USS WEEDEN PACIFIC HISTORY (Continued)

USS WEEDEN -PACIFIC HISTORY Part II

Atlantic Theater Pacific Theater Part I Post War History Return to Beginning of Weeden History;

March 14, 1945: Boatswain Mate 2/c Domenic Mazziotti told me of an event he could hardly forget that took place at Manus on this date. He went ashore at Manus to a ball field which was some distance from the ship. He found a life jacket on the beach and told the guys he was going to swim back. Tell Lt. Knight so. While he was swimming back, the jacket became waterlogged and was chaffing under his arms. He couldn't stand it anymore, so he deep-sixed it. While swimming he came across an aircraft mooring buoy and hung onto it for a rest, He was "pooped" and then a squall and downpour came up. Next thing he knew the ship turned on the searchlight to spot him. Five guys dove off the bow to get to him. Only one reached him and his name was Freck. Then our liberty launch showed up to pick them all up. He was chastized by me " What are you, crazy? Get below." Next day I apologized "It's nice to have a strong swimmer on board." The good Lord was on his side. Without his name, this event nevertheless made the War Diary as follows: At 1745 man sighted in water 1000 yards off port bow. Water choppy, small craft warning out. Boat was at beach, so three swimmers were sent out with a life ring to assist the man. Our returning boat picked up all four men at 1750. Man found to be from this crew, attempting to swim from beach to ship, It was kind of Mazziotti to excuse my lost temper. It must have been a close call for him, despite his swimming confidence. He had turned down another ship's boat offer of help during his swim. He under estimated both the distance, probably 2 miles or more, and the sea and weather conditions.
March 18, 1945: Left Manus bound for Leyte.
March 20, 1945: Arrived at Leyte, Philippine Islands.
March 23, 1945: Left for Ulithi, Carolines, our first convoy in the Pacific. Left Leyte with a convoy to Ulithi, Carolines. Return convoy consisted of 4 tugs with two tows each. Two days out of Ulithi, a typhoon formed behind the convoy. As the full force of the storm hit the convoy, it was dispersed to allow the tugs to ride out the storm as best they could. During this period the ship rolled over to within 22 1/2 degrees of the horizontal and thanks to the excellent ballasting by Lt. Legum and Cmdr. Tillinghast we were able to survive the storm. The Weeden steamed back and forth between her straggling ships until the storm abated two days later. Then she rounded up her convoy, gave fuel to one of the tugs which lacked enough to reach port. This operation made her own supply so low that she turned over her job to a relieving destroyer escort and sailed into port. For work done on that convoy, she and the Cronin, DE704, received personal commendations from Commander Philippine Sea Frontier. My memory is a little different than the 1st Reunion account above. Other memories are also varied, understandable when the frightening and traumatic force of this typhoon is considered, by a good bit the worst typhoon I've ever been through. So I'll include various recollections here, beginning with the War Diary‘s 25 : 2110 this ship and Cronin. DE-704, completed duty with present convoy and proceeded to rendezvous with Ulithi-Leyte 15 slow tow convoy...At 2110 new convoy sighted by radar in a position about 15 miles northeast of convoy we left. Ulithi-Leyte 15 consists of 4 tugs towing two vessels each, plus ATA 182...retriever, total 13 vessels. At 2200 we joined up and relieved 2 escorts, which returned to Ulithi. CTU 75.2.23 in this vessel is Escort Commander. We took station on convoy's port bow; Cronin on starboard bow; SC 982 astern of convoy. Convoy speed 6 knots...27 March; at 1800 we received urgent dispatch from ComPhilSeaFron warning us of a storm approaching us from behind and suggesting we direct convoy to the southwest. We were also ordered to make urgent weather reports every 3 hours until further notice. Notified convoy and at 1855 convoy course changed to southwest. Ballasted ship in preparation for heavy weather. 28 March; at 0730 OTC changed convoy course to 270 Proceeding toward Leyte again. 29 March- Wind increased and seas became rough during evening. Barometer falling rapidly. At 2300 tug Scotch Cap had towing engine casualty and fell back with tows to effect repairs. Cronin stood by her. At 2320 the second tow of tug A TR 81 broke loose. ATA 182, retriever, located and stood by the lost tow during night. 30 March-- ATA 182 recovered drifting barge during morning and took it in tow. During day weather continued to deteriorate, with seas roughening and winds increasing to gale strength. Resumed urgent weather reports and situation reports to ComPhilSeaFron and received weather reports and instructions in return. Convoy became dispersed with tugs taking various courses to ride out storm. This ship attempted to keep in contact with various parts of the convoy and advised as to how they were weathering the storm. Proceeded from one group to another during day. At 1815 had radio message relayed to us that SC 982, last seen at 1600, was in serious trouble as a result of the storm. Left tugs and tows and proceeded to last reported position of SC 982 and commenced search at 2130. Ordered Cronin to conduct separate search. Winds became progressively stronger during evening and by 2200 were estimated to be 60 knot, typhoon strength, Seas very rough. Driving spray. Visibility zero. Used searchlights in searching for SC 982. 0800 positions 10-20 N; 128-44E; - 1200 position 9-54N; 129-OlE; 2000 position; 9-14N; 129-28E; - 31 March - Continued search for SC 982. Typhoon conditions continued throughout night. Winds began to abate slowly at 0700. Commenced searching toward southeast at 0700. At 0910 made contact with tug Race Point with its two tows, dead ahead and proceeded to close them. At 1030 ComPhilSeaFron by dispatch ordered Manning, DE-199, to proceed to aid of SC 982. At 1030 received word from SC 982 by radio that she was approximately 125 miles out of Leyte, heading into port, damaged but capable of proceeding At 1100 commenced screening Race Point and tows; proceeded toward southeast to clear storm area. At 2250 turned and headed southeast. Weather had moderated clear of storm area. And there the Weeden War Diary ends, not just for the month of March (They were apparently mailed in at the end of each month ) but for good. The Navy has no further War Diaries for the Weeden. which caused me to grill Gil 01iveira: Are the final 8 months' Diaries still in your "Hold" basket on the Weeden . It was Ed Hansen who was at the helm and who reported we'd rolled over 67 1/2 degrees (clinometer marked at quarter points of 90 degree arc). That's so close to where a ship like ours would just keep going over and capsize that It must have been one of our closest calls of the war and the ballasting surely, helped save us. Need I add severe sea sickness plus fear were so common and severe, and sleeping through such rolling so difficult, that most of us fitted that classic definition of real sea sickness, where you're afraid you might recover! That was by a good bit the worst typhoon I've ever been through. As soon an the weather abated, in a gray daylight, the Captain was after me to find out where we were! All I could take was a succession of running sights on the moon, Which showed we'd been blown about 150 miles off our dead reckoning position. (The dead reckoning trace, based on automatically recording course and speed, is notoriously unreliable in a severe store) Neither of us really believed that 150-mile error, but sure enough, when I got star sights that night, we had been blown about that far off our course in a couple days and nights of that awful storm. My memory is a little different than the the 1RH account above. I recall We searched in vain for part of our convoy, felt very bad that the lost ships had gone down with all hands. The Captain especially I know felt terrible about this, losing part of the convoy for which he was responsible , only to find the missing ships riding peacefully at anchor as we entered Ulithi harbor. Even now, I get a return of that sickness and fear in rereading that War Diary account. I recall that when the Captain, totally exhausted from prolonged lack of sleep, sent down to get me to relieve him for awhile, I just wanted him to let me alone and let me die in peace. Ed Legum made a comment about the bastard SC (110', 1/3 our size) which I asked him to explain. He said much of our worry and the long, fruitless search for SC 982, was because of the SC's last Hollywood-style radio transmission. Before their radio went dead, Ed said they sent the following message "I'm taking on water this is my last transmission. I'm going down" But they came through O.K. I'm even more astounded that all those small and non-seaworthy tugs and tows survived when we almost didn't, for they seemed incapable of surviving that typhoon. Also, I don't know how we measured that 60 knots, but I feel sure it was much more than that. I recall that for a long time the sea and sky were indistinguishable. Now that's a storm. Howard Green had the quartermaster watch when Ed Hansen recorded that extreme roll, and he agrees with the 67 ½ degrees. At the first reunion , the captain said that it was not possible to roll over that far without capsizing. Ed Hansen said , my eyes did not deceive me. The USS Tabberer DE418 reported frequent rolls up to 72 degrees from the vertical during an earlier typhon(Dec. 17th & 18th, 1944) in which a number of destroyers (USS Spence-DD512, USS Monaghan-DD354, & USS Hull-DD350) were lost. Apparently the DE's were not as top heavy as destroyers and were better able to weather such a storm. According to the Captain, " We rounded them all up. Your sight by moonlight got a position and we sent one in by itself. We fueled a couple of tugs that were very low. They started in and then someone came to relieve us. (I wrote a full description of the storm to my father in a letter we still have.)
April 3, 1945: Ship returned to Leyte.
April 9, 1945: Left Leyte for Hollandia, New Guinea.
April 12, 1945: Arrived at Hollandia New Guinia It was here we learned of Roosevelt's death and Truman becoming President, someone of whom we had never heard .
April 12 to 18, 1945: One of my unforgettable, wholly unexpected memories of the war occurred here at Hollandia when one evening I attended, in an incredible jungle setting a USO performance of the Broadway musical "Okahoma" . It was the first Broadway musical I had ever seen, sensationally enough thereby --- but they'd somehow transported everything cast, costumes, scenery, music, glamour, all the way out into that jungle. Marvelous ! Hal Knight remembers how in Hollandia we picked up light fatigues to help beat the heat?
April 18, 1945: Left Hollandia to escort a tug towing a dry dock back to Leyte. Such was the mundane wartime duty assigned to destroyer escorts.
May 1, 1945: Arrived in Leyte.
May 3, 1945: Left Leyte on a mail run through the Philippine Islands, stopping at Zamboanga on May 4, Ilollo, Panay and Mindoro on May 5, Manila and Subic Bay on May 6 and returning to Leyte on May 8. While a mail run wasn't much of combat-type duty, the experience, the beautiful land and sea scenery, were pleasant and interesting, at least the first time. By voice radio we talked to Army troops mopping up on Zamboanga, and couldn't resist asking them a question I'm sure they were tired of, whether they'd seen any monkeys with no tails.
May 10 to 15, 1945: Patrol duty outside the harbor entrance of Leyte and station patrol on the convoy route from Ulithi to Leyte.
May 16 to May 27, 1945: At anchor in Leyte harbor for boiler repairs and loading of supplies. Crew participated in shore parties ( beer ) on the island of Samar. On May 17th , five crew members received 2 months restriction for "drinking native whiskey and causing undue disturbance" on this sparsely populated jungle island" Curious charge ???
May 28 to June 6, 1945: resumed patrol duty outside the harbor entrance to Leyte and station patrol on the convoy route from Ulithi to Leyte. Rendezvoused with the USS Ancon ( AGC 4 ) and proceeded to Subic Bay.
June 7, 1945: Arrived in Subic Bay and left next day for Leyte.
June 9, 1945 - Arrived at Leyte and received orders to rendezvous with a Ulithi-Leyte convoy and escort it to Manila.
June 12, 1945: Arrived at Manila and left the next day to return to Leyte.
June 14, 1945: Arrived at Leyte to find the battle fleet at anchor.
June 16, 1945: Left Leyte on a mail run, arriving at Cebu on June 16, Zamboanga on June 17, Puerta Princess. Palawan and IloIlo on June 18 and returning to Leyte harbor on June 20 ,where we stayed until June 30. Here the Captain came across Jame Tillinghast, a cousin, who was in charge of security at Calico. The Captain had him to dinner aboard and he said he hadn't had such a good meal in ages and ages. (The officers eat better then the enlisted men.)
June 30, 1945: Left Leyte escorting a merchant ship to Ulithi, arriving on July 3.
July 4, 1945: Left Ulithi and returned to Leyte, arriving on July 8.
July 10, 1945: Left Leyte with another convoy to Ulithi, arriving on July 13. I don't know if it was on this or another Ulithi stop but bare bones liberties on the atoll took place to get our crew at least some basic recreation. Hal Knight was a valuable morale booster, with the baseball games he arranged and umpired, pictures of which survive. On the other hand, a real downer was the crew's discovery that the beer bottles taken ashore for their enjoyment had somehow "been evaporated of their contents" from a securely locked storage aboard ship! Hard feelings and dark suspicion followed this demoralizing discovery. It was only at Reunion #1 at Virginia Beach In 1985, some 40 years after, that we heard confessions of the nefarious plot that had succeeded in providing late night parties aboard ship, while clever recapping of the bottles and resealing the locker covered up the crime. (I wonder if any of the culprits took part in the Watergate breakin?)
July 20, 1945: Left Ulithi with a convoy to Leyte and then on to Manila arriving on July 24.
July 24 , 1945: USS Underhill, DE682, sunk. Don Ford recalls that we got excused from a convoy in this time period because of having only one boiler operational, and that our division sistership, Underhill DE- 682, got an escort assignment in place of us thereby, and by this quirk of fate went to her death on July 24, North of the Philippines, one of the last ship loses of the War. The Underhill encountered a Japaneese submarine which released a number of humanly guided midget submarines known as "Kaitens" in the path of the convoy, one of which struck the USS Underhill just forward of amidships. Hal Knight refutes Don's story stating that the boiler repairs occurred two months earlier in May. In addition the USS Underhill was in Buckner Bay- Okinawa on July 21, 1945 when it was assigned to its last convoy whereas the USS Weeden was escorting a convoy between Ulithi and Leyte at that time.
July 24 to 27 1945: I think it was this period that several of us officers myself, Legum, Townes, Isenhour, one other maybe Jarvis , decided to try for a Manila sightsee, despite the wreckage in the harbor and the ruined appearance of the recently liberated city. (I was not to see Manila again for 42 years, on a trip to the Far Eeat in 1987.) The Captain I recall agreed to us going ashore only with disapproving reluctance, and he'd have been more disapproving if he'd seen the outcome. Nothing to see but ruins, but we final found a nightclub of sorts, with a few pieces for an orchestra and drinks offered of Japanese bottled liquor - which we'd been warned against - at $25 a bottle, a horrendous price in 1945. But $5 each seemed manageable - nothing else to see or do - and after some debate we ordered a bottle! In a little while the 2nd bottle took less debate, and the third even less--$75 for 3. It was powerful stuff, and our trials and adventures getting back to the ship are for us unforgettable. My one "Liberty" our whole time in The Western Pacific, a real sailor’s type! Ed Hansen commented that there were two hospital ships in Manila Bay -- full of servicemen who had partaken of tainted Japanese whiskey, The U.S. finally brought in good U.S. whiskey. His memory is of standing "Quarterdeck Watch" when the LCT arrived with half the occupants lying horizontal on the deck. Out with the boat davits-- hauled them aboard and tossed them into their bunks. Next day the same ones -- dressed in immaculate whites -- were off on liberty again. It must have been no captain's mast offense to drink American whiskey or to create a disturbance in an inhabited area.
July 27, 1945: The Weeden and 4 other DE's departed for Okinawa, escorting 30 LST's. The following day 14 LSM's joined the convoy and that afternoon the Weeden sank 2 floating mines. Typhoon warnings caused the convoy to change course, and by 31 July, the whole group was steaming on reverse course. The convoy experienced rough seas but missed the storm center, and on 4 August steamed into Okinawa. The ship experienced an air raid both nights in port, an experience that had already become a nightly harbor event there. This brief mention of our sinking 2 floating mines calls for amplification, especially the first one, for had it not been for an alert lookout (name unknown) and prompt, corrective action by O.D, Peyton Townes, it is likely that our ship would have been sunk, and half or more of us lost, as occurred with the Underhill. We were at dinner in the wardroom when the General Quarters sounded. When I reached the bridge, the mine was clearly visible in our wake. It had apparently been torn loose from its mooring in the storm and was floating free. It was directly in our path and Townes in quick succession gave orders to the helm to first steer sharp right and then equally sharp left barely missing the mine and leaving it in our wake. We circled the mine and exploded it with our 20mm guns at about the 1000 yard range. The explosion was so powerful (Japaneese explosives were always powerful) that It shook the ship and the engineers below thought we'd been hit. After that the Captain stayed farther off to sink mines. One other strange, even worrisome incident from this experience. Seibert, on the fantail, seeing the mine passing close by, took a chipping hammer and heaved it at the mine. Why this impulsive reaction I've never known. Had he thus detonated the mine, he and all the men in the after part of the ship would have been lost I'm not sure I ever told Townes, or the lookout, thanks for saving the ship and our lives. Now It's too late for Peyton, as he died while organizing our lst Reunion in 1985. I hope others expressed their thanks to him and the lookout. Dominic Mazziotti told me only recently that the lookout who saved our ship and many of our lives was Vernon Weathers. If so, how very appropriate, for Vernon was and remained one of the most loyal, dedicated of our Weeden veterans, one of the key instigators of getting these Reunions started in 1985. He attended only one Reunion, the 2nd in Tampa, bringing the largest family contingent, 6, that has attended any Reunion to date. By the next, Baltimore, Reunion, Vernon was dead, of cancer. Our deep appreciation to his family and to his memory. As to the hammer incident, I queried Arna Seibert about that by telephone. He dismissed it airily by saying he missed "by a country mile" I warned him the Navy is still looking for him to pay them back for the hammer!
August 6, 1945: Left Okinawa with a convoy bound for Manila. News of the first atomic bombing reached the Weeden on this return voyage. Ed Legum recalls being the first aboard to get the news: I was in CIC checking our position about 2000 when one of our gun crew who happened to be awake told us about the "Bomb "
August 8, 1945: Arrived at Subic Bay.
August 14, 1945: Left Subic Bay for Leyte and arrived on Aug.16. I think it was here at Leyte about Aug. 16 that I was detached and returned to the States in a slow series of stages that took well into September. Ed Legum relieved me as Executive officer and Navigator.
August 24, 1945: Underwent a full formal inspection
August 25, 1945: Left Leyte for Manila, arriving on August 27.
August 29, 1945: Left Manila with a convoy bound for Okinawa. Once again a typhoon developed and the convoy's course was reversed to avoid it, missing the storm center. Arrived in Okinawa on September 5th.
September 6 , 1945: Left Okinawa and returned to Manila on September 9.
September 12,1945: Left Manila escorting a British escort carrier, HMS Speaker, to Nagasaki, Japan, to evacuate recovered allied military personnel. The following orders were received:
September 16, 1945: Left Nakazaki with liberated Dutch, British and American POW,s aboard. Arrived in Okinawa where the passengers were transferred to a hospital ship. Then left Okinawa bound for Subic Bay. Orders were received enroute to Subic to assume plane guard duties on a station patrol, about one hundred miles north of Luzon. After four days there, we steamed into Subic Bay on September 30 for dry docking and repairs. While at Subic Bay, we again received personal commendation from Commander Philippine Sea Frontier for our escort work on two convoy runs from Manila to Okinawa.
September 30 to November 8, 1945: Lay idle at anchor in Subic Bay awaiting orders to return to the States; Weeden left Subic Bay and arrived In Manila.
November 26 to December 17, 1945: Weeden left Manila bound for the U.S. Stopped at Eniwetok for refueling on December 3, crossed the international date line on December 6 , arrived at Pearl Harbor on December 8, left 2 days later and arrived at San Pedro, Long Beach California on December 17.
December 17 to March 9, 1946: This period was a very tedious waiting period .Ship was bound in fog most of the time and crew members trickled away as their point count came up.
March 10, 1946: Left San Pedro and sailed to San Diego. Peyton Townes was Captain on the last voyage and Ed Hansen was on the helm for the last time.
May 9, 1946: Was placed out of commission and was berthed with the San Diego Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet.

Atlantic Theater Weeden History Part I Return to top Post War History Return to Beginning of Weeden History