{"id":20301,"date":"2011-05-30T05:00:16","date_gmt":"2011-05-30T11:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=20301"},"modified":"2015-05-25T12:13:00","modified_gmt":"2015-05-25T17:13:00","slug":"memorial-day-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=20301","title":{"rendered":"Memorial Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Memorial Day today.<\/p>\n

If you go to the south entrance to Como Park, along Lexington, you can see an unusual statue – an old torpedo on a stand.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It’s a memorial to the crew of the USS Swordfish – an American submarine, built in the waning years of the 1930’s, which fought throughout World War II.<\/p>\n

\"\"

USS Swordfish<\/p><\/div>\n

Swordfish<\/em> had been at Pearl Harbor on December 7. \u00a0It set off on its first war patrol weeks after the attack, sinking Japanese freighers in Filipino waters – the first ships sunk by US submarines in World War II – before helping evacuate the Philippines’ president, Manuel Quezon, and key members of his government and military staffs.<\/p>\n

There were eleven more patrols before Christmastime in 1944, when Swordfish <\/em>set sail for Japanese home waters, with \u00a0a side mission to reconnoiter invasion beaches on Okinawa.<\/p>\n

Sometime between January 3 and February 15, Swordfish <\/em>disappeared. \u00a0There’s evidence it struck a mine off Okinawa <\/a>on January 12.<\/p>\n

The torpedo in Como Park is part of a nationwide project<\/a> to honor the men of the 52 submarines lost during the war with a monument in each state (New York and California have two each).<\/p>\n

Nobody in my family ever died serving the country (a great uncle apparently came pretty close in World War I; my father found some dire-sounding letters from the Argonne); my ex-father-in-law served on a destr0yer throughout the war in the Pacific, but close calls notwithstanding (kamikazes, yes, but his biggest injury came when the return spring on an Oerlikon 20mm gun he was maintaining sprang loose, throwing him over a rail to a deck below, injuring his back) he came home.<\/p>\n

So most Memorial Days, I stop by Como Park and pay homage to the sub’s crew of 89<\/a>. \u00a0Three of the crew were from Minnesota, two from North Dakota, and one from South Dakota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nName<\/strong><\/td>\nRate<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/strong><\/td>\nArthur<\/a> <\/strong>Abrahamson<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nCCS<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/strong><\/td>\nRoy Gordon Arold<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nMoMM2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/strong><\/td>\nDonald Baeckler<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nPhoM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/strong><\/td>\nGilbert Speight Baker<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nMoMM1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/strong><\/td>\nJoseph James Basta<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nRM1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/strong><\/td>\nMack Bates<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nF1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/strong><\/td>\nDaniel Sparks<\/a> <\/strong>Baughman, Jr.<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nLCDR<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/strong><\/td>\nClaude Joseph Benbennick<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nMoMM2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/strong><\/td>\nMichael Billy<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nRM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/strong><\/td>\nJoseph Roger Leo Blanchard<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nMoMM2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11<\/strong><\/td>\nLeRoy Joseph Bleasdell<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nMoMM2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
12<\/strong><\/td>\nWesley Clement Bogdan<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nMoMM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
13<\/strong><\/td>\nAndrew Earl Braley<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nSC1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
14<\/strong><\/td>\nRobert Joseph Brown<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nCRT<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15<\/strong><\/td>\nFred Morcombe Cauley, Jr.<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nEM2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16<\/strong><\/td>\nAllan Daniel Clark<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nTM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
17<\/strong><\/td>\nTimothy Joseph Connors<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nRM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
18<\/strong><\/td>\nMarshall Edward Cox, Jr.<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nLT<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
19<\/strong><\/td>\nRobert Francis Daly<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nEM2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
20<\/strong><\/td>\nHerman Watson Davis<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nLT<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
21<\/strong><\/td>\nJohn Valentine Delladonna<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nTM2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
22<\/strong><\/td>\nWarren Dillon<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nS1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
23<\/strong><\/td>\nGordon Kraft Draga<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nEM2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
24<\/strong><\/td>\nLoris Henry Duncan<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nMoMM1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
25<\/strong><\/td>\nEmory Webster Dunton, Sr.<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nBkr3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
26<\/strong><\/td>\nLeonard Oscar Echols<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nTM2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
27<\/strong><\/td>\nGeorge Vyell Edwards<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nEM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
28<\/strong><\/td>\nRobert Lesslie Emmingham<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nGM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
29<\/strong><\/td>\nEugene Raymond Fausset<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nS1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
30<\/strong><\/td>\nKenneth Ferdinand Feiss<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nTM1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
31<\/strong><\/td>\nEugene James Forsythe<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nS1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
32<\/strong><\/td>\nJohn Gerald<\/a> <\/strong>Fowler<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nEM1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
33<\/strong><\/td>\nNick Funk<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nSM2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
34<\/strong><\/td>\nEmery Andrew Galley, Jr.<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nQM2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
35<\/strong><\/td>\nDee Edward Gambrell, Jr.<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
36<\/strong><\/td>\nEleazar Garza<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nMoMM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
37<\/strong><\/td>\nBernard Joseph Geraghty, Jr.<\/a> – <\/strong>From\u00a0Minneapolis, Geraghty was\u00a0a week shy of his 20th\u00a0birthday when the boat was\u00a0presumed lost.<\/td>\nS1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
38<\/strong><\/td>\nHoward Marshal Gilfillan<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nMoMM2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
39<\/strong><\/td>\nJohn Vincennes Graf<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nMoMM1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
40<\/strong><\/td>\nGeorge Patrick Graham<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nRM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
41<\/strong><\/td>\nWilliam Penn Grandy<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nStM1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
42<\/strong><\/td>\nRalph Lewis Hafter<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nEM1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
43<\/strong><\/td>\nCharles Edwin<\/a> <\/strong>Hall<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nCEM<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
44<\/strong><\/td>\nRalph Walter Haserodt<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nMoMM1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
45<\/strong><\/td>\nWinslow Carlton Haskins<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nEM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
46<\/strong><\/td>\nJack Edwin Haynes<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nTM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
47<\/strong><\/td>\nRay Holland<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nMoMM2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
48<\/strong><\/td>\nRobert Darlington Hoopes, Jr.<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nLT<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
49<\/strong><\/td>\nFred Alfred Hrynko<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nMoMM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
50<\/strong><\/td>\nRobert Laurin Janes<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nLTJG<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
51<\/strong><\/td>\nRobert Eugene Johnson<\/a> – <\/strong>From\u00a0Saint Paul, Johnson was\u00a0a 25-year-old “Motor Machinists Mate”, working on the boat’s diesel engines.<\/td>\nMoMM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
52<\/strong><\/td>\nStephan John Johnson<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nF1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
53<\/strong><\/td>\nJohn Robert Kelly<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nSt3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
54<\/strong><\/td>\nVernon Kirk<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nMoMM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
55<\/strong><\/td>\nWilliam Edward Kohler<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nMM2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
56<\/strong><\/td>\nRichard Brissett Kremer<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nTM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
57<\/strong><\/td>\nRoy Earl Kroll, Jr.<\/a> <\/strong> – from\u00a0Egeland, in north-central North Dakota.<\/td>\nF1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
58<\/strong><\/td>\nHollis Oyer Lauderdale<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nMoMM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
59<\/strong><\/td>\nDouglas Cleveland Lindsay<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nCY<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
60<\/strong><\/td>\nGerald Augusta Looney<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nS1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
61<\/strong><\/td>\nRussell LoPresti<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nTM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
62<\/strong><\/td>\nJohn Joseph Madden, Jr.<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nENS<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
63<\/strong><\/td>\nPaul Marvin<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
64<\/strong><\/td>\nJames Mosco<\/a> <\/strong>Mayfield<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nEM2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
65<\/strong><\/td>\nMorris Franklin McCaffrey<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nRT3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
66<\/strong><\/td>\nWilliam Thomas<\/a> <\/strong>Meacham, Jr.<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nFC2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
67<\/strong><\/td>\nKeats Edmund<\/a> <\/strong>Montross<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nCDR-CO<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
68<\/strong><\/td>\nKenneth Eugene Pence<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nGM2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
69<\/strong><\/td>\nFremont Petty<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nBM2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
70<\/strong><\/td>\nGordon Ralph Plourd<\/a> – <\/strong>the\u00a0boat’s “Pharmacist’s\u00a0Mate” or medic, Plourd\u00a0was from Duluth.<\/td>\nPhM1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
71<\/strong><\/td>\nClaude Lee Pollard<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nCQM<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
72<\/strong><\/td>\nEarl W. Preston, Jr.<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nLT<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
73<\/strong><\/td>\nJohn Briscoe Pye<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nCox<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
74<\/strong><\/td>\nHarry Newman Robinson, Jr.<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nQM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
75<\/strong><\/td>\nWilliam Eugene Russell<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nCMoMM<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
76<\/strong><\/td>\nKarl DeWitt Schwendener<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
77<\/strong><\/td>\nWilliam Siskaninetz<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
78<\/strong><\/td>\nJames Adam Skeldon<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
79<\/strong><\/td>\nClifford Francis Slater<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nMoMM2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
80<\/strong><\/td>\nMike Soffes<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nEM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
81<\/strong><\/td>\nFrank Herbert Spencer, Jr.<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nMo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
82<\/strong><\/td>\nWallace Greeley Statton<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nMM1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
83<\/strong><\/td>\nHarold Albert Stone<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nTM2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
84<\/strong><\/td>\nFred A. Tarbox<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nEM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
85<\/strong><\/td>\nJames Frank Taylor<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nS1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
86<\/strong><\/td>\nElwood Kenneth Van Horn<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nTM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
87<\/strong><\/td>\nArnold John Wagner<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nTM2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
88<\/strong><\/td>\nThurman August Williams<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nTM1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
89<\/strong><\/td>\nJoseph Edwin Wren<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\nEM3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Anyway – remember those who died for our country today. There are an awful lot of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s Memorial Day today. If you go to the south entrance to Como Park, along Lexington, you can see an unusual statue – an old torpedo on a stand. It’s a memorial to the crew of the USS Swordfish – an American submarine, built in the waning years of the 1930’s, which fought throughout World […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history-and-its-making","category-memoriam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20301"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20308,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20301\/revisions\/20308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}