My Father's Ship

My father died six years ago tonight.

He was fortunate, in that he died suddenly, and 21 years later than would have been predicted in the year of his birth - 1922.

He was also fortunate to live 57 years after the largest engagement between the Allied naval forces and the combined Imperial Japanese Navies during the the entirety of the Second World War. This battle was bigger than Midway, and let me tell you, there were allot of chips on the table, and allot of heroism displayed.

Veterans Day has come and passed - November 11, 2007. On this day I reflect on the life of my father, a World War II veteran, his service, and the service of countless others who have served not only our country, but the peoples of the world.

The link below gives some history (and a photo) of my father's ship, the USS Melvin - a Fletcher Class Destroyer - DD 680. It is incomplete, for instance not mentioning the three Japanese submarines she sank in the "Marianas Massacre". The Japanese had been sinking Allied ships attempting to resupply our forces in a shipping lane over the deepest part of any ocean on earth, and with some regularity. The USS Melvin, and others, were deployed to correct this situation. Three subs in five days is not a trivial accomplishment.

Note that this destroyer, about as long as a football field and as wide as a tennis court (pretty much a "canoe" by Navy standards) ( and thanks to my cousin Pete on the dimensions), was the only destroyer to sink - single-handedly - a battleship (the "Fuso") during WW II. She used one 24-ft torpedo - the last torpedo in the group - at an engagement distance of about 6.25 miles and ran a zig-zag pattern in retreat. The ship was out of oil to make a smoke screen.  All of this at about 3:15 in the morning.

All aboard knew that this was a suicide mission, and that the numerous shells fired by the Fuso, each about the size of a trash can and hitting the water within 30 yards to each side of the Melvin would surely do them in as they turned and withdrew after deploying the torpedo. Battleships are about the size of a medium-sized city in Montana, such as where I once lived in Havre, Montana.  The IJN (Imperial Japanese Navy) Fuso was about 20 - times the size of a Fletcher-Class Destroyer, and the USS Melvin sank it. A David-and-Goliath, Loaves-and-Fish sort-of-thing.

My father, Lt. Junior Grade Edward Ludlam Blossom, Jr. was the officer who surrendered the Melvin when she was decommissioned at San Diego May 31, 1946 - nine days after his 24th birthday.

Interestingly, the USS Melvin was named for a Navy officer of the same rank as my father: Lt. Junior Grade. Lt.(jg) John T. Melvin was the first Naval officer to be killed during World War I on the first U.S. Naval warship sunk in World War I (November, 1917).

When I was a kid, I asked my father what he did during the war.

He said, " I ran the movies on Thursday night."

I last spoke to my father on November 11, 2001, at about 11:00 PM. The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month - originally "Armistice Day" (after WW I), but we kept having wars, so ""Veterans Day".

My father died suddenly on December 16, 2001.

My father abhorred war and violence, as should we all.

When I was a child, I had no idea that he could have been killed, and that I wouldn't have been born, because, after all, how dangerous could it have been to load a movie projector on Thursday nights?

I guess true heroes don't identify themselves as such.

One should never miss an opportunity to talk with a World War II veteran - they are rarer with each passing day.

For that matter, one should never miss the opportunity to talk with a veteran of any war.

I recently ran across the following remark:

"If you can read this, thank a teacher.'

"If you can read this in English, thank a soldier."


Peace

Learn more about the USS Melvin (as they say on public television) at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Melvin_(DD-680)