World-Telegram photo by Dick DeMarsico name it the USS Putnam . Later , in honor of the brothers who had died , the name of the vessel was changed to USS The Sullivans . It was about this time that I came out of school with my promotion and they shipped me out to San Francisco where I was assigned to The Sullivans , which was not yet completed .
I was the first guy assigned to The Sullivans that wasn ’ t named Sullivan . When the ship was complete we had like 25 Sullivans in the crew , and I thought that if they didn ’ t stop there would be an awful lot of confusion . So I went over and meet the guys that were already assigned to The Sullivans , and they said , “ What the hell are they doing bringing a Mendonsa into this crew ?” I remember telling the guys that Uncle Sam wants us to bring the ship back and none of them knew how to navigate . We joked about that , but it was a beautiful ship and a real honor to serve on that crew .
There was no power in the world like the American Navy . We had four task groups and each task group had four aircraft carriers , which equals a total of 16 aircraft carriers along with 12 battleships in those four groups . We also had 12 cruisers and over 100 destroyers among the four groups . I was up on the bridge of the ship , so I knew everything that was going on and I can tell you the Japanese got hit hard . The place where I would say they got hurt
the most before I went in was at Wake Island , when we broke their code and sent the Navy to wait for the Japanese to arrive . I don ’ t remember for certain , but I think the Japanese lost three aircraft carriers at Wake Island . But from the Doolittle Raid on , we took the fight to the Japanese really hard .
I was aboard The Sullivans for two
AS NEWS OF THE JAPANESE SURRENDER SPREAD , CROWDS SWARMED TO TIMES SQUARE TO CELEBRATE THE END OF THE WAR .
years when , in July , 1945 , we had just taken Okinawa and received our orders to come home . Just before we left , the aircraft carrier Bunker Hill got hit by some Japanese dive bombers and we were right alongside her and got called in to help some of the men aboard that were trapped in fires . All of the planes aboard Bunker Hill had been refueled and reloaded with weapons for a sunrise attack on Japan , so when those two Japanese bombers hit the deck it caused quite the explosion . Fortunately , many of the men dove overboard and we were able to pull them out of the water .
Our last stop before heading stateside was in Leyte Gulf in the Philippines . As the quartermaster on the bridge , I worked closely with the navigator , so the captain and I were buddies . I was essentially the number two navigator on the ship when our navigator was ordered to fly back to the states . He took all the job orders our ship needed when we returned home , so that it could be repaired and refitted . When he left , I became the default navigator of The Sullivans .
When we finally got into San Francisco in the middle of July , our navigator who flew out ahead of us had asked me , “ How the hell do you want to go home , Mendonsa ?”
“ I don ’ t know , I guess I ’ ll have to fly home ,” I said .
“ Okay , well I ’ ll have reservations for you the minute the ships arrives so you can get home .”
It took almost a month coming back , but sure enough , when we arrived , I saw the navigator waiting for us on the dock .
I went over to him and he says , “ Mendonsa , here ’ s your tickets .”
I was the first guy off The Sullivans when we arrived home . The ship wasn ’ t even tied up and I had my orders to go ahead and fly home .
When I arrived home in Newport , my sister had recently married another Navy guy , so I was able to meet my brother-in-law for the first time . His parents were coming up from Long Island to visit and they brought their
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