Then and Now – Norman Bayley, Lt. Col., USMC

5-12-12

                                                  Commanding Officer, Marine Detachment, USS Boston (CA-69)

Norm came to the Boston in an unconventional way.   He was one of the heroic survivors of the Battle for Guadalcanal.   If the horrors of that struggle weren’t enough, he contracted malaria that was so severe they prepared his body to be shipped back from New Zealand for burial in the States.   He survived that, and the Marine Corps, loathe to lose a good man, shipped him off to join the Boston, (as he wryly puts it, “because there are no mosquitoes on the ocean . . .) in the fall of 1944.   He replaced the Marine Commanding Officer.  (We’re trying to ascertain the exact date.)   He was aboard for Typhoon Cobra — and, like the other original crewmembers I have interviewed, has some amazing memories of that storm.

Norm straightened me out on the role of the Marine Detachment aboard the Boston.   I knew they guarded the captain, and that they patrolled the ship with rifles — on the lookout for sharks whenever the men had the rare chance to swim off the side of the ship. The primary role for the marines was: they manned the 20mm anti-aircraft guns, which were the last line of defense against enemy planes closing in at close range to polish off the Boston.   And they shot down planes!

Norm, having distinguished himself in battle in the Solomons, was asked to carry out two very special missions onto Japanese soil late in the War; one by himself, and one leading the Marine Detachment from the Boston.   Sorry, those stories are way too complex to get into here.   You’re going to have to wait until I finish the second or third volume of my next book(s) on the Boston and read all about it there. (Volume 1 is wrapping up.)

Did I mention that Norm is 95 years young?   And still sharp as a razor?

Steve