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Commander "Sailor Jack" Feliz USN 1911-2013


Salvage Sailor
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Salvage Sailor

Aloha Everyone,

 

One of my favorite old salts and neighbors has passed away.  The always colorful and smiling Sailor Jack Feliz who enlisted in the USN in 1932 spent half the year here in Hawaii & half the year in the California Desert.

 

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He was trained as a Machinist's Mate and initially served on the USS TRENTON with the Banana Fleet in Panama and Nicaragua before duty commissioning the USS BROOKLYN.  He then spent the next years with the Asiatic Fleet aboard the PECOS, BITTERN and other ships in China & the Philippines.  In March 1942 he was a MM 1st Class aboard the Galloping Ghost of the Java Coast, the USS HOUSTON, when she met her fate in the battle of the Java Sea, swimming 10 1/2 hours to the coast of Java and washing ashore amidst the invading Japanese.

 

(Think about that.  You go down with your ship, guns blazing, and then swim all night.  When you reach the coast of Java you're exhausted and then you're mixed in with the landing craft of the initial waves of the Japanese invasion and flop ashore, watching them land unopposed).

 

Jack spent the next 3 1/2 years as a guest of the Emperor and then took a commission, completing a 30 year career as a Commander after duty on two Aircraft Carriers, (KEARSARGE during the Korean War, and as CHENG on RANDOLPH) and Chief of the US Naval Mission to Colombia.

 

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Jack was quite a sailor and spent the rest of his years as an inventor holding several patents.

 

He passed away at 101 years young & I'll always treasure the signed copy of his autobiography he gave to me one day, The Saga of Sailor Jack.

 

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http://www.legacy.co...266#fbLoggedOut

 

After he wrote his book in 2001 and included the photo of his medals (shown below), he discovered that he had been awarded eight more that he didn't even know about.  He served on nine different ships and had 25 years, 11 months and 21 days of sea and foreign shore duty in 30 years of Naval service.

 

Now that's a Sailor.

 

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  • 1 year later...

Hello. I was doing some research on my Grandfather and ran across this. I have had little success finding anything, and my Grandmother would hardly ever talk about his time in the Navy. We were very close, but he died when I was young. My grandfather also was on the Bittern and was captured and in camp with your neighbor. I have had very little success finding anything about my Grandfather's life, and it really interests me as I too am in the Navy. I would be greatful for anything you could tell me from knowing your neighbor, or if you could maybe point me in the right direction for learning about him.

Thank you for your time,

 

ETSN White

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Salvage Sailor

Aloha Jason,

 

I would consult primary resources on the Asiatic Fleet in the late 1930's and in particular, duty aboard the Lapwing minesweepers and gunboats serving in China during that period. Although your grandfathers ship was sunk at Cavite, she primarily served in China with the Asiatic Fleet. As I recall BITTERN was undergoing a scheduled overhaul at the Navy shipyard and had her main engine disassembled when the airstrike came. Many of the BITTERN crew were transferred to a sister ship, USS QUAIL (AM-15). If you research the surviving records and logs of both BITTERN and QUAIL, you may find traces of his service. Other Asiatic Fleet ships of interest would be the FINCH, LUZON, MINDANAO and OAHU. All of these vessels were lost to enemy action in the Philippines from December to May and their crews were largely captured.

 

Have you also looked for your grandfathers POW records? You should be able to find his release/repatriation record and trace this back to the camps where he was held. From these, you can pick up threads of rosters and memoirs from other prisoners who were side by side with him including on the Hell Ships. He may have been fortunate and not suffered through the horrific experience of being on these Japanese transports. Many USN crews were broken up and scattered throughout the 'Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere. Some were fortunate and stayed put more or less while others were sent to camps in Formosa, Mainland China, Japan and elsewhere. Once you know the camps he served in, you can dive into many POW memoirs from men of all branches who toiled in those camps with your grandfather.

 

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Hello. I was doing some research on my Grandfather and ran across this. I have had little success finding anything, and my Grandmother would hardly ever talk about his time in the Navy. We were very close, but he died when I was young. My grandfather also was on the Bittern and was captured and in camp with your neighbor. I have had very little success finding anything about my Grandfather's life, and it really interests me as I too am in the Navy. I would be greatful for anything you could tell me from knowing your neighbor, or if you could maybe point me in the right direction for learning about him.

Thank you for your time,

 

ETSN White

Jason,

 

Please see my response in 'riflegreen297' 's post.

 

Larry

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