VADM Aaron Merrill, USN, was another hero of the Pacific Campaign in WWII, like ADM Conolly I documented last Monday. Born March 20th, 1890 in Plantation Stanton, Mississippi, the grandson of a Civil War veteran, and was given the same nickname as his Grandfather: “Tip,” derived from service at the Battle of Tippecanoe. The Miracle Maker psp

Graduating from the US Naval Academy in 1912, Aaron Merrill was assigned to the USS LOUISIANA and then USS TENNESSEE, and was deployed to the Mediterranean to protect US interests in the area during the Crimean War.

He sounds like a sailor’s sailor. From a page at Geocities, a long and impressive list of sea and shore tours is seen:

Jan 1913-July 1914 He volunteered for duty in the gunboat USS Scorpion and served in the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean with Constantinople, Turkey as home port. He was engineering officer.

13 Oct 1914 to 18 June 1916 Following brief duty with the Practice Squadron at the Naval Academy, he served duty on the destroyer USS Roe and then duty on the USS Conyngham. The Conyngham was a ship of the “Mayflower Division” which was the first United States Unit to participate in World War I.

He trained officers and personnel for new Destroyers at San Francisco, CA; he was Executive Officer at Naval Training Camp, Detroit, MI. The last months of World War I he was aboard the USS Aylwin (DD-47), a unit of the Destroyer Force based in Plymouth, England.

March 1919 He went to Harwich, England where he assumed command of the USS Harvard. Under his command it sailed the English Channel, Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland.

June to Nov 1919 He was executive Officer of the Lafayette Radio Station being built in Crois d’Hins, France.

Nov 1919-Aug 1923 Merrill, who had been promoted to the temporary rank of Lieutenant commander, reported for duty as Flag Lieutenant, and later as Intelligence Officer, on the staff of Rear Admiral Mark L. Bristol, United States High Commissioner to Turkey and Commander of United States Naval Forces in the Eastern Mediterranean.

It was in Constantinople, Turkey he met Louise Witherbee, whom he married in New York in January 1922, returning to Constantinople after a brief honeymoon in the States.

Aug 1923 He had several months’ duty in the Receiving Ship, New York, NY.

Mar 1924-July 1925 Consecutive service as Communications Officer of the USS Nevada and Commander of the USS McCormick bound for China.

July 1925 Commander of the gunboat USS Elcano, operating with the Asiatic Fleet in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

7 Aug 1926 He reported for duty as Squadron Engineer of Destroyer Squadron, Asiatic Fleet.

Summer 1927 Duty in the Office of Naval Intelligence, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Navy Department, Washington, DC.

June 1929 Commander of the USS Williamson a unit of the Scouting Fleet.

June 1932 After three years at sea he was promoted to the rank of Commander and again assigned for a year to the Office of Naval Intelligence, Washington, DC.

June 1933 to 01 May 1934 Aide to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Henry Latrobe Roosevelt.

1 June 1935 Commander Merrill was assigned to the 8″gun cruiser USS Pensacola. He was aboard when she conveyed the remains of the Ambassador to the United States, Paul May, to his home in Antwerp, Belgium. Merrill was honored as an Officer of the Order of the Crown by the Belgium Government for his service.

8 June 1936 He was ordered to command Destroyer Division Eight, flying his pennant on the USS Barry (DD-248).

May 1937-38 Assigned as Naval Attaché for Air at the American Embassy, Santiago, Chile. During his period he cruised extensively with the Chilean Fleet. He was the first foreigner to round the Horn in a Chilean Man-of-war. For his service to Chile, he was awarded the Order al Merito Grade de Comendador by the Government of Chile.

1938-1939 Merrill completed the senior course at the Naval War College, Newport, RI which was climaxed by his promotion to Captain.

1939-1940 He commanded Destroyer Division of Leaders in the Pacific with the USS Sommers as his Flagship.

Early 1941 He requested duty as Professor Naval Science and Tactics, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA. He was serving there with the Naval Reserve Officers’ Training Corps Unit when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.

April 1942 Relieved of duty at Tulane University, Aaron Stanton Merrill became the first commanding officer of the new Battleship USS Indiana, BB-58. He assumed command upon her commissioning, 30 April 1942

23 Jan 1943 Relieved as Captain of the USS Indiana by Captain Thomas Green Peyton

11 Feb 1943 His nomination as Rear Admiral was confirmed by the Senate, and he assumed command of the 12th Light Cruiser Division. This Division comprised the new cruisers USS Montpelier, USS Columbia, USS Cleveland and USS Denver. After a brief period of training, Cruiser Division 12 was assigned to Task Force 38 under the command of Rear Admiral Giffin, and based at Havana Harbor in the New Hebrides Islands. USS Montpelier was his Flagship.

Cruiser Division 12 got its first bloody nose the night of 30 January 1943 in the night battle of Rennell Island. The heavy cruiser USS CHICAGO was torpedoed in this action by Jap planes and sunk by torpedo planes the following day while under tow.

Shortly after the Rennell Island action, Admiral Giffin’s Division of Heavy Cruisers were ordered to Alaskan waters, and Admiral Merrill fell heir to The Task Force which “won its spurs” as Task Force 36.2

Mar 1943 to Mar 1944 Under his command Task Force 36.2 operated as a unit of the Third Fleet in the Solomon Islands Areas.

15 June 1944-23 April 1945 Director of Office of Public Relations, Navy Department. Shortly after he reported for duty in Washington, Merrill was appointed Navy member of a mission to hold hemispherical defense conversations with the Chilean government in Santiago, Chile. While on this duty, he laid the groundwork for an American Naval mission to Chile to replace the traditional British mission which had continued since the days of Admiral Lord Cochrane. For this service he was made “Grand Officer of the Order of Merit ” of Chile.

3 Jan 1946 Commandant of Eight Naval District, New Orleans, LA. In June he was assigned additional duty as Commander of Gulf Sea Frontier. Merrill continued to serve in this command until relieved of active duty pending retirement for physical disability with the rank of Vice Admiral on 1 November 1947

After his retirement Vice Admiral and Mrs Merrill moved to Natchez, MS where they lived until June 1951. They later bought a home at 1503 Valence Street, New Orleans, LA.

28 Feb 1961 Vice Admiral Aaron Stanton Merrill died in Natchez, MS

While the above list is rather dry, it provides details or a career spent in the Fleet, or in direct support of operations, but VADM Merrill’s major significance in WWII was in the opening amphibious assaults made by the Allied Navies in the vicinity of Guadalcanal. He led his four light cruisers and eight destroyers during the fighting in “The Slot” and later being noted for his leadership at the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay. His actions during this battle earned him the Navy Cross.
In VADM Aaron “Tip” Merrill’s honor, the USS MERRILL (DD-976) was commissioned March 11th, 1978.

More later today, but to be brief, the USS MERRILL was stationed in San Diego, and carries the distinction of being the first vessel of the Navy to be fitted with the TOMAHAWK Weapons System (TWS), being designated the “OPEVAL” unit for the system.

The MERRILL was decommissioned on Macrh 26th, 1998 and was sunk in 2003.

Interesting…news from 2003 we could have used.

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Could these weapons have been within our reach, but spirited away, while the military dealt with an offensive that went so fast, they couldn’t have possibly managed to keep the chaos organized?

As teh article points out, it would be tremendously embarrassing for the White House to let the cat out of the bag now…after all, it is a Republican President, and he can’t lie, without being pilloried by the press and the Democrats. On the other hand, a Democrat president could shrugs their shoulders and say “it all depends on what the meaning of ‘found’ is” and the story would pass with a yawn.

Forget that. The routine harangues about no WMD, and therefore no need to have had 4000+ service members giving their lives would be stopped in their tracks, even if it is “embarrassing.” On top of that, the reasonable opportunity to no longer continue the shredding of the nation along ideological lines would actually be good for us, and would most certainly allow peace of mind for the familes who have contributed far too much in the form of a lost loved one, knowing it wasn’t in vain, or for some future legacy, but for the real protection of peoples, even beyond our borders.

Also, in the end part of the article, a comment about seeing thousands of Iranians crossing into Iraq, specifically for the purpose of fomenting a civil war. Kinda like BhO not wearing a flag label pin, and a few months later, you find out his mentor hates the country. It puts incomprehensible things into a context that makes sense.

Anyhow, take a read, and see what may well have been mishandled, and the net result is someone, in fact, many people are at risk for this error, if in fact the linked story is correct.Seven Years in Tibet download Der Fuehrer's Face divx

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Is it better to listen to the pronunciations of those who have never left the comfort of their homes, or Congressional Offices, as to the current state of affairs and progress of the in Iraq, or a person who has risked life and limb to find and report what is happening?

I’ll pick the person with boots on the ground and eyes on the scene in every case. In this case, it’s Michael Yon in a Wall Street Journal editorial:

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Let’s ‘Surge’ Some More
By MICHAEL YON
April 11, 2008

It is said that generals always fight the last war. But when David Petraeus came to town it was senators – on both sides of the aisle – who battled over the Iraq war of 2004-2006. That war has little in common with the war we are fighting today.

I may well have spent more time embedded with combat units in Iraq than any other journalist alive. I have seen this war – and our part in it – at its brutal worst. And I say the transformation over the last 14 months is little short of miraculous.

The change goes far beyond the statistical decline in casualties or incidents of violence. A young Iraqi translator, wounded in battle and fearing death, asked an American commander to bury his heart in America. Iraqi special forces units took to the streets to track down terrorists who killed American soldiers. The U.S. military is the most respected institution in Iraq, and many Iraqi boys dream of becoming American soldiers. Yes, young Iraqi boys know about “GoArmy.com.”

As the outrages of Abu Ghraib faded in memory – and paled in comparison to al Qaeda’s brutalities – and our soldiers under the Petraeus strategy got off their big bases and out of their tanks and deeper into the neighborhoods, American values began to win the war.
[…]

Don’t miss the rest of the words of a man who has lived the war, not just been a “commuter” in and out of the war zone.

Even if you did ride a corkscrewing landing into an airfield with a sniper trying to take you out, it cannot possibly produce the understanding and analysis of the person who was there before you ducked and ran for the cars, and after you left, with months and months and months being the measurement scale.

History, when complied and sorted through, I’ll wager, will report a very different war from what our newspapers and “national news” organizations have. Funny, I’m not sure why they are betting to be connected to a business model that would paint them as completely off base in their reporting of the present, unless, of course, there was much more gain in supporting our enemies and the cowards who will not speak the truth.

And it’s a good one, too. Hitman

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Last week, Spoiler download I began discussing the Ship’s Servicemen and my experiences.

At the present, work is busy (and good), so I have to catch up with the story of CDR Lightley and the laundry aboard USS MILWAUKEE (AOR-2). I promise it will be of great entertainment value to those who have “been there” when things went haywire (or, in this case, whites came back as grays…). Return late tonight, or tomorrow ro find out who did what to who…

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World Net Daily has a very informative article today about our petition to investigate the Flight 93 memorial. It includes excerpts from Tom Burnett’s letter to the American people; it includes information about the fraudulent Park Service investigation (where an Islamic scholar said not to worry about the half mile wide Mecca oriented crescent because nobody has ever seen a mihrab anywhere near this BIG before); and it reviews the four specific complaints highlighted in the petition (the giant crescent, the Mecca orientation, the Islamic sundial and the 44 blocks).

Those last four links are to graphics that Tom Burnett is going to have on poster-boards when he addresses a Republican convention in Wisconsin at the end of the month. World Net Daily is looking to add video content these days so Tom is going to try to get video of his speech that we can edit down to five minutes of highlights for WND.

The first place we will be delivering the petitions is to the Memorial Project’s public meeting on May 3rd in Somerset PA. It looks like we are going to have quite a few signatures, both from the electronic petition (zooming towards 2000 already), and from the paper petitions (now circulating on the ground in PA).

At least one state legislator from Pennsylvania has signed the petition, and a Congressman has expressed interest in entering the whole thing into the congressional record. That would be a second Congressman coming out publicly against the memorial. (Tom Tancredo asked the Park Service last fall to scrap the crescent design entirely.)

Will any of the big radio radio voices wake up to the evidence that al Qaeda accepted our open invitation to the ENTIRE WORLD to enter our design competition? All they have to do is look at the FACTS.

To join our blogbursts, email Cao (caoilfhionn1 at gmail dot com) with your blog’s url.

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Interesting how things are turning out: jf kerry’s too stupid to get educated types are rolling up their sleeves, and putting down their M-4s to help another people make a life.

From a wonderful and detailed post by Michael Totten:

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“This is my hardest deployment,” Marine Sergeant Cooley said as he unfastened his helmet and tossed it onto his bed. “We weren’t trained for this kind of thing.” He’s been shot at with bullets and mortars, and he’s endured IED attacks on his Humvee, but post-war Fallujah is more difficult and more stressful than combat. He isn’t unusual for saying so. Many Marines I spoke to in and around the Fallujah area said something similar.

“We’re trained as infantrymen,” Captain Stewart Glenn said. “But here we are doing civil administration and trying to get the milk factory up and running.”

“We make up all this stuff as we go,” Lieutenant Mike Barefoot added.

While most Americans go to school, work traditional day jobs, and raise their families, young American men and women like these are deployed to Iraq, Kosovo, and Afghanistan where they work seven days a week rebuilding societies torn to pieces by fascism, terrorism, ethnic cleansing, and war. It is not what they signed up to do. Some may have geeked out on nation-building video games like Civilization, but none of the enlisted men picked up any of these skills in boot camp.
[..]

Go, read, absorb and put it in your memory banks, for those years from now, when you meet an OIF vet, long removed from that part of their lives, now just looking like almost any other person i our nation, not wearing a uniform. Shake their hand. Tell them how much you appreciate that they would take up tools, instead of weapons or war, for those half way around the globe, to save them, and to thereby save us from harm.

I remain in awe of the compassion and dedication of those who have been trained to use violence in defense of this nation, and can put that aside for a greater purpose for all mankind.

I’ll venture to say, it will not be in me to ever thank a Democrat for the role they have played in signaling the enemy it is acceptable to kill ours and their own to support the political end game of a few power hungry people to the detriment of the rest of humanity. More souls have been lost in their pursuit of power, while our service men and women clean up behind them. But then. how could we expect anything else?

Mo’ better way to skydive – without the plane…

Wind tunnels keep getting better and better. I was able to get into the one at Ft. Bragg years ago by special invite and to be coached by the Golden Knights (including one of President Bush’s (41) jumpmasters. Video is on a VHS tape around here somewhere.  Yea…it was a while ago.

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Trivia: Glenn Bangs was the the commander of the first 82nd Airborne unit to land in Saudi for the very start of Desert Shield (and was the other jumpaster for President Bush).

Required reading: Sunday Ship History: Really Big Submarine Ideas by Eagle1 and Fred Fry’s Maritime Monday 105 for all things newsworthy in the maritime realm!
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A native of Waukegan, IL, Richard L. Conolly was born April 26th, 1892. He entered the Naval Academy and graduated in 1914.

From the DD979.COM website:

After graduation in 1914 he was ordered to Mexican waters where he served in USS VIRGINIA. He continued duty in that battleship until May 1915, when he reported aboard USS MONTANA for torpedo instruction. In November 1915 he rejoined VIRGINIA, and in March 1916 he was assigned to USS VERMONT as Torpedo Officer of that battleship for two months. Transferred in May 1916 to USS SMITH, he was aboard that destroyer when the United States entered World War I, in April 1917, and served aboard SMITH while she performed escort duty in European waters out of Brest, France.

He was awarded the Navy Cross for services while attached to SMITH in connection with salvaging the transport WESTBRIDGE, torpedoed by a German submarine in August 1918, as follows: “For distinguished service in the line of his profession on the occasion of the torpedoing of the WESTBRIDGE, when he, with a party of eight others remained on board for five days steering by hand and handling the lines from the tugs, while the ship was towed four hundred miles to port.”
[..]

Admiral Conolly continued his naval career after WWI, serving on a variety of surface ships, including three destroyers and two battleships, before attaining his first command tour, that being the USS DUPONT (DD-152) in August, 1929.He was there in the opening days of WWII, and escorted the USS HORNET and Gen Dolittle’s raiders across the Pacific.ADM Conolly went on to be in charge of major naval operations in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans for the remander of the war, then became one of the top officers in the opening days of the Cold War:

Assuming command of Destroyer Division 7 in May 1939, he was transferred to duty as Commander Destroyer Squadron 6 on January 30, 1941. He was at sea, in command of Destroyer Squadron 6 at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He subsequently participated in the initial attack on the Gilbert and Marshall Islands on February 1, 1942, as part of the gun bombardment force under command of Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr.; and in April his destroyers served as escort for the aircraft carrier HORNET from which Lieutenant General Doolittle’s Army planes took off for the first bombing of Tokyo. He also participated in a shore bombardment of Wake Island in command of destroyers in Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance’s Task Group.

July 2 1943 Operation Husky

Task Force 86 under the command of Rear Admiral Conolly was scheduled to land the 3rd Infantry Division and two Ranger Battalions of the U.S. Army on the beaches of Licata, Sicily.

Admiral Conolly had a most difficult task: that of moving some 25,000 men from Africa to Sicily in a fleet of landing ships, tank; landing craft, tank; and landing craft, infantry, which was designated JOSS Force. Traveling in a convoy of seven columns, they were slowed at times to a speed of two and a half knots by strong winds and heavy seas. This was the first shore-to-shore amphibious operation to make such extensive use of these landing ships. The Sicilian coastline presented a further complication. Because it was known to be fronted with false beaches which would prevent landing ships from placing their troops and equipment on the shore, pontoon causeways were brought along to bridge the gap. The newly developed amphibious truck, called DUKW, was first employed in this operation and met with great success. False beaches presented no problem for the DUKWs, which could continue in land, as needed, with their cargo.

Jan. 31, 1944 Marshall Islands

Rear Admiral Richard L. Conolly commanded the Northern Task Force, responsible for landing troops under Marine Major General Harry Schmidt. These troops were from the Marine 4th Division. Their objectives were Roi and Namur islands in northern Kwajalein Atoll. On Feb. 1, ships responsible for fire support and bombardment moved in to extremely close range, maximizing their effectiveness, killing a significant number of defenders, and earning Conolly the nickname “Close-in,” along with the gratitude of the troops, who were able to come into the beaches standing up. Navy ships and pilots dropped 6,000 tons of heavy explosives before the Marines set foot on Roi-Namur.

D-Plus 1, Roi

During the afternoon of D-Day, Marines of both regimental combat teams transferred from the transports, outside the lagoon, to the LST’s from which (it had been planned) amphibian tractors would in turn run the assault waves into the lagoon and thence to the beaches. Meanwhile, both Admiral Conolly and General Schmidt had already seen the confusion incident to boating the IVAN Landing Group. They concluded that the only realistic course of action would be to move the LST’s inside the lagoon and launch the morrow’s assault amtracs from positions reasonably near the line of departure. Moreover, considering both the scattered location of many tractors, as well as their dwindling fuel supply, movement of the LST’s would bring sources of support nearer the hard-pressed, dispersed vehicles of the 10th Amphibian Tractor Battalion.

July 1944 Guam

Admiral Conolly, the amphibious group commander for that assault, found it hard to obtain reliable information on the reefs around Guam, he sought out the services of an American geologist who had conducted a prewar survey of the island. And it was Conolly’s detailed questioning of the geologist at Pearl Harbor, prior to his sailing for the operational area, that provided him with the confidence that the assault plan for landing the Fifth Amphibious Corps over the western beaches at Guam was viable.

On July 8 1944 four cruisers of Southern Attack Force led off with a 3-day bombardment, firing five thousand five hundred 5- and 8-inch shells on the coastal defenses. From the 12th through the 16th, four battleships fired more than three thousand 14- and 16-inch shells. During the next 4 days 3 battleships were Joined by 2 others and by 6 cruisers, and they blasted the island with more than 16,000 shells. LCI(G)’s (Landing Craft, Infantry [Gunboat]), closing to within a few yards of the reef, raked trenches and pillboxes and reported the location of enemy positions to the heavier ships. Destroyers screened the larger ships and delivered harassing fires at night. Admiral Conolly, directed the bombardment from the flagship, and supervised the destruction of every known gun emplacement that would seriously endanger the assault landing.

On July 21st 1944 Admiral Conolly’s Task Force 53 lands an Assault Force on Guam under the overall command of Marine Major Gen Roy S. Geiger. After three weeks of hard fighting by Major Gen Allen H. Turnage’s 3rd Marine Division and Brig Gen Lemuel C. Shepard Jr’s 1st Provisional Brigade and Army Major Gen Andrew Bruce’s 77th Infantry Division, Guam’s defenders under LtGen Takeshima Takeshi are overwhelmed and the former American territorial island is retaken.

In 1946 Admiral Conolly was a U.S. Naval Advisor to the Council of Foreign Ministers at the Paris Peace Conference.

In 1950 Rear Adm. Richard L. Conolly was the commander of the U.S. fleet in the Mediterranean and east Atlantic.

On April 8, 1950, a United States Navy patrol plane vanished over the Baltic Sea. The plane, carrying four officers and six enlisted men, was a Privateer, a four-engine plane with a tail assembly somewhat resembling that of the B-29. U.S. officials stated that the plane left Wiesbaden Air Base in Germany and that its destination was Copenhagen, Denmark. Some debris was later sighted by search planes, but there were no survivors. The Soviet Government subsequently stated that Russian planes had fired upon a B-29 Flying Fortress after it had failed to comply with orders and had opened fire upon the Soviet planes.

THE PRESIDENT. “There is an investigation, and it has been ordered by Admiral Conolly, and I can make no comment on it until we know all the facts.”

1951-1953, Admiral Conolly, became President of the Naval War College. (Conolly Hall is named in honor of Admiral Conolly.)

ADM Conoyly and his wife died in a commercial plane crash March 1st, 1962.

In honor of Richard Conolly’s long and distinguished service to the Nation, the 17th destroyer of the SPRUANCE Class was commissioned October 14th, 1978. Some trivia about USS CONOLLY (DD-979):

• She was the only one of the 31 “SPRU-Cans” to not have an oval shaped ship’s insignia.
• She was the first SPRUANCE in the Atlantic Fleet to be equipped with TOMAHAWK (in the armored box launchers, as seen above).

CONOLLY was the first DD-963 unit to act as a fleet oiler, delivering about 30K gallons of F-76 to USS JESSE L BROWN (FF-1089) in the South Atlantic.

• There is a “minor mis-alignment” on the structure of the transom, starboard side, where there is a (maybe no longer) matching chunk of concrete pier missing in Dakar, Senegal.
• She did participate in an “OTL” (operational test launch) of a TOMAHAWK Land Attack missile in August, 1986, accompanied by USS IOWA (BB-61), that also fired a TLAM test weapon. These two ships formed a nominal “BBBG” (Battleship Battle Group), supported by USS DOYLE (FFG-39) with a dual SH-60B LAMPS MK III detachment embarked. This exercise was to formulate tactics for the employment of BBBGs for sea control operations. The Officer in Tactical Command was COMDESRON 32.
Until a very recent decision by DoN, USS CONOLLY was to be a museum ship, located at Waukegan, IL on the Great Lakes. She would have been the only SPRUANCE to be saved. Last year, however, the Navy decided to sink her as a target ship. The date is still pending.
• and…then there was the vaccum powered sewage system malfunction…

Assigned to COMDESRON 10 in the Atlantic Fleet after commissioning, CONOLLY spent her entire time in commission homeported in Norfolk, VA. Her first “cruise” was to the Mediterrean in 1981, with her second to the Middle East Force (read: Persian Gulf) in 1982. In the summer of 1983, she sailed south to the Panama Canal to make her third cruise as the flagship for UNITAS XXIV/WATC.

The picture shown is post-1984-85 regular overhaul. I will link in the supporting sea stories and reports about USS CONOLLY this evening.