The USS Boston in World War II

Relaunching the website

I have just re-launched the website, converted from Wordpress which has gotten old, slow, and painful to a new website platform called Ghost which allows more visibility and flexibility. FIFTEEN! years ago, Steve and I started this blog and the new site allows much more access to really fun content.

Stephen McGrath

I was contacted by Stephen’s grandson who sent me this picture.

Honoring Veteran's Day

Remembering my Dad, and the Signal Crew and all who served on this Veterans Day

More Christmas 1945

12/21/21 Here are three “inside” shots of Christmas decorations on the ship in 1945.   How they got these items is beyond my guesses.   The fourth shot is Midnight Mass.     I am also adding a pdf file of the “events and activities” booklet.   The late Bob Knight loaned me

Thanks, Dirk Oster

12/14/21 While I was working on the Baked Beans books, one day I got an email from Dirk Oster. he explained that his dad, Bernie Oster, was the ship’s photographer.   He had a bunch of old snapshots of the ship that his dad took. They weren’t

Remembering Pearl Harbor

On December 6th 1943, the USS Boston Steamed into Pearl Harbor.  We’ve heard from sailors that this was a very emotional moment, exactly one day short of 1 year from the day that will live in infamy.  The ships on battleship row were still smoldering.

Thanksgiving, 1944

11-24-21 The Boston was ordered on November 21, 1944 to detach from the rest of the Task Force (enroute to Ulithi Atoll) and report to drydock at Manus Island (Admiralties) for an overhaul.   The ship arrived at Seedler Harbor (Manus) the the day after Thanksgiving, November 24.

It wasn't over (yet)

9/6/2021 September 4, 1945: Today after the Peace Treaty was signed a lot of the ships from the task groups were headin back home with “Homeward Bound” pennants flying.   We watched a lot of ships leaving Tokyo Bay. OCCUPATION DUTY: We received orders to form a task group

Clyde W. Day

May 14, 2021 A while back, we got an email from May Koenig, telling us she has a picture of her grandfather, Clyde W. Day in uniform. She sent it in, and Bill added it to this site’s crewlist.   I then asked her if she could tell us a

April & May, 1945

4-11-21 While the ship was under repair in San Pedro, the men left on leaves   –   half gone for three weeks and the other half doing light duty on the ship (with plenty of leaves and down-time.) Bob Knight: I had a twenty-one day leave and I came home.   At that

Terminal Island

3-25-21 From Frank Studenski’s diary: Early this morning, I got my first look at the California coast line. We pulled into the Terminal Island Navy Yard flying our Homeward Bound pennant. While the N.O.B. Band played and Ginny Simms sang, “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning,” with a

at sea

Back, hopefully

3/12/21 We’ve been having ongoing, seemingly impossible-to-resolve tech problems with this site.   I’m gonna blame it on Covid.   Anyway, hopefully we’re past the issues, and we can keep posting from time-to-time. Let’s set the “WAY-BACK MACHINE”, Mr. Peabody, to March of 1945. On March

The Ship's Tenor

2-1-2021 96 year-old Pat Fedele, the ship's tenor,passed away today. I got to know Pat when I was working on my “Baked Beans” series about CA-69 in WWII. I am deeply saddened by his passing, as he and I developed a nice friendship over the years. He

So, it's been a while . . .

Nov. 1, 2020 I’m pretty sure a while back I wrote in one of my posts that I was taking a detour for a while so I could focus on a long-delayed project (involving Colonial New England.) Then we slid into covid. So, I have finished first and second

95 and still goin' strong.

10-3-20 Ninety-five year-old USS BOSTON plankowner Thomas R. Williamson is visiting his son David at his home in the Boston area. David reached out to me.   During several email back-and-forths, David ordered a set of books for his dad. (Not meant to be a shamelss marketing ploy. It's

at sea

Another Interesting Guy - Victor Conner

April 4, 2020 Last month I posted about Cloyd Fair, one of the ship’s barbers.   He mustered onto the Boston on Commissioning Day, along with a full crew of mostly fresh-out of – boot-camp sailors.   But Cloyd saw some duty before coming to the Boston; he was a barber on

Here's an interesting Boston guy.

1-25-20 About a month ago, I got emails and a book order from Brian Fair. His grandfather served on the ship, and he wanted a set of “Baked Beans.” I shipped them off and then he sent me a few pics of his grandfather,     a copy of his discharge papers,

First Pat, Now John

12-27-19 A few days ago I published two clips from my interviews with Pat Fedele.   In the first, he talked about his singing on the ship and his role in the “Three B’s” The second one finished with the a segment of the beautiful song he wrote, “Let’s

Interviews

12-23-19 I have hours and hours of interviews from 7 or so years ago. I was working on the Baked Beans books, and through a series of lucky breaks, I was able to interview six plankowners (and one Marine officer.) The guys were in their mid-80’s, and the interviews

Where were they?

12-21-19 Obviously, not every man aboard the Boston celebrated Christmas.   But among the roughly 1500 young sailors (18 year-olds, mostly); being so far from home was an emotional time.   The ship was “at sea” for three Christmases. 1943: Having finally left Boston, transited the Panama Canal, visited San Francisco, and

Two years later

12-7-19 Crewmember Diary Entries   (excerpts) December 6, 1943 . . . On entering Pearl Harbor we passed through torpedo nets that are opened and closed by tugs . . . On our way in signs of the attack could still be seen. The Battleship Oklahoma was afloat but at a 45 degree angle and still pumping

Thinking about War and how we "see the enemy"

11-23-19 I started recently contemplating “Wars” and how we think about them.   What reference points do we use when we think about World War Two (the Second Act of WWI), Korea, Vietnam and the War on Terror?   In WWII, we think of our foes primarily in two ways.   Our enemies

11-11-11

Honoring all who serve

Update

11/3/19 Over the last year or so, several factors that influence this web/blogsite have occurred / changed.   As you probably know, we were hacked   –   the attacks came in through our email links, causing many headaches for Bill, as he worked diligently to build new protections.   As a result,

carrier planes

10-5-19 A recap of Boston’s station in the task force(s):     Task Force 58 (and 38) was organized into a flotilla of warships.   There were destroyers, cruisers, battleships and aircraft carriers   –   typically around 100 ships.   In order for a large Task Force to carry out it’s objectives, it