CHAPTER 3

ARCHIVE INDEX

Inventory of papers:

a. Donated most of the papers to the CEC, SEABEE Historian, Construction Battalion Center, Port Hueneme, CA.

Remaining items in personal collection: A. Diary - 23 Dec 1941- 4 June 1942, includes impressions of NEW ORLEANS, Coral Sea, Midway, etc. B. Letter Report - 18 Oct 1954, contains descriptions of PHIBCB ONE participation in Operation "Passage to Freedom" - French Indochina. C. Color Slides - covering item B. D. Color Slides and 8mm film - covering duties from USNA to retirement.

1. Impressions of peacetime Navy: "...I think this is a dumb question." 2. Ship Ops from 7 Dec to 31 Dec 1941: "My duty during this period was electrical officer and E Division Officer in NEW ORLEANS (CA 32), which was a part of the Hawaiian detachment..." 7 Dec: "No boat berthed at repair pier, Pearl Harbor Navy Yard..." 8-23 Dec: "remained berthed at Navy Yard while Yard civilian employees and ship's force completed repairs - working around the clock with armed eng. dept. officers in both enginerooms at all times to inspect all work as it was done."

1. ltr dtd 27 August 1986 re attached diary. "After my last diary entry, the NEW ORLEANS returned to Pearl Harbor and I was detached about the end of June."2. Photocopies of Saunders' diary dated 23 December 1941 to 4 June 1942 during his service on board the cruiser NEW ORLEANS (CA 32). 26 pgs. (Note: These are very good entries. Does he plan to leave the Diary to the Archive?) 3. Saunders was detached at the end of June and spent the rest of 1942 at Rensselear Polytechnic Institute.

A. Why and How I entered the Naval Academy: "My original intention was to go to West Point- primarily to become an engineer...After the results of the competitive examination were compiled, I received a notice from Senator Gurney (South Dakota) that I had received a principal appointment to Annapolis and a First Alternative Appointment to West Point...

I did some very quick research on the Navy and found that (a) It had a Civil Engineer Corps... Therefore I accepted the principal appointment to Annapolis. B. Remembrance and Impressions: "unfortunately for me (as it turned out), I had had an exceptionally good high school background in my last two years of high school. Plebe year subjects in Math, Chemistry, Physics, and English were primarily a repeat of things I had already covered in high school. As a result, my study habits became very poor and I sort of floated along on previous background...After I got the "message," I did reasonably well from then on..."

1944 Jan.-Aug., Civil Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic, Troy, NY. Welding instruction at GE. Power plant and utility system ops, Brooklyn Edison Co., to Oct. XO 144th Naval Construction Battalion, Davisville. 1945 Jan., started for Guam. All of crew sick after mismanaged transport cross-country. March, Guam. New chain of command regulations set up for CEC. When war ended, Depot just as busy preparing Guam as a permanent base. Nov., CO Battalion (ABCD). By end of yr., getting ready to hand over work to Naval Supply Depot.

Text of Funeral Mass for RADM Raymond J. Schneider, USNA Chapel, by Rev. Richard Mark Heath, O. P. (USNA '40), and family members. 9 July 1985.

Text of Eulogy for RADM Schneider, delivered at his Requiem Mass by his eldest son, R. J. Schneider, Jr., 9 July 1985. Includes some biographical information.

ltr, John J. McMullen, 1986, to Archive.

Sheu came from Buffalo, New York, where he attended Nichols School. He had three brothers and a sister. After his death, a room at the Nichols School was dedicated in his honor.

Sheu entered USNA on 9 July 1936; he and McMullen were roommates during Plebe Summer and remained friends over the next four years. According to McMullen, "Don was one of those very special people. He wanted nothing more than to be a Naval Officer, and it seemed like his entire younger life was in preparation for that career. He was an outstanding sailor, and was Captain of the Dinghy Sailing teams while at the Naval Academy. Although conservative, he really was a free spirit, and a very, very fine gentleman."

"Shortly before graduation, we decided we wanted to go out to the Fleet together. I had a fairly low number, but Don had a high one. Instead of averaging our two numbers, they simply assigned both of us the low priority, and we ended up being assigned to the U. S. S. YORKTOWN. I still remember how both of us felt we were doomed, because we wanted to have cruiser service. We went to the Commandant of Midshipmen and asked him if he could change our assignment, and you know how far that got us."

Sheu and McMullen sailed in the ENTERPRISE from San Diego to Hawaii where they joined the YORKTOWN after graduation. In late November 1940, McMullen was detached suddenly and assigned as Assistant Machinery Officer in the destroyer STACK (DD 406), but Sheu remained in the YORKTOWN, which is where he was when she was sunk at the 1942 Battle of Midway.

Sheu selected Submarine School, enrolled in the Sub School at New London, and after graduation served in the SCORPION. According to McMullen, "I saw him a few times in Pearl ... and I just could not believe it when I learned that the SCORPION was missing."

Sheu was lost on board the submarine SCORPION in February 1944 when she went down somewhere in the China Sea.

Recollections of Pearl Harbor and early part of WWII

NOTE: Schoen refers to his DIARY.

July 1940-Dec. 1941 USS NEW MEXICO. FDR's decision to keep fleet at PH, early 1941, considered wrong at the time by junior officers. From diaries: Aug. 1940, patrol entrance to PH. Oct., expectant of Japanese attack. Bremerton. Nov., anti-sabotage patrol. AA bettered in drydock. Long Beach. Dec. Hawaii. Ships darkened at sunset; all-night patrols. March 1941, Cond. III because sub detected. Practice towing and at-sea fueling. May, Panama. FDR declares "unlimited emergency" to keep sea lanes safe. Self-censorship order on NEW MEXICO. July, Iceland. Saw Churchill. Sept., Newfoundland. Oct., "censorship imposed." Nov., Halifax. Boston. Dec., Casco Bay. Collided with USS OREGON. Attended Skinner's ('40) wedding; he had to resign because of marriage. Diaries available if wanted.

Schoen's ship returned to Casco Bay on 7 December when he learned about the attack on Pearl Harbor. En route to Hampton Roads on 9 December the ship collided with the SS OREGON which was damaged and, after refusing to take destroyer escort, sank off Nantucket Light while en route to port.

Schoen reported as 5th Division Officer (5"38 AA battery) to the newly commissioned battleship IOWA in January 1943 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In June or July, the IOWA hit a rock while entering Casco Bay which caused a 200-foot gash in her bottom and necessitated a one-month stay in the Boston Navy Yard. The Navigator, CDR Whitehead, was detached, but Captain John McCrea, FDR's former naval aide and one of Admiral King's favorite officers, kept his command.

Schoen gives an interesting account of the IOWA's voyage across the Atlantic carrying President Roosevelt to the Cairo-Teheran Conferences and the incident involving the live torpedo firing. Schoen observes that FDR wheeled himself over to the starboard rail, "probably the only unsafe spot on the ship in the event of a torpedo strike in the vicinity." General "Hap" Arnold, head of the Army Air Force, had a big, broad grin on his face, apparently relishing the dilemma the Navy now found itself in. Admiral E. J. King, not smiling, and appraising the situation instantly, emphatically asserted 'That's no torpedo!'"

Line by line biographical data of Harvey Bryant Seim. Civilian career focused on European Affairs with positions in the National Security Council, and Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (International Security Affairs) Originated concept of the NATO Nuclear Planning Group. Deputy Director for NPG Affairs, European Region, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Director, Nuclear Planning Directorate, NATO International Staff, Belgium, and others. Military career is heavily decorated.

Sellers served in the battleship NEW MEXICO until 6 December 1941. He comments on his experiences. 2. After 14 Dec 41, Sellers was assigned as an Assistant Gunnery Officer to the destroyer HUGHES in Norfolk. He helped to make her ready for sea and late that year she stood out of Norfolk, transited the Panama Canal, and, after a stopover at San Diego, headed for Pearl Harbor. Sellers comments on her officers and crew.

1944-45 XO and Sr. Gunnery Instructor, PacFltGun & Torpedo School. 3 wks to train "DD Gun bosses." Fall, XO USS H.A. WILEY (DM 29). Organized and trained crew in gunnery. Iwo Jima. Okinawa, 1945. Radar picket duty. Never hit. PVC and compliments from above. Shot down 12 enemy planes and gave 6 assists. Mineswept Japanese harbors and seas (Yellow?).

Sellers was serving as Gunnery Officer in the destroyer HUGHES which was in the South Pacific in early 1943. The ship visited Sydney, Australia, then steamed into the North Pacific. "The little surface radar had been installed on top of the pilot house. It had only relative bearings and we used it for station keeping during the many days and nights of inclement weather. Air search radar was installed before Midway." 2. In March 1943, Sellers was assigned to be the XO and Gunnery Instructor at the Fleet Gunnery and Torpedo School, Camp Catlin, Pearl Harbor, where he remained for nine months. Sellers describes his techniques for teaching gunnery and explains problems with the available weapons and computers.

Sep 1953-Jan 1954, Skipper, LAFFEY (DD 724), off coast of Korea. Sellers described his experience as a part of a world tour.

Lessons Learned: Okinawa- good AA essential. Gunnery alignment important. Good air controller necessary. High speed maneuvering during air attack helpful. Salvo fire against kamikazes. Guns obsolete now; many went into communications.

In the summer of 1940 Coleman Sellers IV reported aboard the HOUSTON. In mid 1941 HOUSTON left the Atlantic, visited Pearl Harbor and sailed for the Far East. When an 8" shell hit the Turret of the HOUSTON in the Battle of the Java Sea, Coleman was the Turret Officer and was killed in the incident.

Autobiographical sheet. Battleships CALIFORNIA, WASHINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS. Cruisers BOISE and RICHMOND. While on CALIFORNIA, one of first ships to use radar. MASSACHUSETTS, first to use 16-inch 50 caliber guns. Sicily. In this campaign, guided missiles dropped by aircraft first used. Resigned USN 1947; USNR for 17 yrs. Electrical engineer for Honeywell, Westinghouse, Lockheed. Real estate.

Notes on casualties: Darby, Hittorff, and Thompson killed on OKLAHOMA at PH. No. 22, Should be spelled Guice. Beck was flying from HANCOCK when lost. Sherwin believed he was a dive bomber, but list says Air Group 6 (fighters). Phillips shot down by ground fire at low altitude; no ejection seats at that time.

#3 USNA No problem with the discipline. Later felt rebelliousness made for independent thinking in officers, however. Average academically; not athletically inclined. Officers and midshipmen of character and intelligence -- did not realize how rare this was in world in general.

Recollections of Peacetime Navy. USS OKLAHOMA. Bremerton, 3 mos. Asst. Turret Div. Off. San Pedro until end 1940. PH. Technical info. on engine performance and type. Summer 1941, West Coast. SF for repairs. PH, training. Removed paint from ship; Brits had found paint burned furiously. Ship blackouts. Collided twice; once seriously with ARIZONA. Other incident, with ENTERPRISE, never reported. Armaments on ship obsolete; from 1916 or 1930s. PH attack. Got out of OKLAHOMA; stayed on top until ship was upside down. Helped save some sailors. To MARYLAND. OKLAHOMA hit by 4-7 torpedoes. Note: "magnificent salvage job" done; but while being towed to mainland, sank. Article by RAdm Wallin in Proceedings of the Am. Soc. of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers.

USS INDIANA in Pacific. AA support for carriers duty, but no action. New Caledonia home base. No girls in town. A Communications friend told him the Japanese code had been broken -- should not have been told. Visited OKLAHOMA at PH. Got some personal things back. Detached to HANCOCK in Mass. On way back, JFK was roommate (PT 109 had been sunk). To SF in Dec.

Experiences in 19431. Sherwin was serving in the battleship INDIANA in 1943. "We were supposed to provide anti-aircraft coverage for the carriers, and we drilled constantly but had no significant combat experience during that year." The ship was based at Noumea.

Sherwin recalls gunfire practice and a visit to Pearl Harbor to visit his old ship, the battleship OKLAHOMA. In December 1943, Sherwin was ordered to report to a newly commissioned carrier, the HANCOCK, then under construction at Quincy. He returned to the West Coast from Espiritu Santo aboard a jeep carrier. His roommate was Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, who had injured his back during the PT 109 action in the South Pacific.

Electronics was the most important new technology for Class of 1940 graduates. Radar and sonar. Computers and microelectronics. In Communications field alone great advances made. Shipboard radios. VHF. Low frequency transmitters. Satellites. Administrative and authority problems.

Notes on classmates KIA in wars or line of duty in peacetime: OKLAHOMA: explains loss of Marshall Darby, Joe Hittorff, and "Igloo" Thompson. HANCOCK: explains loss of William "Bill" Beck of Air Group 6; Phillips, lost flying.

Description of service and civilian positions. Eye unsat. USNR. 1946, regular Navy. Retired 1965. Education, business, management. Retired 1983.

Early '42: on board the IDAHO and was shifted back from North Atlantic to replace the battleships sunk at Pearl Harbor, along with MISSISSIPPI and NEW MEXICO. April-May: cruised south of the equator near Canton and Phoenix Islands while the Battle of Coral Sea was in progress. May-June: while Midway was being fought, the old battleships were deployed on a "king's row" northeast of the Hawaiian Islands between it and the northwest U.S./Canadian coast. August: IDAHO and other ships entered Pearl, the first battleships to do so since the attack nine months earlier. Returning to the west coast, IDAHO conducted the first exhaustive firing test the Navy had ever performed. We also trained vast quantities of new recruits who would then be transferred to new construction coming from the naval shipyards.

Lessons learned: 1. "...our military forces were not adequately equipped with state-of-the-art guns, fire control, systems or radar. 2. These new weapons quickly brought changes in tactics and doctrines. 3. Proper use of new equipment such as radar included recognizing its limitations.

USS IDAHO, Gunnery dept. Practiced bombarding San Clemente. PH. Feb., Bering Sea and Aleutians to Kamchatka. Cut off Japanese supplies. May, bombarded Attu. Of 2,000 Japanese on island, only 20 remained to be taken prisoner after battle. Bombarded Kiska. When invaded, no Japanese to be found. Nov., IDAHO in group attacking Tarawa. 1944-46 Kwajalein invasion. Shore bombardment to support 7th Army. March, SWPac. Bombarded Kavieng, New Ireland. June, Central Pac. Bombarded Saipan. July, Guam. PG School in Annapolis. MS in Aeronautical Engineering, June 1946. Thesis: "How to put a satellite in orbit." Labeled Confidential, hidden away and never seen again.

1. Lieutenant Commander Ed C. Sledge and Lieutenant Commander G. C. Halvorson, "Studies on the Performance of a Rocket Propelled Orbiting Missile," paper submitted for Aero. Eng. degree, June 1946, Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. Note inside the folder claims that "this study ... showed that a rocket propelled missile could be placed in orbit around the earth using propellants available at that time," but that because the Navy classified the report it "was not given the wide circulation which might otherwise have prompted practical programs for development of U. S. orbiting missiles years ahead of Sputnik" in October 1957.

Line listing of service and civilian positions. Retired USN as Captain in 1966.

Letter from Smalzel's second wife Margaret Williamson, including an addition to the biography featured in A SCORE AND THREE MORE.

Line listing and description of service and civilian positions. Retired USN 1965 as Captain. Retired 1980.

Remembrances of USNA: "My most vivid impression of the Naval Academy came when, along with about fifty of my 1940 classmates, on June 11, 1936, I was sworn in as a Midshipman." Followed the footsteps of a hometown man Francis Smedley '33, and entered the USNA through a Congressional appointment. Remembers the visit to pre-war Nazi Germany

"My first assignment following graduation was to the WEST VIRGINIA which terminated with her sinking on 7 Dec 1941." "1941 was indeed a fateful year for me. In March of that year a major fleet exercise was held off of the big island o f Hawaii. WEST VIRGINIA was a major unit in this exercise...During the night of 7 March , at the moment our Task Force contacted the "enemy," my appendix ruptured. A quick diagnosis by the Senior Medical Officer determined that an immediate operation was necessary. Adm Pye did not hesitate in ordering the ship to be returned to Oahu, at full power, where I was transferred to a crash boat and onward to the hospital...All of this was done to provide for the safe recovery of one very junior officer. More evidence of the great "fraternity" I had joined."

Report of personal observations made on board WEST VIRGINIA, 10 Dec 1941. Subj: Attack and sinking of WEST VIRGINIA (BB 48) by Japanese aircraft. (Note: Fine personal account of attack and aftermath.)

USS TENNESSEE. Damaged at PH. Most of year in Bremerton getting repairs and new weapons systems. Training for Aleutians.

1940-41 USS MINNEAPOLIS. JO. Saw classified documents on Atlantic war. Hawaii. June, new guns and radar. Catapult Off. Not trained well enough. Also not trained well enough to use a sea painter when in a small boat alongside a large boat underway.

Considered buying land in Hawaii but did not. Missed big financial opportunities. Dec., had to train enlistees for battle; felt unprepared himself. Pattern continues: the next generation will have lost lessons we took for granted. Adms came through -- MINNEAPOLIS flagship. Logs Smith wrote exist in BuPers still.

1943-44 Good at mental mathematics, navigation, gunnery, torpedo attack problems. Officers should be skilled in compass orientation, maneuvering board problems, attack problems, mentally done. Would have been better officer if he had had these skills earlier.

1942: Dec '41-Sep '42: on board the MINNEAPOLIS and part of the Pacific Fleet. The ship was involved in several minor actions and at least three major battles including Battle of the Coral Sea (with LEXINGTON), Battle of Midway, and Guadalcanal (with SARATOGA).

Oct-Dec: student, Submarine School, New London. Commander Roger F. Smith, 11 Nov 1986, "Experienced during 1943" Smith graduated from the New London Submarine School in December 1942 and joined the submarine SAURY in January 1943. He remained with the submarine throughout the year. Smith served as First Lieutenant, Radar Officer, and Gunnery Officer. The submarine was completing overhaul at Mare Island when he joined the crew, then she stopped over at Pearl Harbor and entered the Western Pacific.

Smith comments on the lessons he learned as a submarine officer in the SAURY. He describes one incident when the SAURY was on patrol off Okinawa and the confusion that arose over interpreting an unusual underwater sound. NOTE: Good quote on training: "Success as a submarine officer depends heavily on ability to comprehend the submarine attack problem. In the dark, using instruments and perhaps brief glimpses through a periscope, one must choose the right moment to fire a torpedo set to run a curved course. The problem is not really greater for submarines than for aircraft or destroyers.

1944 USS SAURY. Gunnery and Radar Off. April, 1st LT. June, XO and Navigator. Married. Patrolled PH, Midway, Majuro, Saipan, Japan, Okinawa, Philippines. Dec., SubDiv. 42, PH. 1945 Sub PCO School, New London. Sub GRAMPUS under construction. War ended, construction halted.

More from 1946 and assignments 7 and 8 (excerpted for clarity). Many personal impressions and opinions re submarines. Observations: Newly married and in love. Small part in big war, but important role. Time of celebration and shortages. Did not realize what business opportunities existed with new materials reaching consumer market. Regrets not going into shipbuilding.

Noted by Hundevadt, Ray A., 16 April 1986. Spears, John Pratt was assigned to the 2nd Division of VINCENNES (CA 44) until the Battle of Savo Island. Initially, he was the division Junior Officer, and became 2nd Division Officer in 1941. His battle station was as Turret Officer in charge of the triple-gunned Turret 2. Lt (jg) Spears and his junior turret officer Lt (jg) Escoffier, USNR, were killed by the Japanese attack and their bodies remained with the VINCENNES when it sank.

1940-41 USS INDIANAPOLIS. PH until 7 Dec. 1941. Lack of personnel for wartime conditions. Lack of AA. No radar. Personnel were well trained. 4 Dec. 1941 left PH to deliver Xmas gifts to Wake, Johnson, and Palmyra Islands. Sighted a periscope, but no one else could find it. Orders to intercept and destroy Japanese fleet. Canceled.

1. He was assigned to the cruiser INDIANAPOLIS upon graduation in 1940 and joined her at Pearl Harbor. On 5 December 1941, the ship left Pearl to go to Wake, Johnson, and Palmyra "to take Christmas presents to the Marines there, to release some of them, and to test the new Higgins boats."

On the other assignment [see file in Archive] I mentioned that I reported seeing a sub periscope [?] the part of the Channel going out. Nothing came of it, but I do now believe that it was one the small Jap subs that got into Pearl."

"We were lying off Johnson Island at 8 AM on the morning of Dec 7, had landed the Higgins boats, where were about halfway into the island, when the word came over the loudspeaker that Pearl had been attacked. We recalled the boats and got underway. We were then ordered to intercept and destroy the Jap fleet. We joined up with some other ships, which I do not remember the names of, and proceeded south. Of course, the Jap fleet was north, but one night we thought we were in the midst of the Jap fleet due to receptions on our radio direction-finder. Of course, we had no radar.

" We went back into Pearl on Saturday, Dec. 13. It was certainly a mess. During the first week we learned that our anti-aircraft ammunition would not explode. It had been overhauled, I think, at [?] where we understood many Japs worked. So we figured it had been sabotaged." (Note: There appears to be no other record of the misapprehension about the task force being in the midst of Nagumo's Carrier Force during the post-7 Dec search. The best source on this is going to be the message traffic between OpNav and the TF. Good topic for research. How did task force react?)

USS INDIANAPOLIS. Sent new recruits, some without even uniforms. Useless. PH. Feb., en route to Rabaul, attacked by 18 planes. Fighters went up and destroyed all. Kamikaze, shot down before ship. March, SF. Saw Doolittle's planes being loaded. Kodiak for summer. Bombarded Kiska. Oct., detached to Tacoma, putting the USS CORE (CVL) into commission.

PH. Fixed faulty AA. Swepston was part of the commissioning crew for the new escort carrier CORE. The ship went to San Diego to qualify its Corsair squadrons, after which she transited the Panama Canal and steamed for Norfolk. Swepston served as a Gunnery Officer.

That summer, the CORE operated with World War I-era four-pipers as part of an ocean escort group that protected the movements of convoys from Bermuda to Gibraltar. During these months, the CORE's air group and destroyer escorts sank nine German U-boats.

Upon Sweptson's return to the States, he reported to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for the construction and commissioning of the light cruiser SAN JACINTO, in which he served for the rest of World War II. He comments very little about his personal experiences in the CORE.

1944-45 USS SAN JACINTO, shakedown in Trinidad. April, PH. CVL. Nimitz met ship at PH, because he was a Texan. West in Pacific until war ended. Only carrier that never got hit. Shot down 12 planes. "Nothing can take the place of training and good luck." Gunnery Officer. Occupation of Guam, Saipan, Tinian. Turkey Shoot. Occupation of Okinawa and Iwo Jima. Battle of Philippine Sea and final attack on Japan, 1945. After war, looked in Japan for Am. POWs. Married Oct. 1945.

WWII experiences and short summary of rest of life to present. Resigned USN 1947. Retired USNR, Captain. Still working.