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Joe Curgino
Seaman First Class
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Little Italy to Okinawa
by Bill Gordon
Joe Curgino, a recent 18-year-old high school graduate who
had never been outside Chicago, entered the US Navy on April 10, 1944. He took
a short train trip with his family from their home in Little Italy, in Chicago's
Near West Side, to Great Lakes Naval Training Station, just north of Chicago
along Lake Michigan. Although he would be near his home for five short weeks of
boot camp, his mother especially worried when her oldest son of a family of two
sons and five daughters would leave the country to fight overseas. The war had
already brought changes to this close-knit family. The children used to attend
Italian language lessons on Saturday afternoon at Mother Cabrini School, where
the nuns even taught the singing cheer of "Viva Mussolini!" to the
students, but these lessons ended abruptly in December 1941 when Italy declared
war against the United States.
One morning in May 2006, my wife and I visited Joe Curgino
and his wife Rose at their spacious split-level home in Bloomingdale, a
northwest suburb of Chicago. Rose also grew up in Little Italy just two blocks
from Joe's home. They wrote letters to each other while he served in the Navy,
and they married in 1949 after a seven-year courtship. This morning Joe agreed to
tell us about his service aboard the destroyer USS Drexler (DD-741),
which sank off Okinawa after being struck by two kamikaze planes on May 28,
1945.
Joe and about 60 men, who after completing basic training at
Great Lakes Naval Training Station, went next to the naval base at Norfolk,
Virginia, for training to be part of the crew of a destroyer being built at
Bath Iron Works in Maine. He hated cooking duty in the mess hall, but he still
did his best for the chief cooks. He marveled at Norfolk's many bright stars,
which he had never really seen before due to bright lights in the Chicago area.
About 20 crewmen, including Joe, went to Maine in order to pick up their 376
ft. 6 in. destroyer. He marveled at the many women working hard doing welding
and riveting of ships at Bath Iron Works. They took the ship to Boston Navy
Yard, where the USS Drexler was commissioned on November 14, 1944, with
about 350 officers and crew.
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Joe Curgino proudly wears
his USS Drexler jacket
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Drexler went on a shakedown cruise to Bermuda, where
Joe for the first time away from home spent a lonely Christmas holiday thinking
about family and his mother's delicious Italian cooking. After the destroyer's
crew completed a multitude of training exercises, the ship went to Boston and
Norfolk for repairs and supplies. Back in Chicago, Joe's concerned family had
visited the local Red Cross office to inquire as to why they had not received
any letters from him, but eventually letters arrived that he had been doing
well. Drexler proceeded without delay to the Pacific battlefront via the
Panama Canal, San Diego, San Pedro, and Pearl Harbor.
Joe as Seaman First Class was in the gunnery division and he
had training and assignments on both 5-inch and 40-mm guns. His final post was
at the Mount 42 twin 40-mm guns on the port side. The mount's gun captain
coordinated six men to load, point, and fire the guns. He remembered his
girlfriend both by the photo he carried and by her name "ROSE"
painted on the barrel of his gun. Gunnery Officer Chet Lee, who later went on
to become mission director for six Apollo missions including Apollo 13, always
kept his division busy with drills since a destroyer's guns needed to shoot at
land targets, planes, strayed mines, and other ships.
On February 23, 1945, Drexler departed Pearl Harbor
for Guadalcanal and then on to Okinawa for the invasion of the Japanese island.
Joe was amazed at the huge number of warships, including about 16 to 18
carriers, from horizon to horizon just a day or two before the invasion of
Okinawa on April 1. While the land battle raged on the island, Drexler
served at several radar picket stations to protect the main fleet from Japanese
air attacks and also participated in the occupation of Tori Shima, a small
island north of Okinawa. During the early morning on May 28 while Drexler
was at Radar Picket Station 15 about 45 miles northwest of Okinawa, Joe heard
the warning that the ship's radar had picked up a squadron of eight approaching
bogeys (enemy planes).
A handful of combat air patrol (CAP) planes went after the
Japanese squadron, but the first kamikaze plane came in from the starboard
side, crashed into the destroyer at midship near the waterline, and cut off all
power. Although Joe on the port side just glimpsed the incoming kamikaze plane,
he felt the crash jar the ship and went to manual control on his gun mount
since both regular and emergency power had been knocked out. A second kamikaze
plane approached a few seconds later, but it was splashed with direct hits from
one of the ship's 5-in. guns. A third
kamikaze followed closely by a Corsair fighter, passed directly over Drexler,
but the smoking plane recovered just over the water and then banked to come in
at the destroyer from dead ahead in a shallow glide. The plane passed just over
Joe's head and crashed into the port base of the #2 stack.
Nobody gave orders to abandon ship, but the men realized
that they needed to jump as the ship started rocking strongly after the second kamikaze plane crashed into Drexler. Joe went quickly down a ladder from
the gun mount to the lower deck. The ship began listing very fast to its
starboard side. Joe quickly began walking toward the keel of the ship until he
had to jump off into the water. His life flashed in front of him as the sinking
ship's descent pulled him deep into the water. As he broke the surface amidst
fire and oil, he looked right and saw the "741" painted on the ship's
bow disappear into the water. He then looked left and glimpsed his two Italian
buddies Daiuto and Devito for the last time with their arms wrapped around each
other.
A large life raft floated at some distance from him, so he
started swimming under the flames and oil toward it. Although he had no time to
put on a life jacket, he made it quickly to the raft since he had always been a
good swimmer. He was the second man to reach the raft, and he climbed into it
in a daze. The life raft began to be swamped as more men came aboard, so the
coxswain tried to calm the panicked men and ordered those men without wounds
into the water around the raft, where they held onto the sides or onto a rope
attached to the raft. The men floated on their backs to minimize any injuries
if Drexler's depth charges or boilers exploded. The coxswain went back
to save others in the water, but Joe and the other men clinging to the raft
never saw him again.
The men around the life raft remained in the water for well
over an hour until an LCS (Landing Craft, Support) ship picked them up. When
the raft first approached the LCS, it appeared that the ship moved away but
this could have been because Japanese planes still remained in the area. The
LCS crew threw a rope ladder down the side of the ship. Joe's hands froze on
the rope ladder, and a crewmember had to pry his clenched hands from the rope
in order to get him onto the deck. The LCS also picked up a few wounded men
from the destroyer USS Lowry (DD-770), which had helped Drexler
fight off the kamikaze squadron that had attacked the radar picket station. The
officers and crew from Lowry lined the decks and saluted the men leaving
on the LCS in order to pay their respects.
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Painting of Joe Curgino
done by art teacher at
his grandson's elementary school
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The non-wounded Drexler survivors made their way back
on three different ships to Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. Drexler's
Executive Officer talked with some of the crewmembers, including Joe, and asked
whether they were ready to go to another ship. Everyone responded "no
thanks" in not such polite terms. While serving his tour of duty on Drexler,
his weight had dropped to 118 lbs. from his normal weight of 135 lbs. Navy
doctors wanted to send him to Warm Springs, Colorado, for rest and
recuperation, but he successfully pleaded with them to go back home to Chicago.
Reports of the sinking were read back home, but the family was unable to find
out what had happened to Joe. He got off the bus at Loomis and Taylor Streets
in the heart of Little Italy, and he began walking the short distance to home.
The neighbors recognized Joe and yelled greetings to him as he walked down the
street. His brother Jim and his sister Mary ran down the street to hug him.
After arriving home, his mother and father cried with joy that their oldest son
had returned home.
The Navy provided each survivor of Drexler's sinking
with a 30-day leave. He did not see Rose on his first day home since he was not
in good physical shape, but he enjoyed seeing her many times during his leave.
With Joe's mother serving him Italian home cooking every day, he quickly gained
30 pounds. Shortly prior to the announcement of Japan's surrender (within a few
days of the war ending), Joe reported for reassignment to active service at the
Naval Armory in Chicago. Days later, Joe was reassigned to Navy Pier in
Chicago. Then shortly after that, he was reassigned to St. Louis where he
worked at the Separation Center at Lambert Field. There he had the chance to
attend a couple of baseball games where he could root for his favorite Chicago
Cubs against the St. Louis Cardinals.
After many months at Lambert Field, he was reassigned to Glenview Naval
Air Station in a suburb of Chicago. He had a bus accident while stationed
there, so he thought he would receive a reprimand for it when called to see the
admiral. However, the admiral surprised Joe with a personal presentation of a
Letter of Commendation that was awarded to the men of Drexler for their
bravery. Then he was sent to Great Lakes Naval Training Station for discharge in
June 1946. Even with his admirable service record aboard Drexler, he
never received his final paycheck from the Navy despite repeated inquiries.
Although Joe had told his family many times the story of Drexler's
sinking and other incidents in the Navy, he never had the chance to tell the
history of his naval service from beginning to end until this morning in May
2006. Even though over 60 years had passed, he vividly remembered the details
of the sinking. Deep emotions still remain from the traumatic event. While
telling his story, he paused and wept a few times such as when he recalled the
deaths of his two Italian friends, the salutes by the men of destroyer Lowry
to pay respects to Drexler survivors on the LCS, and the warm homecoming
greeting by his family. As he talked, he made the sign of the cross several
times to show his gratitude to God for allowing him to survive and his
remembrance of 158 Drexler shipmates who died in the sinking.
Before my wife and I left after the
interview, Joe and Rose took us on a tour of their home and backyard. We
discovered how interested and actively involved their three children, Andrew,
Grace, and Roseann, and their five grandchildren have been in his story of
surviving Drexler's sinking. A pencil drawing of Drexler, together with
a brief history of the destroyer, hangs proudly in their family room. He told
us his son Andrew had an artist draw the ship and gave it as a gift. His
daughter Roseann contacted Bath Iron Works in Maine to obtain photos of the
destroyer’s construction as well as launch photos for the ship's history
published by the U.S.S. Drexler
(DD-741) Survivors Reunion Association. She also arranged to have the American
flag flown on December 7, 2001, at the USS Arizona
Memorial at Pearl Harbor in honor of her father and Drexler's crew. She
even wrote to President Bush in March 2006 to try to get the government to
officially honor Drexler's crew, but
there has not yet been a response.
In June 2001, Joe visited his grandson
Anthony Viola’s fifth-grade class at Oriole Park Elementary School on the
Northwest Side of Chicago. He spoke to the students about his wartime
experience, showed them photographs, and answered some good questions. He showed us a painting of him done by the school's art
teacher based on his wartime photographs.
Anthony's class later also sent him a poem signed by all the students to express
their thanks:
The class in room two-zero-nine
would like to share with you a
little rhyme
Thank you for visiting us
and coming to discuss
The memorable experience you had
you wonderful and precious
granddad!
May your past experiences make you
stronger
may you live a whole lot longer
Thank you for taking a trip down
memory lane
we're sorry you might have experienced
much pain
We send lots of wishes to you
we're glad you can tell your
stories from WWII
We understand your terrible
hardship
we wish your name could be on
another battleship
You showed us pictures of WWII
we offer a salute to you
It's too bad your belongings were left behind
but always remember you are
one-of-a-kind!
Please feel free to come back
and tell us another amazing
flashback
We don't want to say good-bye
because you are such a terrific guy
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