Thomas E. Crew

Number 108: Texas A&M University Military History Series

Dedicated to all of the U.S. combat veterans whose stories remain untold

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Text Box: Updated: April 22, 2008 Text Box: "So men take heed, this trusty craft on which we rest our humble carcasses is not a cargo carrier but a fighting ship as well.  So with all due credit I think that she, a ship among ships, has earned her campaign stars."               Rupert E. Lyon, Wartime Commanding Officer USS Tate   Text Box: "I guess it doesn't make any difference, once a man has gone.  Medals and speeches and victories are nothing to them any more.  They died and others lived and nobody knows why it is so.  They died and thereby the rest of us go on and on."                                                                      Ernie Pyle Text Box: On board the USS Tate with forty-eight stars, thirteen stripes, five sailors and one purpose. Text Box: USS Tate (AKA-70) Text Box:      We all have a debt to the past.  Our memories form the very essence of who we are and without them, we would have no identity.  Many of these memories are carried through time as part of our collective American experience.  They can be stirred to life by any number of events: such as hearing our National Anthem, seeing the pride and dignity with which our armed forces carry themselves, or from studying our nation’s military history.  On the eve of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln spoke of "the mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land."  Lincoln was appealing to the American identity to listen to the "better angels of our nature," and avoid war. Yet, historical consciousness could not overcome the political issues of the day and the ensuing tragedy still casts its dark shadow across time.  There are many ways in which we can repay our debt to the past and infuse ourselves with the historical awareness that Lincoln foresaw as so valuable.  For me it was paid in part by  interviewing over fifty of our rapidly vanishing World War II veterans and then writing Combat Loaded.  While this book tells their stories, it was also written to represent a whole class of amphibious warriors who have been largely ignored by historians.  Put simply, the goal was to tell an untold story through a chorus of original voices.  After five years of research, writing, and plundering the National Archives, the resulting work contains a number of interesting embedded stories:        Ø    The cradle to grave story of a WW II attack cargo ship.                   Ø  The mobilization and training of largely civilian crew. Ø  A detailed technical description of amphibious operations from both an individual ship and transport squadron perspective. Ø  A complete reconstruction and analysis (with tactical maps) of a large kamikaze attack on a lightly screened troop laden transport squadron off Okinawa. Ø  A comprehensive description of the seizure of the Kerama Retto island group (with tactical maps) as the first stage in the largest operation of the Pacific War: the battle for Okinawa. Ø  A detailed account of the battle for Ie Shima (with tactical maps), one of the last invasions of the war, representing the end-state of one of WW II’s hallmarks--joint amphibious operations. Ø  The inclusion of the story of the troops of the 77th Infantry Division fighting ashore and the operations to keep them supplied with combat cargo provides an understanding of the vital role of combat logistics in amphibious warfare.  Ø  The origin and impact of specialized oceanographic and hydrographic units in amphibious operations. Ø  A detailed description of the last days of Ernie Pyle told in greater depth than previously published accounts using significant new material. Ø  Post-war transport of over 600,000 Chinese troops to counter Communist intentions in Manchuria. Ø  The harrowing story of riding out a massive typhoon at sea. Ø  The lasting emotional impact of war.              

 

 

Text Box: Air attack at dusk on the transport area

Text Box: Kamikaze damage to Henrico (APA-45)

 

 

 

Taps

All those associated with the Combat Loaded project extend their sympathy to the family of QM 1st Class Alfred S. Coslett, whose recent passing reminds us all just how blessed we are to live in the shadow of the Greatest Generation.  As a Quartermaster, Al often used the stars to set a course for his shipmates during World War II.  Surely, there is now, one more star in the heavens, to guide us all through our lives--made possible by Al's humble service to his country.  Stand easy sailor on a job well done and a life well lived.

It is with a sad heart that we must announce the passing of another vital member of the Combat Loaded project.  We lost MM 2nd Class Milton J. Buswell of Elyria, Ohio over the Memorial Day weekend.  Of all the veterans interviewed during this project, Milton's war experience was easily the most gripping, as he had already lost two ships in the Arctic Ocean, before joining the USS Tate.  When asked if he had lived his whole life in Elyria, Ohio, he chuckled and said, "Not yet."  A humble soul who endured the wrath of both the Germans and the Japanese, Milton returned to Ohio after the war, to live the simple life he had dreamed of during the darkest days of World War II. 

It is often said that bad news comes in threes and with the passing of EM 2nd Class Byron W. Larsen on June 6th (D-Day) this adage has yet again become a reality.  The day we found Byron, he was feeling down and questioning if he had anything to offer to the Combat Loaded project.  As the conversation went on, it gained momentum and moved from a level addressing operational detail to one about the unfathomable and lasting emotional imprint of war on the human spirit.  It was a remarkable transformation of a tired old man into a vibrant and energized veteran eager to have his thoughts and deeds captured as part of the permanent historical record.  As a writer it is a daunting task to try and portray the humility of such a man, who felt he initially had little to offer, before providing such a poignant account of the war's impact on his life.   Now we who are left, must try to assess the lasting imprint such men have had on ourselves, the American experience and the world as a whole.

It has been over eight months since I have had the sad duty of trying to put into words the loss of another vital contributor to the Combat Loaded project.  Alvin Joslyn's passing on March 4, 2008, brings forth for me a complex mix of emotions that may take years to fully understand.  As with the death of any valued friend there is a profound feeling of loss, but at this time I cannot help feel this loss is tempered by the lasting influence Al will have on my life and by the legacy he helped forge for his fellow World War II veterans.  Al was the second man located as a part of the USS Tate reunion effort.  And over the course of our many conversations he convinced me that a book needed to be written, not a conventional smoke and steel war story, but a book about the human experience of war.  The seed was thus sown and the mold set for the five year long project that brought forth Combat Loaded.  Whenever I got stuck or doubted myself, Al was there to coax me along.   And when Al came to New Orleans for a Kiwanis convention, it was my honor to spend a day with him at the National World War II Museum.  My fondest memory of Al  was when I visited him in Michigan at Christmas 2006 and placed a just released copy of Combat Loaded in his happy hands.   It was the book he convinced me to write and whose very fabric was a product of his humanity.  During that visit I got to examine a pair of sandals that Al had brought home from Zamami Shima.  The sandals had belonged to a Japanese girl killed by her own family to protect her from the American invaders.  Yet, here was a ninety-plus year old man still honoring the memory of a girl killed in 1945, so that he could not harm her.  The irony was riveting.  I later learned that Texas A&M University Press had contracted the production of  Combat Loaded to a printer outside Ann Arbor, just a few miles away from where Al lived.  I found it both amusing and fitting that an author from Mississippi, with a publisher from Texas, would coincidentally have a book printed in the same Michigan community where the project's concept was born in the soul of an aging veteran who had called that place home for his entire adult life.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

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