11-17-18
While there may have been a small group of officers assigned to the being-built Boston in the latter days of 1942, the majority of men were assigned to the new ship in late winter / early spring of 1943. The ship left Boston for the War on Nov. 14, 1943, headed for Pearl Harbor via the Panama Canal and a stop in San Francisco.
I am fortunate to have a copy of Frank Studenski’s “War Diary – U.S.S. Boston CA69” the contents of which are splashed all over the books I have written and this website (also some quotes in our Task Force 58/38 website.) Frank spent three Thanksgivings and three Christmases aboard the ship.
November 27, 1943: Today is Thanksgiving Day, (Holiday routine) we are having Turkey, Ham and all the trimmings. We will arrive at Frisco tomorrow.
A year later, the ship and it’s war-weary crew left the Philippines operations for the anchorage at Ulithi. They were detached en route and went to the huge navy base at Seeadler Harbor, Manus Island (Admiralties) for drydock overhauls and repairs (Nov 22 – Dec 8, 1944). Frank does not call out Thanksgiving Day in his diary, but did include a scan of the Thanksgiving Day Menu in the appendix pages:
Frank was still aboard the ship during it’s last Thanksgiving Day celebration in the Pacific. He did not chronicle Occupation Duty as he had the War, so he did not call out Thanksgiving 1945 as a diary entry. Frank left the ship the day after Christmas and headed home.