Franklin (CV 13) - Naval Cruise Book

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In reply address not the signer of this letter, but Bureau of Naval Personnel. Navy Department, Washinaton 25. D.C. Refer to No. Eers 328-DN-ILK Navy Department BUREAU OF NAVAL PERSONNEL WASHINGTON 25. D.C. 17 July 19A5. To: Commanding Officer, U.S.S. FRANKLIN. Subj : Resolution of the General Assembly of the State of Ohio - Forv arding of. 1. The Chief of Navel Personnel takes great pleasure in foirwarding the subject Resolution, passed by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio and presented to the U.S.S. FRANKLIN and her men in recognition of their gallant action in saving their ship and returning her safely to port. R. A. KOCH Cctptam, U. S. N. (Ret) Spedal Assistant to Chief of Naval PersonnsJ

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On Memorial Day, May 31st, the Franklin s crew stood at attention in Rockefeller Plaza, by the model of The Fight- ing Lady — an Essex class carrier — while Father O ' Callahan, on a nationwide radio broadcast, held memorial services for the gallant men who would not come back from the battlefields and ocean wastes over which World War II was fought. Some of the men commenced thirty days ' leave in June. Three hundred new men had been sent by the Navy to take over ship ' s duties while they were away. As X Division, these youngsters worked hard through the summer; they held promise of being real sailors when Big Ben sailed again. Some of them had friends who had died on the Franklin. One lad, Henry Syrek, newly enlisted, remembered his brother Frank Syrek. a iation ordnanceman. who died on her decks three months before. On June 20th the remaining rewards were presented. Ten days later, June 30th, Captain Gehres was detached to be- come the commander of the Naval Air Station. San Diego, California. Comdr. Taylor was detached to be the command- er of the Naval Air Station, Brunswick, Me., Comdr. Henry H. Hale became the new commanding officer. In July, as the navy yard worked ceaselessly, and Big Ben began to look like her trim self again, the men of the ship were hard at work preparing for their next cruise. Hundreds of men were away at Damage Control School, at fire-fighter school, at schools fitting them for more responsible posi- tions. But in August, 1945, the little yellow men who thought to rule the world begged for mercy. Witli peace and demobilization the men of the 704 Club faded away; they were men with long sea service whose hearts were still in the homes they had fought to preserve. New faces, young men from the training stations, came to take their places. On Navy D ay, 1945 — October 27th, thousands of visitors were shown over Big Ben. Tlie new carrier. Franklin D. Roosevelt, across the pier, being commissioned by Presidejit Truman, was not so crowded as the veteran of the Pacific. On January 23rd, 1946, in Washington. D. C, Father Joseph O ' Callahan, chaplain courageous, and Lt. Donald A. Gary, received the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Harry Truman. Lt. Gary, still on Big Ben. was proudly greeted when he returned by shipmates who were happy that he had been accorded this fitting recognition. Father O ' Callalian was no longer aboard, now serving on I be USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, but his old shipmates on the Franklin arc still prf u(l to have served beside him. As repairs neared completion in Aj)ril, 1946, and officers and men alike began to look forward to the shakedown cruise and joining the Fourth L ' nited States Fleet, dis- ap|)ointing news came. Due to the reduction of naval ap- propriations it was necessary to transfer the Franklin to the inactive 16th Fleet, — for Operation Zipper and the preservation j)rocess that prepares warships for deactiva- tion during the |)eace-time years. After she arrived at the U.S. Navy Yard Annex, Bayonne, N. J., Commander Hale was detached on June flth for duly at the Naval Ordnance Depot, Inyokern, California; the Commander could look back on an eventful cruise since the day he reported aboard in August, 1914, through the months as Navigator when he hardly left the bridge in some of the tensest actions of the war, the succeeding months as Air Officer (busiest and most hectic job on a carrier), and finally a year of command while the biggest repair assignment in naval history was being accom|)lished by the Brooklyn Naval Shipyard. This repair job, it might be noted, was under the supervision of Ship ' s Sujjcrintendent J. M. McMullen. Lieutenant Com- mander, LI.S.N., and was completed on 15 June. 1946. The new Commanding Officer, Commander Clarence E. Dickinson, U.S.N., was a veteran combat pilot at 33. with a brilliant record of firsts and holder of three Navy Crosses: pilot of the first naval aircraft to shoot down a Japanese plane — a Zero at Pearl Harbor, on December 7th, 1941; three days later on December 10th, 1941, he roared down in his Douglas Dauntless (SBD) divebomber to a subsequently confirmed kill of the first major Japanese submarine in the war — the 1-170, barely 125 miles off Pearl Harbor. His third Navy Cross was won in a daring attack on the Japanese cruiser Kaga at Midway, in which he registered three direct hits. Under Commander Dickin- son, an officer thoroughly familiar with the value of pre- paredness, and the cost of it ' s lack, preservation measures were carried out with characteristic Navy thoroughness, de- spite the dwindling numbers of the crew. On about November 1st, 1946, when the last hatch will be sealed tight, and the last line made secure, a skeleton crew of seventy men and six officers will take over their watch. There she will wait beside the dock — still the United States Ship Franklin. Big Ben the Flattop, a proud fight- ing ship of a fighting Navy. So That Is Her Stokv . . . Perhaps a new generation of sailors uill man her decks; sailors of a newer day, folloiving in the gallant pathways of the departed men who fought aboard her. She will take them all to her heart: again her spaces will echo to noise and laughter and the sound of men at work. But in the evenings, where she looms dark and grim ngainsl the sky. alungside the wharf in a quiet, peat-e-time navy yard, men who love ships will look al Inr limodnig hulk and know thai Big lien is reinemlienng . . . Reniemhering those hoys, so gay and brave, who saileil her into hallle . . . their voices, ihcir laughter, their tears. They became a part of her, as she became a par! of them. The years arc long and memory is short: the world will soon forget. Big Ben remembers . . .

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96th general assembly regular session 1945 1946 H. R No 88 To fighting men and a fighting ship — the glorious crew and the inspiring sight of the staunch aircraft carrier, U. S. S. Franklin, as it steamed past the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. WHEREAS, The accomplishment of the U. S. S. FrankHn, the 27,000-ton airplane carrier, which in the face of almost unsurmountable difficulties, and when practically sunk, refused to go down, but fought a thrilling battle, sixty miles off the Japanese coast, indelibly carved its name on the scroll of the many illustrious and thrilling sea battles which adorn the pages of American history; and WHEREAS. The U. S. S. Franklin limped back to port under its own power, still flying the Stars and Stripes, and in spite of Japanese bombs, with their accompanying fires and explosions, returned four- teen thousand dangerous miles, though badly damaged, with hundreds of her crew killed or wounded, to the Brooklyn Navy Yard: and WHEREAS, Captain L. E. Gehres, the ship ' s commander, in the immortal words of Captain Lawrence, declared: I ' ll not abandon this ship, and in sticking to his decision added another episode of unforgettable glory- to America ' s sea fighters, saved his ship and two-thirds of her complement of twenty-five hundred men; and WHEREAS, High on the roll of honor for heroic service in the face of fire, is the name of Lt. Com- mander Joseph O ' Callahan, chaplain of the U. S. S. Franklin, whose brave action in moving around a burning and exposed deck, administering to the dying, recruiting damage control parties and leading officers and men into flames to jettison hot bombs and shells, wet down ammunition maga- zines, etc., made one of the ship ' s senior ofTicers remark: He was the bravest man I ever saw ' ; and WHEREAS, Hundreds of Purple Hearts were earned, as men from all walks of life, and race, color, creed, many from the State of Ohio, fought side by side against deadly flame, smoke, bombs and explosions to bring the U. S. S. Franklin home with flags flying; therefore be it RESOLVED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, That in recognition of this seemingly impossible task of achievement that this resolution be adopted by a rising vote and a copy be spread upon the journal as a testimony of the accomplishments of the American people under fire and the real signifi- cance of lasting victory and its fruition in a permanent peace, when an age of reason will supplant an age of war, when a philosophy of life will supplant a philosophy of death and destruction as exemplified in the devotion of the .American people to the ideals of the brotherhood of man, liberty and justice and the right of every man to li e in dignity and freedom as his conscience dictates: and be it further RESOLVED, That the clerk of the House of Representatives send an authenticated copy of this reso- lution to James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy; Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of War, and to Captain L. E. Gehres, of the L ' . S. S. Franklin. s Otis R. Johnson Clerk