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Welcome at Cincinnati Reds
Great American Ball Park
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2007 USS Callaghan (DD-792) Reunion
by Bill Gordon
Sylvester Bolander, a survivor of the sinking of the
destroyer Callaghan by a kamikaze plane, and his family hosted the 2007
USS Callaghan reunion in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, a southern suburb of
Cincinnati. The destroyer sank at 2:35 a.m. on July 29, 1945, after a
slow-moving kamikaze biplane with fixed landing gear carrying a bomb hit the ship about two hours
earlier. The attack caused the deaths of 47 crewmen and one officer, and 73 men were wounded. A few survivors
attended the first Callaghan reunion in Indianapolis in 1972, and many
more went in 1975 to the next reunion in Chicago for the 30th anniversary of
the destroyer's sinking. Reunions took place at least every other year until
2001, when the survivors decided to have annual reunions. Former Callaghan
crewmembers or family members sponsor each reunion near their home. Almost 80
people, including 17 Callaghan survivors, attended all or part of the
2007 reunion from August 29 to September 2.
USS Callaghan (DD-792) earned eight battle stars for
distinguished service in the Pacific War after her commissioning in November
1943 until her sinking in July 1945. The destroyer shot down 12 Japanese
aircraft and sank a midget submarine. On May 25, 1945, Callaghan gunners
shot down a kamikaze bomber, but two of the three crewmen survived the crash
into the sea. Captain Bertholf ordered the ship's boat to go to the crash site to recover survivors. Doctor Parker treated the two wounded Japanese
airmen, but one died a few hours later due to extensive injuries. The other
man recovered consciousness, and he was transferred to the battleship New
Mexico as a prisoner of war. On July 29, 1945, Callaghan was at
Radar Picket Station #9 west of Kerama Rettō when hit at 12:40 a.m. by a
kamikaze plane reported by survivors to be a biplane with floats. The fires
caused by the explosion of the plane's bomb ignited the ship's antiaircraft
ammunition, which exploded about five minutes after the plane crashed. Captain Bertholf
soon gave orders to abandon ship, but he and a small group of
volunteers remained aboard to see whether they could save the ship from
sinking, but he too had to be transferred to LCS(L) 130 at 1:43 p.m.
when it became clear the ship could not be saved. Ironically, the kamikaze
plane hit Callaghan less than two hours before she was to be relieved by
the destroyer Laws in order to return to the States for an overhaul. Callaghan
was the last of 49 American ships sunk by kamikaze attacks. Barry Foster, son
of Callaghan survivor Allen Foster, has written a complete history of
the ship entitled The Last Destroyer (2002) based on official Navy
records and survivor interviews.
The memorial service in honor of USS Callaghan DD-792
took place on Friday afternoon at Bicentennial Veterans Memorial Park in Blue
Ash, a northeast suburb of Cincinnati. The park includes ten life-size
sculptures that represent the major wars in which the US has been involved. The
Treble Chorus from Taylor Elementary School in Cincinnati started the ceremony
with four songs, including "You Are Our Heroes." Rear Admiral Miles
B. Wachendorf, who grew up in the Cincinnati area and now works in Washington
as Chief of Staff of the US Joint Services Command, spoke briefly to give his
appreciation to the Callaghan veterans who had served their country in
defense of liberty. Two grandsons of Sylvester Bolander read the names of the
47 crewmen and one officer who died on Callaghan in the attack, and a bell rang after the
reading of each name. Rear Admiral Wachendorf and Sylvester Bolander then went in
front of the sailor statue at the park to present a wreath in honor of the men
who served aboard USS Callaghan. The memorial service also including the
playing of Taps by a bugler, a color guard presentation, and two songs sung by the
director of the Treble Chorus from Taylor Elementary School.
Callaghan survivors (in blue caps) at 2007 reunion
Left to right: Ron Jones, Al Levreau, Woody Woodward,
Melvin Bayless, Don Henry, Marland Moreau, Sylvester Bolander,
Rear Admiral Miles B. Wachendorf (speaker),
Leo Jarboe (front), Wally Brunton (back), James Bond,
Chet Anderson (front), Bob Cooper (back), Bill Hargis,
Mike Novelli, Don Ball (Attended reunion but not ceremony:
George Raasakka and Fred Taylor)
The Callaghan reunion included many planned
activities. Thursday started with a tour of the Cincinnati Reds Great American
Ball Park and the adjoining Hall of Fame and Museum. The electronic scoreboard
welcomed reunion attendees, and a few lucky persons got to swing at balls
thrown by a member of the coaching staff in one of the two inside batting
practice areas. Next came a luncheon cruise on the Ohio River, and then a bus
took us on a tour of Cincinnati. Friday began with a visit to the National
Museum of the US Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, and
the trip included a visit to the Presidential Aircraft Gallery that houses
planes used by prior US presidents. After lunch at the museum, we went to Blue
Ash for the memorial service. A banquet was held at the hotel on Saturday
evening, and each Callaghan survivor in attendance received a plaque for
his dedicated service aboard the destroyer. Marvin Bayless, a Callaghan
veteran who traveled from Oregon, received the flag flown at the US Capitol on
July 29, 2007, as a prize for being the Callaghan survivor who traveled
the longest distance to attend the reunion. A hospitality suite remained open
at other hours during the reunion so veterans and their families and friends
could gather to reminisce, renew friendships, and take a look at the many
photos of prior reunions and various historical information related to Callaghan's
wartime service.
USS Callaghan (DD-792)
When general quarters sounded at 12:20 a.m. on July 29,
1945, after a group of enemy planes had been detected on radar, Electrician's
Mate Bob Cooper left his regular station at the aft switchboard to go to his
battle station at the forward half of the ship as part of the damage control
party. Harry Smitherman had the aft switchboard as his battle station, so he
replaced Bob when the ship went to general quarters. Harry lost his life when
the kamikaze plane hit Callaghan, but a metal sheet between Bob and the
exploding plane saved his life. However, shrapnel from the explosion hit Bob
and caused seven wounds and ten punctures. One piece of shrapnel poked a hole
in his life belt making it useless, but this probably saved him from the
shrapnel going even deeper into his body. He thought his life was over when the
plane exploded on the ship. He jumped into the sea and dog paddled in the water
covered with oil for about 45 minutes until picked up by a small landing craft,
often referred to as a "pall bearer." He was transferred to the
hospital ship USS Crescent City, where one or two days later he had an
operation to remove two pieces of shrapnel from his feet and two from his leg.
He then transferred to the Fleet Hospital in the Philippines, where he stayed
about four weeks for recovery until his return to the States. Bob says that
even today memories come flooding back and he gets nervous when he hears
airplane engines, such as those of crop dusters in his home state of Iowa.
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Harry Smitherman
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Soon after the 2006 Callaghan Reunion in
Fredericksburg, Virginia, one of the daughters of Harry Smitherman contacted
Bill Benton, a Callaghan survivor who has used the Internet to publish his wartime memoir
and other material about the ship. She asked him whether anyone
knew her father, who had died in Callaghan's sinking. Bill phoned Bob
Cooper, who said he knew Harry very well since they both served as Electrician's
Mates. Also, Harry had replaced Bob at the aft switchboard just
before the kamikaze aircraft struck the destroyer. The two women, Harriet and Gloria
Diane, immediately sent e-mails to Bob to find out about their father's service
in the Navy and his death since they had never met anyone before who knew their
father during the war. They have continued for almost a year to correspond
frequently with Bob. He told them how proud Harry was of his two girls and how
he used to show photos to other crewmembers after he received mail from home. He
was serious about his work, but his greatest desire was to return to his home
in Oklahoma to see his wife and two girls. Just after Harry's death, his Grandma Nano wrote a poem for his two daughters. This poem was read at the
reunion dinner on Saturday night:
Longing for home, wife and children
Longing his mother to see
He gave his life for his country,
America and Liberty.
Twenty-two months in service,
Eighteen months on the sea,
The Callaghan rocked in the Blue Ocean,
Helping win Victory.
Happy sailors that morning,
That day they would sail for home.
Then—came the heartbreaking message,
The Callaghan was gone.
Broken hearts ached with pain,
Watching eyes filled with tears,
Oh why did it have to happen?
This question will be asked for years.
Mother had filled the pantry,
Until there was no more room,
Two little girls on the door step
Singing Daddy (pitty-toon) would come home.
God surely looked down from Heaven,
And saw where she would carry on
Trying to fulfill his wishes
Raising his little ones.
Oh why were we Mothers made helpless,
To reach them with our love and care.
They were the youth of this country
And should not have been over there.
Darling boys, Mothers love you,
Waiting prayerfully for your return,
But God looked away into the future
And called you to a better home.
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Wally Brunton interviewed at memorial service by local TV station. He is
holding up a photo of himself in the Navy.
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Leo Jarboe had served as a swimming instructor prior to his
service on Callaghan, so he had no problems treading water for about six
hours without a life jacket after the order came to abandon ship roughly 15
minutes after being struck by the kamikaze plane. On January 7, 1945, Leo
volunteered for a rescue attempt of two Callaghan crewmen who had been
washed overboard by a large wave while the destroyer was off the coast of
Luzon. After another crewman exhausted himself swimming in the heavy waves in
an attempt to reach the men, a line was tied around Leo, and he dove into the
rough sea and swam toward the two men floating together. When he reached them,
a winch pulled the three men back to the ship. Leo has attended all but one of
the Callaghan reunions since the first one in 1972. He also hosted
two reunions in Washington, D.C., including the one with the largest turnout when 72 Callaghan survivors attended in 1980.
On May 5, 1995, Leo Jarboe met in Washington, D.C., with
Kaoru Hasegawa, the kamikaze pilot who had been rescued 50 years earlier when
his Ginga bomber (Allied code name of Frances) crashed into the sea
after being shot down by Callaghan's guns. Leo invited him to attend Callaghan's
July 1995 reunion in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, to commemorate the 50th
anniversary of the destroyer's sinking. They treated Hasegawa as a Callaghan
survivor since he also had been on the ship although for just a short time. He
expressed his thanks to the former crewmembers for saving his life, and they
told him what they remembered about shooting down his plane and his subsequent
rescue by the ship's boat. They found out Hasegawa led a kamikaze squadron of
12 Ginga bombers from Miho Air Base in Tottori Prefecture on May 25, 1945,
but the rest of his squadron returned to the mainland due to heavy rain and low
cloud cover south of the Japanese mainland. In the summer of 1997 at the
Callaghan reunion in Rochester, Minnesota, former Callaghan Executive
Office Buzz Buzzetti returned Hasegawa's watch to him. Buzz had kept the
aviation watch in storage for over 50 years that he had taken from the injured
Hasegawa at the time of his rescue. In 2000, Hasegawa showed his deep
appreciation to the Callaghan crewmen by paying all expenses for Leo and the
ship's two former Executive Officers, Jake Heimark (at time of Hasegawa's
rescue) and Buzz Buzzetti (at time of Callaghan's sinking), and their wives for
a ten-day trip to Japan.
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USS Callaghan survivors in front of
mosaic of Cincinnati Reds Big Red
Machine at Great America Ball Park
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On July 28, 1945, Petty Officer 3rd Class Bill Hargis was on
watch from 8 p.m. to midnight near his battle station at the 5-inch gun on the
bow. Recently the Callaghan's crew had gone to general quarters several
times, but they turned out to be false alarms. After his watch ended at
midnight, he took off his pants and soon was sleeping on deck near the 5-inch
gun until he heard the alarm sounding for general quarters at about 12:20 a.m.
on July 29. He thought maybe the alarm would end soon as others had in the
recent past, but he soon jumped up in his boxer shorts to begin loading shells
into the 5-inch gun when he realized incoming enemy planes had been detected on
radar. He could hear the droning engine just before the plane crashed and its
bomb exploded at the after stack near the #3 gun mount. When orders came to abandon
ship a few minutes later, he did not need to jump since water already had
reached his gun mount. A gunner's mate named Henry Dunagan asked
Bill for a knife to cut off a spare life preserver since he did not know how to
swim. However, Bill did not have a knife on him since he wore only his
underwear in which he was sleeping, and his pants with a knife in the pocket
were below deck. Another crewman reported that Henry eventually found a life
ring, but he was among the 47 killed or missing crewmen. Bill saw the
"792" on Callaghan's bow disappear under the water about
midway during the three or four hours he treaded water before being picked up
by another destroyer. The thick black oil covering his body took several days
to wear off despite being hosed down on the destroyer that rescued him.
Chet Anderson served as radioman aboard Callaghan, so
he was in the radio room at his general quarters station when the kamikaze
plane hit. As the ship started sinking, he saw his friend Wilfred Wallace who
had shrapnel wounds and no life jacket. Chet was wearing an inflated life
jacket, so they went into the water together in order for Wilfred to hold on to
his life jacket. After about ten minutes with planes still in the air, they
reached a float with a few men hanging on to the side. Another destroyer
picked them up after about four hours in the water, and they got hosed down to
try to remove the oil covering them. Wounded men were transferred to the
hospital ship Crescent City, and unwounded crewmen went to Ulithi, where
they had the opportunity to write a short message to their families telling
them they were safe. Chet has attended 12 Callaghan reunions, and at one
reunion Wilfred's son came up to thank him for saving his father's life.
Callaghan survivors, family members, and friends left Cincinnati looking forward to the
2008 reunion in Waterloo, Iowa. Bob Cooper, with assistance from his eight children, will host the event.
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