War memories and awards not given
| War memories and awards not given By JESSICA WEHRMAN Scripps Howard News Service At 75, Gene Fithian is haunted by a question that's more than 50 years old: whether the Navy owes him and his fellow World War II shipmates an award for their ship's involvement in the war. The question re-emerges every other year, when Fithian and the remaining alumni of the USS Farenholt gather for reunions. It's a question that has found the remaining crew calling senators and congressmen and gathering data on their time in the war. "It's just something we'd like to see settled one way or another," Fithian, of Newburgh, Ind., said. "There's a mystery and there may always be a mystery." Fithian was a cook on the Farenholt. During battles, he abandoned pots and pans and loaded a 40-millimeter aircraft gun. He fondly remembers the camaraderie of the galley and basketball games on aircraft carriers, and soberly recalls how he went for a month without receiving word that his mother had died. The thought that lingers is whether the beloved destroyer where he spent his early adulthood deserves a presidential unit citation for its war efforts. The citation is the highest award a ship or unit can receive. To some, the quest seems more about leaving a legacy than garnering a specific honor. "History forgot about us," said John Miller, a Douglas, Wyo., resident who served as a radar operator from February 1943 to March 1944. Miller now serves as ship historian. The men of the Farenholt are among a number of veterans troubled by unanswered questions of more than a half-century ago. Some seek awards never received. Others seek old friends lost. But for all, the urgency grows by the day. "We're losing over 1,200 World War II vets every single day," said Brian Naranjo, a spokesman for the American Legion. "Think about it _ every person you've ever exchanged names or phone numbers with probably doesn't add up to that many people, yet that's how many people are dying every day that are part of the greatest generation." Andy Fisher, a spokesman for Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said Lugar's office has fielded dozens of calls from people seeking medals or honors more than a half-century after the war's end. "We hear veterans saying they really wanted their children to know more about their background in the service," he said. The Farenholt crew cites a lengthy list of heroics that the destroyer survived after its April 1942 commissioning. That September, the destroyer rescued 143 survivors of a torpedoed carrier, the USS Wasp. The next month, the Farenholt joined a mission aimed at stopping Japanese shipping and reinforcement of Guadalcanal. On the night of Oct. 11, the destroyer was repeatedly hit in the Battle of Cape Esperance. One U.S. ship sank, two others were hit and the remaining ships left the Farenholt behind, believing it sunk. On the Farenholt, three were dead. Many more were wounded. The crew had a choice: abandon ship or work to save it. "We looked at that black water and said, 'Let's save this rascal,"' said torpedoman Stanley Hawkins, who served from 1942 to 1944. Crew members scrambled to stay afloat. "We laid out there for two and a half days with no communications," remembers Hawkins. The ship limped back into port, eventually sailing to Pearl Harbor for repairs. Hawkins said if the destroyer deserves a medal, it's for the harassing raids it made on Rabaul near the Solomon Islands in February 1944. The idea was to scare the enemy, destroy its supplies, and ideally, hasten the evacuation of the Japanese. A group of ships led by the Farenholt crept down a narrow channel toward Rabaul in an effort to sneak up on Japanese crew on the shore. Hawkins remembers a lengthy, fearsome ride. The crew could hear voices on both shores, could see campfires and lights. The forces bombarded the shore installations under the cover of night, then turned around and went back the way they came. "They gave us a 5-to-1 chance of getting out," Hawkins said. The squadron hit the open sea at daylight, and as they approached the harbor they heard bugles and whistles. "Every ship in the harbor from the carrier to battleship to cruiser to destroyer went to quarters for us when we came back," he said. "They all went to their stations and saluted us." The crew earned praise from Gen. Douglas MacArthur: "Heartiest congratulations to you and all concerned in Rabaul air strikes. The relentlessness of the attacks and their effectiveness have aroused admiration and enthusiasm everywhere." Overall, the ship is credited with 11 battle stars for World War II service, according to the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Crew members say the ship participated in 13 battles. Other memories stuck with the crew. Robert Garwitz of St. Louis was on the destroyer for three days when a nearby carrier was hit. Garwitz, now 77, knew some had died, and watched as four men, covered with the American flag, were buried at sea. "I thought they'd lost four men, but pretty soon down slid four more men, then four more, then four more till they had buried 26 men at sea," he said. "I thought, 'Man, oh man, I'll never get back to the Ozarks if this is the way the war is being fought.' It was enough to convince me war was war." The Farenholt sailed until it was decommissioned in Charleston, S.C., in April 1946. It was later sold for scrap. After the war, the men of the Farenholt moved on with their lives. Fithian went into mining, eventually becoming a consultant. Hawkins became a fire chief in Tulsa, Okla. Miller became an electrician. The bulk of the crew didn't meet again until their first reunion in St. Louis in 1981. Coincidentally, the crew of the Wasp _ the same people the Farenholt fished out of the sea years earlier _ was also meeting in St. Louis. The groups reunited, and the Farenholt alumni began to question why their ship had never received an award. "It's an honor we think we were qualified for," Garwitz said. "After the war was over, most of us were so happy to survive and get back to civilian life, get back on course to get married and have a family and have some sort of career; we hadn't paid much attention to those wartime things until some years after the war." Nineteen destroyers were awarded the honor during the World War II era, according to the Navy. "It had to be some major battle or conflict and performance above and beyond," said Barbara Wilson, the branch head for the Navy Awards Office. "It's not the luck of the draw." After World War II, two separate boards reviewed who got awards. Wilson said it's not too late to receive an award for World War II, but it is much harder. "Getting documented evidence today is not as easy," she said.
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