Re: ???
Fri Jul 06, 2007 1:40 pm
Jack Cook wrote:Hi Mark,
Very cool info on your dad.
I had a friend named Jim Schiller who flew F4U's in VF-5 (VBF-5?)
on the Frankin. He had just trapped and was standing on the flight deck when they where hit. Jim was blown off into the sea and was picked up by a DD. He was from Pendleton, OR by practiced law in Nampa, ID until he passsed away a few years ago.
Did they treat him OK after being blown off? My uncle's still a bit ticked off about that whole deal. He was assigned to a radio room in the island, don't remember exactly what it was he was doing, but had occasion to take care of something, and when the place was hit, found himself basically trapped in a radio room partway up the island. Went THROUGH a porthole and landed on a steel walkway about 20 feet below (didn't realize that he'd injured his knees until later), and saw a bunch of other men in the water. He cut loose a bunch of the life preservers and flotation gear nearby so that the guys in the water would be ok, and then, with smoke, fire, etc... seemingly all around him and no way to communicate or move to a better spot, he jumped in with the rest of the guys in the water. He REALLY wanted to go back on board, but the captain wouldn't let any of the guys who left the ship back on board. While I understand the Captain's rational, and the fact that there was no order to abandon ship, I do not believe that my uncle was a coward, or that he acted unreasonably given the circumstances. Apparently all of the other guys he knew in the radio room died.
Ryan