One of my memories of the Mariana Campaign,
June 1944

George J. Parness
South Carolina

It seemed that we were at general quarters forever. We had just been through the Makin Island campaign in the Gilbert Islands. With little rest we soon found ourselves in Kwajalein with another invasion and shortly, after still another at Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands. Now we found ourselves in the Marianas and at Saipan for still another invasion.

The invasion was in the process when it was learned that a large Japanese fleet was on its way to support its forces in the Marianas and at Saipan, in particular. With the troops already on the beach a decision was made by the American naval high command to intercept the Japanese fleet somewhere in the Philippine Sea. Most of the American fleet left and a small American force was left behind to support our forces who had already landed on Saipan.

The Phelps was one of the ships that stayed behind and we spent days lobbing our shells onto the beach in support of our invading troops.

One morning about daybreak we received a call for help from our troops on the beach. They were being overrun and the Phelps moved in as close to the beach as possible and fired our many batteries over the heads of our troops and on to the enemy positions on Saipan. I was on the bridge when we were suddenly found ourselves under fire. We took two hits, one below the bridge and one on the starboard side near the No. 2 stack. We lost one man and had 16 casualties. I recall Captain Martineau standing on a small bench (he was a short man and was standing on a bench built by the shipfitters) so he could see over the bulkhead of the bridge. With shrapnel coming down all around us, I was crouched below the bulkhead next to the flag bag trying to avoid getting hit, and tugging at his pants to get down, fearing he would be hit with shrapnel, when he looked down at me, and exclaimed, “You can’t see anything from down there.” Shortly after the ship was hit, I was told to put up a flag hoist and as the flags came out of the flag bag, they were in shreds. And there we were, right next to that flag bag using it as a shield.

Capt. Martineau was a helluva good skipper and many years later when he was retired and I was elected mayor of my town, I invited him to speak at our flag day ceremonies. I repeated the story of that morning 46 years before and he laughed and admitted he was too excited to worry about being hit. (He did give a stirring speech that day — a day I will always remember). We had invited a contingent of Tin Can Sailors, the American Legion, VFW and the glee club from Sacred Heart Church. The band and the people assembled made you proud of our country and pride in our community. It was a beautiful sunny day and one I will long remember.

George Parness

Posted 2/1/02