Hi to all of the members of this facebook page and fellow USS Franklin survivors and family members. As you may be aware, there is a USS Franklin Reunion planned for July 17-20 2014 in Norfolk, VA. I have made it my mission to find out why so many of the crew members, including my father (FTCS Theodore J. Mayka USN Ret, now deceased) were never recognized or decorated for their efforts to save their ship on 19 Mar 1945. My husband and I have started sending letters to the Secretary of the Navy, Dale Dye who narrated the CD USS Franklin Return to Honor, and anyone else who can help bring attention to this situation and to try to right this horrible wrong. We would love for all of you to start sending letters to whoever you may feel may help us with our cause to get these men the honors that they have so rightly deserved for 69 years. On 31 Oct 2013 along with a 2nd request on 22 Mar 2014, I wrote the following letter to the Secretary of the Navy asking why my father, who was assigned to the USS Franklin from Jan 31, 1944 until April 1945 when the USS Franklin returned under its own power to the Navel Shipyard in Brooklyn NY, had never received any recognition for his efforts to save his ship: Secretary Ray Mabus Office of the Secretary of the Navy 2000 Navy Pentagon Washington, DC 20350-2000 22 Mar 2014 THIS IS MY SECOND REQUEST Dear Secretary Mabus, I originally sent this letter to you on 31 Oct 13. Approximately 3 month later, I was sent a response from your office along with all of the medals that my Father FTCS Theodore J. Mayka, USN Ret, had received during his service in the Navy. The letter that you sent, along with all of my Father’s medals, was appreciated but I never received an answer to my original question. Why wasn’t my Father, along with hundreds of other crew members ever decorated for their actions to save their ship, the USS Franklin CV-13, on 19 Mar 1945? It’s been 69 years. 69 years that these men have waited for honor to be bestowed upon them. What is the problem? Slowly, each one of these gallant men is passing away, going to their graves with this unanswered question in their mind. If you had been one of these brave crew members, would you want your family to be in our place? What if you went to your grave and left your family wondering why the US Navy would turn their backs on these brave men (boys, actually since most weren’t yet 20 years of age)? Without their bravery so many years ago, maybe you would have not achieved what you have achieved in your lifetime. Every life affects another and the lives and deaths of these men will affect many generations to come. All of us, the survivors, spouses, sons, daughters, grandchildren, etc. are waiting for this wrong to be righted. Surely there can be no reason for this injustice. Who made this decision not to praise and reward these heroes? We learn through our mistakes. The Vietnam War taught us the importance of welcoming our heroes home, not just dropping them off at some airport only to be spit on and scorned. Now I see the veterans coming home to parades and welcoming crowds, commercials on TV thanking them for their service and more. Yet the brave men who faced certain death and stood up and did what they could to save their ship, not for any other reason other than the fact that they loved America, have been ignored. How can the US Navy just turn a blind eye to this? I know the ultimate weapon is “a warm body with a gun” but maybe that saying should be amended to add “and a veteran who helped to save the world” because that is what these men did. So again, I am resubmitting my request for an answer as to why my Father was not recognized for his selfless actions and service during the attack on the USS Franklin on 19 Mar 1945 and why most of the crew members were tossed aside like so much trash because of one man, Admiral Gehres. Without these men, there may not be an America as we know it. Please answer my original inquiry as to why my Father was never recognized for his actions and bravery on the fateful day in March 1945. I would like to know the truth. I don’t need copies of his military records or anything else; I just want an answer from you. I would like to see you put this situation right with all of the crew members. You have the opportunity to correct a wrong and make it right. These men would feel so proud! Please do this before the last crew member slips away. Our WWII Veterans are one of our most valuable treasures and the men of the USS Franklin should be honored and know that their actions and sacrifices have not gone unnoticed. Please make this right. I again await your response. Thank you. ORIGINAL LETTER dated 31 Oct 2013 I am writing this letter to ask for your help in finding out some information. My father, FTCS Theodore Joseph Mayka, USN Ret, WWII, served in the US Navy for 20 years before retiring in 1963. Sadly, he passed away on his birthday, 26 Jul 10, at the age of 84. After he was gone, I was going through some of his files and I came across his Official Navy Records. My father retired when I was 6 years old and my mother passed away when I was just 20 years old, so I never knew much about my father’s time in the Navy. I had always known that my father served on the USS Franklin CV-13 during WWII but I never heard the whole story about what happened to the ship on 19 Mar 45. After my father’s passing, I decided to do some research on the USS Franklin. It was then I realized that my father was involved in one of the worst disasters in naval history, yet he never received any type of recognition for his efforts to save the ship when it was struck by a Japanese Kamikaze bomber and burst into flames. More than 800 sailors died in the attack, with hundreds more wounded. My father really loved his country, so he had his father sign him into the Navy, on 5 Aug 1943 at the age of 17, to fight in WWII. On 31 Jan 44, my father was assigned to the USS Franklin CV-13. Fourteen months later, on 19 Mar 45, the ship had made its way to a position about 50 miles away from the Japanese Islands, the closest any ship had ever gotten to Japan since the beginning of WWII. Admiral Leslie Gehres, who was in charge of the USS Franklin at the time, had been receiving reports of Japanese bombers heading to attack the ship, but instead of calling everyone to their battle stations, he called everyone to the mess deck for breakfast instead. Reports of the Kamikaze planes closing in on the USS Franklin continued to come in, but Adm Gehres chose to ignore these reports. Suddenly, a plane flew into the deck of the ship, penetrating the flight deck into the mess deck and the area where the ship’s torpedoes were stored. At the time of the attack, the wooden flight deck of the ship was loaded with 31 planes, fully gassed and armed with bombs and rockets and 22 planes were parked in the hangar, some of which were gassed and armed with rockets. Upon impact, the Kamikaze plane burst into flames, causing the planes on the deck to also burst into flames. Then the bombs began to explode which then caused the torpedoes and tons of ordnance below deck to also explode. The wooden deck was consumed by flames. The men grabbed the hoses and tried to turn the water on to extinguish the flames but there was no water pressure. Most of the crew was still in the mess deck eating breakfast when the planes struck, so they perished in the attack. The next part of this story is really the only part of my father’s experience that he ever shared with me - Early in the morning of 19 Mar 1945; my father had been working on something elsewhere in the ship, with a fellow crew member who was a buddy of his. When Admiral Gehres called everyone to the mess deck for breakfast, my father’s buddy said he was heading to the mess deck to eat. My father said he was going to finish up what he was working on and he’d join him when he was through. A short time later, the plane struck the ship, penetrating the top deck and killing most of the crew members who were eating in the mess deck, including my father’s friend. As soon as the first explosion occurred, my father started to run to the upper deck to see what had happened. As he ran through the passageways trying to get topside, a crew member notice he had blood on his uniform and told him he looked like he had been injured and to go to sick bay. My father replied it wasn’t his blood. (I guess an injured crew member had brush against my father in the passageway during the commotion.) That is the only story I’ve ever heard about my father’s experience that day. I never knew how truly horrifying this experience had been because he never told me anymore about it. My father never talked very much about his experiences during WWII and I never pressed him for information. The father’s records show that he remained assigned to the USS Franklin until after it returned to the Brooklyn Navy Shipyard in April of 1945, so why no honors or recognition? I’ve read stories about the “704 Club” that was established by Admiral Gehres. It consists of the 704 crew members who remained on the ship during the disaster. When the attack occurred, many men were forced to jump ship due to the heat, flames and chocking smoke, while others were simply blown overboard by the force of the explosions. These crew members remain in the freezing waters for many hours until the USS Santa Fe and the Destroyer Miller along with other ships arrived to rescue the surviving crew members. After the other ships arrived, it was believed that the Order to Abandon Ship had been given, so the crew members began transferring themselves, along with other injured crew members, onto the Destroyer Miller. Rear Adm Davison, who was assigned to the USS Franklin transferred to the destroyer Miller and before departing, Davison told Gehres: Captain, I think theres no hope. I think you should consider abandoning ship — those fires seem to be out of control. Rear Adm Davidson sailed away a short time later, in effect abandoning ship. Then Adm Gehres decided that he wanted his entire crew back on board, so he commanded the other ship to pull alongside of the USS Franklin and about 100 men were transferred back onto the USS Franklin. Once the USS Franklin got back underway, Gehres immediately began a campaign against those who were not aboard the ship when the disaster was calmed. The Commanding Officer requires an immediate explanation in writing as to when, where and why, you able bodied and uninjured sailors left this vessel while she was in action and seriously damaged when no order had been issued to abandon ship, he inquired. Additionally, anyone found floating in the water after the attack, no matter how they ended up there, were considered deserters and accused of abandoning ship. Gehres called them cowards and they were not considered members of the “704 Club”. If you weren’t a member of the 704 Club, you were denied the honor of receiving any medals. With all of the confusion and mayhem, who was he to decide who should be punished and who should be honored? Even Rear Adm Davidson, in effect, abandoned ship. Gehres had proclaimed 704 members of the crew to be members of the Big Ben 704 Club for having stayed with the heavily damaged warship, but investigators in New York discovered that only about 400 were actually on board Franklin continuously. The others had been brought back on board either before and during the stop at Ulithi. All of the charges against the men of her crew were quietly dropped probably because Rear Adm Davison would have also been brought up on charges. The more I read, the more I realize what awful memories must have remained with my father all of those years. First, the horrible sights, the fear and the loss of fellow crew members and then to possibly be considered a deserter and not rewarded with any honors? It is all beyond my comprehension. Is this what happened with my father? Is this the reason he didn’t receive any medals? I would love to have the answers to these questions. Even if your inquiry leads to negative information, I would still like to know. I am very proud to be my father’s daughter and I want to know that I tried my hardest to find out the truth. I think I have all of his military records so if you need copies of anything, I can try to provide them to you. If he is eligible for any type of recognition, I would also like to apply for it. You may contact me by mail, email or by phone; all of this contact information is listed below. I would appreciate any help or information that you can give me. Thank you, Sir. I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Laura Mayka-Meglio laura@beadscape I finally received a response from the Head, Congressional Affairs, T. E. Decent on 8 Jan 2014, who was nice enough to provide me with all of the medals and awards for Father had been awarded but there was no mention of his service on the USS Franklin and no answer to my original question, so I sent a second request on 22 Mar 2014, again asking why. We also sent a request to Dale Dye to attend the 2014 reunion but he unfortunately cannot attend, but we are not giving up. Below I am posting his response: Subject: USS Franklin Reunion From: dkadye@aol Date: Fri, Mar 28, 2014 6:33 pm To: laura@beadscape Cc: juliaddye@gmail Hi, Laura. Thanks so much for the invitation to join the USS Franklin vets for their reunion. Unfortunately, I will be on location for a movie at the designated time so I wont be able to attend. Please pass along my regrets and very best wishes to All Hands. D My husband and I are asking all of you to help us in our mission to get the veterans recognized. It doesnt have to be this way. Slowly we are losing these great heroes and I would love to see the look on at least one of their faces when they finally realize that they have not been overlooked and forgotten. Without them, the world may not be what it is today. Our WWII Vets are one of our countries greatest treasures. Lets not let them go to their graves thinking that there heroic actions to save the world didnt matter at all. Together, I think all of us can make this right! You may contact me with any questions or thoughts. Please join our quest. God Bless the men of the USS Franklin, heroes all!
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 01:04:28 +0000
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