Last evening I received an email from Janet Weld, daughter of Don Fawcett, F1c on the STRONG DD 467. Janet sent me a link to the obituary for Mr. Fawcett. He passed on June 11th this past weekend. I first had contact with Don in early June of 2014. He had found my website and emailed me. Because I keep records of such things, I know we had our first phone conversation on June 6th of 2014. In talking, he mentioned his time on the USS STEPHEN POTTER DD 538 after his recovery from the STRONG sinking. I mentioned to him that I had been in contact for a while with a HELENA survivor who had also served on the STEPHEN POTTER.




“You know a POTTER man?”, he said.
“Yes, we've been emailing for a while now,” I said.
“Well, who is it?”, from Don.
“His name is Francis Rieber”, says I.
“BONES!?! You know Bones Rieber?”
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As it turns out, he and Fran had met on the STEPHEN POTTER and became fast friends, both having survived the sinking of their ships from the same destroyer squadron. They had not seen each other or spoken in over 70 years. I hooked them up via email and they began corresponding again. Later, in late June of 2016 Don and his family were traveling and stopped in to a STEPHEN POTTER reunion. There, Bones and “Spiggot” Fawcett were reunited for the first time since 1945. Both men were happy to see one another, and I wrote a blog story about that on July 6th of 2016 with a photo of the men together from the reunion. Don called me as soon as they got home from the trip, so very excited and happy to have seen Bones again. I was happy to be a part of getting these guys back together.

I met Don, his wife Carol and daughter Janet in person in Groton, Connecticut at the 2014 STRONG reunion. We had a wonderful week and he got to meet and speak with Jim Merriman, the only other survivor from the DD 467 attending. Don also got the opportunity to speak with Stephen Harding, who was writing The Castaway's War at the time. We had a wonderful week and I was so pleased to be able to meet him and his family.
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See the link below for the obituary and details. Feel free to send condolences and love to the family.
http://www.cressfuneralservice.com/obituary/187703/Donald-Fawcett/

Rest well and in peace, Don. 

Tammi

A member of the Mullane family recently contacted me through the website contact page. Danny and Frank Mullane were brothers serving on STRONG together. Frank was one of the survivors, and Danny was not. Danny was with the group of young men who landed on Arundel Island and responsible for saving the life of Lt. Hugh Barr Miller, Jr. Their nephew Bob has shared photographs and letters with me. More notably though, is a piece of 8 mm family film showing the Mullane boys and five other STRONG sailors at the Mullane home just prior to shipping out in December of 1942. I have no way of knowing who these young men are, but I took some screen captures from the DVD. The quality is sketchy at best, however if any of you recognize any one of these men, please notify me with an ID. It would be amazing to put a name to one of these laughing, smiling handsome faces, in addition to Danny and Frank.

-Tammi
*Danny is featured on the middle top frame and Frank is top right. Frank is also in the image top left.
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Over the years I became curious about the other ships that accompanied STRONG into the Kula Gulf that fateful night of her sinking to support “Operation Toenails”. In the Cactus Strike Force there were approximately 21 ships total, all various classes of destroyers and light cruisers. I wondered about the fate of these ships and what happened to them after the war was over. Many had a second life in the navy of a foreign country. Some served through the Korean War and Viet Nam before being decommissioned and scrapped, including the two most decorated destroyers in the history of World War 2, the O'BANNON and the NICHOLAS. One of the ships that rescued survivors of both the STRONG sinking and HELENA was sunk in atomic testing in the South Pacific, the USS RALPH TALBOT. I created a spreadsheet of the ship, the class, type of vessel and their role on July 5th of 1943 while they were landing troops and bombarding targets on Kolombangara and New Georgia Islands. The ones colored in aqua are ships that were lost in 1943. There's much more information out there on these ships and their history. If you want to learn more about that evening or the other ships, this table gives you a starting point.

If I've omitted any ships I hope someone will let me know.  

​-Tammi
*As a footnote, the Artigliere recently discovered and filmed by Paul Allen and Vulcan Inc. is not the vessel once known as the Woodworth, but a previous version of the Italian Artigliere.