Today's Veterans Radio is an encore presentation
of Typhoon Cobra with Gary Lilley as the host.
Veterans Radio is dedicated to all the men and
women who have served or are currently serving
in the armed forces of the United States of America.
Today's program is brought to you by U .S. Wings,
a U .S. manufacturer of the finest quality military
leather flight jackets and much, much more. For
more information... about U .S. Wings, go to
uswings .com and the Marine Scholars Program
at Ave Maria University. Go to avemaria .edu
for more information about this great scholarship
program. Michigan and around the world. This
is Veterans Radio and now here's today's host,
former Navy's CB, July, Vietnam, 1966, Ken Do,
Gary Lilly. And good morning, Dale. Thank you
so much. That was Dale Throneberry, helicopter
pilot. Who are you with, Dale, over there in
country in Vietnam? 195th Assault Helicopter
Company, Sky Chiefs. And you guys did a pretty
good job of flying in and out of Cambodia and
dropping off special forces teams. I was never
there. I forgot. And Matt Durr, Jesus, get to
the point where you're no longer really an intern.
You're doing a great job in there. Bob always
says I'm the boss now. You are. A very good one
at that. I want to say good morning to all our
troops spread out around the world, keeping the
world safe. The thin green and blue line that's
doing such a magnificent job, thank you. And
to my veteran brothers and sisters, welcome home.
And all you folks in other countries, I know
that you're down there in Tasmania and Scotland
and Brazil and all over the place, you know,
thanks for listening in. Good morning America.
This is Veterans Radio. We've got a great program
lined up for you. It's called Typhoon Cobra.
Typhoon Cobra that took place December 18th and
1944. We'll have the captain and a crew member
of the USS Dewey. Now the USS Dewey is believed
to have rolled over on its side more than any
other ship in history and still came back up.
and also recorded possibly the lowest barometric
pressure ever recorded in the world. Quite a
storm and we're going to be talking to a couple
of guys that were literally at times neck deep
in it. And of course that was Gary Lilly and
we're very proud to play his encore program today
about the Typhoon Cobra, but also we have a little
announcement. You're listening to an encore presentation
of Veterans Radio, Surviving Typhoon Cobra 1944,
which was first broadcast on June 19, 2010. Now
we rejoin Gary Lilley and his guests. We're back
on Veterans Radio and it's really my pleasure
to welcome Captain Raymond Calhoun and Reverend
Merrill Eastman, two members, well, the captain
and a crew member of the USS Dewey. I read a
book called Halsey's Typhoon, which has the...
some inaccuracies in it, I'm told, but it's just
a remarkable story. And also a book written by
Captain Calhoun that you might want to go out
and find. It's called Typhoon, The Other Enemy.
I'll start off with Captain Calhoun. Welcome,
sir. Welcome. Thank you very much. Good to be
here. Please describe that typhoon for us. This
one was we lost three Navy ships three destroyers
and over 800 men and our aircraft carriers were
burning and It was pretty pretty bad. Tell us
about the typhoon if you would please Well, that's
a big story to tell about then you got seconds
Yeah, this particular storm Struck us beginning
on the 17th of December at which time we were
refueling the destroyers that were accompanying
the carrier task force. And on the 17th, when
they were supposed to refuel, it was so rough
that fueling from another ship was simply not
feasible. We found that we couldn't maintain
station alongside of another ship close enough
to allow the fuel hoses to stretch into the tanks.
So we were having great difficulty and we were
I was seriously concerned about the level of
fuel that was left in several of the destroyers
that had been accompanying the carrier force
a few days earlier. They were down to something
like 10 ,000 gallons in one case, and that was
on a ship whose normal capacity was about 240
,000 gallons, so he was practically out of gas.
Anyway, on the 17th, on my destroyer that we
were on the fringes of a typhoon and by the evening
of that day we were convinced that we were running
into it because there were some classic signs
including what was called a cross well and and
we were convinced that the storm about the next
day was that we were scheduled to try again to
refuel. Among ourselves on the duty, we concluded
that that was simply pie in the sky. Anyone who
thought we were going to be able to refuel on
the 18th when it was as rough as it was on the
17th and getting rougher was just kidding himself
about the real circumstances. So when we went
to bed that night, at least on the Dewey, concluded
that we would not form up and try to fuel on
the next day. Well, of course, that turned out
to be untrue. We were scheduled to refuel again
at six o 'clock in the morning, and sure enough,
at six o 'clock we were that time wide awake
because of the turbulence of the sea. We couldn't
believe it, but we were forming up to try to
refuel again. So we took a fueling course to
the northeast, which in our opinion was going
to run us on a collision course with a storm.
And we actually steamed on that collision course
for about an hour before it was determined that
that course was not going to do it. that we would
have to give up the idea of refueling that day,
at which time we turned south, or tried to, because
at that point, I would say at about four o 'clock
in the morning, we began to get into the very
guts of the storm, and sea conditions worsened
to the extent that I had never seen them before.
We were estimated that they were about 60 feet.
That would be a six -story building. Yes, and
there were some carrier skippers who reported
that they had encountered 70 feet. In fact, they
were getting green water over their flight deck.
And that means that it's solid water. It's not
spray. Absolutely. With the destroyer your job
was to screen for the carriers And it was kind
of hard for you to keep up with them, wasn't
it? Yeah, it would be hard to keep up with them
on any day On that particular in that weather
it was very hard How much fuel would a destroyer
go through when it was screening for carriers
on a normal on a normal day? If they were conducting
flight operations, I think it would have stretched
it a bit to go four days without refueling. Because
they were constantly making 30 or 32 knots in
order to create enough wind, relative wind, over
the deck to enable the aircraft to take off.
importance other than running out of fuel for
having a full load of fuel on a destroyer when
a major storm was hitting? Well destroyers are
designed in such a way that unless the fuel tanks
are considerably full, I mean unless you have
a reasonable amount of fuel aboard like say 60
percent or something like that, you're going
to be uncomfortable from the standpoint of the
stability of the ship. The ship becomes top -heavy
when the fuel is exhausted and not replaced.
When you say uncomfortable, that sounds like
a doctor saying that you're going to be a little
uncomfortable during this procedure. When I say
uncomfortable, I mean hanging on to something
so that you don't fall over. Let me switch over
to Reverend Eastman who's sitting here in the
broadcast booth. Oh, those big words always throw
at me. Reverend, you were working down below,
were you not? Yes, I was in the intercommunications
room. What was your job on the destroyer, said
USS Dewey? I was an electrician's mate. Which
means that... Well, I do realize, but people
don't realize how much electricity there is on
a ship that can go wrong. Were you having some
issues with electricity during that storm? Oh,
at that point, yes. What was happening? I understand
there was water getting on the control boards
even though everything was battened down as tight
as it could above you? Oh, yes, but the water
still got in. And when we were rolling about
70 degrees is when the captain called down and
said everybody below deck prepare to abandon
ship. And that's when I left the intercommunications
room and went into the officer's mess hall and
helped the doctor lash. tables and chairs down
so that men wouldn't get hurt. From then on,
I thought I was secure. I grabbed a hold of the
voice tube that went to the bridge and sat on
a sterilizing instrument and both pulled off
the bulkhead and I landed out in the middle of
the dining room. I didn't really get hurt at
that point. That's when I went into the little
passageway and sat down, put my feet up against
one bulkhead and my back against the other. The
bulkheads for the civilians out there are those
who have not been in the Navy. That's the walls
too. That's right. Okay, and the deck is the
floor. Right. I was a CB, never set foot on a
ship, but I used to love to play with the wipers
by saying the floor and the wall and downstairs.
What was your feeling during the height of the
storm, Reverend? Well, my feeling was... that
we were going to be lost at sea. And I actually
prayed for my family back home that when they
got the word that I was lost at sea, that they
would accept it and go on with their lives and
make the best of it. You went from being afraid
to very calm, did you? Oh yes, oh yeah. When
you accept death, you become calm? Yeah, I realized
it. that it was all over, and I was ready for
it. Still and all, you're a Reverend today. Well,
I am because of what happened that day, because
when the ship was lying on its side, I heard
a voice, definitely, that said, if I got you
out of this, would you do anything I would ask
you to do? And I was in no position to do any
bargaining, so I did answer quite quickly and
said, yes, I would. And then the voice said again,
would you preach? And that threw me, but I didn't
wait too long. I said I'd even do that. My father
was a pastor for years, very successful, and
I had nothing against the ministry, but I just
never felt. called until that day, and then I
was really called. And that's when I decided
I would be a minister. Captain, at any time during
the storm, were you terrified? No. I was convinced
that we were not going to capsize. Now you were
only on your side. The ship was on its side.
And you were still convinced that you weren't
going to? That's right. Maybe I was a little
crazy in those days. Well, that helps. But anyway,
no, I never did believe we were going to go down.
When the ship went over on its side, how long
would it stay there? Well, it seemed as though
it stayed there for a half an hour, but it probably
was no more than about two or three minutes.
Those were agonizing minutes because we didn't
know if they would write themselves. It would
write itself. But I never believed that we would
do that. And when I sent the word to the people
who were below decks that they should be prepared
to abandon ship, I was simply being ready in
the event that that happened. But I didn't believe
it was happening. When people hear that the secret
is disclosed, that this country has plans to
invade another country, it's not that they plan
on doing it, it's just that in the military,
especially, you have to be ready for any set
of circumstances. That's what you're saying that
you did. Yes. In the event that it came, you
didn't want to catch anybody by surprise, right?
Yes. Okay. by a warrant officer, who was much
older than the average crewman, came to me during
the storm and said, Captain, are we going to
abandon ship? And I said, no, as long as the
Dewey's going to hang in there, we're going to
hang into the Dewey. And speaking of hanging,
I read an account, and I put in a flyer that
you were hanging by a stanchion. You or another
officer was hanging? That was me, and I was frequently
aware that my squadron commander, who was a passenger
on our ship, we were his flagship. He and I would
be both hanging vertically from the, in my case,
from a stanchion. vertical and he was hanging
from the base of his bridge chair and both were
facing each other probably three feet apart conducting
conversations in one case he asked me if I thought
that I would be able to manage in the event that
I got into the water and I said yeah I thought
so he said well I don't think I could he said
of course you're younger than I am And then he
said, but I'm not going to worry about it because
my insurance is all paid up. Did you ever look
down between your feet when you were hanging?
Indeed. Indeed we did. What would you see? In
fact, I used that expression to describe the
number of degrees we rolled when the representatives
of the Bureau of Ships. came aboard the ship
in Ulythee when the storm was over and we returned
to port. The first thing that happened was that
these do ships, technicians, all of them captains,
four strikers, the first thing they asked me
was how far did you roll? And I knew from experience
that if I told them it was X number of degrees,
they would proceed to tell me that I couldn't
possibly have using a number of degrees, and
I said, I don't know how many degrees we rolled,
but I do know that I was hanging from a station
with my hands, and the station was normally vertical,
and I was looking down past my feet, which were
clear of the deck, and past my feet, I was looking
right through the starboard bridge window, so
had I let go, I would have fallen directly into
the sea. Well, then I didn't make a mistake on
the fly. No, no, you were absolutely right. Amazing.
What about the helmsman? That guy, he couldn't
let go of anything. No, and he had a terrible
time because his footing was insecure and he
would find himself at times hanging on to the
wheel. Oh, it was his weight that was keeping
the wheel over. Well, no, he would then have
to grab something and pull himself back onto
the deck so that he could turn the wheel back.
Did he ever get water inside the bridge? No,
I read in one of the other books that we had
a considerable level of water. I don't recall
any appreciable collection of water in the pilot
house. You did write a book about it, what is
the title of it? Oh yeah, the book is called
Typhoon the Other Enemy. It's now out of print,
although you'll find scads of copies on the internet.
So just do a search. I read that book, the Reverend
loaned me his copy, and I read Halsey's Typhoon,
and despite the fact that it had some errors
in it, the story is so dramatic. and then very
full of drama. Drama, yes. What were our losses
in that storm, in that typhoon, Captain? Over
700 men, well over 100 aircraft, and three destroyers,
the Hall, Spence, and Monahan. How many survivors
were there from the Hall, Spence, and Monahan?
I did make a mistake in the flyer in that I thought
that the Dewey had picked up two or three but
you're telling me that you weren't able to pick
up survivors? No and I should make a specific
mention of that. I was on the bridge of course
throughout all of this and we had encountered
the Taber earlier that evening. We both came
out of the center of the storm at about the same
time and it was emerging from a bucket full of
steam. One minute we were in the midst of this
cauldron of spray and spume and flying water
and the next minute we were out into the open
still in very rough seas and high winds but without
the limited visibility. And when he came out,
he sent me a signal by light saying, I have just
lost my mast. And I sent him a signal and said,
cheer up, we've just lost our stack. So you lost
one of your funnels. Yeah, one of our funnels.
And you think that that may have helped you survive?
Oh, absolutely. Yes, it did make a difference.
The wind, the sail area of the stack, just ceased
to exist, so the wind did not have the stack
to blow against. And the upshot of all of that
was that we were a little bit more comfortable
the way we rode. I love that comfortable word.
Anyway, he sent me a signal saying he would like
to know... I reported that to him and from then
on he continued to steer a course slightly to
the left of our course. I didn't know why he
was doing that but in any case by about 11 o
'clock that night we had lost sight of him. But
about 11 o 'clock I could see the loom of a searchlight
and I assumed that that light was from him and
that he may have been engaged. survivors. And
we heard snatches of his conversation to some
other ship. I don't know what ship he was talking
to. But on the voice radio he used the word survivor.
And that convinced me then that he was engaged
in rescuing these people. And so I turned the
Dewey in the direction of his light and proceeded.
When we took that new course, it was directly
into the sea. And so we began to slam, if you
know what that means on a destroyer, the bow
goes up and points skyward at an angle of like
30 degrees or more. And then it's as though someone
cut the rope to let it fall. And it slams down
into the sea. with a shattering sound and a shuddering
movement. You feel as though you're going to
lose your teeth. Captain, we're going into a
break and Dale, there's a photograph in the collection
of a cruiser that lost its bow in another typhoon.
You're listening to Veterans Radio on WDEO 990
AM coming to you over the Ave Maria radio network.
The story of the USS Dewey and Typhoon Cobra
will be right back. Just a reminder that you
are listening to an encore program on Veterans
Radio on Typhoon Cobra and the USS Dewey with
host Gary Lilley. And now back to the program.
We're back on Veterans Radio with Captain Raymond
Calhoun, Captain of the USS Dewey, during the
Typhoon Cobra in which the United States 3rd
Fleet lost tremendous losses. And Reverend Merle
Eastman, who is down below deck. Reverend, we're
going to get back to finishing up that story,
Captain, but Reverend Merle Eastman, I'm just
going to say Merle, has a certificate called
the 80 Degree Rollers. Could you read that for
us? Yeah, I'd be happy to. I'm not sure who had
the greatest hand in this. Maybe the captain
had some of it. But I do know that a man named
Pierce drew the picture and also gave the scroll
on it to all non -believers. Know ye that Eastman
M .J. was a member of the USS Dewey, DD -349,
a member of the Clear, when she was caught in
the fury of a tropical typhoon on December year
1944. On this date, His Royal Majesty, next to
Neptune's wreck, put the ship to the test before
accepting her. into that group of truly great
ships of the Navy. The barometer dropped at 2730,
the wind rose to 125 knots, and mountainous waves
towered over the tiny vessel, causing a roll
to starboard many times. At the climax, the ship
was subjected to a roll of 80 degrees plus, and
the hatch of Davy Jones locker opened wide to
receive the sturdy ship into her gallant crew.
At this crucial moment, when Neptuneus was ready
to take his new member before the raging sea,
an angel of the Lord came forth, righted the
ship, and watched over it through the remainder
of the mightiest storm in naval history. All
hands witnessed the evidence of their salvation
for the Fort Yard Arm was bent where the hand
of God had touched the ship. Captain, did you
have any part of that writing? I'm very familiar
with that writing, yes. I signed that certificate
when it was first made and I remained in contact
with Sam Pierce who designed it and wrote it.
In fact, he's still alive in Atlanta and head
of an engraving firm there. And I should continue.
I'll get back to the story of the rescue in a
minute. But I wanted to mention that the day
after the storm, the 18th, no, this is now the
morning of the 19th, I was standing on the bridge
watching what was going on down on the main deck
where people were clearing away wreckage. trying
to repair some of the superficial damage. And
one of our signalmen, whose nickname was Preacher,
because at that time he was the lay preacher
on the ship. In other words, he gave his best
to do the divine services every Sunday. And Preacher
came over to me as I was standing near the flag
bags on the starboard side of the bridge. and
said, Captain, what do you think got us through
the storm? And I said, oh, I think it was probably
a number of factors. I said, in the first place,
the engineers remained at their posts, and that
was a big factor. Had they deserted their station,
which happened on some other ships, we would
undoubtedly have capsized. And I said, Brother,
the ship was in good material condition. What
did you think did it?" And he said, oh, there's
no question in my mind, Captain. He said, just
take a look up there at that port yard arm. So
I turned my head and looked up, and certainly,
sure enough, the port yard arm was bent up at
an angle of 20 or 30 degrees. And I said, well,
what in the world could have bent the yard arm
in that direction? We were rolling to starboard.
That would have meant that the that the port
yard arm Couldn't have gone into the water And
he said oh, there's no doubt about what goes
that that's where God reached down and grabbed
all of us and pulled us back up and Really as
a result of that conversation when I first wrote
the manuscript for the book I titled it the miracle
of the Dewey and for some reason or another the
Naval Institute Press Decided that they would
rather have the title typhoon the other enemy
the other enemy of course being the Japanese
so anyway, that's That's my story about the The
hand of God reaching us I told preacher that
that Solution as to how we survived was good
enough for me You guys did seem to have a little
bit of extra help there Yeah, sure did. You had
tried to have, I read an account, I've done so
much reading about this, it's fascinating. The
beauty of the internet, oh you just hit Google
and you type in a couple of keywords and you
come up with stuff. I read an account in the
naval records of the man that you had told to
cut off the yard arm. Oh yeah. And he said that
it was a good thing that You didn't because he
thought it would have come down and poked a hole
in the ship. Exactly. You had said that earlier
in one of our conversations. You know, he was
saying the same thing. Reverend, what has the
after effect been in your life? Well, of course
it changed my life entirely because I did go
into the ministry as soon as I prepared for it.
And I've had a great ministry. I retired three
different times. Didn't have a day off. Went
from one church to another. And then I took a
couple of interim pastorates. And so at about
83, I kind of hung it up. But I've been volunteering
at the VA hospital for about 11 years now. I
racked up about 5 ,000 hours and I enjoy that.
Every day I go into the rooms of the new patients
and visit with them and leave gifts that we have
volunteered to us. So my ministry kind of keeps
going on, although I don't go in as a chaplain.
I used to because they had a program they called
Assistant Chaplain, but I still do that type
of work. What about after your attitude? You
know, after Vietnam I find it very hard to listen
to people complain about petty little things.
How has that affected you from an attitude standpoint?
I really don't appreciate that kind of talk.
It's amazing that in the Veterans Hospital I
find very little of that. Occasionally you'll
find a person that's going to gripe no matter
what. But basically our hospital does a great
job and I appreciate the fact that they take
care of me. so many times. I know I would have
been bankrupt years ago had I not had your prepaid
health insurance. I went to the VA hospital in
Allen Park for six months, not long after the
war. They took good care of me. We have an excellent
VA hospital here in Ann Arbor. A lot of the doctors
rotate in and out, most of them probably from
the University of Michigan Medical Center, which
is about a half a mile away. But the staff, I
can't say enough for the staff. And you're right
about veterans. Veterans don't complain about
petty things because they've seen what's important
in life. With a lot of veterans, the dates of
important things happening during the war with
grunts. It would be battles and all that. They
kind of go into a bunker up, is what's said.
Do you remember the typhoon and those particular
dates? December 18th and 19th? Very definitely.
The 19th I remember especially because we had
pork and beans for breakfast. no way of preparing
breakfast. And so I, every year on the 19th,
I have pork and beans for breakfast. And I tell
people that that was the best breakfast I've
ever had in my life. You have them cold, do you?
Yeah, I never expected it. For a little while,
my kids would participate with me. Finally, they
said, Dad, is it okay if you celebrate by yourself?
They didn't care for the cold beans, but I still
like them. Captain, we're going to have not enough
time for you to finish up that story until after
the next break. The final segment will have you
finish that up. Right now, what about you on
the anniversaries of the typhoon? Well, that's
interesting. You mentioned someone who apparently
wrote an account about the storm and one of our
shipmates. His name was Steve Jordan. He was
the ship fitter. And Steve had indicated that
he thought that we should cut off the gun director.
And I had nixed that, telling him I didn't think
we should do it. And anyway, as a result of his
involvement in the storm, he used to call me
every... 18 December and say, Captain, this is
Steve Yarden. You know what day this is? I was
always well aware of where we had been on the
18th of December, 1944. Anyway, Steve used to
call me every year and later in his life, he
used to come visit me. in touch with Steve Yordan
until he died about two years ago. Again, I'm
going to refer back to a friend of mine that
was a grunt in the 101st Airborne, the Asha Valley,
their battalion, or I'm sorry, their company
commander. Nobody made a decision without consulting
with him first. You're listening to Veterans
Radio, coming to you on the Ave Maria Radio Network.
We'll be right back. Captain, tell us, uh, pick
up again where you were, uh, trying to get involved
in the rescue. Yeah, uh, we, we proceeded in
the direction of the light, thinking that that's
where the rescue effort was going on. And I was
called, uh, from the, uh, Commodore's state room
with a question from him as to what in the hell
are we doing? And I said, well, we're on our
way to, uh, assist the... And he said, well,
you're the skipper. You do what you think is
correct. But I would remind you that we took
some terrible beatings this morning and this
afternoon. We don't know what kind of damage
we have done to the keel and the structure of
the ship. We can see other damage, which leads
me to believe that there is more serious damage
that we haven't yet uncovered. So give some thought
to that and then make up your mind as to what
you do. It didn't take me long to come to the
conclusion that he had much more experience than
I did and that he was undoubtedly correct in
estimating that we had probably done some damage
to the structure of the ship. And that to continue
on that course, repeatedly beating down on the
bow, ran the risk that the ship would break in
half, which had happened to another ship. not
long before that. And so I turned around and
decided not to go in the direction of the Tiber
because we had probably done damage to our own
ship that was greatly in danger. And later when
we went to Iwo Jima and became engaged in gunfire
support of the Marines, the ship's skin opened
up. And we had cracks in the skin of the ship.
And we also had broken transverse frames. These
were the ribs of the ship. And on each side of
the ship, both Port and Starboard, there were
four or five transverse web frames that were
broken at the weld right at the turn of the bilge.
And so it... It was absolutely true that had
we continued on that course, banging ourselves
into the trough, every time we came down from
the crest, we would have probably broken the
ship in half. Some photographs have come up of
some of the ships and they look pretty ready
to use a phrase. They look pretty bedraggled.
The force of the wind was so hard that it was
taking some of the paint off, is what I read.
True. Like sandblasting. Yes, and if you exposed
your face above the bridge bulwark, it would
cause capillary bleeding. So your face would
come away with these little pinpoints of blood,
just as though you had been stopped. with a pin.
We're seeing a photograph right now of the USS
Tabber which is minus its mast and it's looking
in that pretty rough shaped tube. That was really
heroic what they did in picking up the rifle.
Absolutely. You know I always believe that if
you're in the water and have typhoon at least
you're free of the sharks but from what I understand
in the reading the sharks were still up there.
Oh they were, yeah. several of the people who
would have otherwise survived would have succumbed
to the shark bite. My gosh. Merrill, is there
something that we haven't talked about that you
would like to bring up about that storm? I thought
you might be surprised. Not really, but I had
an awful lot of confidence in the captain, and
I knew that he was going to do the best he could.
and we'd leave it all, the rest of it, in the
Lord's hands. But I was just thinking a little
bit about the times that I heard the captain
talk. I'll never forget the day that he came
on the fantail and talked to all of the fellows
that weren't on watch, that he said the next
day... We were going to drop a bomb on Japan
that was going to end the war. There wasn't a
man standing there that believed it, and we wondered
if he even believed it. But sure enough, it was
the next day that they dropped the first bomb,
and that probably would have finished it, but
they dropped the other one. Captain Calhoun,
how did you know that? This is the first I'm
hearing about it. That was so secret. To be honest
with you, I don't even remember that. My 96 year
old brain seems to have lost that particular
fact. 96 years old. You sound like you're 60.
Do you look as good as you sound? I'm not going
to answer that question. I might incriminate
you. I want to say that I admired Murrow. He
made a commitment at that time and he kept it.
And he kept in touch with me for many, many years.
In fact, I went to see him when I was still living
in Minnesota and he was in Michigan somewhere.
I don't remember where we met, Murrow, but it
was good to see you and always good to hear from
you. Well, that goes both ways. Captain, what
he said about you was not... just said about
for the air, he and I have talked in private.
We're in the same VFW post and we also talked
while preparing for this program and he said
the same words to me when they didn't go out
over the air. Is there anything that you would
like to talk about, Captain? We've got a little
under three minutes, I should say a little over
two. Is there anything you would like to talk
about? Well, yeah, I'm just saying that the Dewey's
survival, of course, was due to God's grace.
There's no question about it. And the title,
the Dewey's Miracle would have been, I think,
much more appropriate. In any case, I wanted
to acknowledge the wonderful dedication and service
of the crew. They all did what they were supposed
to do. None of them panicked. It was great to
be the skipper of a ship whose crew was as dependable
as that crew was. Merle said that you were an
easy guy to get along with, but everybody always
knew that you were the skipper. I had a battalion
commander that was that way. And I've got to
tell you that some of the things he did, I'd
have walked through fire for that man. So I think
it comes from the top on down. And I'm not just
saying that because we're on the air also. I
put you on the spot by compliment. Well, just
let me say before we close, you're opening a
new vista to me. I was not aware that you were
on the air. And I congratulate you for the way
you handle this program. And I think it's wonderful
that you're dedicating it to veterans. It's important
that the kids of today know more than they do
now about World War II. My final statement would
be that the kids of today in the meantime are
proving themselves to be every bit as great as
the great generation. We have some wonderful
kids in the military right now. I've interviewed
a number of them. There's some in the VFW post
and they're the best I've ever seen, as good
as I've ever seen. Captain Raymond Calhoun, thank
you so much. Skipper of the USS Dewey in World
War II. The Skipper, at least during the time
that was most critical, the Typhoon Cobra. Thank
you for being on Veterans Radio. Reverend Merle
Eastman, thank you also for coming on board.
Can't get the old Navy slang out. Until then,
you are dismissed. And you've just finished listening
to an encore program of Veterans Radio, Typhoon
Cobra. And joining me on the light and right
now is Gary Lilly's brother, Ben. Ben, welcome
back to Veterans Radio. Yeah, thank you, Dale.
I can't tell you how great it was to hear my
brother's voice. and the great job that you guys
continue to do. And God bless you and Bob Gould
and the new gentleman coming on board, to use
Gary's words. And it was just so great to hear
my brother's voice again. Well, thank you, Ben,
so much. It was such a pleasure to share his
life with you. All right. You have a good day.
I will. I will. Thank you very much. Thank you.
All right, Ben. Bye bye. And also joining me
on the line right now, I believe, is Bob Ski
from the VVA 310. And Bob, I think we've got
about a minute to go. Welcome back to Veterans
Radio. I got another message from someone. Joe
from Big Boy wants to thank the EMS guy for helping
him out in an accident last week. And next week,
we've got a program called Soldier Dogs. We're
going to be talking about military dogs and their
training. Until then, you are dismissed. All
views and opinions expressed on this program
are not necessarily of this program or this station.
Veterans Radio is a production of Veterans Radio
LLC.