January 10, 2014
A letter given to Butte County Historian Phil Ravert, who will have a story in the Butte
County Historical Society Diggins in February about our Famous Odd Fellows Building
in Thermalito, on my 6th Street.
October 8, 1945
Dear Opal, I’ll just drop you a note in this envelope, The main purpose of this is to
accompanying the, would you say, synopsis of our wild ride which was a great deal more
thrilling then the wildest rollercoaster and I’m not kidding. I’ll tell you more about
it when I see you. For a number of hours I wasn’t so sure that we would come through
or not. If you will I’d appreciate it if you would type up a copy of the enclosed and
let Mom have one to read. I was able to get this only by being in the right place at
the right time. I’m working in sick bay on my way back. At present we are 1100 (about)
miles from Pearl as ever with love Stan.
(This letter was sent to Mrs. Morris Stanley Houseworth, wife of Stanley who worked
for Currier Bros. in 1950’s.
A letter from the Officer of Public Information USS Saginaw Bay (CVE 82) For Release
on or after October 18, 1945.)
Aboard the U.S.S. Saginaw Bay, Pearl Harbor, Oct 11 (Delayed) - The fury of a typhoon
a week ago rounded out the Pacific experience of 1100 returning Navy veterans aboard
this escort carrier which reached here today on her first as a transport. In combat
status till the end of hostilities, the ship has taken part in direct of major amphibious
landings at the Palau Island, Leyte and Lingayen Gulf, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Converted
to a troop transport by the addition of more than 700 bunks, the Kaiser-built “jeep”
is now engaged in bringing home many of the officers and men who have taken part in
these same campaigns. All are slated for annual leave or release from active duty. Driven
across the flight deck by winds of 70 miles per hour. 40-foot waves crashed over the
carrier from bow to stern. One passenger remarked that the ship had been reconverted
to a submarine. A sponson door was ripped off, two life rafts carried away and an upper
storage-room deck overhanging the water was so buckled and ripped that a four-by-ten-foot
gaping hole disclosed the sea below. Working through the night, the ship’s force repaired
the damage. No one was injured. Covering an area of 200-mile radius, the tightly-round
tropical bruiser met the ship northwest of Saipan and exerted its full fury for 24 hours
from Oct. 2 to 3. The ship passed through the leading quadrant of the more dangerous
semicircle of disturbance. Rough seas and high winds stayed with the ship a good part
of the way to Pearl Harbor. For 30 consecutive hours overlapping the period of danger,
the Captain remained on duty on the bridge. The navigator also logged 30 hours on the
bridge during the storm, but his long trick was broken by a sleepless rest of two hours.
Adding to seasickness was the fact many of the returnees had recently been land based.
Ship’s company personnel were also affected. Several complained of tired stomach muscles
from unconsciously resisting the motion of the ship while resting in their bunks.
Stu Says:
Phil also found more on last weeks story about F. Hight who put his name on a church
wall. Polks’ Chico-Oroville Directory on micro-film at our Oroville library. Phil found
that Hight did come home from France and in 1922 John F and Anna Hight lived at the
(Green bldg.) 617 ½ Bird St. In the Email from Philippe Gondard he told us A French
genealogist found a registration card on a John Franklin Hight who lived in Oroville
in 1918.
I myself have read that a big typhoon hit Japan on the week of the planned invasion,
had our men been in ships around those islands they would have been wiped out. The bombs
were dropped and the war ended and probably more Japanese would have been killed in
the invasion plus estimates are up to 200 to 400 thousand young American Men. God only
knows. In October or November we had plans to invade Japan with 100s of thousands of
our young men by land, air and sea. The Japanese had years to get ready for this they
were going to fight to the death on the beaches, Men women and children. Oroville Historian,
Jim Lenhoff, told me a story told to him years after the war by a Japanese woman. She
was 11 years old in 1945, She said to Jim “We were instructed to fight to the death
on the beaches and if all was lost to bite the cyanide capsule, I had one myself.”