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CHAPTER VII Marianas Patrol and Escort
Duty, Modification Stateside, Later Duties, and
Decommissioning. 29 October 1944 - 6 March 1946
We arrived, with the Wilkes and Nicholson, in Ulithi Atoll around noon of 29 October 1944. Shortly thereafter Comdesdiv 24, Captain A.J. Greenacre, still riding in Swanson as his flagship, was ordered to proceed to the island of Saipan to organize and assume command of a new Task Group entitled Patrol and Escort Group, Mariana Islands. It was eventually labeled Task Unit 94.7. Saipan had invaded by U.S. Marines on 15 June and was secured on 9 July, after bitter and costly fighting, with the later tragedy of literally hundreds of suicides by civilians, off the cliffs of Marpi Point at the north end of the island. The first airstrip to accommodate B-29 bombers was received 112 B-29’s of the 21st Bomber Command. Our duties there would be to participate in and direct other ships of various types who were assigned to the group in escorting convoys and friendly surfaced submarines to surrounding areas, antisubmarine patrol, radar picket duty, fighter direction, rescue of downed aviators, and shore bombardment of pockets of resistance. Sailing from Ulithi at 0801 on 2 November we steamed alone and entered Tanapag Harbor in Saipan mid-afternoon the next day and refueled before anchoring. (Tanapag Harbor is whats left of Garapan, Saipan Island, what Humboldt Bay is to Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea – they mean the same things to seafarers.) Approaching the island from the southwest we picked up the pervasive smell of death on the prevailing northeast breeze. Another feature of the atmosphere there was noted on page 157 of the 1982 GUINNESS Book of World Records citing it as Earth’s “Most equable recorded temperature” over a nine year period with an extreme range of only 21.2 F. Another feature was the regular, heavy late afternoon shower which usually disrupted our movie on the forecastle. LT. Glenn Dietz and LTJG Chester Hill supplemented Captain Greenacre’s small staff in assisting in writing an operations plan for the patrol and escort activities, with prescribed and named sectors and the like. The other ships in the group varied constantly, from other DD’s to small patrol craft – just whatever might be passing through or available briefly during a turnaround situation. Each received the OP Plan upon arrival and was usually back out on patrol or other assignment as soon as she refueled. Swanson pulled her full share of the duties , however. We were there, in and out, long enough that all of the crew that desired it did get ashore for a couple of hours several different times. The only real reason was to have a swim off a fairly good beach in Garapan, where wrecked Marine amphibious craft were still very much in evidence, and a couple of beers. The continuing entertainment there, was a no-limit game of cards, etc., with a big jolly CBM Seabee, holding a fist full of green stuff as the croupier. Late the next evening, 8 November, we went out and rendezvoused the submarines USS’s Archerfish, Pampanito, and Searaven to conduct a few hours of drills with them and returned to our anchorage in mid-afternoon of the 9th. Late in the mid-watch on the 12th Swanson got underway under orders from CTF57 to investigate derelict materials which had been reported off shore, and shortly after dawn sank a wrecked aircraft pontoon with our 40 and 20mm guns, and quickly there after broke up a floating object of heavy timbers with 5” fire from #1 gun. We returned to anchorage for the afternoon, but early in the evening watch were underway again to search for survivors of a Navy bomber that had gone down “about 30 miles “ west of Tanapag Harbor’s anti-submarine net. We sighted a floating flare at 2213 and searched the area with searchlights for 35 minutes with no results, and then began an expanding spiral search of the area when the flare went our. With the coming of daylight at 0652 we spotted a smoke signal on the horizon to the northeast, with a plane circling it almost immediately. At 0710 we sighted a raft with seven survivors, and ten minutes later had brought aboard LT. Henry Leland Box, USN, with a sprained knee; Ens. Kenneth L. Henry, USNR, with a fractured left ankle; Ensign Albert W. Pedretti, USNR, suffering multiple bruises; S1c John G. Preseley, USNR, with a scalp laceration; ARM2c John L. Summers, USNR, also with a fractured left ankle; Scc Robert F. Lamar, USNR, with more multiple bruises; and ART1c James G. Carlin, USNR, with head and chest injuries. We had no alternative, not with standing the injuries to our passengers, to continue the search for three to five more survivors reported in the area until we were relieved on station and duty by the Grayson in mid-afternoon and headed for Tanapag Harbor at flank speed. We received on board a party of medics to succor those men before anchoring at 1718 hours and transferring them to U.S.Army Hospital # 148. We were rapidly learning that a destroyer did not need to be escorting the fast carriers to be almost constantly on call for her crew to exercise the finest in engineering, communicating, navigating, and especially just plain old-fashion deck seamanship, Swanson’s crew was well experienced in all of these skills by this time. By 1000 hours on 16 November we were at flank speed again out of Tanapag Harbor to the rescue of a Navy B-25, which had crashed some 90 miles northwest of Saipan. We sighted them aboard their raft in mid afternoon, and at 1545 picked up LT. S.C. Balthrop, the pilot, with a non critical head laceration; SGT. A. L. Chivis, radio gunner in good shape; CPL E. L. Simmons, photographer, also all right; and CPL William Winkler (not from the poem), the tail gunner who was also OK. The ship’s deck log from which this is related does not clarify the differential between the “Navy B-25” and the ratings of the survivors. We searched for the two other members of their crew until early afternoon of 17 November and then returned to Saipan, anchoring at 1812. The next day two of Swanson’s fine chief petty officers, CMM John Urquhart and CGM Salvatore Paul Rossitto, both USN, received their promotions to warrant ranks of Machinist and Gunner, respectively, effective from 15 October 1944. For the next four days we were engaged in rendezvousing, and escorting the submarines USS’s Trigger, Spearfish, and Blenny in various exercises, and returned to Saipan in mid afternoon of the 23rd after escorting the Trigger down to Guam. There was a short Condition Red on Saipan in mid morning of 24 November, and we ceased fueling while at GQ and left the harbor to await orders and soon afterwards headed for a radar picket and standby rescue point about 200 miles north. On the way were diverted to investigate the reported wreckage of a downed aircraft. We found no evidence of a plane but instead a great deal of trash, including eight oil drums, which we sank with 1135 of 20mm fire. While on station shortly after midnight we searched for the source of reported flares a few miles westward, without results. At 0938 we headed south to search for survivors of a B-29, which had run out of fuel and ditched on their return from the first raid on Tokyo from the Marianas by those Hugh new planes – 111 of them led by General “Rosie” O’Donnell. We sighted them in two life rafts at 1305 and logged all twelve of them aboard the Swanson at 1355 in latitude 16.37 degrees N., longitude 144.17 degrees E. All USAAF from the B-29 V 048, they were: Capt. Guice Tudor, airplane commander; Captain William E. Chynoweth, observer; 2nd Lt. Lawrence Novick, bombardier; 2nd Lt. Russell E. Scott, pilot; 2nd Lt. E. Moeller, navigator; 2nd Lt. Charles H. Daniels, flight engineer; S.Sgt. Raymond E. Kohler, central fire control gunner; Sgt. Alfred J. Titone, radar operator; Sgt. Charles E. Sears, radio operator; T. Sgt. Walter S. Deahl, tail gunner; Sgt. Simmon M. Guevera, blister gunner; and Cpl. Billy Weaver, blister gunner. They were all apparently in good shape except for numerous cuts and bruises. We had them ashore on Saipan a little after 2000. Only one other B-29 was lost in this raid- rammed by a fighter over Tokyo. On 9 December at 1251 that afternoon we headed north to relieve the Garrison (DD435) on radar picket duty 105 miles northwest of Sampan. Early in the evening a downed plane was reported in the general area, and at first we were diverted to search for it, but it was decided to send us on 30 miles north of the picket station while Garrison searched for the plane. When she left the area enrobe Sampan we came back south to the originally assigned station. Except for occasional diversions to investigate flares or flotsam and jetsam we remained on station there zigzagging at 14 knots on alternate base courses of 020 degrees and 200 degrees for about 15 minutes at a time, until we were relieved by the Cummings (DD365) at dawn on 16 December. We were back in Tanapag Harbor early that afternoon. Christmas Day itself gave us in the Swanson a reasonable modicum of Peace, what with the traditional dinner and a fairly recent delivery of mail from home. Packages in that mail, however, had been posted weeks earlier in accordance with wartime restrictions. The greatly appreciated Parker pens and Zippo cigarette lighters were in fine shape, but the fruitcakes and dime store talcum powder was another story, especially when they had been mixed together! Ammen’s Medicated Baby Powder was great, even though we were now serving in a less hot and humid atmosphere off New Guninea. Also, it came in metal cans. The evening watch on Christmas was a different story. We went to battle stations at 2010 and 16 minutes later fired 20 rounds of 40 mm from the port twin mount at a “meatball” roaring down low. Two minutes later we sent six rounds of 5”/38 at another one passing a good bit higher overhead. We got an “all clear” at 2300, a little too late to resume the movie on the forecastle, whatever it was. Although they were frequently interrupted by rain showers or other intruders, those events were some of the most pleasant we had on board in those days. LTJG Bill Gemmel was in charge of the programming of the movies, since as supply officer it was he who could requisition movies along with other supplies, and once he got his hands on them could barter and trade with other ships to the best of his ability. The pressure on him was constant from top to bottom; “Please, Bill,” save up some Hopalong Cassidys until you can trade maybe three of them for one Betty Grable.” Our taste was exquisite! Part of the entertainment would frequently be, in lieu of organ music, a few tunes by Chief Ship’s Cook Mark Asble on the guitar with his string/percussion ensemble. He had left us just before Saipan duty, but his legend lingered. Volunteer vocalists were either applauded or booed with fervor. One of the favorites was LTJG John Lindsay, taking the lead in harmonizing “Hey, hey, hey, don’t pull that stuff on me. I’m just a country boy as plain as I can be ----“. He was our token, in-house Ivy Leaguer, Yale ’43. There was no appreciable change in our routine until 12 January 1945 when we got underway at 0535 under orders to transport and cooperate with a group of newly- embarked passengers from the military ashore in a mission to reconnoiter, conduct propaganda broadcasts, and use force if necessary against numbers of the enemy still holed up in the caves on the beach on the south end of nearby Tinian Island , below the newly established B-29 base which they were sabotaging at night. The island had been “secured” since August, but problem pockets still existed. The propaganda broadcasts, from a huge bullhorn our passengers supplied a using people who had previously surrendered for testimonials to our good faith, began at 0927, and continued intermittently until 1305, when we commenced sporadic gunfire on caves and dugouts visible below the cliffs. We ceased firing at 1605, having expended 268 rounds of 5”/38, 656 40mm, and 4040 20mm ammunition, with no casualties on board and unknown effects ashore. At 1630 our passengers disembarked enroute ashore and we returned to Tanapag Harbor. Two days later Boatswain Lloyd J. Miller executed his orders for transfer to the Grayson DD435 and we lost one of our finest seaman. He is today one of the committee members fabricating this book. At the same time Capt. A. J. Greenacre also shifted his flag as COMDESDIV 24 from Swanson to Grayson. At 1810 that evening we departed Saipan enroute Guam, under secret orders, carrying with us a Marine Corps major from the headquarters battalion of the division training in the Marianas. We entered Apra Harbor on Guam at dawn the next morning, the 15th, embarked an observing party of officers from the 3rd Marine Division, and headed back north at flank speed to demonstrate to the leathernecks the effectiveness of naval shore bombard-ments. Swanson’s wardroom gave them a fine hot breakfast, but at 26 knots into a head-on sea they soon lined the starboard main deck coaming and fed the fishes, almost as if they had practiced it by the numbers. The little island of Rota, about halfway between Saipan and Guam, was the chosen target, since while posed no great reason to be captured there were still troops known to be on the island. Many of them held out until the end of the war, as no one really came to capture them. We pounded all discernible possible targets – there weren’t many - for over two hours in mid morning and three hours after lunch, expending 462 rounds of 5”/38 and 171 40mm ammunition, without any noticeable evidence that anything of remaining true value to the enemy had been damaged, despite all the flying debris. We returned to Guam for the night and went through an almost identical drill with different observing party the next day. We fired 120 5”/38 rounds in the morning with 121 in the afternoon, plus 780 20mm and 1920 mm. We dropped the marines off in Apra Harbor about sunset and returned to Saipan , arriving early morning of 17 January. 19 February would be D-day on Iwo Jima for those Marines. Early morning of the 18th we sailed out with DD’s Ellet and Capps and rendezvoused the submarine Plaice and Scabbard Fish for wolf pack training exercises until late afternoon of the 20th, returning to Tanapag Harbor. A week later we went north about 100 miles and relieved the Bering Strait AVP-34 on advanced radar picket duty. Late morning of the 31th we were sent to a station several miles further northeast in an effort to spot and direct interception of an enemy flight enroute from Truk to Iwo Jima, but without results. We were relieved back on the basic station by the Cassin DD-372, which had been rebuilt after server damage suffered at Pearl Harbor. One morning about this time there was an alert sounded because of an enemy plane approaching the harbor from the north, at high altitude. We went to general quarters but did not become involved in any way. We watched as two of our USAAF fighters climbed aloft for the intercept, and only as they closed the radar contact could we make out the target visually. Our interceptors closed rapidly and fired. With a flash the Japanese plane went into a rapidly spiraling descent, as we watched two white parachutes blossom above the barely visible - the distance was substantial – occupants below them. Patrol Craft were immediately ordered out to sea from the Harbor and vectored to the apparent rescue area. Within a very few minutes thereafter it was observed that the parachutes were hardly descending at all, but drifting on out to sea instead. One of our fighters was sent back toward them for closer observation and quickly reported that the ‘chute harnesses were empty; the enemy aviators had chosen a quick death plunge to a watery grave in preference to rescue and capture. On Sunday 4 February 1945 the Swanson was patrolling the waters between Saipan and neighboring Tinian. Just after lunch, at 1255, she slowed, then hove to and lowered the 26- foot motor whaleboat. Lt. (jg) C.W. Hill, D-V (G), USNR, rode in her to the dock on Tinian to catch a plane for the first leg of his trip back to the States for assignment to a new destroyer building. It would be launched the same day, 3 March that he and the girl he had met on our quarterdeck in Brooklyn a year-and-half earlier were married. Swanson returned to Saipan the next morning where S.S. Guiffrida, RM2c, and F.R. Hartman, MM3c, were transferred ashore to the Navy Dispensary #3245. In late afternoon she was underway again to escort attack transports USS’s Natrona and Butte down to Ulithi Atoll, arriving there in the morning watch 7 February. She remained in Ulithi until the morning of George Washington’s birthday. While still there on the 19th the U.S. Marines began their assault on Iwo Jima after one of the heaviest pre-landing bombardments of the entire war. The island would not fall to our forces until mid-March, with mopping – up operations continuing until May. General Holland Smith said: “Iwo Jima was the most savage and costly battles in the history of the Marine Corps.” Admiral Nimitz observed that on Iwo Jima : “Uncommon valor was a common virtue.” A principal reason for its seizure was to make the continuing B-29 strikes on the enemy’s homeland from the Marianas less costly in lives and materials. The ship sailed for Guam escorting the USS Carter AKA 70, dropping her off there and steaming independently to arrive in Saipan at dawn of 25 February. Pulling a patrol stint in Saipan channel on the first two days of March, in the afternoon of the third Swanson joined the escort of a convoy of APA’s and AKA’s enroute to Guam thirteen of them, with the flag carried in USS Logan. Other escorts were destroyer types USS’s Bradford, Case, Cummings, McClelland, Holloran, Finnegan, Herald, MOTIV, and SC 1373. It must have been pleasant to sail in that much company again after weeks of steaming either alone or in very small groups. The Swanson left them off Guam and, with the Cummings, was back in Saipan at dawn of 5 March and then down to Tinian that afternoon to rendezvous the tanker USS Fort Fredericka, escorting her down to Guam and returning to Saipan on the 7th. That afternoon Lewis R. “Chub” Eastburn, TM1c , USNR, and Roy E. Traylor, GM2c (T), USN, were transferred to the receiving ship USS Sparks. Their orders, for further transfer, had apparently been originated back on October, but had been reissued by COMDESPAC just a week ago. Could they have possibly gone astray during the jammed communications during the battle for Leyte Gulf ? Early the next afternoon, 8 March, Swanson sailed to escort USS Karnes APA175 to Eniwetok, just the two of them. While they were enroute the next day the first major incendiary bombing attack on Tokyo was made, with 279 B-29s from the Mariana Islands. Sixteen square miles, or over a quarter of the city including 267,000 buildings, was burned. There were 185,000 civilian casualties. After three days in Eniwetok the shuttle back to Saipan resumed , with Swanson, 6 LSM’s and eleven LCS’s arriving in Tanapag Harbor early afternoon of 18 March. The ship left Saipan again midday of the 25th, and after securing the port engine for about an hour of repair work, proceeded northward as lone escort for SS Marshfield Victory, enroute to the newly well-known island of Iwo Jima, which had just been declared secure. However, there were enough of the enemy around that the US Army, which had relieved the Marines, was to capture 887 and kill 1602 of the many holdouts by the end of May. Our flag was now clearly visible atop Mount Suribachi . It had not been there when last Swanson’s crew saw this island early the previous September. Then the ship sailed for the Admiralty Islands, once again, first fueling from the USS Leopard. Upon arrival the Swanson anchored in Seeadler Harbor around noon of 4 April. The crew, especially Lt.(jg) John Lindsay, had many memories of this great harbor from their service there a year earlier. Its interim development as a naval and military base was quite evident, but little time was spent in reminiscing or exploring, as Swanson was again underway the following afternoon, escorting USS Shadwell (LSD 15). This time, however, she had a brand new destination! The orders were for Pearl Harbor, via Majuro Atoll! The Port Director at Majuro sort of waved them on their way quickly, and Swanson, still escorting Shadwell, arrived in Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaiian Islands, late morning of 18 April. While enroute from Majuro , on the 14th of April at 1600 hours, the officers and men of the ship had observed a five minute period of silence and prayer in observance of the death in Warm Springs, Georgia, of the President of the United States , the late Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The Navy had lost not only its Commander-in-Chief but also a great friend, who had served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy from 1913 until 1920. Not weeping over missing
anticipated liberties in Honolulu and on the sands of Wakiki , the crew of
the Swanson was delighted to quickly get underway from Pearl Harbor at 1506
the following afternoon, under routing instructions issued that morning, and
set course for Navy Yard, Pudget Sound, Washington, USA ! They were HOMEWARD BOUND ! They entered Port Townsend, Bremerton, Washington, early morning a week later, the 26th, and after unloading depth charges, torpedoes, and ammunition, were high and dry in Drydock #7 by Sunday morning, the 29th. After a scraping and painting of the bottom, the ship was moored portside to pier #4, the engineering plant allowed to cool, and a large houseboat with living accommodations for the crew moored alongside. While still in commission, the ship was out of operation from 8 May until 29 June, 1945. On the 8th, with the major yard work beginning, President Harry S.Truman declared Victory in Europe (VE) Day, as the previous day a surrender document, covering all German forces, had been signed at General Dwight Eisenhour’s headquarters in Reims, France, with Russian, British, and French participants. The Battle of Okinawa had started on 1 April, and was still raging, with an eventual cost of 12,500 American troops killed and 36,500 wounded. The Kamikazes (and Bakas) were striking us on land, but also more devastatingly at sea, where our Navy would see 34 ships (13DD’s ) sunk and 368 (11 8 DD’s and DE’s ) damaged, with 5,000 sailors lost and about an equal number wounded. While our forces were maintaining an upper hand and momentum, a hard, long, and desperate struggle still lay ahead. What would the obviously necessary invasion of the Japanese homeland cost us? PART TWO, Chapter VII The last, and essentially only, extended time in the yard for the Swanson had been in the late summer of 1943, when she was in Brooklyn Navy Yard for repairs of damage received when the ROE rammed the Swanson off Sicily. That work had largely consisted of practically rebuilding the forward fire room, patching and strengthening the hull and deck, and installing a brand new forward stack. During this new “yard availability” her engineering plant got a good and much needed going over, since despite the continuing efforts of its top-flight personnel, time and mileage was becoming excessive. Her hull and topsides were treated to a complete scraping and painting, much of which work was by her crew. The major and most noticeable work, however, was the installation of two additional twin 40mm Bofors heavy machine gun mounts doubling her armament in that category for greater AA capability. This necessitated the removal of her two quintuple 21” torpedo mounts, which had been her most powerful weapon for those close range surface action. The 36” searchlight was also moved slightly forward, and the motor whaleboat was shifted back to portside. Also there were improvements made in various electronic devices. She would now be more effective against the Kamikazes, and the enemy had very little left in the way of surface ships, anyway. While in the yard these seven weeks all hands were allowed as much leave and liberty as regulations and work requirements would permit. On 29 June the renovated destroyer Swanson departed the Navy Yard and the Strait of Juan de Fuqua, conducting every possible drill and exercise that could be held while enroute to San Diego, California for underway training. This was necessary because of the many personnel changes that had been effected while laid up, plus the fact that old timers may lose just a bit of their finely honed edge. They arrived in San Diego mid-afternoon of 3 July and were boarded by an inspection party as soon as they completed mooring in a nest alongside USS Franks DD554. It was the grueling routine of a shakedown cruise until they sailed with the Franks for Pearl Harbor on 12 July and arrived there six days later. At 1120, the next day, 19 July, our Captain Lt. Commander William K. Ratliff 81120, USN turned over command of the Swanson to Lt. Commander William G. Collar, (D) USNR. A fine officer and sailor, Captain Ratliff had been with us since 16 May 1944, before the Biak operation. His general quarters OOD remembers his skill and coolness during the action off Formosa on 13 October ’44 Swanson’s crew well knew of the continuous punishment that the Japanese homeland was now receiving from the now greatly enlarged Task Force 58, and also the great flights of B-29’s striking from the Marianas and Asia. All felt that the end had to be approaching, but knew it would not come until troops could be put ashore and take overwhelming control with fire and steel. How long could it take, and at what cost in lives, and when would it start? With DD-443 still in Pearl Harbor, on August 6th, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. On 9 August a second one was dropped, this time on Nagasaki. On 12 August the Swanson sailed for Eniwetak in the Marshall Islands. Two days later when Radio Tokyo broadcast the word that Japan would accept the Potsdam agreement on unconditional surrender she, after morning muster on station, fired forty minutes of gunfire burst expending 19 rounds of 5”/38 AA Common ammunition, 600 rounds of 20 mm, and 173 rounds of 40mm. Vigilance continued. Arriving Eniwetok and fueling from USS Seafoam (IX210) in the morning of 19 August, Swanson sailed again that afternoon to rendezvous an old friend, the Matson Lines’ SS Lurline, offshore, and escort her on to Ulithi Atoll. Arriving there on the 22nd and fueling, they then sailed for Manila, P.I. In the afternoon of 24 August they entered Leyte Gulf and sailed on through the Sibuyan Sea to transit Mindoro Strait during the mid watch on the 26th. Passing the island fort of Corregidor to port they separated, with the Swanson anchoring in Manila Bay at 0900. Having moved to Subic Bay during the week, the Swanson logged the mid watch on Sunday, 2 September 1945, as moored starboard side to port side of USS Dobbin, a destroyer tender, in Berth 116, Subic Bay, P.I., with six manila lines. To her port side was moored USS PCE 803, with three manila lines. There on that day , the crew of USS Swanson DD443 learned , as did all the rest of the world, that representatives of the Japanese Government had signed an Instrument of Surrender. As General MacArthur announced from the starboard veranda deck of the USS Missouri “These proceedings are closed”, World War II came to an end. PART THREE, CHAPTER VIIPOST-WAR DUTIES AND DECOMMISSIONING Peace time had indeed returned, but at 0800 the next morning the Swanson was again underway and proceeding out of Subic Bay to carry out orders to sail for Guam, where she arrived three days later. This trip was solo, and routed through San Bernadino Strait, where little had actually occurred the previous October except its transits by Japanese Admiral Kurita with his then unopposed but mighty Central Force. Arriving in Apra Harbor, Guam, late afternoon of 6 September, and was again underway again in less than 24 hours enroute Iwo Jima. From Iwo she proceeded to air-sea rescue patrol station Bird Dog 62 some 200 miles northwest of Iwo Jima, where she patrolled a 4 – course box except for one brief unsuccessful investigation of a possible plane in difficulty, until returning to Iwo and then down to Saipan, where she arrived on 17 September. Nineteen September was a memorable day for nearly ten percent of Swanson’s crew, as ALNAV 252-45 arrived by radio. Everybody in the “civilian navy” – reservists and selectees – who wanted out of the service had been waiting the details of the much – publicized point system which would authorize either inactive duty status or complete release to those who qualified and could be spared from their duties by their commanding officers. Points were awarded for length of wartime service, the location and nature of service, certain awards, and family status. Twenty-seven Swanson crewmen qualified on this, the first announcement, and were transferred to Receiving Station Navy #3245 for transportation Stateside. Most of this group was among our very finest petty officers. It would be several more weeks before the required number of points was substantially reduced as the “Magic Carpet” swelled to multiple thousands homeward bound, while replacements for peacetime service were still coming out. These men, all USNR save on, were: FC1c Theodore Ellis, F2c Hubert Francis Asbury, TM2c (T) Everett Carol Bowker, RdM1c (T) Patrick Martin Boyle, Jr., MM2c Douglas Buckner, MM1c Vaughan B.Martell, FC1c Richard W.Nelson, FC2c(T) William W.Pearson, EM1c James L. Rice, SSML3c (T) Albert J. Sattizahn, SSML3c(T)Sylvester A. Schaub, EM3c Edward Shiappa, Y1c(T) Wilbur K. Schnatz, RM2c Albert M. Self, RM2c(T) Michael W. Smith, F1c Altha Stirsman, Jr., and MM1c(T) Irvine Clarence Turpen. About a week later Swanson went back up to Iwo Jima and pulled a ten-day stint patrolling air-sea rescue station BIRD DOG 61, where we were finally relieved by USS Keith DE 241. Some of the old-timers remember her from being part of the escort of the huge convoy we took into the Mediterranean for the invasion of Sicily back in June of 1943. The ship was then sent back out from Iwo again on Bird Dog 63 for five days and were relieved from this last of her many, many patrols by USS Otterstetter DE 244 on 19 October. USS Swanson was now finally on the final voyage of her saga. The Swanson steamed alone from Iwo Jima to Guam, where she stayed for five days, and on to Pearl Harbor. After two days in Hawaii she, Wilkes, and Coghlan DD606 formed Task Unit 15.1.5 and sailed on a six-day run for San Diego, with COMDESDIV 14 in Wilkes as CTU. The three nights in San Diego were, judging by a subsequent Captain’s Mast, perhaps equally as enjoyable as the previous visit back in July, between the modification in Bremerton and returning to the western Pacific! The three sister ships then sailed for Panama. There was some liberty there, but a few of the “party boys” of San Diego had to pay the piper and take a rest. While awaiting transit of the Panama Canal on 27 November one of our senior petty officers, Chief Watertender William Hensler (fully qualified by the point system) requested and received release from the ship. As a plankowner, one might wonder why he didn’t wait for decommissioning, just for the honor of the thing. He had a better reason to leave where we were. His father, whom he had never met , was stationed there ! The morning of 28 November Swanson, Wilkes, and Coghlan – now designated Task Group 61.4 – sailed from Coca Sola Naval Base for their final destination, Charleston, South Carolina, where they arrived on 2 December 1945. For the next 13 weeks the Swanson, did as did the others, under went preparations for decommissioning, which included dry-docking and painting the hull. Fuel and ammunition had to be first completely inventoried, including right down to the exact number of small arms, bullets, and then delivered ashore and the receipts processed. It was boring drudgery, but at least liberty was available, back where the ship had been commissioned. Quite a few more of the crew were detached during this period. Chief Watertender Lawrence C. Gore, who remained in the service to retire as Lieutenant Commander, left on 18 January. A plankowner, he made valuable contributions to the preparation of this book, including some fine recollections, plus other services. One of the last to leave the final ceremony was Coxswain Walter H. Royall on 1 March. More than any other shipmate he was responsible for the gathering and compiling of information enabling the crew’s reunions through the years to become the viable continuation of friendship that they are today. His roster reproduced in the appendix hereof has been invaluable to us all, as have his contacts through the years. At 0815 on 6 March 1946 all hands were piped to the forecastle, where at 0820 the commanding officer, CDR W.G. Collar, read and executed order CCGP16-3 Serial 1814 placing USS SWANSON DD443 out of commission in reserve, under upkeep and security command of the commanding officer of USS Kendrick DD612. The commissioning pennant and national ensign were lowered. Simultaneously, orders became effective for the remaining eight officers and sixty-three enlisted personnel to transfer to other ships or commands, some temporarily, or directly to separation centers for either discharge or release to inactive reserve status. Among these men were three plankowners who had gone “All the way” They were Travis T. Ballard (from apprentice seaman to Chief Machinist’s Mate, James E. Rolllins (from seaman second to Gunner’s Mate First Class), and Stephen Clarence Jasick (apprentice seaman to Quartermaster First Class). The Swanson remained in the reserve fleet until 1 March 1971, when her name was struck from the list of the United States Navy and she was sold on June 29,1972 to Southern Scrap Material Co. Ltd., New Orleans for $67,000.and cut up for scrap but she went to her demise in proud company, her old sister ship, the USS Wilkes DD441. When the scrapper’s cutting torches had finished with her, many months later the Chief of Naval Operations (also Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), Admiral Thomas Moorer, presented her bronze keel plaque to shipmate LT. John V. Lindsay, who at the end had been aboard her 18 months longer than any of the other officers remaining at the decommissioning. Thomas Fleming said it best in his novel “Time and Tide”: “A ship is real. A crew is real. Shipmate is a word that means something. War is terrible but real. Courage is real. Honor is real. History is real.” This story is real. BIBLIOGRAPHY1. Destroyer Operations in WWII by T. Roscoe
2. Operations in North
African Waters Vol. II. By S.E.
Morison
3. The World at War by Arnold Forster 4. Sicily-Salerno-Anzio, Vol. IX by S.E. Morison 5. Reports of Gen. MacArthur , The Campaign of MacArthur in the Pacific 6. New Guinea and the Marianas Vol. VIII by S. Morison 7. The Admiralty Island Operations of the 1st. Cavalry Division 8. Historical Division War Dept. U.S. 9. MacArthur Amphibious Navy by Daniel E. Barbey 10. Japan’s War. The Great Pacific Conflict. By E.. P. Hoyt 11. The Two Ocean War by S. Morison 12. Letye Vol VII by S. Morison 13. History of the Second World War by Liddell Hart Related Information Back to the Swanson Action Page
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