USS Hornet found after 75 yrs.
 

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/12/693864092/wreckage-of-wwii-aircraft-carrier-found-in-the-south-pacific-ocean

Well I’ll be damned. My Dad was a AAA Gunnery Officer on that ship when she was abandoned. He would have become sentimental over this find. Thanks for posting.

Cool how some of have links to interesting points in history. I'm glad your dad made it out ok to become your dad ..... Even though you irritate the snot out of me sometimes;)

I agree that just getting off and surviving an episode like that had to have been a break. Did your father mention that he was put back on duty quickly? Or did they just give him some leave for awhile first?

I assume that he was not injured physically. I remember one gunnery person even going over the side early. As the stress of the attack was too great for him. To certain death. Not certain this was the ship though.

30 days leave then a new ship, the Wisconsin. He was a main battery officer on Wisconsin. Went from 5” to 16” artillery. Big baddaboom.

Interestingly, he was on the Lex when she was sunk and then got Hornet.

His story about losing Hornet was terrible. His GQ station was a gun director electrically connected to the AAA battery. He lost comm with his battery and the director lost control so he went to check his gun battery. Said it was shredded and the deck was overflowing the scuppers with the torn bodies and blood of his sailors. I do recall his thousand yard stare. What we now call PTSD. He lived with it and did well.

My dad worked at ball band during the war. They made self sealing fuel cells for fighters and bombers. They also made them for the B-29. Dad said you could stand up in them. He was not allowed to speak about them even to mom.

War Pigs
 

I haven’t used Black Sabbath as my spiritual advisor since I quit smoking weed.