Former crewmen return to the Texas

Antipodean Andy · Oct 19, 2008

WWII Navy vets reunite aboard USS Texas in La Porte | Chronicle | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Edward Reichert stepped aboard the USS Texas on Saturday and, for a moment, he was once again a twentysomething sailor, serving his country in a battleship radar room during World War II.

"It seems like yesterday," he said.

Reichert and 15 of his former shipmates gathered Saturday aboard the ship where they had served, remembering the war that helped to shape their generation.

"It brings back memories," said Reichert, who is now 90 and living in Gorham, N.H. "I think that's the important thing: what happened, what we contributed."

Members of the USS Texas Veterans Association meet every year, choosing locations around the country to make it easier for aging members to attend. This year, they met at the battleship, which is now docked at the San Jacinto Battleground in La Porte. They last visited the ship in 2006.

These men are in their 80s and 90s now, veterans not only of World War II and the post-war boom but, more recently, heart surgeries, hearing impairments and other reminders of age. Their ranks grow smaller every year.

But the ties forged during battle remain. Men serving below decks sometimes remained in close quarters for a month or longer at a time.

"We are very close," said Harold Long, 85, who lives in Plymouth, N.H.

The USS Texas is showing signs of age, too. First launched in 1912, it is the only battleship still afloat that served in both world wars. It was decommissioned in 1946, after World War II, and has been restored to its 1945 configuration.

(It is actually the second of four ships to bear the USS Texas name; the fourth, a submarine, was commissioned in 2006.)

George McGrath, a retired New York City firefighter who now lives in Houston, said the ship looks just as he remembered it from his years aboard in 1944-46.

"It was like my second home," said McGrath, now 92.

On Saturday, he and other members of the group were interested to hear the latest plans for the USS Texas. Steven Howell, executive director of the Battleship Texas Foundation, said the Texas Historical Commission has recommended that the ship remain at the San Jacinto Battleground instead of being moved to Galveston. The move was suggested earlier this year as a way to increase the number of paying visitors and cover the cost of upkeep.

The foundation has raised almost $3 million toward the $4 million cost of dry berthing the ship at its present site in the Houston Ship Channel, Howell said. That would allow needed repairs, including replacing the leaky hull below the water line.

Hurricane Ike's 16-foot storm surge provided "a free power wash for all of the upper decks," he told the veterans, many of whom were accompanied by children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.

To today's elementary schoolchildren, World War II can seem like ancient history. The men who served on the USS Texas say they want to ensure that its history — along with the larger story of the sacrifices born of war — aren't forgotten.

So Howard Mills, 82 and a retired insurance agent from Culpeper, Va., came with his wife, Nancy; daughter and son-in-law, Karen and Patrick Pearson; and three granddaughters.

"I just wanted them to see it," Mills said, his eyes filling with tears.

Granddaughter Emma Pearson presented ship manager Andy Smith with a French and U.S. flag, both of which Mills had brought back from a trip last spring to the American cemetery in Normandy, France. Her sisters, Darby and Mackenzie Pearson, tossed a wreath over the ship's side as a trumpeter with the Gulf Coast Concert Band played taps in memory of crew members who have died in the past year.

Mills was just 18 when he joined the Navy in 1943 and was assigned to the USS Texas for a tour in the Atlantic, where the ship ferried troops to Normandy and provided cover as they scrambled ashore. He stayed with the ship when it moved to the Pacific, serving aboard through battles there, including the Battle of Iwo Jima.

He stood briefly before his former crewmates Saturday, describing the trip to France.

"Some of the shell holes we made (in Normandy) are still there," he reported. "And plenty deep."
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