You Report: Remembering a battle at Saipan, 65 years later
| Monday, Jul 06 2009 04:42 PM
Last Updated Monday, Jul 06 2009 05:01 PM
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BY KATIE STEINER, Californian staff writer ksteiner@bakersfield.com
David A. Lewis didn't know what he was going to do after leaving the Navy in 1945.
He enrolled at the University of Southern California, but said he just wasn't "in the mood" for school and only lasted a semester.
He ended up getting a job through an employment agency as an insurance auditor. "I'd never even had bookkeeping experience," he said.
He has now been in the insurance business for more than 50 years.
He worked as a sales representative for seven years, before working for Transamerica Insurance for 27 years.
Transamerica has it marked down that Lewis never missed a day at work. While he said that may not be completely accurate, he will admit that he hardly missed a day of work.
When he wasn't working, Lewis enjoyed living in Corona del Mar and raising his three kids.
One of them, Brad Alan Lewis, won a gold medal in double sculls at the 1984 Olympics.
Lewis moved to Bakersfield 12 years ago to live with his second wife, Rosemary, a woman he had met 50 years earlier. On the day he signed up for the Navy, Lewis had sat next to Rosemary's brother on the bus headed to boot camp.
Today, when he's not acting as a "slave" to his wife, Lewis is still working in the insurance business. He's on the board of directors for the Unico American Corp.
"I started out very low, and now 30 years later, I ended up at a board of directors," he said. "I'm quite pleased with how it worked out."
Images:
David A. Lewis in January 1946, when he was just discharged from the Navy. Lewis is pictured with a 28-caliber Japanese rifle and a flag for which he traded for one 5-cent package of American cigarettes. He is holding his helmet, which he wore during general quarters and battles with the Japanese.
On July 7, 1944, American forces secured Saipan as the last Japanese defenses fell.
My ship, the "dreaded" USS Fanshaw Bay, CVE 70, was there.
The Fanshaw Bay was a baby aircraft carrier, an escort carrier, about the size of a freighter. We carried about 24 airplanes. I was a 21-year-old sailor/aircraft mechanic.
At dusk, the American ships were moored in the harbor awaiting our soldiers' attack on the beaches of Saipan, which was to commence the following day.
Unexpectedly, these ships were suddenly attacked by a group of Japanese planes. Lots of anti-aircraft gunfire. Being "in port," we could not launch planes. I watched the battle from the catwalk just outside the "plane captain's shack."
Suddenly a Japanese plane came flying low, straight down the length of our carrier. I dove into the shack and crouched down against a light metal wall. Boom! A Japanese bomb went through the aft elevator, exploding on the hangar deck. The exploding bomb blew holes in our nine torpedoes stored on the hangar deck. The torpedoes did not explode, hence I am here to write this story. Lots of confusion, several sailors were killed, including a good friend.
A below-decks ship's storeroom stocked with spare aircraft parts quickly filled with several feet of water. We sailors turned to it with buckets, standing in three feet of water and handing filled buckets to sailors on the hangar deck to empty. (Kind of degrading for an American aircraft carrier's sailors to bail water out of the bilge by the bucketful). Eventually it was decided the water came from a broken pipe and not a hole in the ship's skin. Bailing was stopped and the broken pipe repaired.
The next morning a rag-tag looking bunch of sailors stood at attention while the chaplain said a few thoughtful words. Bodies, hastily sewn into canvas bags, were slid over the side of the ship.
We missed the rest of the battle for Saipan as the ship had to return to Pearl Harbor for repairs.
Later, near an island called Moratai, a Japanese torpedo missed the ship and blew off the aft end of one of our escorts.
Then followed the Battle of Leyte Gulf, where one dawn found our small squadron of six Jeep aircraft carriers and their escorts being "run down" by most of the Japanese Navy -- four battleships, eight cruisers and 12 destroyers. To make matters worse, the Japanese also attacked our little ship with one of their first kamakazis.
Once again, they didn't sink the Fanshaw Bay and our only five-inch gun brought the kamikaze down so close that pieces of debris landed on our flight deck.
If you should want to read more details about Leyte Gulf, "the Greatest Sea Battle in History," and how we survived, read James D. Hornfischer's 2004 book, "The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors." You might even find my name.
David A. Lewis of Bakersfield has worked in the insurance industry for more than 50 years. He was in the U.S. Navy for three years and four months during the war.
