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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDouglas P. Starr, Brazos Valley HeroesBy Bill Yaungkin Special to The Eagle Douglas P. Starr of College Station looks almost too young to be a World War II veteran. That may be due in part to good genes and a healthy and active lifestyle. But he was a seasoned veteran before his 19th birthday. As Starr recalls, "I was born in 1925 and graduated from Fortier High School in New Orleans in 1942. I was 16 years old when we graduated. All of my classmates left soon after graduation to serve. I repeatedly asked my parents to allow me to volunteer, but my mother wouldn't hear of it. After I turned 17, I finally talked my dad into letting me join the Navy. "I was sworn into the Navy at the L'ustoms Nouse in New Orleans and in May 1943 I was on a train with about 100 other guys heading to San Diego for'boot camp. When I finished boot camp I was assigned to the scullery peeling potatoes. A friend informed me that my name was on a list to go to sonar school. I didn't want to go to sonar school, so the day the bus left for sonar school I stayed in the kitchen peeling potatoes. "The chief came that afternoon to ask why I missed the bus. I responded, `What bus?' He said there would be another bus next week and I was going to be on it. He reassigned my duty for the next week to spreading horse manure on the parade grounds. It was a nasty, stinky job and I had to wash. my vvork clothes each night. The last night, the chief came and stayed with me and wouldn't let me wash my work clothes. Instead, I had to pack them in my seabag. I made it to the bus, and when I arrived at sonar school I had a strong reminder of my last job. My entire seabag smelled like horse manure. "After I finished sonar school I had to wait for a ship assignment because the Navy wasn't knowingly sending a 17-year-old into combat. Finally, on December 28, 1943, and after my 18th birthday, I boarded the USS .Nicholas along with about 100 other replacements. The Nicholas was a destroyer and had been in a lot of action already. In 1943 we were losing the war in the Pacific. We were having more ships sunk than the Japanese. "Our first combat action was shelling the beaches at Eniwetok and Kwajalein Islands in the Marshall Islands. It was also where we sank our first Japanese submarine while I was on board. "As a sonar man, you sat with headphones listening for signs of a submarine. ThB transponder under the ship could be turned to any direction you wanted. We would move it five degrees, send out a "ping", train the antenna and listen for an echo. After about 30 minutes, you wouldn't hear the "ping" but if an echo came back, it would just about knock you out of your chair When the echo came, you could also determine the bearing and range of the sub. When you heard an echo you informed the OD, the officer of the deck, who ordered everyone to battle stations to prepare to drop depth charges. The order to battle stations brought about a mad dash by all on board to their stations while trying to get dressed, put "My battle station duty was the bridge, where I served as the captain's `talker.' Whenever he gave an order, I would transmit it over the intercom. All of the fire captains had headsets waiting for orders that I would relay to them. After that first combat experience the fire captains met me below decks and told me that if I was to keep my job as the captain's talker, I was going to have to learn to speak English: I was about the only southern boy on board, as most of the crew were New Englanders. I knew I cbutd hardly understand them and apparently they couldn't understand my New Orleans accent. I learned to speak their version of the English Starr and the men of the USS Nicholas were in almost every invasion and naval action in th including Leyte Gulf in the Philippines. As Starr recalls, "Leyte Gulf was where all hell broke loose. It was also my first experience with kamikaze pilots. h was quite something to see a plane deliberately diving at a ship. One flew over us low enough that I could see the pilot. He flew about 50 feet above our mast. We were told later that those guys were led to believe that the number of Americans they killed would determine where they would reside in their version of heaven. The one that flew over us and left us alone aimed instead at the USS Mississippi, a battleship. He crashed on the forward area of the Mississippi, exploding on impact and creating a fire. The only problem for that pilot and his theory of killing more Americans was that it is really hard to sink a battleship. We watched the Mississippi's crew put out the fire and sweep the remains of the plane overboard into the sea. By that evening, they were painting the area where the plane had exploded. for submarines and to bombard the beaches. Four destroyers, to include the Nicholas, were sent to Ormoc Bay to prevent a Japanese army camp located there from reinforcing the Japanese force at Leyte. We set sail at top speed, and the rooster tail from our wake was over 15 feet high. Destroyers were called 'tin cans' because they are light and fast. The sides of the ship were thin enough to allow me, while lying in my bunk, to touch the skin of the ship and feel the sea flowing by. In addition, a destroyer is never still. It is always rolling and pitching. When we attacked the Japanese installation at Ormoc Bay, the battle lasted all day. When it was over, our four destroyers we're credited with killing over 4,000 Japanese soldiers. Our bombardment also prevented them from reinforcing the Japanese forces under attack at Leyte." Douglas Starr's name is found on the Brazos Valley Veterans Memorial. If you want to have a name added to the Veterans Memorial in time fo have the name inscribed as part of the Veterans Day program this November, you must have the application submitted before August 15. For more information, to make a contribution, or if you know a World War 11 veteran whose story needs to be told, contact the BWM at www. veteransmemorial.org or Bill Youngkin at (979) 260-7030. By Bill Youngkin Special to The Eagle Last week's story on Douglas P. Starr of College Station concluded with the Battle of Leyte in the Philippines. His story of the war in the Pacific continues. As Starr recalls, "After Leyte we were involved with shelling other islands in the Philippines. The greatest danger I and our ship encountered was on our way to Luzon. We were at sea and in the process of re-fueling when we were caught in a typhoon: Within 30 minutes after the typhoon hit, three ships had gone down and over 800 of our sailors were drowned. "The USS Nicholas, being a destroyer, was really in trouble. My duty station was the bridge, and the chair I satin had its legs stuck in cups in the floor so the chair wouldn't shift in heavy seas. One wave hit us so hard we rolled over 55 degrees. The chair jumped out of the cups in the floor and I was slammed and held up against the bulkhead. Thankfully, another rogue wave hit us on the other side, pushing us back up. You don't usually survive a 55-degree roll. "When we entered Lingayen Gulf to shell the beaches, a Japanese submarine attempted to torpedo us. We all watched as two torpedoes passed by our side. They missed, but the destroyer behind us didn't, and sank the Japanese submarine. After arriving at Manila, General MacArthur waded ashore, fulfilling his promise to return, as we sat just offshore. "The Japanese had decided to defend Corregidor as had the American Army in 1942. General MacArthur was determined to destroy their forces there, so every day we would load up on ammo and food and leave Subic Bay for Corregidor before dawn. We would bombard Corregidor all day long and return to Subic to reload. We did that every day for a week. As a result, the Japanese forces on Corregidor were decimated. "After the Philippines we were involved with the invasion of Okinawa. Ourjob was to conduct sea patrols to keep Japanese ships from coming in. After Okinawa, Admiral Halsey assembled the Third Fleet off the coast of Japan. We remained at sea for 55 days, doing the same thing each day, on the same ship, under the same sky, in the same sea, rolling and pitching all the while.' • "When the bombs were dropped and the war ended, Admiral Halsey announced over the radio that the war was now.over but if a Japanese plane were to fly over our formation, we were to shoot them down in a friendly sort of way. "We found out we were to be part of the surrender process ahd were told that a Japanese gunboat loaded with interpreters and pilots would be sent out to assist us getting into Tokyo Bay and past their mines. We were to meet the gunboat, bring them aboard the Nicholas and distribute them to all the other ships. When we met them they had their guns pointed at us so we turned all our guns on them. They pointed their guns to the open "Before we headed in, Admiral Halsey, because of all the duty the Nicholas had preformed during the war, chose us, the USS Nicholas, to lead the formation into Tokyo Bay. When we entered Tokyo Bay you could see Mt. Fuji in the distance. It was a beautiful sight as the ". sun went down. After the whole fleet was inside Tokyo Bay and with the approach of nightfall, Admiral Halsey ''. gave the order to light all ships, which is something we never did at night. He wanted to show the Japanese that we were there and we weren't afraid. That day was August 28,1945, my mother's birthday. "On the second of September, we transported dignitaries, including Generals Stillwell and Wainwright, from the docks to the USS Missouri, where the surrender was signed. It was a day we were all proud to be a part of. "One of our duties after the surrender was to sail to Northern Japan to Sendai, Japan, to bring home some 1,200 POWs. We loaded about 300 aboard the Nicholas. They were all just walking skeletons. The captain said that all our bunks now belonged to the POWs. We gave them our bunks, but they didn't want to sleep. They wanted to talk, which we did almost all night long. The next morning we helped them down two decks to the mess, where there were pancakes with everything else waiting for them. The most they could eat was a bite or two because their stomachs had shrunk so much. We took them to Tokyo Bay to load onto hospital ships for home." After Starr's discharge, he returned to school, graduating from LSU in June 1950 with a journalism degree. "I wanted to get my master's but my wife of six months said, `All you have done for the last seven years is fight a war and go to school. You need to get a real job.' Starr got a "real job" of the Associated Press chronicling the changes taking place in the South. His coverage of those times put him on a hit list with those who resisted those changes, and the AP had him reassigned. He obtained his master's and then his Ph.D. at Florida State in 1972. He began teaching journalism and in 1986 he came to A&M to teach, which is what he continues to do today. "Looking back, we did what we did because it was expected of us. My son Andrew recently returned from Iraq, and his commanding general wrote thanking me for Andrew's service to his country. I wrote him back that my generation is referred to as `The Greatest Generation,' but the greatest generation are those now serving because they are all volunteers. He read that letter to the press during his briefing. I said it and I believe it." , Douglas Starr's name is found on the Brazos Valley Veterans Memorial. If you want to have a name added to the Veterans Memorial or if you need more information, want to make a contribution, or you know a World War 11 veferan whose story needs to be told, contact the BWM at www.veteransmemorial.org or Bill Youngkin at (979) 260-7030.