last time I told you how much I love my job?