Down to the Sea (38 page)

Andrea, Jean and Judy.
Wife and daughter of James P. Andrea, commanding officer,
Spence
. In January 1945, Jean heard on the radio that three unnamed destroyers were missing in a Pacific typhoon and hoped against hope that it was not her husband's ship. She received a telegram a short time later. Before
Spence
departed San Francisco for the last time, Jean had visited the ship with two-year-old Judy, who today says, “I'm told I was the apple of my father's eye.” With the assistance and lifelong friendship of Arleigh Burke,
Spence
's former squadron commander who later became chief of naval operations, and his wife, Bobbie, Jean had a successful career working in naval intelligence at the Pentagon. She did not remarry for nineteen years. “She always said Dad was such a romantic that it was difficult for another man to measure up.” Mother and daughter attended a
Spence
reunion in 1984, and were seated at the head table with Arleigh and Bobbie Burke. “According to Mom,” says Judy (Andrea) Mahood-Cochran, “Admiral Burke quietly blamed Halsey for the loss of the three destroyers.” Jean (Bailey), a widow for the second time, died in 2005 at age eighty-eight.

 

Bryson, Reid A
. U.S. Army Air Corps meteorologist, Saipan. Shortly after the “Halsey disaster” in the December 1944 typhoon, Bryson discussed with his boss, Colonel William Stone, later a general and commandant of
the Air Force Academy, whether he should contact authorities investigating the matter and turn over his chart of the typhoon's estimated track—which proved accurate—and reveal his ignored warning sent to the naval weather service. “The colonel told me to drop it because we couldn't prove when I had made my chart.” Bryson would never forget how the Third Fleet, with the eight hours warning his message might have provided, “could have turned onto another course and avoided the typhoon.” Those witnesses at the court of inquiry who described the typhoon that hit the Third Fleet as “sudden and undetectable were flat out wrong,” Bryson says. “I think Halsey—the reason his nickname was ‘Bull' was because he was bull-headed—killed more than 700 American sailors.” Bryson, eighty-seven, senior scientist at the Center for Climatic Research and emeritus professor at the University of Wisconsin, is the author of five science books and more than 230 academic articles. He resides in Madison, Wisconsin.

 

Burke, Arleigh A
. Commander, Destroyer Squadron 23. After leading “The Little Beavers”—the only destroyer squadron to win a Presidential Unit Citation—Burke transferred in 1944 to a fast carrier task force, where he served as chief of staff to Admiral Marc Mitscher for the rest of the war. Burke, who served an unprecedented six years (1955–61) as chief of naval operations, never forgot
Spence
and her crew—“a wonderful ship that fought mightily and always did more than her share.” The Navy named a class of modern guided-missile destroyers the
Arleigh Burke
-class. The four-star admiral died in 1996 at age ninety-four.

 

Consolvo, Charles W.
Commanding officer,
Hull
. After teaching at Annapolis for the rest of the war, Consolvo spent two years in China teaching at the naval academy in Shanghai. When a wealthy uncle made him an offer to go into the hotel business, Consolvo resigned his regular Navy commission, although he stayed in the reserves. Soon after, his uncle died and Consolvo was out of work. He volunteered for active duty, and served as executive officer of a destroyer tender. Following promotion to captain, he was assigned to NATO in Naples. Not long
after his return to a Pentagon assignment, he was “kicked out of the Navy” with nineteen years of service and no pension. He tried a number of businesses, all of which failed. “My father became an alcoholic,” says Charles Consolvo Jr. “I suspect he was depressed by two things: he felt guilty that had he stayed on
Hull
she would not have been lost and all those men killed—and a string of bad business decisions.” Largely cut off from family and friends, Consolvo,
Hull
's most popular wartime commanding officer, took his own life in 1959, at age forty-nine.

 

DeRyckere, Archie G
. Chief quartermaster,
Hull
. Making a career of the Navy, DeRyckere received a commission and retired after twenty-eight years with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Employed by Rohr Aircraft Corporation, he worked on the F-14 fighter and later for the City of El Cajon as an engineer, retiring in 1983. Throughout the years, DeRyckere has thought a lot about what happened on
Hull
the morning of the sinking. Also weighing heavily on his mind: neither he nor anyone else spoke up at the court of inquiry. “We were just a bunch of ened men in front of the most prestigious court of inquiry the Navy had ever had. We felt overwhelmed by the occasion. We all had our opinions, but no one wanted to hear them. I have a lot of regrets that I didn't stand up and tell the admirals what I knew. I would have pointed the finger directly at Marks.
Hull
had stability problems, sure, but with a little help she could have weathered that storm. With Marks at the conn, we didn't stand a chance.” DeRyckere, eighty-seven, resides in San Diego, California, with his wife, Jacky.

 

Halsey, William F., Jr.
Admiral, 3rd Fleet. Halsey received his delayed fifth star after the war ended. He retired in December 1946 following forty-two years of service. Halsey's memoir,
Admiral Halsey's Story
, was published in 1947. He wrote of the “tragic experience” of going through both typhoons, but not about either court of inquiry. As for the December 1944 storm, Halsey could “only imagine what it was like on a destroyer, one-twentieth the
New Jersey
's size.” The typhoon “tossed our enormous ship as if she were a canoe.” He claimed that after a turn to
the south on the morning of December 18, “most of our ships cleared the center [of the typhoon] but a few stragglers didn't. Some of them managed to ride it out. The rest we never saw again.” Halsey spent much time in his latter years defending his actions at Leyte Gulf, confusion that he blamed on faulty communications in a split command structure between 3rd and 7th Fleets, under the overall command of Nimitz and MacArthur, respectively. He died in 1959 at age seventy-seven, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

 

Kosco, George F
. Senior aerologist, U.S. Third Fleet. Kosco remained on Halsey's staff until the end of the war. Thereafter, he served in both the North and South Poles, where there are no typhoons. He retired in 1960 as a captain. During the war, Kosco took his wife, Bernadette, to the New York Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where Halsey was hosting a “big wingding.” Bernadette found that the admiral “didn't take himself seriously. He was a great, fun-loving guy, and very personable. George loved working for him.” Kosco's book,
Halsey's Typhoons
, was published in 1967. In it, Kosco does not discuss the courts of inquiry; however, he does name both typhoons—previously unnamed. The December 1944 typhoon Kosco belatedly tabbed Cobra, and the June 1945 typhoon, Viper. Kosco died in 1985 at age seventy-seven.

 

Krauchunas, Alphonso S. “Al.”
Supply officer,
Spence
. As the senior surviving officer, Krauchunas was flown to Washington, D.C., for temporary duty—assigned to write letters of condolence to each parent, wife, or next of kin for his lost shipmates. “The greatest task,” he wrote a former shipmate in March 1945, was “seeing [the] many parents who came to Washington, D.C.,” hoping to get more information about their loved ones. “When a mother cries her heart out in front of you, it is unbearable. I have written over 500 letters and more come in [to answer] each day.” Krauchunas was still “finding it hard to believe how so many died as they did in their compartments, without any light and utter confusion and hysteria going on. All of this happened so suddenly that even the captain was not able to get off the bridge, or any other officers.”
Returning to his native Grand Rapids, Michigan, he worked as director of parks and recreation, then spent many years in private industry as a personnel administrator. The former Chicago White Sox prospect continued his interest in sports, volunteering as a high school, college, and semipro referee for thirty years. He also loved golf, and shot a hole-in-one a month before suffering a stroke. He died in 1994 at age seventy-four.

 

Kreidler, Portia
. Wife of sonarman John Kreidler,
Hull
. One of the thirteen wives who were pregnant when
Hull
departed Seattle for the Pacific in October 1944, Portia celebrated her 22nd birthday on December 17—the day before the typhoon. Happy with her pregnancy, she was certain that her husband—“the great love of my life”—would survive the war “right up until I saw the man with a telegram.” Instead, they had “only 77 days together as husband and wife.” She delivered on July 14, 1945, her first child, John David Kreidler, one of ten babies fathered by
Hull
men killed in the typhoon (including Greil Gerstley's son and namesake, Greil Gerstley Marcus, born June 19, 1945). In 1987, mother and son attended a
Hull
reunion, where they were welcomed by typhoon survivors—including Ray Schultz and Pat Douhan—many of whom wore baseball caps wih the slogan HALSEY'S SWIM TEAM. Portia, eighty-five, lives in Alameda, California.

 

Marks, James A
. Commanding officer,
Hull
. After temporary duty in Washington, D.C., writing letters of condolence to families of his lost crew, Marks was given command of the destroyer
Clarence K. Bronson
, just finishing an overhaul at Mare Island, California. Bronson arrived at Pearl Harbor in July and took part in the bombardment of Wake Island; after the war,
Bronson
took part in the occupation by patrolling Japanese waters. After other sea and shore assignments, Marks attended the Imperial Defense College in London in 1956. Thereafter he commanded a Florida-based amphibious squadron placed on alert during the Cuban Missile Crisis. After a thirty-four-year career, Marks retired a captain in 1968. His retirement was “not a good one,” according to his wife, Virginia, who said
her husband found little to occupy him other than golf, which he eventually had to stop playing due to a bad back, first injured during the typhoon. “He should have taught or done something with himself, but he wasn't interested. I wonder if he didn't suffer a delayed depression from what happened in the typhoon. He talked so little about it, I just don't know.” One day in 1986, Virginia came home; as she closed the kitchen door she heard a loud bang. In the living room, she found her husband dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Marks,
Hull
's most unpopular commanding officer, was seventy-one.

 

Plage, Henry L
. Commanding officer,
Tabberer
. The hero of the rescue operation, Plage was among a limited field of reserve officers to receive regular Navy commissions after the war. While serving as commanding officer of the minelayer
Terror
(CM-5) in 1947, Plage dove off the bridge into the water to rescue a crew member who had fallen between the ship and pier. Plage pulled him to safety, and was awarded another medal. Suffering hearing loss, Plage was discharged in 1954. He became a pharmaceutical distributor. He died in 2003 at age eighty-eight.

 

Rust, Lloyd G. Jr.
CIC officer,
Hull.
After the war, Rust returned home to Wharton, Texas, where he practiced law until elected to the state house of representatives. After spending eighteen years as a county attorney, he was elected to a judgeship in 1974, serving on the bench until retiring in 1983. Believing that “any other officer” aboard
Hull
on the morning of December 18, 1944 “could have saved the ship” had they had been at the conn, Rust felt that “one hundred percent of the reason we sank was because Marks was not a good ship handler.” Rust's wife died after twelve years of marriage, leaving him with four daughters, ages six to ten, to raise. After initially struggling with “survivor's guilt” for having made it when so many of his shipmates did not, Rust came to believe that he was “spared from dying in the typhoon so that he could live up to the obligation of being the only parent to the children he brought into the world.” He died in 2006 at age eighty-six.