Remember Pearl Harbor - Navy Good Conduct Medal Groups to Survivors

[Adam R]

USS Maryland for the entire war, 1940 to 1946.

[Adam R]

USS Whitney.

[Adam R]

USS Tangier.

[KASTAUFFER]

Not a good conduct medal, but I thought I would add this. This is the first Pearl Harbor Commemorative Medal I have encountered encased in lucite. These medals are fairly hard to find because the government kept tight controls over them, and they didn't end up out on the collectors market in mass quantities.

 

This one is to a veteran from the USS California.

 

[SylvesterP]

Great tribute to those that fought on December 7 at Pearl Harbor! Thanks for sharing you groupings!!!

[Marksman]

Signalman 1st Class Gordon Clyde MacKenzie - USS Zane DMS 14 - Highspeed Minesweeper

 

He retired in 1956 as LCDR

[KASTAUFFER]

Keep them coming!

 

Here is a few more I have acquired since January:

 

The last Battleship I needed, USS WEST VIRGINIA

 

 

[KASTAUFFER]

USS PATTERSON

 

[KASTAUFFER]

USS ARGONNE

 

[flytiger]

I am overwhelmed! Great collections!

[Wharfmaster]

USS Honolulu.

 

This sailor served aboard Honolulu from 1940 to late 1946. Very unusual.

 

The Honolulu was an active ship, awarded 8 battle stars for WW2 service.

 

 

Wharf

[KASTAUFFER]

My newest addition.

 

GCM recovered from the USS Oklahoma and returned to the original recipient. You can tell it spend 2 years under the water. There is another one in this thread that Adam Rohloff posted.

 

This recipient has quite a few pages devoted to him in the book " Trapped at Pearl Harbor"

 

 

[Wharfmaster]

Nice !

[KASTAUFFER]

Not a good conduct medal, but I thought I would add this. This is the first Pearl Harbor Commemorative Medal I have encountered encased in lucite. These medals are fairly hard to find because the government kept tight controls over them, and they didn't end up out on the collectors market in mass quantities.

 

This one is to a veteran from the USS California.

 

lorentz.JPG

 

I just figured out why this is encased in lucite!

 

The Pearl Harbor Survivor Assn had this ad in their Feb 1992 Pearl Harborgram newsletter.

 

 

[kanemono]

Ernest Gales Cowan Jr. served aboard the U.S.S. Honolulu from 1940 to 1942. He was on the Honolulu during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. Honolulu suffered only minor hull damage from a near miss. Following repairs she sailed January 12, 1942 to escort a convoy to San Francisco, arriving 21 January. The cruiser continued convoy escort duty to Australia, Samoa, and the United States until late May. Chief Boatswain's Mate Ernest G. Cowan Jr. died in San Diego, California on March 27, 1969. Cowan is the man on the right playing a horn. His original assignment on the U.S.S. Augusta was as a Bugler Second Class.

[KASTAUFFER]

Since we are getting closer to the 75th Anniversary , it's time to add more to this thread

I've been looking for a GCM from this ship for years and have been unable to find one for sale. It's my Father in laws ship. I finally found one.

USS Honolulu

[KASTAUFFER]

USS San Francisco. He was also wounded at Guadalcanal in 1942.

 

[Adam R]

This past June I had a chance to review the service files for the medals to Troyer and Ingram that are shown above. Here are the SRB entries that mention the attack.

[aerialbridge]

Bernard Edward Lester, Aviation Chief Machinist's Mate, USS Tangier. Navy Service 7/13/26- 6/1/49.

 

Adam- I like that commendation reference you posted for your Tangier group. It was a busy ship on 7th December and assisted in taking out a Japanese mini sub as well as 3 aircraft. Per Capt. (later VADM) Sprague's after action report, "Hits were observed from our gun fire on two more planes and it is entirely possible that these planes were forced to land, in that area between Pearl and Barber's point. This should be investigated. I definitely observed three planes, struck many times by our gun fire and saw the three planes crash, as reported above."

 

[USMCR79]

Here is one of my favorites from my collection - Info is from Wiki

 

USS Wasmuth - Chief Gunners Mate William M. Delay

 

Shortly before 0800 on 7 December 1941, planes from six Japanese aircraft carriers swept down upon the fleet units present at Pearl Harbor, in a surprise attack. Wasmuth (among the ships in port that Sunday) lay at buoys D-7 and D-7S inboard in a nest with three sister ships of Mine Division (MineDiv) 4: Trever (DMS-16), Zane (DMS-14), and Perry (DMS-17), at the mouth of Pearl Harbor's Middle Loch and just off Pearl City.

Wasmuth went to general quarters at once and Lt. (jg.) J. R. Grey (in the absence of both the commander and executive officer) assumed command of the ship. Within three minutes, her gunners had all of the .50-caliber Browning machine guns ready for action while the ship prepared to get underway. Inside the nest, however, the high-speed minesweeper could only bring her aftermost machine guns to bear against the approaching planes.

Shortly after 0900, about midway through horizontal bomber attacks (carried out by Nakajima B5N bombers), Aichi D3A's (later code-named "Vals") began glide- and dive-bombing attacks on the ships and shore installations, kicking off the fourth phase of the raid. Those planes, coming from a westerly direction, were targets for the eager gunners in the minesweepers and minelayers moored in Middle Loch. Wasmuth's gunners (who expended 6,000 rounds of .50-caliber ammunition in the action) opened fire whenever the planes came within range. One man, Seaman 1st Class James P. Hannpn, was given credit for shooting down an Aichi that crashed on Waipio Peninsula, near Middle Loch. The ship damaged several other planes as they came by.

Lt Cmdr. L. M. LeHardy (Zane's commanding officer and the senior officer present of MineDiv 4) ordered the ships to get underway, Trever leading the pack at 0932. Five minutes later, Lt. J. W. Leverton, Wasmuth's executive officer, arrived as his ship edged out of Middle Loch, and took command, relieving Lt. (jg.) Grey who had fought the ship since the outset of the attack. Shortly thereafter, Trever's commander reported on board too, since his own ship was steaming down the channel without him.

Proceeding out of her harbor herself soon thereafter, Wasmuth took up patrols off the channel entrance. Meanwhile, while the attack itself had ceased, jittery sailors, marines, and soldiers were not so sure. At sea, the forces searching for the retiring Japanese suspected the presence of enemy submarines, real or otherwise.

At 1023, Wasmuth dropped one depth charge "on suspicious water" but came up with only a negative result. At 1036, the high-speed minesweeper dropped another depth charge, but only achieved the same result as the first attack - nothing. Although it brought up "large quantities of oil" there was no wreckage.

Later that afternoon, Wasmuth and Zane swept the Pearl Harbor entrance channel before the former anchored at the coal docks when her sweep wire parted. After she retrieved the sweep gear, she headed back to the open sea, where her commanding officer, Lt. Cmdr. J. L. Wilfong, reported aboard. Trever's commanding officer, Lt. Comdr. D. M. Agnew, rejoined his own ship at 1635. MineDiv 4 soon resumed its patrol operations.

 

[USMCR79]

US Navy Dispensary - Ford Island

 

CPM Malcolm Ramsey

[KASTAUFFER]

Thanks for posting the additional examples!

 

Kurt

[aerialbridge]

Chief Yeoman William Everette Hoy, who served from 1/27/25 to 7/28/45. On 11 Oct. 1941, Hoy transferred from RADM Kidd's flag staff on USS Arizona to the light cruiser USS Detroit, a move that probably meant the difference between a posthumous Purple Heart and being a Pearl Harbor survivor. Detroit was moored with her sister-ship USS Raleigh and the battleship Utah, the latter two bearing the brunt of an attack by six Japanese torpedo bombers. Despite several strafing runs, Detroit was able to get underway and set up antiaircraft fire that accounted for several enemy planes. The date I’m posting this is the 88th anniversary of the date on Chief Hoy's GCM-- 20 November 1928.

[aerialbridge]

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[aerialbridge]

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