USS Massachusetts

Description

Chapter One-Mass. Warships; Chapter Two-Building BB59; Chapter Three- The Building of a Crew; Chapter Four-The Battle of Casablanca; Chapter Five-On to the Pacific; Chapter SIx-Bring Back Big Mamie; Chapter Seven -The Fall River Navy; Chapter Eight-Big Mamie's Boys; Chapter Nine-Reunions

Sujets

• Armada de los Estados Unidos
• Biography
• USS Massachusetts
• Military history of the United States
• Autobiography
• United States Navy

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 01 juin 1997
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781681624327
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 13 Mo

Extrait

Turner Publishing Company Staff: Editor: Katherine Sredl Designer: Heather R. Warren
Editors for the U.S.S. Massachusetts Association Edward Palmer Richard Bowerman
Copyright 1997 Turner Publishing Company All rights reserved. Additional copies may be purchased directly from Turner Publishing Company.
Library of Congress Catalog No. 95-061710 ISBN: 978-1-56311-263-8
This book or any part therof may not be reproduced without the written consent of the author. This publication was produced using available material. The publisher regrets it cannot assume liability for errors or omissions.

2nd Division Dance. Boston MA. Hotel Beaconsfield-1942.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Publisher s Message
Foreword
Prologue
History

Chapter One - Massachusetts Warships

Chapter Two - Building BB59

Chapter Three - The Building of a Crew

Chapter Four - The Battle of Casablanca

Chapter Five - On to the Pacific

Chapter Six - Bring Back Big Mamie

Chapter Seven - The Fall River Navy

Chapter Eight - Big Mamie s Boys

Chapter Nine - Reunions

Index
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
For reasons that will become apparent shortly, there is only one person who can appropriately acknowledge the help which he has had from a great variety of people in all of the work that has gone into the production of all the information you will find in this book. We refer, of course, to Edward W. Palmer whose other efforts and sacrifices on behalf of the USS Massachusetts have been appropriately chronicled in Chapter Six - Save the Ship.
However, quite beyond his efforts in bringing Big Mamie to Fall River, Ed has been, for years, accumulating all of the biographical data presented herein. It goes so far beyond accumulating. He has personally typed hundreds of the biographies. He has kept in constant touch with shipmates. He has worked out the arrangements with the publisher and editors and with the representatives of the USS Massachusetts Association. His efforts on behalf of all of us are beyond enumerating and far beyond the call of duty. His energies are matched only by the tolerance of his dear wife, Grace, who had to sacrifice so much in putting up with all of these diversions from a normal home life.
From all of us who have benefitted so much from all of your efforts, Thank You, Ed.






Starting with the gathering of bios in 1966, and the encouragement and the assistance from hundreds of crew-members, this book became a possibility. As the book grew, the addition of the Editorial Staff, consisting of former Bay Stater editors, staff members and advisors of the ship s former newspaper, deserve the final credit for the book.
DEDICATION
The Right Reverend Joseph N. Moody 1904-1994

This is the photograph of our Chaplain as most of the BB59 Crew-members remember him. 1942-1944.
Father Joe was the first Chaplain assigned to the USS Massachusetts as it fitted out in 1942 at the South Boston Naval Annex.
Those were the days when hundreds of raw recruits came aboard - officers and enlisted men in a confused state of wonderment. Recently wrenched from their families, instantly thrust from peace to war and relatively untrained, they (more accurately, we) needed a stabilizing influence to help us understand and adjust to this bewildering transition.
That influence was Father Joe Moody who quickly became the Spirit of BB-59. Without fear of contradiction he, more than any other person, helped forge that disparate mass of humanity into a caring, mutually supportive, fully effective group of shipmates.
Joseph N. Moody was born in New York City April 18, 1904, grew up in Mt. Vernon, NY, attended St. Joseph s Seminary in Yonkers and was ordained a Catholic priest May 25, 1949.
Throughout his clerical career, Monsignor Moody was recognized by the church as an extraordinary combination of parish priest and professional instructor. He demonstrated both facets of his character as a naval chaplain.
He was always available to help a shipmate over a tough time - a death in the family, receipt of a Dear John letter or just the despondency of homesickness. His battle station was everywhere, as he made the rounds of the ship providing good cheer, and a sense of shared apprehension wherever he went.
Throughout, he was a teacher. He taught us how to grow up, how to adapt to life away from home, how to love and help one another, how to face death. Having heard Adolph Hitler, at Nuremberg in 1938, exhort the youth of Germany to the horrors of his ways, Father Joe knew how vital it was to teach his charges the virtues of moral decency, compassion for fellow man and the worth of democracy.
Following his ordination, he received a doctorate after attending Fordham and Columbia Universities. He spent four years as assistant pastor at Blessed Sacrament Church in New Rochelle and was then assigned to teach at Cathedral College in Manhattan.
He was appointed to the Chaplain Corps of the USN as a lieutenant in 1941. After serving into 1943 aboard the USS Massachusetts, he later joined the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown. He was discharged as a Commander in 1946 and returned to Cathedral College where he spent the next 10 years.
He was named a monsignor in 1959-joined the faculty of the Catholic University of America and taught modern French history until retirement in 1974. From 1976-82, he was an adjunct professor at Boston College, teaching also at St. John s Seminary in Brighton, MA. From 1965 until the time of his death, Monsignor Moody was an associate editor of the Catholic Historical Review and was also past president (1979) of the American Catholic Historical Assoc.
In the early 1980s, Father Joe moved to Statesboro, GA where the warmer climate better enabled him to cope with his increasing physical disabilities. There, he assisted St. Matthew s Parish and established an adult Sunday school program. He also taught part-time at Georgia Southern University.
Through the years, his physical handicaps grew more extensive and more painful, but his faith, acceptance and cheerful mood never did change. His brilliant mind kept him ever active and contributing to causes for the betterment of human life.
After Thanksgiving 1943, he faced even more serious problems: pneumonia, congestive heart failure, and eventually the amputation of his left leg. He was very aware of the situation and not only gave his consent for the amputation, but said: When you have something unpleasant to do, get on with it as soon as possible.
He grew to love Georgia and all his Statesboro friends. With them, and under their care, Father Joe passed away in March 1994 at the age of 89 in Bullock Memorial Hospital, Statesboro, GA. He elected to choose the Veterans Section of Statesboro s Bullock Memorial Gardens for his final resting place.
To a beloved friend and shipmate, we express our profound thanks and say: Requiescat in Pace.
FOREWORD
She fired the first 16-inch shell in WWII at Casablanca, Nov. 8, 1942, the start of the European offensive, and fired the last 16-inch shell at Kamaishi, Japan, Aug. 9, 1945, half a world away.
In between, she logged over 225,000 nautical miles, engaged twenty-five times with the enemy and sank or damaged five ships, including the French battleship Jean Bart. She participated in nine bombardments of enemy territory, three of which were directed at the Japanese home islands. As a member of Task Force 58 under Adm. Spruance or Task Force 38 under Adm. Halsey, it destroyed or assisted in the destruction of at least 18 Japanese aircraft. Her scout plane pilots rescued seven aviators downed by enemy fire, often under the barrels of Japanese guns.
But a ship is more than a litany of her accomplishments, more than a collection of people or an embodiment of complex machinery, guns and fire power. She has a character, all her own, derived from and always reflecting the leadership of a Capt. Whiting; the inspiration of its rescue-bound aviators; and the dogged determination of Ed Palmer and his compatriots who saved the Massachusetts and brought her home. It s the soul of a Father Joe Moody.
In the aggregate, it s all of those things forged into a wonderfully efficient and warmly cohesive team. It s all wrapped up in the affection reflected in the name by which we all called her and loved her - Big Mamie. Here with is her story.

Big Mamie s Homecoming Crew. Front row (L to R) Comdr. George M. Hall, Needham, MA; Francis Gatley, Foxboro, MA; Joseph Taylor, Fall River, MA; Harry Femino, Roslindale, MA; Edison Beaton Quincy, MA; Edward Allen, Malden, MA; Edward Palmer, Reading, MA; Joseph Olivera, Jr., Fall River, MA. Middle row (L to R) John Garvey, Dorchester, MA; Samuel Elson, Fall River, MA; Roland LaFrance, Fall River, MA; Robert Green, No. Kingston, RI; Earle Allen, Braintree, MA; Paul J. Dias, Braintree, MA; Back row (L to R) John Cassidy, Stoughton, MA; Joseph Reilly, Somerville, MA; Martin Adler, Boston, MA; Lawrence Bennett, Randolph, MA; Fred Knowles, Braintree, MA; Sheldon Titcomb, Agawam, MA; Stirling Oldberg, Framingham, MA; William DeNadal, Westport, MA; Alexander Poulos, Milton, MA; James Burt, Shart Hills, NJ; Victor Brum, Augusta, ME; Harold Nye, Marion, MA.
PROLOGUE
A Fighting Ship
At this time, which is the only opportunity I shall have to address the entire crew, I wish to lay down the policy of this vessel. I do not think of this ship as just a battleship-she is more. She is the Massachusetts. Let me tell you what I mean by that.
The Massachusetts has had built into her the intestinal fortitude of the Pilgrim Fathers, the watchfulness of Paul Revere, the discipline of Bunker Hill, the education of John Harvard.
The ancestors of the men who built her, built the first American ship ever to sail around the world. Right here in Quincy, a century and a quarter ago, they built the biggest ship of that day, and her name also, was the Massachusetts.
They built the Flying Cloud and ot