#USS OKINAWA

[lonestarflight]

The Apollo 15 Command Module Endeavour (CM-112) prior to and after being brought aboard U.S.S. OKINAWA (LPH-3).

Date: August 7, 1971

NASA ID: link, S71-42024, S71-42037

[moonwatchuniverse]

1971 ... USS Okinawa & Apollo 15 splash-down August 7, 1971 a crew member of the US Navy Underwater Demolition team checking a spear point with shark repellent onboard the USS Okinawa amphibious assault / helicopter carrier in the northern Pacific Ocean. The Apollo 15 capsule, carrying an all USAF-crew David Scott, James Irwin & Alfred Worden, splashed down less than 7 miles from the USS Okinawa with immediate recovery operations. Note the Tudor 7928 diving watch, an indispensable tool used by US Navy divers at that time! (Photo: NASA/US Navy)

[carbone14]

Dommages du pont d'envol du porte-avions USS bunker Hill (CV-17) suite à une attaque de deux avions kamikazes – Bataille d'Okinawa – Campagne des archipels Ogasawara et Ryūkyū – Guerre du Pacifique – 11 mai 1945

[alphamecha-mkii]

USS Lapwai (Okinawa Class) Ortho by Away Team Gear

[lonestarbattleship]

"Okinawa Landing - USS COLORADO" by Anthony Saunders: link

"The USS COLORADO holds the all-time record of 37 consecutive days of firing at an enemy and the record of 24 direct enemy air attacks in 62 days both while at Okinawa."

[lonestarbattleship]

I never realized this photo was cropped before. Very cool

Japanese A6M seconds before crashing into USS Missouri, Okinawa. 11 April 1945

[theworldatwar]

The Battle ship USS West Virginia targets enemy positions as US marines head to shore - Okinawa, April 1945

[judgemark45]

USS Idaho (BB-42), a New Mexico-class battleship shells Okinawa on 1 April 1945, easily distinguished by her tower foremast & 5”-38 Mk 30 single turrets (visible between the barrels of the forward main turrets).

Idaho was the only battleship with this configuration.

[usafphantom2]

Eastern Aircraft FM2 Wildcats of Composite Squadron VC-93 on the flight deck of escort carrier USS Petrof Bay off Okinawa, 25 Mar 1945.

@hiddenhistoryYT via X

[aviationgeek71]

Vought F4U-1D Corsair aboard USS Bunker Hill, Okinawa, 1945.

[lonestarflight]

Splashdown of Apollo 15

"Two images taken from a recovery helicopter of the Apollo Command Module Endeavour during its descent, showing all three main parachutes inflated, left, followed shortly by the collapse of one of the main parachutes."

"The Apollo 15 Command Module (CM), with astronauts David R. Scott, commander; Alfred M. Worden, command module pilot; and James B. Irwin, lunar module pilot, aboard safely touches down in the mid-Pacific Ocean to conclude a highly successful lunar landing mission.

Although causing no harm to the crew men, one of the three main parachutes failed to function properly.

The splashdown occurred on August 7, 1971, some 330 miles north of Honolulu, Hawaii. The three astronauts were picked up by helicopter and flown to the prime recovery ship, USS OKINAWA (LPH-3), which was only 6 1/2 miles away."

Date: August 7, 1971

NASA ID: link, S71-42217, S71-41999, S71-43543, 71-H-1265, S71-43542, S71-43541, S71-41995

SDASM Archives: Casson_0095

Science Photo Library: C046/8648, C046/8649, C046/8650

[mareislandfoundation]

Raw Courage

Christmas Day 1941 Seaman First Class Donald Stratton arrived at the Mare Island Hospital with life threating burns over much of his body. A little over two weeks before he was trapped with six shipmates high above the main deck on the sky control platform of the battleship USS Arizona (BB-39). A surprise attack by aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy had turned the battleship into a burning hell on earth from which there could be no escape. As he told the story "A bomb blew up the forward magazine of the USS Arizona and the ship was engulfed in flames. I and five others were located on the anti-aircraft gun director’s platform above the bridge when the forward powder magazine blew. All of us were badly burned. I was burned over 80% of my body. At that point, the only possibility to evacuate the ship was to dive in the water, which was 80 feet below and was fully engulfed in flame. That was not an option for survival.”

The United States was at peace as earlier when General Quarters sounded aboard the USS Arizona while moored at the huge naval base at Pearl Harbor.   Japanese planes had just been sighted bombing nearby Ford Island. Hearing the alarm, Seaman Stratton rushed to his battle station as a sight setter in the Port Anti-Aircraft fire director. Within minutes of his arrival at his battle station a Japanese high-altitude bomber dropped an armor piercing bomb that tore through the deck of the ship and ignited a million pounds of explosive, and thousands of gallons of aviation gas and fuel oil. The massive explosion completely enveloped Stratton’s battle station as the ship settled to the bottom of the harbor, her back broken and her sides blown out. Trapped above the flaming wreckage Stratton and six others were saved when another sailor, Joe George, aboard the repair ship USS Vestal that was moored alongside the Arizona acted. Despite direct orders Joe George threw the men a line and refused to cut it until the men made it to safety. Stratton and five other survivors from the sky control platform managed to make it over the flaming seas surrounding the burning hulk of the Arizona to the deck of the Vestal by climbing hand over hand down the line as the Japanese continued to attack.

The burns on Stratton’s arms were so bad that his skin sloughed off as he worked his way down the line to the Vestal. With burns over much of his body he was taken to the Naval Hospital at Pearl which was overwhelmed with patients. The decision was made to evacuate some of the patients to the mainland thus Seaman Stratton and 196 other seriously wounded sailors and Marines were transported on the blacked-out transport USS Scott arriving at the Mare Island Hospital on Christmas Day 1941. Seaman Stratton was successfully treated at Mare Island with what were then innovative burn treatments for several months until he was transferred to Corona, California for a convalescence. Due to the severity of the damage to his arm and leg he was medically discharged in September 1942. Unbelievably, when his injuries allowed, Donald Stratton re-enlisted in the Navy and went aboard the destroyer USS Stack at Naval Station Treasure Island in 1944. Aboard the Stack Seaman Stratton turned the tables on the enemy as he and the Stack participated in the invasions of New Guinea, Halmahera, Leyte, Luzon and Okinawa.

After the war Stratton took up the cause to secure a posthumous medal for Joe George, the sailor from the Vestal who helped rescue the six men from the sky control platform. Joe George was never recognized for his role in saving the men because he disobeyed a direct order in not cutting the line to the Arizona until Seaman Stratton and five others had made it across. Lest you think the Navy was being too cold-hearted in denying recognition for Joe George, the Vestal was at risk from the ongoing explosions and fires from USS Arizona as well as the ongoing attack. Vestal had been hit with two bombs and was sinking when Joe George was ordered to cut the line. The fact is, Vestal could likely have pulled away snapping the line, but the site of those desperate men likely influenced more than just Joe George on that awful day. Despite the circumstances, in 2017 the US Navy acceded to Donald Stratton’s persistence and posthumously awarded Joe George the Bronze Medal for Valor.

Dennis Kelly

[moonwatchuniverse]

1966... Gemini VIII splashdown & post recovery March 17, 1966, Gemini VIII astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott pose with the divers of the US Navy recovery team. The Gemini VIII mission was cut short after a docking problem with the unmanned Agena target rocket. Re-entry took place over China with splashdown 800 kilometers east of Okinawa. Photo taken just before debarking USS Leonard F Mason in Naha harbor in Southern Japan. Note Scott’s NASA-issued Omega Speedmaster on black velcro at his left wrist. During this mission, besides his NASA-issued Omega Speedmaster, Neil Armstrong also wore a Longines Lindberg big crown aviator watch which belonged to his childhood hero James "Jimmie" Mattern. However, in the foreground, the Navy issued Tudor 7928 diving toolwatch on stainless steel bracelet at the wrist of the diver looks far more interesting! (Photo: NASA)

[alphamecha-mkii]

USS Lapwai Flyby by White Rooster Productions

[lonestarbattleship]

USS PENNSYLVANIA (BB-38) in drydock at the Bremerton Navy Shipyard. "Longtime flagship of the fleet, PENNSYLVANIA which was one of the first to be hit at Pearl Harbor and the last to be hit at Okinawa, and the only battleship to win a unit citation during the war, is slated to be used as a target ship in the forthcoming atomic bombing tests. Here, PENNSYLVANIA is shown at the Bremerton Navy Shipyard, being stripped in preparation for the tests."

Date: February 18, 1946

Temple University Library: P562136B

[conradscrime]

The Stolen Identity of Joseph Newton Chandler III

October 28, 2024

Robert Ivan Nichols, who went by the alias Joseph Newton Chandler III was born on September 12, 1926 in New Albany, Indiana.

On July 23, 2002, Robert Ivan Nichols committed suicide by a gunshot wound to the head in Eastlake, Ohio at the age of 75. After his death, investigators tried to locate his family and friends but to no avail. It was later found that Robert had been using the name Joseph Newton Chandler III for decades as a false identity, and that the real Joseph was an 8 year old boy who died in a car crash in 1945.

The real Joseph Newton Chandler III was born on March 11, 1937 in Buffalo, New York. On December 21, 1945, Joseph, his father Joseph Newton Chandler Jr., and his mother, Billie, were killed instantly in a car accident close by to Sherman, Texas.

The Chandler family had been on their way to see the boy's grandmother in Weatherford, Texas for the holidays. Their car had been in a head on collision with a truck driven by a man named L.C. Black of De Queen, Arkansas who left the scene uninjured.

Robert Nicholas joined the US Navy in World War II and served as a firefighter on the USS Aaron Ward which ended up being bombed by the Japanese in May 1945 off Okinawa. Robert was wounded in the back and hip and awarded the Purple Heart. He burned his uniforms after the war.

Robert married a woman named Laverne Kort in 1947. They had three sons and Robert worked as a draftsman for an electric company. In 1964, he left his wife and family and filed for divorce.

He moved to Dearborn, Michigan, where he told his parents he worked in the automobile industry. By March 1965, he wrote to his parents that he was now living in Richmond, California, while also sending a letter to his son Phil from Napa, California.

After this, Robert's family never heard from him again and later reported in missing in the same year. The family hired detectives to try to find Robert in both California and Indiana, but were unable to find any trace of him or anyone who knew him in those areas.

It is noted that Robert used his real name to work until around 1976.

Robert stole Joseph's identity in September 1978 in Rapid City, South Dakota, after applying for a social security card. He then moved to Cleveland, and worked a number of jobs. Robert had eventually become laid off in 1997.

It was also said that he claimed to have a sister named Mary Wilson, who lived in Columbus, Ohio, however the address he provided for her was made up and did not exist there. It was revealed later that Robert had used that address that he was born at in New Albany.

It was reported that Robert living under Joseph's identity, was a hermit who only left his house to work and eat. His co-workers reported that he rarely spoke to anyone and had no friends.

He also engaged in strange behaviour such as listening to white noise for hours, and one time drove 700 miles to an L.L. Bean store in Maine, only to leave when he got there because there was no spots available to park.

In 1992, he dressed up as a gangster and went to a Halloween party however the people there claimed he never spoke to anyone the entire night.

In 1989, Robert showed up to a local hospital with lacerations on his penis, claiming he got them from a vacuum. He also made homemade electronic devices a lot. He had a computer he used sometimes, and investigators found searches such as "Nazism" and "plastic explosives."

Robert's body was discovered in his apartment on July 30, 2002, about a week after he died. He shot himself in the mouth with a revolver he had purchased months before. On his calendar he had marked down the days until his suicide, and before doing it had closed his blinds and turned off his air conditioning. He had recently been diagnosed with colon cancer which may have been part or his reasoning for his death.

He had $82,000 in his bank account and had listed co-workers as his emergency contacts. Police could not find any of his relatives and that is what led them to realize he was living under a false name and identity. Authorities could not use fingerprints to assist in identification but were able to get a DNA sample from a hospital Robert had visited in 2000.

So why had Robert been living under the false identity of Joseph Newton Chandler III who had died almost 60 years prior and what was his real name?

Authorities speculated that Robert was a fugitive of some kind, either on the run after committing violent crimes or hiding from something. No theories have ever been confirmed.

Internet sleuths suggest he may have been the unidentified Zodiac killer as he resembled police sketches and was known to live in California. Some believed he was a fugitive named Steven Campbell, who was wanted for attempted murder. Authorities also thought he may have been a German soldier or Nazi official from World War II who had fled to the US to escape prosecution for war crimes.

Robert's name was not identified until 2018, 16 years after he died. In 2014, the case was reopened, and using DNA extracted from a tissue sample from his hospital visit, a CODIS profile was created, but no hits were found.

In 2016, there was a match found that indicated his possible surname was either Nicholas or Nichols. In 2018, the DNA Doe Project identified him as Robert Ivan Nichols. A CODIS match with Phil Nichols, Robert's son, confirmed his identification.

The reason for why Robert Nicholas stole the identity of an 8 year old boy who died in 1945, and lived under the identity since 1978 remains a mystery.