Posted by Wayne Grindstaff on February 19, 2020, 8:14 pm
My Dad Joseph Grindstaff served all of WWII as an Armed Guard. He was a signalman and was wounded at Anizo and also spent 13 days adrift after is ship M.S. East Indian was sunk. I was an Infantry Sgt. in Vietnam and I have the CIB. That got me to thinking and I asked the Navy Dept to look at my Dads record. He passed many years ago but just recently my Dad was awarded the C.A.R. Combat Action Ribbon which can be awarded back to WWII if the Sailor saw combat. 70 years later and I added a ribbon to his decorations. Stay well all
During the war against Japan I served with the British Pacific Fleet. My ship HMS Activity picked up a boat load of men from a torpedoed US ship. They had been adrift for 3 weeks and and could not have survived much longer. A short time after this we received a message from the US Navy Dept stating that due to the danger our ship had been in by stopping while the enemy submarine was still in the area the whole of the ships company had been awarded the Silver Star. Nqw 75 years later I and rest of the crew await the award. I have a feeling I am the last man standing from that old tub 'The Activity'.
Hello Bob, I do have a question, and it relates to your Silver Star. I found within my Dads stuff an RCA telegram from the Capt. of the merchant ship he was on while at the Anizo beachhead. It was awarding the whole Armed Guard with a citation while at the beachhead. I guess the regular Navy didn't like to recognize what a Captain in the Merchant Marine suggested as he never got the medal. I'll get slightly off topic in that with my short run in the Army I saw that officers got the bulk of decorations, remember they could write up stuff for each other. Medals on officers never impress me, seeing them on the enlisted or NCOs is the real stuff. Stay well Wayne