Author: bill

I’m always struck by the fact that the US as a country has come to use this day as one of the only times we say thank you to our veterans.  I’m remembering when we sought out support at the VA hospital for my father’s alzhiemer’s disease, and how overwhelmed the VA medical system was with people to treat.  We met the most dedicated teams of medical professionals who wanted to do the best for our vets, but were overwhelmed with patients.

As a country I hope we could do more for the men and women who risk their lives in support of our country.  I fear that our volunteer service has made our countries support of the military more remote.  I was REALLY struck by spending a few summers in Israel where military service is mandatory for everyone.  The death of EVRY soldier is taken very seriously in that country where politicians are held accountable for very wounded and dead soldier.  I wonder whether the US would be better served with universal service.

-Bill

John Hazard Carson was the first commanding Officer of the USS Boston and the first officer to be added to the database.  He the USS Boston Commanding officer from April 5, 1943 to June 5 1944.  Commander Hazard was in charge from commissioning to full engagement in the Pacfic.

He was promoted to Rear Admiral in March of 1944.    He was born on April 13. 1896 and was Commissioned from Annapolis in 1916. Received an MS from MIT in 1924. He was Commanding Officer of the Dewey 1936-1937. He served duty at the Navy Proving Ground, Dahlgren, Virginia 1937-1940. He was the Executive Officer of the New Mexico 1940-1941. Operations Officer on the staff of the Commander of Cruisers in the Battle Force, then Southwest Pacific Forces 1941-1943. Then, he was assigned to the USS Boston CA-69.

After serving on the USS Boston, he was Commander of U.S. Naval Torpedo Station, Newport 1944-1946. He retired as Vice Admiral in April 1958. Died on February 2, 1976.  Source:  http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/jhcarson.htm

You can see the link to his boston record here.  I’ve included a new biography for each sailor which individuals can send us short biographies of family members or friends who were boston sailors.

Please send me a bio if your interested!

-Bill

All,

We are participating in the internet protest to work to defeat the bill working their way through congress right now; the bill is called SOPA or PIPA.  Content on the internet is vital to be free and have  legitimate process if someone removes content on a whim.  Two events in World War II remind us of the sobering potential of the government and censorship: The detainment of US citizens of Japanese origin, and the post war McCarthy abuse of power.

Please call your senator.

Bill Kelly

1-2-2012

All,

You’ll find a new tab in the front page of the Blog labelled ‘Info’.  This is texual data about the USS Boston.  So far I’ve placed the first 4 months of Deck Logs in the tab marked info.  Deck Logs are an interesting read, complete with unavoidable puns like ‘Hit the Deck (log)’ or ‘Deck the Log with balls of Folly’;  but I digress.  Decklogs were monthly records that have 4 parts, a title page (missing or stolen from the first 4-5 decklogs), next comes a list of the addresses and names of the next of kin of each of the officers, then each day comes a page called ‘columns’ which list critical data about the weather of the day, the ship’s position at noon, and a list of water and fuel on hand, finally after columns, comes administrative notes for each day which account for what happened in detail on that day.  Disciplinary hearings, people leaving and arriving on the ship, and during the war, how the ship was navigated every 4 hours.

I’ve put July 1943 through November 1943 and I’ll be adding decklogs as I finish assembling them.  I photographed all of the decklogs in Washington DC and I’ll try to assemble them as they should be assembled, not as I found them.  Many people are uninterested in Columns, for many months, the columns have been sorted as a group and placed in the end of the folder, I’m trying to assemble the deck log as it would appear when created.

The cover pages of the first several months are missing, and the Officers next of kin pages are missing form the first two decklogs.  Either they were removed at Nara by people who wanted a keepsake, or they never made it to Nara.  This is why NARA is so crazy about protecting documents. 🙂

Each month is a file (PDF) which is 33-50 Megabytes.  Translation: it’s really large!  make sure you have a fast internet connection to look at it!  My plan is to update individual personnel records with links to individual decklog pages.

Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions!

-Bill