10-31-10
A year ago, my brother Bill and I launched this website dedicated to the men who served aboard the heavy cruiser USS Boston during the height of the Pacific War. We knew that the ship’s story encompasses four decades — that she was retrofitted into a guided missile cruiser and found herself once again three and a half decades later in the South China Sea and CamRahn Bay, this time lobbing shells against enemy positions during the Vietnam War. We knew about the terrific organization USS Boston Shipmates (of which our only affiliation is that we are members) that is dedicated to preserving the legacy of all ships named Boston. But our dad served aboard CA-69 as she participated in the systematic reduction of enemy defenses that lead directly to the Surrender of Japan. That’s the Boston that we’re interested in, and that is what this website is all about.
Bill decided to tackle the task of systematically identifying and listing all the men who served aboard her from Commissioning Day until the crew disbanded in February of 1946. That is a work in progress, and Bill blogs when he can, reporting on his progress. We are planning to add photos to the crew records as we get them from folks out there in cyberspace.
When we launched the site, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do or write about. I decided to post a monthly summary of the ship’s activities for 1943-45. The last installment for October finishes the 12 month cycle. I’m not big on redundancy — so future blogs will take a different path. For one thing, I’ll try to start posting the photos readers have been sending me.
I reviewed all the postings the other day. While I take it for granted that most people are used to electronic postings in “from newest to oldest” order, I admit that I found the October postings chronologically challenging. A new reader would have to scroll to the “last page” to read the “first post” of a year ago. Starting today, I am adding the “created date” to the title of each blog posting (assuming I remember to do that . . . .)
Thanks for reading, and thanks to everyone who has sent us pictures, documents, memories, observations, questions . . . etc.
Steve