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View Full Version : Kind of a post-Pearl Harbor day I'd like to share with you.



Cazzie
December 8th, 2010, 15:49
My two sons never knew their paternal grandfather, just as I never knew mine.

But my youngest son did up a little article on his grandfather, my father, William Henry Dalton, Junior.

I thought I would copy and paste the article and insert the two photographs he used.

I am very proud of him.

Caz


By Arden Dalton


My Grandfather




William Henry Dalton, Jr. (nicknames: Bill, Junior)




June 4, 1920 – December 23, 1990



This was my father's father, my grandfather who I never knew. He served in the U.S. Navy in World War Two. He was a Machinist's Mate First Class and also a master diver, who were the divers who wore the metal helmets and full body suits, not frogmen. He served in the southwest Pacific in the Okinawa campaign.


My grandfather was a squad leader, who was flown out to damaged ships in PBY Catalina amphibians, where he and his crew would weld patches to the damaged ships under the water line. After the war ended, he was shipped back to the Philippines and flown to the USA, where he landed at San Francisco and was decommissioned. Once again a civilian, he boarded a train back home to Ringgold, Virginia in January 1946.


Here is a log of his ship, an Attack Cargo Ship, the AKA-78 USS Trego (named for a county in Kansas):



USS Trego (AKA-78)



Tolland Class Attack Cargo Ship





Laid down, 14 April 1944, as a Maritime Commission type (C2-S-AJ3) hull, under Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1384), at North Carolina Shipbuilding Corp. Wilmington, N.C.



Launched, 20 June 1944



Delivered to the Maritime Commission, 4 July 1944, transferred to the US Navy the same day



Commissioned USS Trego (AKA-78), 21 December, 1944, LCDR. James F. Hunnewell, USNR, in command



During World War II USS Trego was assigned to the Asiatic-Pacific Theater and participated in the following campaign:




Asiatic-Pacific Campaigns


<center> <table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="3" width="339"> <col width="327"> <tbody><tr> <th width="327"> Campaign and Dates
</th> </tr> <tr> <td width="327"> Okinawa Gunto operation
Assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto, 3 March to 11 June 1945
</td> </tr> </tbody></table> </center>



Decommissioned, 21 May 1946, at Norfolk, VA.



Returned to the War Shipping Administration (WSA(, 22 May 1946 for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, James River Group, Lee Hall, VA.



Struck from the Naval Register, 5 June 1946



Commercial Service

<dl><dd>Sold by the Maritime Commission in 1946, to Lykes Bros. Steamship Co. Inc. in 1946 </dd><dd> Withdrawn from the James River Reserve Fleet, 27 January 1947, for towing to Mobile AL, by Moran Towing & Transportation Co. </dd><dd> Turned over to Lykes Bros. Steamship Co., Inc., at Mobile, AL., 9 July 1947, for commercial service, renamed SS Mason Lykes </dd><dd> Sold to Ocean Freighting & Brokerage Corp. (T.J. Stevensons Steamship Co.), renamed SS Flower Hill </dd><dd> Final Disposition, sold for scrapping, 27 October 1969, to Tung Tan Manufacturing Col., Ltd., Taiwan </dd><dd>
</dd></dl>

USS Trego received one battle star for World War II service






A photograph of the AKA-78 USS Trego taken in 1946 after she was decommissioned:




http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y168/cazmodel/trego2-08.jpg



A photograph of my grandfather with his outfit, he is the last man on the right in the last row kneeling facing the photograph with the white Navy cap.




http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y168/cazmodel/guantanamoparty_543_wide.jpg

Cloud9Gal
December 8th, 2010, 15:55
What a loving & honorable testimony to your father Caz! I agree wholeheartedly that you should be proud of your son.

Interesting story! Thank you for sharing a little bit of your family with us!

n4gix
December 9th, 2010, 10:23
+1 on the article! Thanks ever so much for sharing it with us. :salute: