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invasion of Guadalcanal. His aggressive leadership earned him the nickname “Bomb-Run John.” Richard, ®ying off of Yorktown, took part in the early air raids on the New Guinea ports of Lae and Salamaua, shot down two Japanese Zeros during the Battle of the Coral Sea, and fought a month later in the Battle of Midway. He earned the Navy Cross for his®ying at Coral Sea, and added a Gold Star in lieu of a second Navy Cross for his disruption of an eighteen-plane enemy attack at Midway. In the meantime, young Quentin survived two torpedo attacks on Saratoga before ¤nally receiving his orders for ®ight school. Charles was scarcely any safer back home in the States during this time. Still serving as a naval test pilot at Anacostia, he barely survived the crash of one of his test ®ights. By the time of Operation Galvanic and the invasion of the Gilberts, Henry was commanding Destroyer Division 50 from the bridge of the destroyer Ringgold (DD-500). Dashiell (DD-659) and two other destroyers rounded out his command. Destroyer Division 50 formed part of Task Force 53, tasked with the seizure of Tarawa. Charles, recovered from his test ®ight crash and now aboard the new Yorktown (the previous one had been lost at Midway), commanded the “Fighting Lady’s” Air Group 5. Yorktown sailed as part of Task Force 50, which was assigned to provide a screen to the north to shield the Gilbert Islands invasion force from Japanese attack and to attack enemy air bases on Wake Island, Mille Atoll, and Marcus Island. As the chief of staff for Carrier Division 24 aboard Liscome Bay, eldest brother John watched the campaign unfold. He had a nervous vantage point from which to keep an eye on the developing battle and the role of his two brothers in it. Henry commenced the three brothers’ participation in Galvanic on November 19 when Ringgold surged ahead of the invasion force and attempted to secure a good radar ¤x on Tarawa to guide the oncoming American ships. As Ringgold’s radar operators worked to establish the radar ¤x, her lookouts kept a sharp eye out for enemy submarines in the dark waters off Tarawa. Their vigilance was rewarded at 2200 when they spotted a submarine caught in shallow water, trying to slip out of one smaller coral atoll’s lagoons. Ringgold opened ¤re, peppering her adversary with salvos of shells. One punched through the sub’s conning tower. 92 / Chapter 6 It failed to explode but still did signi¤cant damage to the submarine’s piping and valves. The furtive submarine managed to limp away and submerge in deeper water. Satis¤ed with her ¤rst clash with the “Japanese ,” Ringgold returned to the task force. Only later did the destroyer learn that she had been ¤ring not on a Japanese submarine but instead on Nautilus (SS-168), which was conducting a pre-invasion reconnaissance of the islands. The submarine survived, however, and her of¤cers later took great delight in displaying Ringgold’s dud shell behind the bar at the Pearl Harbor submarine base’s of¤cers club. The next day, Ringgold had an opportunity to redeem herself. As the U.S. ®eet heralded the arrival of morning on November 20 with a massive naval bombardment, and as ¤ve thousand men of the 2nd Marine Division clambered down cargo nets into their waiting landing craft, Ringgold and Dashiell steamed into position outside Tarawa’s large lagoon . Then, following in the wake of a minesweeper, Ringgold surged through the narrow opening in the coral reef into the lagoon. The entry into the lagoon was tricky, and even the presence of a former resident of the atoll on the bridge with Henry and the destroyer’s skipper couldn’t save Ringgold from running aground on the reef. With a muf®ed crunch of metal on coral, Ringgold shuddered to a halt. Frantic maneuvering extricated the destroyer from the reef, but she left her hull-mounted sonar equipment behind. Just as Henry’s ship pulled clear of the reef, the Japanese batteries on Betio opened ¤re. A 140-millimeter shell smashed into Ringgold, piercing her hull below the waterline. Fortunately, the shell was a dud and failed to explode, but the impact nevertheless damaged the ship’s electrical and power systems. Power failed, and seawater began blasting through the gaping hole. Lieutenant Wayne Parker leaped into action and plugged the hole with the only item...

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