USS REID 369

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Letters to the USS REID 369 Website
December 13, 2009
RE: U.S.S. Reid

It is always a pleasant surprise to hear that someone has found our website and has a connection with someone found there.  It is what makes it all worthwhile.
 
I will pass your email on to our webmaster, like you, a son of a shipmate, and you may see your email on the website in the coming months.  Also, we will take #15 off our "unknown" list and transfer his information to the master list of shipmates, along with his picture. 

The only information I have on your father is that he enlisted September 9, 1941, reported aboard the Reid November 19, 1941 and was a survivor of the sinking.  Apparently our Reunion Group and he never made a connection.
 
What can you tell us about your father?  Where born? When? Any interesting stories about growing up?  Why join the Navy?  What did he do after leaving the Reid?  What did he do as a civilian?  If not living, when did he pass away?
 
If you have pictures of him during wartime, wedding day, later in life, can you email them to me?  If not, plz send them in mail and I will scan them and return them.  Did he write up any of his war stories?  We are setting up a section on the website for war stories and another for pictures of sweethearts.  We also may set up a section of bio sketches of shipmates.
 
We have recently started a trust fund to cover the costs of perpetuating our website, so that your grandchildren and great grandchildren will be able to find their ancestors.
 
Hoping to hear from you further,
 
Len Gardner

Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 11:56:06 -0800
Dir Sir,

My brother found your newsletter via the History Channel, then on the web.  He brought it to my attention and we both enjoyed reading it.  Then, while further exploring, he found a series of pictures showing unidentified crew members (in your 2007 Vol # 13, no 3.)  After asking me to look at the article, and consequently after I forwarded it to our dad's surviving sister and brother, we all believe that the picture of the man at the top left on page 10, picture #15 is a picture of Carl William Radebaugh, Rdm,  aboard the USS Reid from Pearl and until/throughout her final action.  After the sinking, Carl was rescued by a supply ship and, we believe, can be seen in another of the pictures in the same issue - that of a group of survivors being rescued aboard an LSI.  There is a group of 4 men resting (above the very large rope) with their heads silhouetted against the water;  because of his very unique hairline, we believe it is Carl who is sitting just below the man whose head is the highest of these 4 men in the picture.  

My brother had advised he would try to supply you with this information but I've never heard that he did.  And its too important to me to not try. 

If you receive this e-mail, I'd be very interested in hearing from you and attempting to supply any other information I might.  I remember Dad telling us that he was temporarily re-assigned to Washington D.C. after the sinking, to help serve as one of the clerical personnel for records of the crew members and and for notifying families. 

Regards,

Bill   

 
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009

Mr. Len Gardner,
 
 
All this week the History Channel has been running a mini series about WWII. Last night (18 Nov.) they featured the battle that took place at Leyte in the Phillipines. I know that the Reid was a part of this because my grandfather served on and survived the sinking of that great ship. His name is William Halfpap. After watching that show, I went online and found ussreid369.org. I was thrilled to find 2 pictures of him on the site. However, sadly, he passed away on 12 May, 2008 after battling Alzheimer's Disease. He was very proud to have served on the Reid. He was the nicest, kindest person anyone could have met. He is greatly missed. 
 
I just want to thank you for the web site dedicated to the USS Reid. My grandfather would have liked it.
 
Sincerely,   Doug Van Remortel 

 

-----

Thank you for writing to me.  Someone recently informed me of your grandfather's passing, although I can't seem to locate the record just now.  It's discoveries like yours and letting us know, that make the website worth while.  Most of the credit for the site belongs to Dr. James Wilson, son of a shipmate, whose dedication and creativity have made it possible.
 
I served with your grandfather and knew him at the time.  I served as a signalman on the bridge and he as a radioman on the deck immediately below.  As we were both in the communications business, we had frequent contact.
 
Regards, 
 
Len Gardner
 

Date: Nov 17, 2009

Dear Sir?Ma'am or whom it may concern,

 

My name is Erin Aitken. I am writing you in hopes you may be able to contact former crew member and plank owner by the name of John G. Bradford. I am in possesion of his Honorary Plank Owner Certificate for the USS Reid (FFG-30) Commisioned on February 19, 1983.  I moved up to Washington from California and bought this item at a garage sale for $2.00 because I thought it was preety neat. Then I had it stored away in a closet away from my little boys so they would break the glass after we relocated again I was going through my closet, and thought maybe he would like to have his certificate back. I dont know why or how he parted with it, but in case it had fallen in the wrong hands, I thought maybe he would like to have it back for sentimental purposes, or maybe pass it on to a family member. I can send it to him, no charge of cource, if he would like to have it back. If it was my fathers, I would want to have it. Hope you can help.

 

                Thank you!

 

Erin A. Aitken

Yelm, WA

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for taking the time to search for the owner of what certainly qualifies as a family heirloom.  
 
I am the contact person for the third naval ship named USS REID DD369 whose website you found on the internet.  The fourth ship named USS REID was Bradford's ship, the FFG30.  I have attached a picture of that ship.  It served the nation well for many years, but it is no longer a commissioned U.S. Navy ship.
 
I am forwarding your inquiry to the first captain of the FFG30 and to a member of the first crew.  I expect that one or both of them will be in touch with you.
 
Thanks again for your concern in preserving the momento you acquired.  Also in the last few days, we have upgraded our USS REID DD369 website, in case you are interested in the heritage of our WWII ship.
 
Regards, 
 
Len Gardner

Date: 30 Oct 2009
 

Let me start by thanking you for this wonderful site. I just found it tonight and have enjoyed reading about the USS Reid . My uncle was one of crew that was killed.I would like to know if you knew him or anything about him or anyway I might find any information on him. His name was Howard Frederick Rawlings,20.Seaman First Class, from East Ocean View ,Virginia.His nickname was Smokey.Anything you can tell me would be greatly appreciated.

I would like to thank you for your service to our Country and for the web site.

If you are unable to help, I thank you anyway.                      

 Sincerely, Hilda Garrett

Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2009

Mr. Gardner, I would like to submit the following information on my grandfather for updating the Shipmate portion of the USS REID website;

 Shipmate:     Ralph Uland Whittington

Rank Aboard: 

GM 3/c    (GM 2/c - 5/1/38, GM 1/c - 2/16/40, Chief GM - 4/1/42)

Born:   12/31/1909

Joined Navy:  8/12/1926

On Reid:  11/02/1936     (reported to duty on 12/31/1936)

Left Reid:  4/30/1942

Died:  10/03/1975

 Granddaddy retired from the Navy on 9/1/1956 with the rank of CWO-W-2 after 30 years of service.  Thank you for keeping the information updated on the website.

  Daniel N. Johnson

Date: 5 Oct 2009
 
Mr. Gardner,
 
A lucky break, a long lost cousin of mine (also named Joseph Wieczorek) was doing some research on our Uncle Joe and came across my letter to you on your website. He sent me the attached photo and has promised to send some other family documents. I hope this photo will strike a memory from one of his shipmates who could tell us something about him and perhaps his last few days.


Thanks for staying in touch and for doing such a wonderful job in helping all of your shipmates and their families to be able to communicate.

Fred Cook

 
Sent to Len Gardner:  October 27, 2008

 

Sirs,

 

My late father Philip Niessen served in the Navy during the War and was a Classification Specialist, SP (c) 3/c, stationed at Bremerton, WA in 1944 and 1945.  During that time he kept a diary of his interviews (without names) and conducted interviews of the USS Reid survivors as they returned to the States.  The notes on the Reid interviews are very brief but I thought that they might be of some interest to your group.

 

Best regards,

Len Niessen

 

January 12, 1945

 

Tonite we all had to work.  120 survivors came in from the USS Reid[1] a DD announced lost due to enemy action in the 2nd Battle of the Philippines.  They were brought back on the USS Nashville and arrived here this morning.  All records were lost, of course, so a card had to be made out on every man.  We also made up a SF form on each man and shore-duty scores on those who rated them.  They came here from small stores where they were given the usual Navy tailoring job (too short or too long).  None of them had contacted their families yet, who probably think they are lost.  They are due to get their survivor’s leave tomorrow so we rushed them through.  The Reid had been through quite a bit of action and some of the men rated 9 stars.  They were a boisterous lot, and it was quite apparent they were all glad to be alive.  106 men were lost with the ship.  They each had a thick packet of letters which they were given a few minutes before coming here and they kept themselves pretty busy reading these while waiting to be interviewed.  They hadn’t heard from their families for a month or more.  While I was filling out the SF form on one man, he was reading letters from his wife.  He showed me a picture of his 2 year old girl.  Attached to a page of the letter was two little candles from her birthday cake.  He just smiled from ear to ear while reading the letter. 

 

One of the fellows I interviewed was 17 years old and had several months of sea duty already, climaxed by his ship being sunk.  I wonder what I’d be like today if that had happened to me when I was 17.

 

Q. – How was your ship sunk --- torpedoed?

 

A. – Well – that’s what we were told to say.

 

Q. – OK

 

A. – We were suicide-bombed by a Jap plane.

 

Q. – Well, that’s fairly common nowadays – why the mystery?

 

A. – They don’t want information to leak out how effective suicide bombing is.  The way I look at it is, it’s not only the damage to ships that is effective, it’s the mental impression that it makes on those it hits.  The sight of a burning, twisting plane diving toward you for what seems like several minutes is rather hard on the nerves.  There must have been 50 ships throwing up stuff at the plane that finally got us.  Ten planes peeled off and each one went for a ship.

 

Q. – How long were you in the water?

 

A. – About a half hour – it wasn’t so bad.  Most of the damaged ships in the yard were suicide-bombed.  On the Reid two gun mounts were wiped out; most of the men lost were below deck.

 

[1] Sunk after being hit by 2 Kamikaze Planes in Ormoc Bay Leyte, Philippines, December 11 1944.

February 27th, 2007

Dear Mr. Gardner,

 I’ve already sent you an email but it was before I had the chance to go through this website. This is  an incredible website and I was stunned to find a photo of my Grandfather. I’ve never seen that photo before. I was astonished. Thank you so much for keeping this site going and thank you again for serving and giving me an opportunity to live as well as I do today. The more I research the past the more I see how much we take everything we have for granted. We really don’t understand how easy our generation has it.

 

Derek Ramsey

January 29th, 2007 from the first skipper of the USS REID FFG30

Len,

 Very well done website...

Very best, Tom
Sent to Len Gardner on December 7th, 2006:

My name is Albert Owens. I was named after my Dad who died when the USS Reid went down on Dec. 11, 1944. He and another sailor named Augustine Miller were from Jessamine County Kentucky.   My Dad did not know at the time of his death that two months after his demise his wife would give birth to twins. My twin sister and I, Cheryl Jean (I'm Albert Dean) were born on Feb. 7, 1945. Our older brother was born on Aug. 5, 1943. My Dad saw him as a baby and got to hold him but my brother, of course, doesn't recall that although my mother -- who is still alive now at age 83 -- has pictures of them together.  The Reid and all its sailors are still remembered by the Owens family. Thanks to you and your fellow shipmates that still survive for serving on the USS Reid so bravely. Both I and my brother are preachers, me in Vanceburg, Kentucky and him (his name is Sam, named after our grandfather Owens, Albert's Dad) in Aviano, Italy near the Air Force base there.   I am grateful that info about the Reid is now available on the Internet. Thanks to all who make that possible.   God bless.  Albert Owens