Samuel B Roberts (FFG 58) - Naval Cruise Book

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si aff' Q Q .E an I' 0 . gy gg ,stab-3 I l t -' h 1. ,1 as .Y , , V -1 R A - ...W ,V X Coxswain Samuel B. Roberts Samuel Booker Robens Ir. was bom in San Francisco in 1921 to a pair of Navy veterans. His father served as a machinist's mate during World War l and later became a civil engineer in the War Depanment, while his mother served as a Yeoman KFJ. one of the thousands of women brought into the naval service to type and file and perform a hundred other largely clerical duties during and immediately after the Great War. All three Robens sons joined the Navy when they became of age: only one would survive his service. A good-looking kid with a cockeyed smile. Robens lr. enlisted in the Navy Reserve in 1939 in Portland, Oregon, was called up the following year. and was trained as a coxswain: a master of small boats. After tours aboard the battleship Cal1?brniafBB 441 and destroyer tender Heywood CAP 121, Roberts was assigned to tl! 8.000-ton amphibious cargo ship Bellarn3riAK 202 and given charge of one of its eigil.lEVP transport craft. A wooden vessel whose bow-mounted loading ramp belied its remarkable agility, the 36-foot ISVP could punch through surf to get a platoon or a leep from ship to shore. Better known as Higgim their inventor, the sturdy craft had tumed the conoept of beachhead assault into reality. 2 ,- The U.S. Navy's Iune 1942 victory at Midway hat! t f - ,- .-. gg 1 - To keep them ontldr- ,U.S. commanders planned their Bust major offensive of fl Q g n iylartitlte invariant oiguadakanal. Such ast Won the paiphery ofIapan's empire in the southern Solomon 1 to forces and once victory was wan. rs snow us. sims to strike the enemy srmngtwta if l E ' ' - Irpmee panes aided theentireregion. t . .,,t tff,1Qe1e.Q j'x:x , .82-ship invasiotalbrce, and disgorged her share of th onto Point on 7 August 1942. For two days, Roberts and the rest at 3 H b e ' 4,1 1- from sl1iptosl'tore.supporting the Marinesas theydmveinlandffhett H alapanese -1 retreated a good poruon of their supplies still in the holds leaving the troops ashore amm tion, little food, and no heavy constniction equipment to improve their captured airstrip. with the Marines. joining a group of about two dozen Navy and Coast Guard sailors based in a plantation near Lunga Point. which sank four U.S. cruisers in a night battle just 20 miles to the northwest off Savo Inland. Belamlr un! 1 9 . 4 . ...J gl lr For the next seven weeks, they piloted their Higgins boats along the coast, delivering fresh men and supplies and . moving wounded troops to safety. Like the rest of the Americans, Robens slogged through the miserable climate by , 0 i day and hunkered down by night. when the japanese warships would come sailing down The Slot to reinforce their ' - ' ' own troops. at a Early on 27 September, Roberts volunteered to help land several hundred Marines a few miles north of Ltmga Point: ' I Q ' i, -- I f the legendary combat leader Lt. Col. Chesty Puller was aiming to outflank a Iapanese strongpoint. The Marines piled 'P' into a dozen of the wooden boats and headed up to a beach near the Matanikau River. But the troops met resistance. YW' and as the Marines withdrew from the beach later that day, Robens was struck in the neck with a lapanese machine bullet. He was but died in the night. gnbmg received, pg Q airy Cross, and eventually, an honor far raren three U.S. Navy ships were named for him: DE 413, 3 dgmuya I il that helped win the battle of Leyte Gulf: DD 823. a destroyer that took part in the first air strikes homie aircraft carrier: and USS Samuel!! Robens!!-'FG 583, the frigate that hit a mine during 1988's Uperation Earnest Will, r' ' New N- ,, t' V' T. I l' if :A ' 2 Q e f K: -prev ' w u p A, g. .,,,,., f -lt! hr. N 1 , N - ar- y J ., t... at. a - N . - ' as t s - ' - ,a.gg,4 , . Wg 5. V 1' K fx I .. t- 5 8 H , . lx I , W ,I .l y - a, q ' f V.. 'af-nautik' c ' 1 1 r A F V ,adm 'ly 2 - M . ,safe , 2 A if A: ' ,, ...te s ,, I 'E 'F , 4 8, a 1 e a Q-.4 'i4?' I V Wifi 'K .ff , ' A' . l - f ' V . ...,, uaouluP