Events more than seven decades ago prompt this short Memorial Day meditation for Public Diplomacy.
On September 15, 1942, the aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-7), supporting the Guadalcanal campaign, was 170 miles southeast of San Cristobal Island in the Solomons. It was mid-afternoon on an active day of air operations — planes launched and planes recovered. At 14:44 hours, came the peril. A lookout called the alarm: “three torpedoes … three points forward of the starboard beam.”
The Japanese submarine I-19 had fired a salvo of six torpedoes at the American carrier. Three struck the Wasp, hitting the ship near the gasoline tanks and munitions stores. One hit the destroyer O'Brien (DD-415). Another hit the battleship USS North Carolina (BB-55).
Read Full Article »