Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: ABDCWOT on June 24, 2011, 06:57:33 PM
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USS Cowpens story written by my grandfather Jack Moran. His handwritting is a little rough but I'm glad he shared this story with me.
(http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad134/abdc916/Scan.jpg)
(http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad134/abdc916/Scan1.jpg)
(http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad134/abdc916/Scan2.jpg)
(http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad134/abdc916/Scan3.jpg)
(http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad134/abdc916/016.jpg)
-AB
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You'll have to forgive me, I'm very interested in reading/hearing your grandfather's story and experiences serving aboard Mighty Moo, but am having a difficult time fluently reading his very scriptive handwriting (I wouldn't call it rough, I have a hard time reading any well scribed handwriting like his). Could you or someone able to easily read it type out a translation, please? I'd greatly apreciate it and look forward to reading it.
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Any chance you could type that us for us to be able to read it easier? Not trying to cause a problem, I'd just like to be able to see what your Grandfather had to say.
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My name is Jack Moran & I was a seaman on the USS Cowpens from May 43 until May 45. I knew nothing about ALL website until my son obtaind some of the comments about the Cowpens.
There were letters stating it was a jinx ship. That's a complete falsehood. I never heard one shipmate ever say that. We supposedly got caught in a anti-submarine net after our shakedown cruise to Trinidad off the coast of Va. & then went into drydock. If this happened it was so minute or else it would stand out in my mind. The only time she was in drydock was at Pearl Harbor when it was rammed by a destroyer at night. We never missed a fleet operation because of it & we went from Wake Island Oct 5, 1943 to Japan. Our biggest problem I believe was the typhoon which will come later.
One fact that was left out was the time the marines (sic) landed on the Marshall Islands & as they took the island we took some of their walking wounded back to Pearl. They also used our bunks to rest.
Thinking back o~7 years this jinx ship in my two years aboard we lost nine men, not what the Web site states. Four were officers; three marines (sic) & two seaman (sic). I only know the name(s) of five of them, one was a pilot the first killed - the flt deck air officer - a marine (sic) officer & two seaman (sic). I am not using their names as I do not know what their families were told.
If I recall what I read the marines (sic) were killed at their 20mm guns during the typhoon in Dec of 44. First of all I believe the typhoon was earlier. The four marines (sic) were killed by one of our own planes that crashed into their guns. Normally guns are not manned when planes land but having Japanese planes in the vicinity the guns were manned.
Now to get to the typhoon. What was written was all wrong. The ship rolled & pitched that was such a danger to the whole ship. All you could see was tremendous waves & see maybe 500 ft. No ship could see another ship during that whole typhoon. Yet it ws stated that the ship as it rolled to starboard from the bridge you could touch the water. Ridiculous if that happened there would have been a loss of 13 to 1500 seamen due to the capsizing. There were 3 destroyers lost due to to capsizing. A loss of about 750 men. The ships were the H S & M.
It also stated two destroyers came to assist us because we lost our radar. Not true. We had our radar as we were ordered to circle the USS Cabot whose hangar deck was on fire. This is what the Mighty Moo did in the typhoon.
One other falsehood I want to comment about. It was stated a plane was landing & it crashed over the side & that the landing signal officer jumped overboard to save the pilot & they both drowned. A landing signal office directs planes aboard & if he is in trouble to injury by a landing plane he jumps off the side below the flight deck & lands in a net that's there for him. No way did he ever jump into the water to save the pilot.
Now a word about Lt. Cmdr. Price. I personally seen (sic) him on the starboard side aft on the flight deck during the typhoon. He was releasing the cables & chocks that secure the planes & pushing them overboard because they were fueled. Sadly he was blown overboard. Nobody knew it & he was constantly paged for a day to report to the bridge. Here's a man who put the crew & ship before his own safety. I do not know if he was awarded anything but he surely earned the highest commendation. The AOL Web Site had a statement the Mighty Moo had 10 or 12 battle stars. My discharge states American Theater - Asiatic Pacific 12 stars & Phillipine Liberation 2 stars.
Last statement. It was an honor to serve on the ship & with this crew. Outside of the Enterprise which was out there the whole war, the "Mighty Moo" had to be the best carrier bar none.
I believe I was the youngest sailor aboard. I went aboard when I was 16 years of age.
If anything is wrong please inform me.
Thanks.
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Heh. GFShill beat me to it.. guess he types faster.
<checks to see if we matched up>
My name is Jack Moran + I was a seaman on the USS Cowpens from May 43 until Mar. 45
I knew nothing about the AOL Website until my son obtained some of the comments about the Cowpens.
There were letters stating it was a jinx ship. That's a complete falsehood. I never heard one shipmate ever say that. We supposedly got caught in a anti-submarine net after our shakedown cruise to Trinidad off the coast Va. + then went into drydock. If this happened it was so minute or else it would stand out in my mind. The only time she was in drydock was at Pearl Harbor when it was rammed by a destroyer at night. We never missed a fleet operation because of it + we went from Wake Island Oct 5, 1943 to Japan. Our biggest problem I believe was the typhoon which will come later.
One fact that was left out was the time the marines landed on the Marshall Islands + as they took the island we took some of their walking wounded back to Pearl. They also used our bunks to rest.
Thinking back 57 years this jinx ship in my two years abaord we lost nine men, not what the website states. Four were officers; three marines + two seaman. I only know the name of five of them, one was a pilot the first killed - the flt deck air officer - a marine officer + two seaman. I am not using their names as I do not know what the families were told.
If I recall what I read the marines were killed at their 20mm guns during the typhoon in Dec. of 44. First of all I believe the typhoon was earlier. The four marines were killed by one of our own planes that crashed into their guns. Normally guns are not manned when planes land but having Japanese planes in the vicinity the guns are manned.
Now to get to the typhoon. What was written was all wrong. The ship rolled + pitched that was such a danger to the whoel ship. All you could see was tremendous waves + see maybe 500 ft. No ship could see another ship during that whole typhoon. Yet it was stated that the ship as it rolled to starboard from the bridge you could touch the water. Ridiculous if that happened there would have been a loss of 13 to 1500 men, due to capsizing. There were 3 destroyers lost due to capsizing. A loss of about 750 men. The ships were the H S + M.
It also stated two destroyers came to assist us because we lost our [radar??] Not true. We had our [radar??] as we were ordered to circle the USS Cabot whose hanagr deck was on fire. This is what the Mighty Moo did in the typhoon.
One other falsehood I want to comment about. It was stated a plane was landing + it crashed over the side + that the landing signal officer jumped overboard to save the pilot + they both drowned. A landing signal officer directs planes aboard + if he is in trouble to injury by a landing plane he jumps off to the side below the flight deck + lands in a net that's there for him. No way did he ever jump into the water to save the pilot.
Now a word about Lt. Cmdr. Price. I personally seen him on the starboard side aft of teh flight deck during the typhoon. He was releasing teh cables + chocks that secure the planes + pushing them overboard because they were fueled. Sadly he was blown overboard. Nobody knew it and we was constantly paged for a day to report to the bridge. Here's a man who put the crew and ship before his own safety. I do not know if he was awarded anything but he surely earned the highest commendation.
The AOL Website had a statement the Mighty Moo had 10 or 12 battle stars. My discharge states American Theatre - Asiatic Pacific 12 stars + Philipine Liberation 2 stars.
Last statement. It was an honor to serve on this ship + with this crew. Outside of the Enterprise which was out there the whole war, the "Mighty Moo" had to be the best carrier bar none.
I believe I was the youngest sailor aboard. I went aboard when I was 16yrs 1mo of age.
If anything is wrong, please inform me. Thanks.
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:salute
For you illiterates.... learn to read!! and write!! cursive!!
It was actually fairly easy to read.
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I thought it was easy to read, too. Then again, I was taught cursive in elementary school "because it was faster" and touch-typing in high school "because it was faster".
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Thanks for the typed version gents.
I can read cursive writing and was taught that style because it was way before PC computers were envisioned way back in the late 50's and early 60's. It is still far easier to read print due to the idiosyncrasies of the individual hand. I had to revert back to block printing in my professional life because it removes ambiguity in the written word.
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shouldn't we just :salute and say 'thank you'?
:salute Thank you
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heck yah. :salute
Every personal account of the war is important and invaluable.
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That's actually pretty good cursive writing.
As I get older, I am slowly switching from cursive to block letters.
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if iwas lookin at it in person i could porobably haave made it out. my dads writing is like reading hyroglyphics (sp). very neat compared to my dads.
back on topic, very interesting story. :salute
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shouldn't we just :salute and say 'thank you'?
:salute Thank you
That certainly works for me.
:salute
thank you
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Thank you for sharing. :salute
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its way better than my chicken scratch! i could read it but slowly! mad ABDC didnt tell me you all transcribed it already! ABDC said his gramps was about 70 to mid 70s writing it! so for an older man to his had that smooth is very impressive as well as the story!