The aircraft carrier, USS Franklin, nicknamed “Big Ben,” was home to 3,000 crewmen and 100 aircraft, bristling with 5-inch and 40mm anti-aircraft guns and topped with a Douglas fir deck.
The Franklin was within 50 miles of the Japanese mainland on March 19, 1945. At 7:07 a Japanese Judy dive bomber dropped two 500-pound bombs on the Franklin. The first bomb ripped through three-inch armor to the flight deck. The second bomb detonated two decks below.
Five bombers, 14 torpedo bombers and 12 fighters were on the flight and hanger decks, carrying 36,000 gallons of gas and 30 tons of bombs and rockets between them. They became an inferno.
The Franklin was dead in the water, took on a 13 degree starboard list, lost all radio communications, and broiled under the heat from enveloping fires.Many of the crew were blown overboard, driven off by fire, killed or wounded. But the men that voluntarily stayed aboard, saved the ship.
Lt. Donald A. Gary, born July 23, 1901, in Findlay was awarded the Medal on Honor for rescuing 300 crewmen who were trapped below decks.
Also aboard the Franklin was S/1 Bernard Tarr of Ada.
Out of the Franklin crew, 807 were killed, 487 were wounded.
Clair D. Romick, Ada
