More 2009 Photos

I forgot that I had taken these 2 pictures at the Philly reunion. This first one was taken on the USS New Jersey BB63 of the entire group.

If you click on the picture you can see it much larger. To return to the Blog use the "back arrow" on your browser.

From 2009 DD531 Reunion

The following picture is one of the 40's shipmates that were on the New Jersey. It was great to have them there.

From 2009 DD531 Reunion

I hope to see many of our shipmates in Jacksonville in 2011. I know it is early to start thinking that far in advance, but why not??? Let's have a great reunion.

Smooth sailing.

Chet Locke Article

I know I should be keeping you updated on the reunion .. but .. I just could not pass up this opportunity. I ran across an article on-line about Chet Locke, the Engineering Officer who is credited with saving the Hazelwood. He passed away just prior to the 2009 reunion.

Chet Locke of Lockeford was presented the Navy Cross for his action in saving the USS Hazlewood after it was badly damaged by a kamikaze pilot. (Brian Ross/News-Sentinel)

Lockeford’s Chet Locke came home a hero

By Brian Ross
News-Sentinel staff writer

Chet Locke, a descendant of the founder of Lockeford, was chosen this year to be Grand Marshal of Lodi’s Veterans Day parade.

He was also chosen more than a half-century ago to receive the Navy Cross for his actions aboard the USS Hazlewood during the invasion of Okinawa on April 29, 1945.

Chet Locke in May 1945.

Those who were present that day credit Locke’s quick thinking and cool head under fire for averting the destruction of the Hazlewood — and all aboard.

“It’s amazing what you can do when you have to,” said F.C. Butler of Greenville, S.C., who served as assistant engineering officer to Locke on the Hazlewood, which spent an unbroken stretch of 24 months at sea, 21 of those in combat zones.

The Hazlewood was named for a Revolutionary War commodore noted for his gallantry in the face of enemy fire in the Atlantic.

It was a reputation which the modern-day crew would proudly match in the Pacific.

Locke was raised on a nearby farm, and as a boy dreamed of the faraway adventure of going to sea.

When WWII erupted, he got his chance. After officer’s training, Locke was assigned as the Hazlewood’s engineering officer.

One of about 150 Fletcher-class destroyers in the Navy’s fleet, the Hazlewood packed five single 5-inch guns.

The ship was assigned to picket duty off Okinawa, protecting the invasion force from submarines and attacks from kamikaze planes — explosive-laden aircraft launched in fanatical suicide missions during the closing days of the war.

Willing to trade their own lives in order to sink or damage an invading U.S. man-of-war, kamikaze pilots took a grim toll during the invasion of Okinawa, badly damaging 45 destroyers and killing more than 4,500 naval personnel.

At about 3:30 on the afternoon of April 29, the Hazlewood was called to assist the USS Haggard, another destroyer that had sustained a direct hit from a kamikaze.

The Hazlewood never made it to the scene.

A kamikaze made a near miss of her deck. Although the plane’s ordnance detonated in the water off the Hazlewood’s stern, the blast was sufficient to damage her communications equipment, making the ship vulnerable to a second attack, which Locke said was not long in coming.

“Shortly after that,” he recalled, “another plane hit the forward stack with its wing, and exploded in the deck house.”

The powerful blast killed 67 of the Hazlewood’s crew and 10 of her 18 officers outright.

Bedlam ensued in the wake of the explosion as fires broke out near the ship’s powder magazine, which stored an ample supply of 5-inch and 40mm shells, and a stockpile of highly volatile propellant.

Locke sprung into action immediately.

“You really don’t have time to think about the men who are dead. The first thing you think of is getting those fires put out.”

With direction from Locke, the deadly fires were extinguished by the Hazlewood’s crew.

For a time, said Butler, a third kamikaze circled menacingly in the sky above the Hazlewood before being harried off by navy fighter planes.

After quelling the Japanese aerial attack with a storm of anti-aircraft fire, the cruiser Flynt and other ships came to the Hazlewood’s aid, providing power for her systems, fresh water for her turbines and other assistance, while Locke raced against time to make the battered ship seaworthy.

The boiler to the ship’s port engine had run out of water, and the boiler quickly burnt to a smoldering heap.

Locke took charge in the starboard engine room, getting the boiler back up to preserve the Hazlewood’s only remaining engine.

Upon surveying the damage, said Locke, the Hazlewood looked like a slice of watermelon with a large bite out of the middle. Crew members set about retrieving the bodies of those killed. Of those, 19 were buried at sea, including the captain. Others remained inextricably embedded in the tangled wreckage. The stench, said Butler, became almost unbearable after several days. “It was one of the most horrible things you can imagine,” he said.

The Hazlewood, under tow to be scuttled at Karoma Retto, now cut loose under her own steam to the safe harbor at Ulithi, about 1,000 miles south of Okinawa.
The U.S. landing force ultimately overran Okinawa, one of the last remaining enemy strongholds separating U.S. forces from the Japanese mainland, hastening the end of the war.


PS: Don't forget to look over the Comments. Shipmates are adding them from time to time and are looking for contacts with others they served with.

Video of Crew at Philly Reunion

This is a video I took at the 2009 reunion. There is some "stuff" at the beginning that should not really be there ..... but ..... I am still learning how to do all of these things.

Just click on the triangle and turn up your volume so you can hear the comments such as name and when served.

This video is one of several that were made at the 2009 reunion. By the way, I recently got an Email from Burt Doremus, Chairman of the 2009 reunion, and he expects to send copies of the entire DVD to attendees of the 2009 reunion shortly. It includes interviews with the 40's shipmates, the talk by the Chaplin and this one.

Smooth Sailing

Emails updating & Senior Sailors

Over the last week I have been gathering and verifying email addresses. Of course we had our own list and then I got a lot of new ones from Tin Can Sailors and also from Destroyers On Line. We now have 190 verified emails of shipmates including some relatives of deceased shipmates.

If you are in contact with some past shipmates, please make them aware of this site and have them get in contact with me so I can add them to our email list.

While in this process I had some interesting events. One of our shipmates was on board when attacked at Okinowa. He was a Radioman and survived because his CQ station was in the emergency radio shack midships. I got another email from the brother of Radioman that did not survive since his GQ station was in the main radio shack near the bridge. I put them in contact with each other and they are now both planning to come to the reunion so they can exchange information on a one-to-one basis.

I have also gotten emails from other relatives wanting to know if any shipmates remembers their loved ones. I will get this list put together and make a posting of these requests. Maybe they will get some information that will be helpful to them.

SENIOR SAILORS!!!

This came to mind while doing emails. The ship was decommissioned in March 1965, That was 44 years ago!! If a brand new recruit was on board at that time he might have been as young as 17. If you add 44 years and 17 years, the youngest of any of our shipmates is probably 61 years old. We are definitely a Senior Sailors Group even though I and most of us may not think that way. However, every now and then in the morning when getting up, my body tells me I might be at least that old!!!

Smooth sailing until the next Post.

Comments on "Comments" !

Making comments on this Blog is a great way to communicate to others reading the Blog. I have set it up so anyone can make a comment but it was a little confusing to me at first, so I am going to give you the easy steps.

1. Click on "Comments" at the bottom of the Post you wish to comment on. If there is already a comment there, you can read it and there will be a block where you can make a comment if you wish.
2. Write your comment in the block provided.
3. Click on the "v" next to "Comment as:"
4. Click on "Name/URL"
NOTE: if you want to comment anonymously (No Name shown), click on Anonymous.
5. Type in your name in the "Name" block.
6. DO NOT ENTER ANYTHING in the "URL" block.
7. Click "Continue" - Your name will show up without the "()" following it when the comment is published.
8. Click either POST or PREVIEW
9. Provide the code provided and your Comment will be posted.

Don't forget to look at the comments when you are reading down through the Blog. You will find they may be interesting and may even be asking a question that you can answer .... with a comment.

2007 Reunion Photos

Here is a link to the photos of the Hazelwood 2007 Reunion held in Fort Wayne, IN. Just click on the underlined text and you should get there.

Update of Emails

This past week I have been doing a lot of updating of our emails on our database. I added on a number that I had and we ended up with 88 emails in the database. Since we hope to use this a lot to reduce our mailing costs and to get a lot of information out to shipmates, I felt it was important.

I also did a Google Search for DD531 reunion and I was amazed at all of the information I found. I even found a picture of Donald Petrie from the 40's. I will have to post it here along with a more recent picture of him!! Rather than try to tell you all that I found, give it try yourself. The best thing I found was a Tin Can Sailors Shipmate Registry. In this, there were many shipmates that were registered along with email addresses that we did not have on our database. A number of the registries were from relatives of shipmates that passed away and were looking for information on their relative's service.

The emails that were not in our database I added to my own email address book and will be sending them emails informing them of our upcoming reunion and giving them information on getting to this Blog Site. I am sure a number of the emails will not be good and that is why I did not add them to our database as yet. I want them to be verified.

I got 98 emails from the Shipmate Registry that we did not have in our database. I am hoping that this addition may give us the opportunity to have one of the largest reunions we have had.

During this past week I did get some proposals from several hotels in the Jacksonville area but did not even study them. I am waiting until I have a sufficient number to review and then will take a trip to Jacksonville to look at them in person.

In regards to this BLOG. You will notice that there is a link where you can make your comments. I am sure I would enjoy hearing them and they will be able to be seen by other shipmates as well. If you wish to communicate more privately with me you can use a new email address I have set up just for the reunion. My Reunion Email address is: DD531reunion@earthlink.net . If you use it you will not even hit my spam blocker!!

Smooth sailing until the next update.