Yesterday, I wrote about Pearl Harbor veteran Joseph Thornton, 86, who died in January and is going to have his ashes spread over Pearl Harbor.
The ship he served on, the USS Curtiss was quite active in the attack on Pearl Harbor and shot down several Japanese planes and engaged a minisub.
The ship's crew was also involved in the atomic blasts at the Bikini Atoll after the war, earning Thornton and crew mates the name Atomic Veterans.
The Curtiss was a new (launched 1940) sea plane tender and got underway quickly once the attack began and began firing at the attackers. At 0836, the Curtiss spotted a periscope in the harbor and opened fire. A torpedo barely missed it and four minutes later, the submarine surfaced and dived. The destroyer USS Monagham then engaged it with depth charges.
At 0905, gunfire from the Curtiss hit a Japanese plane and it crashed into No. 1 crane and burned. Three minutes later, they shot another one down. Then, a dive bomber approached, and dropped a bomb which crashed through the deck near No. 1 crane and exploded below deck, causing a fire, then, the plane crashed into the water.
The Curtiss lost 19 men that day.
A Valiant Ship and Crew.
No comments:
Post a Comment