![]() ![]() The escorts were about half the length, one-third the displacement and had about one-third the crew of the larger ships. He would become part of a new Navy program to mix battle-tested sailors with new recruits in an effort to accelerate the training on naval ships about to be launched.Ī merchant ship brought Tom back to San Francisco and, after a short leave at home in Methuen, he was ordered to report to Naval Station Bremerton near Seattle for assignment to the USS Midway, an escort aircraft carrier almost finished in the nearby Kaiser Shipyard.Įscort carriers, sometimes called jeep carriers, were smaller, lighter and slower versions of the larger fleet carriers. After serving 16 months on Big Mamie, and having participated in the invasion of North Africa and later in the support of numerous amphibious landings in the Pacific, Seaman Petrillo was suddenly given one hour to get his things together and ordered back to the states for a new assignment. The wreck of the Gambier Bay has yet to be found.METHUEN – It was late in the summer of 1943 and Tom Petrillo was a shell loader on one of the twenty 5″ guns onboard the battleship USS Massachusetts. “Using a combination of detective work and innovative technology, everyone has pulled together to reveal the final resting place of this tenacious ship,” Kelvin Murray of EYOS Expeditions said. In June, the expedition team conducted six dives over eight days in its search for the Sammy B, as well as the escort carrier USS Gambier Bay, using what Caladan Oceanic says is the deepest side-scan sonar ever installed and operated on a submersible. “This site is a hallowed war grave, and serves to remind all Americans of the great cost borne by previous generations for the freedom we take for granted today,” Cox said in the statement. Robert Copeland, said he was honored to lead his men in a battle in which they faced “overwhelming odds.” Cox, a retired admiral and director of the Naval History and Heritage Command, the Sammy B’s commanding officer, Lt. “This small ship took on the finest of the Japanese Navy, fighting them to the end,” Vescovo said on Twitter, where he shared underwater video of parts of the Sammy B’s stern.Īccording to Samuel J. ![]()
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