Sat 10 Dec 2011
Posted by steve under Uncategorized
1 Comment
12-10-11
Compliments of Cristina Vadala, Jimmy’s great niece
James enlisted on 6/29/43 in New York City
Arrived on the Boston 9/15/43 just before the ship sailed off to the Pacific
Separated from the Boston on 6/1/45 (San Pedro, CA) before the ship returned to the Pacific.
Jimmy and family in Queens, NY
Wed 7 Dec 2011
Posted by steve under December
No Comments
12-7-11
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor minutes before 8 am on that Day of Infamy in 1941 awoke and galvanized our country. We had been officially “neutral” until that moment, in spite of massive aid flowing from our Atlantic shores to England in the “lend-lease” program. Pearl Harbor was the opening act of a broadly expansive and aggressive plan to expand the Empire of Japan. The raid on Oahu was followed on that same day by attacks on such far-flung places as Singapore, the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island, Midway Island and Hong Kong. The Japanese had gone “all in.”
The history of antagonism between the US and Japan (leading up to the Attack) is long and complex and can’t be looked at in this brief format. The US “spun its wheels” in the Pacific until Jan 1944, when we were finally able to set afloat hundreds of new warships through the Panama Canal. The War in Europe had consumed all our resources until then. When we did go on the offensive in the Central Pacific with the formation of Task Force 58, we went “all in” - forcing the Surrender of Japan a year and a half later.
The Japanese were every bit as aggressive, ruthless and feared in the Eastern Hemisphere as were the Nazis in the Western Hemisphere. The US was the “wild card” in WWII - as a nation of determined people we were underestimated by both the Germans and their Axis counterparts – The Empire of Japan - who pursued their dreams of dominance with a very heavy cost.
Final World War II death estimates (combined civilian and military):
United States 400,000
Germany 4,200,000
Japan 2,350,000
This of course , does not include Europe and Asia and The Mediterranean, and all the other places in the world that lost soldiers and civilians.
THE TOTAL WORLDWIDE LOSS OF LIFE DIRECTLY ATTRIBUTABLE TO WWII:
48,231,700
Steve
Sun 4 Dec 2011
Posted by bill under crew member info, Naval Records, web site
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Tonight I have finished entering all the arrivals and departures of all the sailors of CA-69! We have 3,022 sailor records, as of tonight all their arrival and departure information is complete along with all of their promotions! Yeah!
So what’s with 1 and 1,217? When I look at the data, we had two sailors attend the commissioning ceremony on June 30,1943 and they were re-assigned the next day! They each spent 1 day on the Boston: They are Robert B Johnstone and Robert J Duren. These are the shortest services on the Boston in my records. On the other side, five sailors spent 1,217 days from Commissioning to Decommissioning on the Boston with only the normal leaves given to all sailors. These five had no time off the ship in Hospital, or temporary duty. They were Robert Earnest Lafavour, joined as a seaman second class, he was from the New Hampshire area, he was promoted to Seaman first class after nine months on board, 11 months later he was promoted to Coxswain, after 3 years and almost 4 months we and his other 4 sailors who spent the most time onboard, departed on the USS BALTIMORE.
Next is Marion Ray Shores, Marion came to the Boston as a Machinist Mate 2nd class having enlisted in January of 1941, Marion had experience coming into the Boston. Marion was promoted the Machinist Mate 1st class after 11 months, and he left the Boston at this rank.
Ralph Sydney George is next, Ralph came to the Boston as an experienced sailor also enlisting in 1941, he was a ShipFitter. He had a bit of a rough patch with a demotion on board, but he regained his rank over his long service on the Boston.
Robert Emile Haas, came to the Boston as a raw recruit, a Seaman Second Class. He was promoted the Seaman first class after 14 months on board and he departed the ship as an Seaman 1st class.
Finally, Clifford Ross Jones fills out the longest serving Sailor. Clifford also came as a raw recruit and was promoted to Ship’s Cook 3rd class and promoted again to Ship’s Cook 2nd class.
A few numbers: There are 3,022 sailor records, with 2,707 promotions. The records include 6,476 individual transactions of sailors arriving and leaving for both temporary assignments and permanent transfers. The most sailors onboard at any one time is 1,592 sailors May of 1945. Over the next months and beyond I’ll be finishing the discipline records and working on notes and decklogs to bring interesting stories…
Bill
Wed 30 Nov 2011
Posted by bill under Naval Records, web site
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As I work with the data from the Sailor Database I have been noticing trends, It’s faster to be promoted as a Fireman 3rd class than to a Seaman 1st class. In fact if your selected to be a fireman, you’ll be promoted six times faster on the Boston in world war II as a fireman than to a Seaman 1st class. The promotion time from Seaman 1st Class to Coxswain is about twice as long as the path from Fireman 3rd class to Fireman 2nd class. So Seaman 2nd class sailors selected to be Firemen can have 4-6 promotions in 2 years, where sailors slotted for Seaman 1st class will have on average 1-2 promotions.
Bill
Sat 26 Nov 2011
Posted by bill under crew member info, Naval Records, web site
No Comments
I’ve just finished updating the arrivals and departures for April 1st 1946. In March, the Ship was in San Francisco where Sailors were busy some arriving an most departing. The war officially ended in August, but the Navy needed to move lots of men and supplies around, so some Boston veterans departed in september, some in October and November, and many sailors in January to March. As of April 1st 1946, there were 650 sailors on board, at this point 2,980 sailors had spent between 1 day and 1,000 days on board. On this day April 1st, 77 sailors are still on board from the commissioning on June 30, 1943. About 1/3 to 1/2 of the boat’s sailors on April 1st, 1946 are new to the boston, added from January to March. About 200 sailors were added in November and December of 1945 in japan and they left the ship when it arrived in San Francisco in February and March. The ship is being prepared on this date to go to Washington State for it’s eventual decommission in the fall of 1946.
