The Fat Lady Sings - The Sinking Of the USS Callaghan DD 792

This is a personal story about the U.S.S. Callaghan, D.D. 792, being sunk by enemy action.

We were seventy miles off Okinawa, leading a small group of Destroyers and lCS on Picket duty. Three Destroyers and four LCS.s. The activity of the crew and of myself will be as close as I can remember. I know of several crew members, their last moments, before we lost them forever.

We were Destroyer Squadron Fifty-five. Our group had Departed the Okinawa anchorage July 28th. 1945. We were the Flagship Of Commodore, A. E Jarrell and his staff. Accompanying the U.S.S. Callaghan was the Destroyers Cassin Young and Prichett. We also had the four LCS.s assigned to us, and we were fortunate to have them. The LCS.s played a large part, in saving some of the survivors and protecting the Callaghan. We had relieved the Destroyers Laws, Dyson, and Aulick. One of our LCS.s had to return to Okinawa because of medical problems. We were on station at 8:30 A.M. July 29th.1945. The weather was sunny and the sea was calm. The temperature was 75 to 80, very comfortable. Our duty was to provide early warning of enemy planes for our forces on Okinawa. We are seventy miles from Okinawa, this is as far as the radar from Okinawa could reach. We could reach another sixty or seventy miles, giving the anchorage a 130 to 140 mile range to prepare to defend from attack. The curvature of the earth looses the radar at about seventy miles, depending on the height of the radar screen. We would always take the blunt of the attack's first. The Japs would try to close the eyes of the radar, to be able to attack faster, without much warning.

During the day we would have six Corsairs, Navy Fighters as a cover. We could direct them to any part of our screen. During the night, we would have two night fighters. The fighters were called .Black Widows. as they were deadly. Two men made up the crew, one Pilot and one Radar and fire control man. These planes could bring down an enemy plane without seeing it. There was one problem, the night fighters were directed by Okinawa, and the Corsairs, during the day were directed by our flag, aboard our ship. We had a much faster response from our day light planes, than the planes directed from Okinawa. I feel this was changed, shortly after our ship was sunk.

I just came on watch, I had the twelve to four. I relieved the helm an was at this station when we were hit. Radar had picked up a contact, thirteen miles and closing. This contact was very low on the water and moving slow. It would also change direction often, and made it hard for radar to keep bearing and range. We immediately went to General Quarters and started evasive action. We went to flank speed and zigzagging. I had to stay at the helm until relieved by the crewman assigned to that General Quarters station.

Right behind me, about five steps, was a hatch, (door). This was a metal door. In the middle of the door was a metal pocket. This pocket would pivot from one side of the door to the other, without opening the door. In this pocket was a roll of cotton. The cotton was for your ears. When the five inch thirty-eights fire, the concussion and noise was great enough to burst your eardrums or make them painful enough to hurt your efficiencies to do your job. I would wet my cotton so I could screw the cotton deep into my ears. We didn't have the nice ear plugs the Navy has today. There was much talk on the TBS. It was a debate if this was a plane or not, as it was going so slow. At first the plane was picked up at Thirteen miles and low on the water. We had several raids of enemy planes using this tactic, launching torpedoes and bombs at low attitude. What we didn't know is these planes were constructed of wood and covered with silk. It was an old Biplane, (two wings), flying very slow and very maneuverable. This plane was virtually impossible to pick on radar. This was the reason this enemy plane was able to get close to us before we could pick him up. He was coming in on our port side. I was relieved at the helm, We made a turn, and started firing on the starboard side. I had arrived at my gun station as we were hit. I look aft and saw the flames and a flaming object going through the ship and traveled on for about a hundred yards on the port side.

(We later talked about this, and had the feeling this was the engine of the plane that had hit us.)

The plane had hit at the main deck level at mount 43 mm on the starboard side. I have to stop here and tell you of a friend of mine, and his last moments. Bill Allen had just come on watch the same time as I. He relieved the sonar watch and I relieved the Helm. I spoke to Bill just moments before going on watch. Right after going on watch we were called to general quarters. Bills general quarter's station was on mount 43 mm, right were the plane hit. I am sure it was sudden and he did not suffer. He was the same person, frying French fries when the Executive Officer, Lt. Bussetti, came through and caught us. Lt Bussetti grabbed a handful and went on his way. Bill stuttered some, when he would get excited. After the plane hit, we were continuing to receive reports on other enemy planes closing. The last report was a plane at six miles.

The way we were burning and lighting up the sky, there would be no way he could miss us. What we didn't know was the Commodore had instructed Cassin Young to take over the group, as The Callaghan was out of action. Cassin Young then directed The Prichett, to stand by the Callaghan. The Cassin Young then headed in the direction of the enemy planes. She splashed one near the Callaghan and another several miles away. This way The Callaghan was protected, Cassin Young, by taking it on herself to draw the fire from the enemy planes. Normally, we would start firing at enemy planes in the six mile range. At this moment I felt I was going to die. About ten minutes after we were hit there was a horrendous explosion. One of the ships later said, they didn't know how anyone could have survived this explosion. I was picked up by this explosion and blown ten feet. I wasn't the only one who lost his helmet as others of the crew did also. My helmet was just the right size, as I had a small head. Someone picked me up and put a helmet on my head. I thought I had gone blind as the helmet went down over my eyes. I was sure, when someone got my helmet, they would let me know. They did and I could see again. I had my kapok life jacket on. I notice a piece of shrapnel near the shoulder on the left of my jacket. This life jacket either saved my life or saved me from being seriously wounded. We later felt one of the magazines blew up or the Jap plane that hit us was carrying a delayed detonating bomb. We thought we were making progress before this explosion. We were getting the fires under control and the damage control party was making some headway. When this explosion came, it finished us. We were listing to the starboard and were down at the stern. We were losing power and it started looking hopeless. This is when we got word to stand-by- to-abandon-ship. This meant to go to your abandon ship station.

It so happened my abandon ship station was were the plane hit and we were burning badly. I went forward to the focs'l and went over the life line. The life line, in this case is a cable rail, to help hold on to, when near the edge of the ship. This life line was up around the entire ship. It could be easily removed should it would be necessary. I stood outside this line with my helmet off. Should you have your helmet on and buckled to stay on, you could break your neck when you hit the water. The water would rush into the helmet at contact, and snap your head back. You jumped into the water without your helmet. There were many of the crew standing outside the life line waiting for the word to abandon ship. There wasn't too much conversation, only to help each other, such as the helmet and to secure the life jacket.

I would estimate we were up about 20 to 30 feet from the water. You were also taught to hold on to you testicles when jumping as in some cases this could be very painful upon hitting the water. By this time we were not moving and dead in the water. Our list had become greater and it wasn't getting any better.

The word came to abandon ship. We just stood there. No one jumped. I waited, and still no one jumped. It was like you go first. When I looked up at the rest of the guys, they were all looking at me. I said o.sh-t and jumped. Everyone else started jumping then, the only reason I could figure why this happened, was I was a verbal person and I did play a lot of jokes, and I was still in a mood, this isn.t really happening to me, and I jumped. When I hit the water I started swimming away from the ship. I really must have been crazy, as I was singing as I was swimming. Why ? I don.t know. I was by myself and scared as hell. I was out about a hundred yards I turn around and looked.

The Callaghan was in bad shape. She was burning with great intensity and the stern was low in the water. I kept thinking about more explosions and how the ship lit up the sky. I wanted to get as far away from her as I could get, and I kept swimming.

Being I was the first off the ship, and I felt I was the farthest away, I rested for a few moments and watched. The night was really dark, I don.t think there was a moon, at least I don.t remember seeing one. It was very quite where I was when I heard a Splash, Splash, Splash, goes passed me. Then I heard, .Help, Help, I can.t swim! .I yelled over to him I was on my way and swam over. It was one of our colored Stewarts Mates and he was in real trouble. I took off my life jacket and we both held on to it. It was a good thing we did this as I will explain later. It made no difference to me, the color of his skin or the way he looked, he was a shipmate and that was it. I must apologize as I cannot remember his name, as the case in a lot of my memories, but this doesn't mean I can.t recall their faces as the picture of each shipmate is imprinted in my mine, and I will never forget them. I can remember at the time of the action, but when we had our first reunion, after 30 years I had a hard time recognizing any one, because we were short, fat, guys loosing their hair. After thirty years, many changes in this old body happens. I am short fat little guy and I have lost most of my hair. We were only eighteen at the time.

After I had giving my shipmate part of my life Jacket, I asked him, .If you can.t swim, How did you get out this far?. He answered .I don.t know.. The only thing I could think of as the reason is, He was so scared, he actually ran on water.

One other story of a shipmate, during this time is, I believe his name was Henry Dunagan. He was a short stocky young guy. I didn't know him as some of the others. The reason I bring this up as it made an impression on me to remember. After We were hit, I remember he was around our gun station looking for a spare Life Jacket, he had misplaced his or couldn't find it. He made a statement he couldn't swim. Someone came up with a life Ring. I didn't see him go into the water but I was told, he had jumped in the water and was floating towards the stern of the ship. It was said he couldn't swim away from the fire and it looked as he just gave up raised his arms and went down, never to be seen again. I had questions about this to myself, no one else. I thought everyone was required to learn how to swim. How he got by this, I will never know.

We were floating around, everything was very quite. You could see firing from our ships at enemy planes still in our area. Our ship had disappeared. All of sudden there was a tremendous explosion under water. This was very painful as it felt as someone stuck a small firecracker up your rectum and exploded it. I didn't joke about this. We found out later, when the ship went down, The cold water hitting the hot boilers made them explode. We had to be quite a distance away, when the ship went down.

The Stewarts Mate and I were holding on to my life jacket and we were able to join up with another group of our ship mates. I believe there were about eighteen in our group. One of the guys with us, had a mercury light. A mercury light is, when the light is held upright, it lights, when the light is held upside down, it would not light. We were with this group for sometime, The shipmate with the light, was holding it upright, trying to get the ships around to see us. Again, thinking we were safe and our of harms way, we were strafed by an enemy plane, tracer bullets hit all around us. I don.t think anyone was hit, but we didn't show the light anymore until a ship got closer. We were in the water and every thing was quite when high in the sky, one of our Black Widows started firing at an enemy plane. You could see the tracers being fired, but no sound, a couple of seconds later you would hear the rat, tat, tat, of the firing. You also hear the engines of the planes, diving and screaming at one another. This wasn't the last of the exciting things happening to us. One of the enemy planes, flying low on the water, flew between one of our ships and our group in the water. The ship started firing at the plane. The shells and explosions, were all around us, there was no place to go. This is when I let go of my life jacket and went deep in the water. I was scared and I don.t mind telling anyone about it. I had gone so deep, when I came up my nose was bleeding. I don.t know why, I felt this was the end. Here again I don.t know if any of our group was hit. If there wasn't anyone hit, it would have been a miracle. Our group started getting larger as the survivors started coming together. Being, we were strafed in the water, and more enemy planes were in the area, the ships could not stop to pick us up as they were making perfect stationary targets.

All the ships started laying smoke over the entire area. The ships could go into the smoke and pick us up. We had smoke all around us, you couldn't see ten feet. When a ship came into the smoke, it would move very slow as not to run us down. I was about thirty to forty feet from the rest of the guys with my friend, when I could hear voices. Everything was very quite around us and we could hear these voices. I looked up, there was a destroyer bearing down on us. As soon as I saw this crewman leaning over the bow of this destroyer I started yelling. I actually pushed off the side of the ship with my feet, yelling at the crew above me. Then I heard the ships screws stop, and start reversing. What flashed into my mine then was the Jap being chewed up by our screws, when he wouldn't come aboard our ship, when we were off Tokyo. I was screaming at the top of my voice to stop the engines. We were now down amidships when the screws did stop. It was now quite again and the crew of the Destroyer, Cassin Young, started throwing us lines. The lines were light lines with Monkey fist attached. (Monkey fists were braided small lines with piece of lead as weight inside.) I caught one and the crew pulled the Steward Mate and me to the side of the ship. There was a rope ladder attached to the side of the ship. We started to climb up the ladder, but found we were so weak and cold it was difficult. The Crew leaned over the side of the ship and helped pull us up. When we got aboard there were three small groups, standing in a circle. Each group had their own bottle of liquor. I don't remember what brand it was but it sure warmed you inside. We were allowed two drinks. We were in the water for four and one half hours. This wasn't bad as some of the ships and the crew. Some survivors spent days waiting for rescue. I didn't realize how black I was. We were covered with back crude fuel oil from head to toe. The Stewarts Mate started laughing at me and said he thought I was his brother, and I looked just like him. Each of us, were assigned to a crewman of the Cassin Young. He took me to the crew's head, undress me and was getting all the information on who I was. The pharmacist mates were coming around, washing our eyes and ears out. The crewman in charge of taking care of you, remover all your clothes, after finding out who you were. Now you were buck naked and you have two guys washing you down with a strong detergent, getting the fuel oil off.

I am now feeling the effects of the shot of whisky, and the events which have taken place. The Doctor came around asking if you had any wounds, or scratches. I went through this entire ordeal without a scratch, only feeling very tired. The crewman assigned to me, had found some clothes for me, and as I finished in the showers, I was dried with a towel and put on the clean clothes. I am really feeling weary. The crewman found a bunk for me and I went out, like a light. The time is about 5:30 or 6:00 A.M. I think I was only asleep for about an hour. When I awoke, the pillow I was sleeping on, was black with fuel oil. Thank God the oil didn't catch fire while we were in the water, If it had, a number of us would have perished. I found the crewman, assigned to help me and apologized about the pillow. He said forget it, they had plenty of pillows. I really felt ashamed for ruining his bunk. We were fed breakfast, the best I have ever tasted, and regrouped on the Fantail (Stern). Here we were asked where we were, what we did, who we were with, and how we did whatever we did. It was like a debriefing of the entire event. We also found out, how some of our shipmates died doing their job.

We were brought back to the Okinawa anchorage and put aboard a Hospital Ship. There were more test and examinations made to make sure no one was missed. We also received more shots, making sure, no one got by without a close examination.

The final conclusion of this action is, we lost 47 shipmates out of 320 men. Some were either missing or killed. The number of lost shipmates was low, because of several reasons. While she was burning and dead in the water, The LCS.s came along side the Callaghan to fight the fire and to take off survivors. Another reason the number of killed and wounded was low was because of the crew of the Callaghan. The coolness of the crew and the calm action and courage of the Ships and Crew attending the Callaghan was exemplary.