Famous Ships - Post militaria related to Famous (and Infamous!) Ships

[Salvage Sailor]

Some of the other cartoons.....

 

 

[Salvage Sailor]

....and also from my Salvage photo archive

 

 

Some of the only known photographs of the USS EXTRACTOR (ARS-15) as she was being built by Colberg Boat Works at Stockton, California. She also had a very short naval career having been sunk by a torpedo................

 

 

...................fired by the USS GUARDFISH (SS-217) on January 24th, 1945.

 

 

EXTRACTOR was on rescue mission to meet the stricken TICONDEROGA, victim of a kamikaze attack off of Formosa. Dispatched from Guam under radio silence to a coordinate in mid ocean, she was waiting for further orders after receiving a garbled coded message and not knowing that her mission had been cancelled (other salvage vessels had already taken TICONDEROGA in tow). Although no acknowledgement had been received and believing she was returning to Guam, the Navy did not realize that EXTRACTOR was still steaming westward in the Philippine Sea.

 

In the half-light of dawn in heavy seas, a periscope was sizing up what it thought was an I-class Japanese submarine on the surface. Radar tech Claude Conner, author of 'Nothing Friendly in the Vicinity', was aboard GUARDFISH. The title being the radio response from fleet headquarters when they asked if any USN ships were in the area prior to firing on 'the Japanese submarine'. Detecting a torpedo, EXTRACTOR went to general quarters but it was too late and the torpedo struck her dead amidships killing all of the men in the engineroom. When GUARDFISH was celebrating their kill and observing the men in the water as they contemplated strafing them, one of the submariners asked out loud if there are any negroes in the Japanese navy?

 

Suddenly realizing that they were amidst the flaming wreckage of a USN ship they began rescuing the crew of EXTRACTOR and returned them to their homeport in Guam.....and a board of inquiry.

 

 

 

 

[Okie96]

How often do these pieces from the old BB's come up? There seem to be quite a few on the forum.

[1stDivVet]

My little contribution. Part of a cap tally from the USS Ranger (CV-4). First ship in the US Navy to be built from the keel up as an aircraft carrier. Of the 8 pre-war carriers, Ranger was one of only 3 to survive the war, and the only one never to have engaged Japanese forces in battle.

 

 

Fins...

[Garandomatic]

That's pretty cool. One of the first vets I ever talked to was a pilot on the Ranger who later went to the Pacific.

[TreasureHunter]

From Capt. Muehe's estate. Believe he was a CO Naval Hosp. Boston.

 

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I467 using Tapatalk

 

 

[67Rally]

My little contribution. Part of a cap tally from the USS Ranger (CV-4). First ship in the US Navy to be built from the keel up as an aircraft carrier. Of the 8 pre-war carriers, Ranger was one of only 3 to survive the war, and the only one never to have engaged Japanese forces in battle.

 

 

Fins...

That's pretty cool. The Ranger hardly gets mention for her WWII contributions.

[uniformcollector]

This is the custom ribbon bar of Vice Admiral Frederick Bardshar. He served onboard the U.S.S. Princeton as commander of Air Group 27 and is credited with 8 kills in the battle of Letye Gulf. He was the captain of the U.S.S. Constellation during the Gulf of Tonkin incedent. He was also in charge of the investigation on the U.S.S. Enterprise when a Zuni rocket misfired and hosted President Ferdinand Marcos (of the Philippines) onboard the U.S.S. America.

[uniformcollector]

Here is a photo of him wearing that ribbon bar:

[uniformcollector]

Vice Admiral Glynn Donaho's mess dress uniform

 

Admiral Donaho was commander of the U.S.S. Flying Fish and U.S.S. Picuda in WWII. He was a prosecuting witness at the U.S.S. Indianapolis trials, but ended up helping Captain McVay by saying (along with Mochitsura Hashimoto) that zigzagging would not have saved the Indianapolis. He received 4 Navy Crosses (three on the Flying Fish and one on the Picuda) as well as one Navy Distinguished Service Medal, two Silver Stars and one Bronze Star.

[RustyCanteen]

That is a nice uniform!

[38Driver]

Finally got a copy of the USS Colorado WW2 Cruise Book without breaking the bank. Had a nice and sad surprise in it with a photo of a sailor standing on one of the forward turrets. As I paged through the book I found his name and address in the back. It gave me a bit of a sad feeling knowing for me to have the book the odds were he was no longer with us. A bit of checking showed he passed away in 2001.

 

His name was Bonnell Armstrong "Buck" Highberger and he served on the Colorado from the end of 1943 until the end of 45 so he spent a long time on her. Interestingly enough he was born in my home state of Minnesota but lived in California after the war.

 

Photos of the cover of the cruise book and of Buck Highberger passing under the Golden Gate Bridge in May 1944.

[Thor996]

Official Business/Penalty cover USS West Virginia to USS Indianapolis July 21, 1935-this came with a copy of the West Virginia's newspaper "The Mountaineer" -The West Virginia was sunk on December 7, 1941- she was raised and eventually reached Tokyo Bay on the last day of August 1945 and was thus present (as one of two representative ships that were also at the Pearl Harbor attack along with the USS Detroit) at the time of the formal surrender on 2 September 1945-The Indianapolis on December 7 1941, was conducting a mock bombardment at Johnston Atoll during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Indianapolis was absorbed into Task Force 12 and searched for the Japanese carriers responsible for the attack, though the force did not locate them. She returned to Pearl Harbor on 13 December and joined Task Force 11. At the end of the war, the Indy delivered the parts for the first atomic bomb to Tinian Island and was sunk on her return voyage by a single Japanese sub. Some 300 of the 1,196 crewmen went down with the ship. With few lifeboats and many without life jackets, the remainder of the crew were set adrift awaiting rescue. Of the 880 that survived the sinking, only 321 men came out of the water alive; 317 ultimately survived.

[Thor996]

The Mountaineer that was in envelope to USS Indianapolis

[Thor996]

ship newspaper from the USS Gambier Bay CVE-733 She was sunk in the Battle of Samar after helping to turn back a much larger attacking Japanese surface force.

 

[RustyCanteen]

Very nice Thor!

 

The penalty covers are always interesting, and even more with the WeeVee ship's newspaper. The Gambier Bay one is nice too, especially given the ship's history.

 

Thank you for sharing,

RC

[Thor996]

Neptune ceremony summons and photos form the USS Tennessee - believe this is post war-on way home-

[Thor996]

photos of Neptune ceremony

[Thor996]

USS Lexington CV-2 hatband and scrapbook pages from hunt for Amelia Earhart

 

[Thor996]

USS Yorktown CV-10 unused Tokyo Bay cachet -from WW2 service to Apollo 8 to Tora! Tora!- a well known ship indeed-On 16 September, she entered Tokyo Bay with TG 38.1. She remained there, engaged in upkeep and crew recreation through the end of the month. On October 1, 1945, the carrier stood out of Tokyo Bay on her way to Okinawa. She arrived in Buckner Bay on 4 October, loaded passengers, and got underway for the United States on October 6, 1945

-

[RustyCanteen]

Very nice Thor!

 

I particularly like the Lexington grouping.

 

Thank you for sharing,

RC

[Thor996]

NP RC-you're welcome - will have some more soon-

[Garandomatic]

Here's three of mine, cropped from a picture I took of a little display I did recently. The man on the left was on the Wahoo, and if I am understanding his muster roll data correctly, I think he did his sub duty, but later transferred elsewhere. Might explain why he didn't have dolphins, as I believe those denoted a qualification. Might not have been cut out for the sub service, but if I am correct in this line of thinking, it had to have saved his life.

 

Center is Bill Wilson, from the USS Samuel B. Roberts. If anyone has the deck jacket that went with it, I'd be darned interested...

 

The man on the right is Jimmy Warren, survivor of the USS Johnston.

[67Rally]

I recently received a group from a torpedoman 2/c who was a plankowner of the USS Nelson (DD-623) who was there from commissioning until she was towed back to the states for repairs following her torpedoing during the Normandy landings. I knew the veteran and inherited several other pieces that were part of his militaria collection.

 

 

[sigsaye]

Here's three of mine, cropped from a picture I took of a little display I did recently. The man on the left was on the Wahoo, and if I am understanding his muster roll data correctly, I think he did his sub duty, but later transferred elsewhere. Might explain why he didn't have dolphins, as I believe those denoted a qualification. Might not have been cut out for the sub service, but if I am correct in this line of thinking, it had to have saved his life.

 

Center is Bill Wilson, from the USS Samuel B. Roberts. If anyone has the deck jacket that went with it, I'd be darned interested...

 

The man on the right is Jimmy Warren, survivor of the USS Johnston.

. For what it's worth, yes, Dolphins are a qualification and must be earned. If you can not qualify or decide it's not for you, you are transferred. You do not get Dolphins just for being on a sub.