WHERE DO WE FIND SUCH MEN?

“WHERE DO WE FIND SUCH MEN”?

Today is the 64th anniversary of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. It was the largest naval engagement in History. Salamis, Lepanto, Trafalgar, and Jutland pale in comparison to either to the numbers of ships or the number of men who fought there.

One of them, Lt. Cdr, Ernest Evans, the Captain of the Fletcher class destroyer USS Johnston [DD-557] was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. When he took command of the ship he told his crew at the commissioning ceremony that he would never sail away from danger. Further, he would sail into it. His exact words were “This is a fighting ship. I intend to be in harm’s way, and anyone who doesn’t want to go along had better get off right now”.

Douglas MacArthur said all lost battles can be explained in 2 words: “Too late”

After Waterloo, the battle that settled the map of Europe for a century, the Duke of Wellington said, “It was a damn close run thing”.

In the friction of battle mistakes are made. Tennyson said of a battle 99 years before to the day “someone had blundered”. That battle was Balaclava. The charge was the one made by the Light Brigade.

The lure of Japanese aircraft carriers pulled Admiral Halsey, a proud son of New Jersey, on his flag ship the USS New Jersey [BB-62] and her dozens of escort vessels away from the landing beaches at Leyte in the Philippines.

There is a marvelous scene in the movie Zulu where the young recruit, looking out at an advancing 4000 man strong Impi, says to the Color Sergeant, “Why us”? “Because we’re here lad. Nobody else. Just us.”

Thus, on the morning of October 25, 1944, the USS Johnston with other smaller vessels, found out what it was like to be Horatio at the bridge. Advancing at flank speed was the Japanese Center Task Force, commanded by Admiral Takeo Kurita. It consisted of 4 battleships, 8 cruisers, and 12 destroyers.

It was coming to kill the American GIs who were landing at Leyte. One of the Americans landing there was my uncle, John Lonergan. His tour of the South Pacific was simple to trace. Where MacArthur went my uncle went with him. He enlisted in 1940. The Army told him he would be home for Christmas, 1941. He got back in late 1946. I was born in 1943; my mother wrote to her baby brother that I had beautiful blond hair. He asked her not to cut it until he got home. Thanks again, Uncle John.

6 months after the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl it was routed at Midway. It changed the direction of the war. In fact, it was a battle on the same scale as Trafalgar. Maps didn’t change because of both battles. In June, 1944 the Japanese Navy air arm lost 400 planes in an afternoon. They had long since lost any hope of defeating the American Navy head to head. Their plan was to trick the American Navy into leaving the landing ships and troops unguarded. The first part of the plan worked. The carnage that the shamed Japanese Navy could have wreaked would have been enormous.

Captain Evans issued an order. “Little boys, form up on me.” He then attacked the Japanese task force. The Johnston inflicted damage far in excess of her size and firepower.

Just like the Color Sergeant said at Rorke’s Drift, “Because we’re here. Nobody else. Just us.”

By 10:30 AM she was gone. Also sunk were the USS Hoel [DD-523], the USS Roberts [DE-413], the USS Gambier Bay [CVE73], and the USS St.Lo [CVE 63]. The St. Lo was the first American ship sunk by kamikazes.

It is said that when the USS Roberts was sunk the Captain of the nearest Japanese vessel saluted her as she went down.

For reasons still unclear the remainder of the Japanese task force withdrew. John McCain’s father commanded a ship speeding to the rescue. If the Japanese had not withdrawn it would have gotten there “too late”.

My uncle John, though grievously wounded that day, lived until 2001. He would “strip his sleeve and show his scars” as Henry the Fifth told his men at Agincourt. Today is also the anniversary of that battle.

“From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered…”

WHERE DO WE FIND SUCH MEN?