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CNemo · 02-16-07, 12:30 PM

My dad was the eldest son in an Iowa farm family. A couple of years before the war, his dad was killed in a tractor accident on the farm. Money being tight, my dad and one of his buddies left home and "rode the rails (ie: hoboed)" around the country looking for work. Eventually he joined the navy.

While attending a naval school in Chicago he met and married my mom. When he shipped out to the Pacific, she took the train across the country to stay with his sister in Los Angeles.

Fortunately his ship was delayed getting back to Pearl, they were scheduled to be there on 12/07.... He was on the "Lady Lex" - carrier Lexington. When he was first on the Lex they still had bi-planes and their IIRC 5 inch guns. The guns were removed and the planes upgraded. He ended up as a CPO and was a petty officer in the boiler rooms on the Lex.

And then came May and the first battle between 2 naval forces that did not directly spot each other - carrier warfare. During the battle the Lex took four aerial torps in 5-10 minutes. He never talked about what it was like in the boiler rooms during that.... His favorite story was about losing $200 in his locker when the ship went down, yet stopping to help polish off the ship's ice cream supply before going over the side. Sigh (hey, be careful, I'm not conceived yet!). We eventually finished sinking the Lex ourselves, as she was a brightly burning pyre. He was picked up by a tin can, and spent the rest of the war on "wooden-hull subchasers" stationed in the Tonga Islands.

Many years later I had a stepfather who flew air cover for the Army Air Corps out of Australia for the Coral Sea battle - the war touched a whole generation.

A great book on the Lady Lex is called "Queen of the Flattops." The US NAvy site has many photos of the battle (no subs). This is part of why I will go to the Pac in SH4....

<sorry this got so long>

02-16-07, 12:30 PM	#26
CNemo Mate Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 57 Downloads: 15 Uploads: 0	Coral Sea My dad was the eldest son in an Iowa farm family. A couple of years before the war, his dad was killed in a tractor accident on the farm. Money being tight, my dad and one of his buddies left home and "rode the rails (ie: hoboed)" around the country looking for work. Eventually he joined the navy. While attending a naval school in Chicago he met and married my mom. When he shipped out to the Pacific, she took the train across the country to stay with his sister in Los Angeles. Fortunately his ship was delayed getting back to Pearl, they were scheduled to be there on 12/07.... He was on the "Lady Lex" - carrier Lexington. When he was first on the Lex they still had bi-planes and their IIRC 5 inch guns. The guns were removed and the planes upgraded. He ended up as a CPO and was a petty officer in the boiler rooms on the Lex. And then came May and the first battle between 2 naval forces that did not directly spot each other - carrier warfare. During the battle the Lex took four aerial torps in 5-10 minutes. He never talked about what it was like in the boiler rooms during that.... His favorite story was about losing $200 in his locker when the ship went down, yet stopping to help polish off the ship's ice cream supply before going over the side. Sigh (hey, be careful, I'm not conceived yet!). We eventually finished sinking the Lex ourselves, as she was a brightly burning pyre. He was picked up by a tin can, and spent the rest of the war on "wooden-hull subchasers" stationed in the Tonga Islands. Many years later I had a stepfather who flew air cover for the Army Air Corps out of Australia for the Coral Sea battle - the war touched a whole generation. A great book on the Lady Lex is called "Queen of the Flattops." The US NAvy site has many photos of the battle (no subs). This is part of why I will go to the Pac in SH4.... <sorry this got so long>