Oral History Transcript

Oral History Transcript Inland Northwest Memories Project April 19, 2005 By TINCAN Subjects: World War II, Navy, life on an aircraft carrier Dates of Service: 1942 to 1948 Interview with Mr. Frank Medaglia Birth Date: August 23, 1920 Place of Birth: Lorain, Ohio Introduction: It is April 19, 2005 and I’m at the Café Goddimento with Frank Medaglia. He lives at 11122 South Pine Crest Road, Medical Lake, Washington. MEGAN PURCELL: We’ll start with where were you born and raised? FRANK MEDAGLIA: Oh, I was born in Lorain, Ohio, a like area. NORA LOLLER: FM: NL: FM: MP: FM: Did your parents come from Italy? My dad did. I think he came in 1913 through Ellis Island and my mother was born in Pennsylvania. What was your mother’s maiden name? Greco Did you enlist? Enlisted? Yeah. Well, 1942 when the war broke out in 1941, the Pearl Harbor attack and ’42 I went in. They were drafting in, but I went in and volunteered and signed up in the Navy for six years and uh from there I ended up ’42-’48 in the Navy. We forgot to ask you what your birth date is. August 23, 1920. How old were you when you went into the service? Twenty-one when I left for the Navy. Tell us where you went first and where you did boot camp? NL: FM: MP: FM: NL: FM: Great Lakes, Illinois. Well, first couple years I was going to aviation machine made school in Chicago at Navy Pier for six months. Then from there I started to go to the gunnery schools. To different gunnery schools cause I ended up as a Combat Aircrew Member and I was flying Torpedo Bombers with the turret. See they got a fifty caliber machine gun in there and so after that about March ’44 it was I went aboard the USS Block Island. That’s the one that got sunk in May, May 29, 1944 and after that, well that was a big disaster (laughs). Tell us about that. You got sunk in the Atlantic Ocean? It was the Atlantic. See well when Arnie (friend) was on D-Day and we were heading that way but we went up to help a British carrier. They had got hit knocked out so we went up in that same area and we got hit too. By the time we got done with the whole affair we got rid of that sub. We sank him. One torpedo hit the one of the destroyers and three of ‘em hit the carrier. Well, they just paralyzed the carrier all over about a thousand men, boy, had to get overboard. Tell me what that was like. (laughs) You had to get off the carrier and you go in the oil and aviation gas. It was a real mess everybody was really, oh coated so much because of that heavy oil on the top of the water and uh just pretty close to a thousand men got saved, but we lost some too. I think that destroyer lost nineteen people. There were six of our fighter planes in the air and what they did, they tried to go to nearest land, well they did. I think it was four of ‘em didn’t make it but two did. Then after they picked everybody up that they could possibly find we headed for Casablanca and we was there. When D-Day hit we were down there. Instead of going the other way we ended up in Casablanca. Was it one of your guys in the air that sunk the sub? No, it was on of the destroyers. USS Elmar that sunk the sub and on torpedo hit one of the destroyers and uh they lost quite a few men there. I think it was nineteen aboard that destroyer. The carrier lost about fifteen or sixteen men. Cause they happened to be just where those torpedoes hit and they got either injured, or one fella got trapped underneath a sponson light and they couldn’t get him our of it, they tried to cut his leg off and uh he died then. It was in vain. They tried to save him, but uh well we got to NL: FM: NL: FM: NL: FM: Casablanca well, after I started getting’ on the destroyers everybody was so full of oil that uh they tried to get… those people who were aboard the destroyers. Their clothes, they gave ‘em everybody to help ‘em, but we got into Casablanca that’s where everybody got clean clothes and um then we, I had, to one of the other carriers came towards New York. That’s when they took us all and we all went back in. What happened was there was enough men on the carrier that were saved to captain talked to the Navy Department to somebody and there was another carrier being built in Tacoma, Washington. So they all went there. But I happened to be in the squadron so I went to another carrier. NL: FM: NL: FM: NL: FM: NL: FM: NL: FM: MP: FM: From Casablanca? Yeah, see that’s the two carriers we got. How many men were on Block Island? There were about one thousand men. Do you remember the ship that picked you up out of the ocean? Uh, I think it was the Bar, USS Bar. How long were you in the water? About five, six hours. Cause the squadron was pretty well together so we had to go back on this next carrier. How did they get out of the water? Well, we had to go off the flight deck all the way down the lines that were put on there. You had to go down the line. Were you just floating in the water? Oh yeah, it all depends, see there were so many thinks happening that, uh, see first torpedo hit the carrier. The second one was supposed to hit the carrier and it hit this destroyer and hit the carrier and it hit this destroyer and then the third one came through and it hit the carrier and the fourth one came through and hit the carrier so the carrier got three and the destroyer got one. They lost nineteen men on that little ship. You weren’t in Casablanca very long then? NL: FM: NL: FM: NL: FM: Oh, a few days. Though days to get everybody organized and load them up on Kasson Bay that was another carrier. Once they fished you out of the water how many days did it take for the ship to… get to Casablanca Oh, about three to four days. It took to go from there down to Casablanca. That’s where they made everybody meet down there. And they didn’t have enough supplies on that ship correct? Did they feed you? We was getting fed once a day. That’s all. Wasn’t helping. Some ship had so many guys on it that you could reach over and tough the water (laughs)! That’s how heavy it was, because a destroyer only carries a couple hundred men and yeah, but all that extra weight. Yeah so they finally made it into Casablanca and got everybody reorganized. In your one meal a day what would they usually feed you? Geez, I don’t remember. I think we were getting just sandwiches or whatever they could give us. But that’s about all they could do. Did you tour around Casablanca at all? We did a little bit. I had been around there a little bit. It’s a real smelly old (laughs) you can smell it from miles out. There’s just a stink in that place, boy it’s terrible. It’s a lot better now, but it wasn’t before. They didn’t have good sewage? No, I don’t think they did. MP: FM: MP: FM: NL: FM: NL: When you got back on this ship where did you go from there? FM: Returned to Norfolk, Virginia. This was abroad the USS Croatan. Oh, this was another fried of mine. There was five Torpedo Bombers that happened to be in the air. We went to North Atlantic we have some more subs. Five Torpedo Bombers so we couldn’t land on the carrier because of the fog so we had to go to the nearest land and the nearest land was Argentina in Newfoundland and uh we landed there. We only had about five gallons of gas in the tank. MP: FM: Can you explain how you would land on the aircraft carrier and the process of that? Yeah, that landings are down with the cable that stretch across and the hook. The hook catches onto that. Sometimes they don’t catch right off the bat. Sometimes they end up going into the drink. Did you ever go into the drink? No, not landing I had pretty good pilots. NL: FM: ARNOLD MCMULLAN (Mr. Medaglia’s friend): You have no idea how much stress those pilots are under. FM: AM: MP: FM: MP: FM: NL: FM: NL: FM: NL: FM: Oh yeah, those Navy pilots are really. Coming down at 150 miles per hour it’s like hitting on X. You either make it or you don’t. How long could you fly around without having to go back and refuel? Oh yeah, well a tank. A Torpedo Bombers had pretty good tanks about four, five hours flight that’s about the max on those. Can you explain any battle situations you were in? I’m sorry (didn’t hear question). Tell her about some of the submarines you bombed. No, we didn’t bomb nothing. You shot them down? We were chasing subs, locatin’ subs and sinkin’ ‘em. So tell us about that. Uh, we picked up about twelve, thirteen submarines during that cruiser Block Island and then that next one we had about ten. But, uh, see the United States put one hundred baby flat tops out in the Atlantic to help Britain, cause Britain was losing. I’ve seen 500 ships headin’ for Britain; because we were supplying them with all different things they needed which was all the stuff for D-Day. You know, and uh, they got through through quite a bit, but one of the subs would get in the middle of that they’d 500 ships they’d have a graveyard, boy. Cleaned out. AM: FM: Can you tell ‘em about lobbin’ those barrels of dynamite overboard at subs, at enemy subs? The death charges. You mean yeah on the can they got these barrels, and they would unload those and they go down and they go all the way down and bang, boy, they just hit that subs, well we sank the submarine that torpedoed us, they never made it anymore after we got done with it. Everybody went down with it. Were you awarded any medals or citations? No, just WWII medals and Navy action medals. They don’t give no medal they just gave a ribbon. Do you remember any specific friendships that you made anyone that you met or still think about or keep in contact with? (Referring to a picture) Was that, uh, oh, that was at yeah see this was after the sub was sank we had that was just VC-55 men. So you’re celebrating? (laughs) Well, I don’t know we celebrated! So how many years did you do that? I was only in the Navy for six years. Then I got out and went over to the Air Force but ended up up going, I was in Rhine, Germany during the Korean War. Where were you the day the war ended and what were you doing? I was aboard the USS Croatan, the German sub did not know the war was over in Europe. The war in Europe ended May 8, 1945. It was a big celebration when they dropped the A bomb on Japan, yeah. Were you married before you went to war or did you get married after World War II? Oh, I was out and then Bonnie and I got married in 1949. Yeah, that was in between the two, but she knew I was to go back cause I MP: FM: MP: FM: NL: FM: NL: FM: NL: FM: MP: FM: figured I had six and I said heck, well I got called back to that’s what’s the heck of it. You know the Korean War, they called us back, I said well heck, that’s enough of that I’m gonna stay, and I did. NL: FM: Tell us about the Korean War. I didn’t go into the Korean War, no. But I was over in Germany. We had to go over there, cause see Ike, Ike was over the whole affair in Europe. Did you ever meet him or did he come speak to your group? Eisenhower? Yeah, I seen him in ’51. Well, he come over because we was under NATO, and that’s how we got to see him. But, uh, that was a troop carrier outfit 119s. What were you doing? I was an aircraft mechanic then, and crew chief one of the box cars. They’re big. What was that called; did you have a squadron or a group name? That was a 433rd Troop Carrier Wing. We used to carry paratroopers. Where did you drop them? Well, we would drop them a batch out of Italy, picked ‘em up in Italy than dropped then they were on exercise and we would drop ‘em off. They would jump out of that airplane at a height may of 15,000 feet or more. Did you remember taking any leaves of absence or anything like that do you remember did you go on any traveling? No, the only leave I got was when we got thirty days and went home, but one time when I was at home and Germans came down Norfolk Channel, you know where they kept the big battle wagons, came in they followed that one of the subs followed the big battle ships, and so they called us back because things were getting rough. NL: FM: NL: FM: NL: FM: MP: FM: MP: FM: MP: FM: MP: FM: Is there a bit of wisdom or advice that you want to pass on to future generation about your experience? No, just everyday occurrences, things like that. Do you keep in contact with any veterans these days? Uh, we got an association that’s gonna have the reunion. Next month, but I just can’t go cause it’s gonna cost me about 5,000 dollars just one week up there (laughs). So Bonnie and I just pulled back. I’d like to go but most of those guys are from the new carrier 106. The ones from CV-21, a lot of ‘em passed away already. Yeah, they all up in age. It was, uh, let’s see; last year was sixty years since the carrier’s been sunk… I got a couple of good stories. One, the mess hall officer when the alarm sound the gong goes off in general quarters and he put about 6000 dollars in cash! He took it and put in his blouse, he thought he’d be able to save it, well when he got picked up by one of the carriers, uh, destroyers he lost part of it (laughs) out in the ocean. I said Bonnie, I wonder what happed to the payroll?! The payroll was aboard the ship too in fact. I know I got two years of medical records gone I don’t know where in the heck they’re at. They must have got lost aboard the ship too. In fact, administration advised veterans such as us the veteran’s go back out to the veteran’s hospital and reregister! Like we had never been in the damn service before, because our records were all destroyed. I wanted medicine, but I got no help, because there was no record. They can turn you back on them. This here was a drum and bugle corps when I was at Navy Pier in Chicago. At five o’clock in the morning they used to come down and everybody got up dressed and they had to go out and do their exercise! (laughs). That’s how they got us up! The Navy Pier had the Marine school, too. They were there in the same place. AM: FM: