(Music is "Penn 65000")
The Command
Captain
Francis Massey Hughes
Captain Francis Massie Hughes , USN fought hard to have the Navy keep the surviving crew members of CVE 21 intact to become the crew members of CVE 106. His efforts were successful and he was given command of CVE 106 when it was commissioned for service in the new world of the Pacific. Capt. Hughes served a Captain of CVE 106 until August 1, 1945
Rear
Admiral Dixwell Ketcham
Rear Admiral Dixwell Ketcham was given command of Aircraft Carrier Division 27 which included 7 CVE carriers. He chose to have the flagship of his carrier division to be the USS Block Island CVE 106. He served on CVE 106 until the end of WW2.
Aircraft Carrier Division 27, of which the USS Block Island was the Flag Ship was originally made up of 7 CVE Carriers with escort ships being changed almost on a weekly basis . Besides the Flag Ship USS Block Island the task forces was comprised of CVE 107, the USS Gilbert Island, CVE 108, the Kula Gulf, CVE 109 the Cape Glouchester, CVE 111 the Vella Gulf, CVE 112 the Siboney and CVE 91 Makassar Strait. The Makassar Strait was a different class carrier and later was assigned to other duties to avoid operational conflicts. Also joining with CVE 106 in the rescue of the POWs on Formosa was the CVE 29 Santee and two additional Destroyer Escorts the USS J. T. Gary and the USS Kretchmer.
Marine Col. A.. D. Cooley, from the Admirals Command, led the POW recovery operations on the island of Formosa (now Taiwan).
Captain Wallace M. Beakley
Captain
Wallace M. Beakley took command of CVE 106
on August 6. 1945 and remained as skipper until the ship
returned to the States in Dec. 1945
Colonel
Dobbins
CVE-106 Aircraft ID
Lt. Colonel John F. Dobbins, USMC, holder of a Navy Cross for the destruction of 8 Japanese planes in the Guadalcanal Campaign commanded the Marines. Two powerful squadrons fought the planes, Marine Fighting Squadron 511 and Marine Torpedo Bombing Squadron 233. The pilots were experienced men with splendid records in Marine Aviation in earlier campaigns. The unusual combination of Navy and Marine aviation units require many adjustments but worked out well under the splendid leadership of cooperating officers.
Four different types of missions of aircraft operated from the decks of the FBI and made its nights as busy as its days. CVE pilots flew as many as four long support missions every day, which said Rear Admiral Durgin, "meant nine hours in the air of constant flying and fighting." "That's too much," he added. The BI had twelve CORSAIRS (F4U-1D and FG-1) which fought brilliantly by day. Ten HELLCATS (F6F-5N) continued the battle into the night. Twelve Avengers (TBM-3) launched torpedoes and bombs at strategic points.
As is shown in the Command Section of CVE 21 the entire Navigation Section, including the Officers, were in total made a part of the CVE 106 crew until the end of the War.
A painting of USS Block Island CVE 106 as it hangs in the Historical
Museum on the Island of Block Island.
John Ford the well known movie producer and director from Hollywood was in charge of the majority of the War Correspondents in the Pacific well before WWII. Hundreds of official documents that were created concerning the era before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor involved the men who were chosen to become the “Skippers” of both the USS Block Islands. These leaders were involved in the history of the US Military and the major issues that kept the world at peace between WWI and WWII. These men were hard core leaders well before being given their command of the two “jeep carriers”.
Many of the documents in the John Ford Library make reference to these leaders well before the Japanese attack and soon thereafter. Ford wrote: (1942)
On June 3rd, my friend, Massie Hughes, Commander Massie Hughes, asked me to take the [aircraft] patrol with him the next day. He said, he speaks in a southern accent, he said, "Well, it looks like there is going to be a little trouble out there - -" To resume[,] Massie Hughes, he says, "Well it might be some trouble tomorrow, you and I are too damned old for this war anyway, so we better take the easy dog leg." That was the northeast triangle [segment of the aerial patrol route]. So we got aboard, took off, it was very, very cloudy weather, didn't see anything for a long time, finally the radar picked up something, [and] we presumed it was one of our task forces. About 60 miles off we saw through a rift in the clouds as we started to go over[,] we suddenly saw a couple of cruiser planes coming for us. Taking a quick look, we realized they were Japanese. We hadn't any idea that we had seen their task force so Massey did a quick bank, got up in the clouds, stayed there for a while, finally ran out of clouds. We got down to about three feet from the water and really got some speed out of that old PBY (twin-engine patrol bomber seaplane, known as "Catalina"). At one time he said he thought he was doing about 89 miles an hour. We managed to get back
Well, evidently the reason that Captain Semard and Captain Logan Ramsey sent me up there, they figured I was a motion picture man and naturally should have a photographic eye so I made a pretty good choice, because I knew what I had to do and that was to count planes which I immediately did. One of the Marines stood by me and checked and we double-checked, and so I think that my count of the [Japanese] planes was official. As far as the citation was concerned I think it was more for being wounded in an exposed position and not leaving my post, well, Hell, you couldn't leave your post, there was no place to go.
At 0700 9 TBFs, loaded with four 500-pound bombs each, left the Wasp to bomb Japanese resistance centers on Makambo Island and in the prison on Tulagi Island. These centers were silenced. Thereafter planes were launched as scheduled throughout the day, while a continuous attack group of four fighters and nine scout bombers was maintained over the transports in the Tulagi sector. These planes received orders as to targets from the Air Group Commander, Lt. Comdr. Wallace M. Beakley, above the island, or through him, from the Air Support Director Group aboard the McCawley. The Enterprise furnished the personnel for the Air
These leaders were not "90 day wonders" that were depicted in many War Movies after WWII. They earned their keep and recognition well before the Japanese made their dreadful decision to attack Pear Harbor.