OneManGang
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Tennessee vs The Maxims vs Vanderbilt
MY KCHS Fightin' Arish are heading to Cookeville to play for a TSSAA Championship on Saturday against Nashville Pearl Cohn, alma mater to former Vol John Henderson. Congrats to them, the Smokey Bears, Rebels, Cherokees and Tornadoes. Bring home some hardware, guys!
Many years ago on a post-game call-in show, after a particularly hard-fought victory against Vanderbilt, Vol Legend Joe Thompson uttered a truth, At the end of the day, we're still TENNESSEE and they're still Vanderbilt.
This was driven home Saturday in the waning moments of the fourth canto. The game was clearly out of control. At one point it was a FIVE-possession game with less than eight minutes to go. HeadVol Jones had long since put his reserves in, building experience and confidence for the future. One would have thought that HeadDore Derek Mason would have done the same, after all Vandy DOES play an SEC schedule next year, too.
But, no.
Mason left his starters in to add 134 meaningless total offense yards and score two equally meaningless touchdowns. There's a point where fighting to the final gun becomes tilting at windmills.
At the end of the day, we're still TENNESSEE and they're still Vanderbilt.
The Tennessee State Museum houses many artifacts of Tennessee history. One of these is a silver service that once graced the wardroom of a ship that was, from 1919 to 1947, a living symbol of Our Fair State. This is one of her stories.
It was a busy day at Kamikaze Gulch. It was D+12 of Operation ICEBERG, the invasion of Okinawa. Already Marines and Army troops were engaged in vicious fighting on the island, while at sea, the Navy was getting pounded by waves of Japanese suicide planes or Kamikazes. The Kamikaze was a weapon of desperation. Unable to strike back at the Americans in any other way, the Japanese military began to use young pilots, besotted with notions of dying nobly for the Emperor and not a few shots of sake to fly their planes into American ships in hopes of perhaps sinking enough of them to convince the Yankees to go away.
Kamikaze Gulch was a triangular patch of sea between Okinawa, the island of Ie Shima and the small Kerama Retto island chain. At that time, it was the most dangerous place on the planet to be an American sailor. It was on the direct flight path from southern Japan to the landing beaches. With literally thousands of troops still on transports waiting to land, not to mention the tens of thousands of tons of supplies the men already onshore were relying on, the potential for disaster was very real. The issue was simple: how do you stop planes flown by men who are determined to kill themselves in order to kill you?
Part of the landing force was Task Force 54, the Gunfire Support Group. The mailed fist of TF 54 were twelve old battleships. They were two slow to keep up with the fast-stepping fleet carriers, but their big guns were perfect for providing heavy fire support to men on the beaches. Those big guns could reach from one side of Okinawa to the other. One of those battleships was the USS Tennessee.
Her official designation was BB-43, she was ordered in 1916 along with her sister ship USS California. Commissioned in 1920, too late for World War I, she served with the Pacific Battle Force up until 7 December 1941.
(US Navy)
She took two bomb hits that disabled two of her main battery turrets and was hit by flying debris from the Arizona when then latter exploded and finally, her stern was soaked in burning oil from other ships. Moored outboard of Tennessee was the West Virginia which absorbed several torpedoes and settled upright, wedging the Tennessee against two concrete mooring quays and trapped her there for the next ten days until the quays were dynamited and she was freed.
After repairs in Puget Sound, she joined Task Force 1 given the mission of protecting the West Coast. She sailed about the Eastern Pacific for several months before being sent back to Puget Sound for repairs and modernization. When she emerged in May of 1943 she bore virtually no resemblance to the ship which had entered there. With the exception of her interior and main battery, everything else was different. Gone were he towering cage masts topped with fire direction centers, her hull was widened by six feet, eight 5/38 gun turrets, a bunch of 40mm and several dozen 20mm guns were added for anti-aircraft protection and her entire superstructure was revamped to resemble the much newer South Dakota class. Her sister ship, California, and the heavily damaged West Virginia underwent similar rebuilds.
USS Tennessee (BB-43) departs Puget Sound, 1943. (US Navy)
After that she took part in nearly every invasion in the Pacific Theater. Her twelve 14/50 caliber guns (one caliber = the bore diameter, ergo, her 14"/50 gun tubes were 14x50 inches long = 700 inches or 58 feet, 4inches long) soon gained a reputation as being accurate and destructive and congratulatory messages from ground troops began to pile up in Captain John B. Heffernan's sea cabin.
But it wasn't those 14-inchers that brought Tennessee to Kamikaze Gulch, It was her impressive anti-aircraft suite, her radars and the fact that she could absorb Kamikaze hits better than thin-skinned transports. The hope was that Japanese pilots would be attracted to the big boys and concentrate on them instead of flying on to the transports.
The morning of 12 April saw the Tennessee and her mates and escorts battling six separate Kamikaze attacks. She knocked down several attackers. During the last attack a flight of seven Japanese broke off to make runs at Tennessee. She knocked them down in turn, the sixth only 150 yards off the port bow when plane seven lined up on her starboard bow and swept in. The bow was the least defended aspect of the ship and Captain Heffernan had her broadside to the main Japanese force when these last attacks came in. The Aichi D3A1 Val was hit repeatedly and its engine was smoking but still came on, straight at the bridge of the battle wagon. Your fearless scribe has a mental image of Heffernan imitating Jeff Chandler in the movie Away All Boats in a similar situation shouting, Get your stinking plane away from my ship!
At the last moment, the Val pitched slightly left, clipped a series of cables and slammed into No. 7 quad 40mm mount. The plane then cartwheeled down the starboard side leaving a sea of burning gasoline and a 500lb bomb in its wake before bouncing over the side into the sea.
The bomb penetrated the wooden deck covering but her thick steel deck armor kept it from doing much damage. The flaming gas was another matter.
Henry Mehl, a Marine manning a 20mm light antiaircraft gun near where the plane went over the side recalled, My first loader, Pfc. McDermott, had his head blown off. Pfc. Pollack was blown into three pieces. I was held fast to the upright gun by the harness, how I got free is anyone's guess. I jumped over the side of the gun shield and ran around the barbette (heavily armored support structure) of main gun turret No, 3 (first one astern of the superstructure) around the spud locker (door to the kitchen storage area) and saw another shipmate laying there bleeding from the stomach. I thought, 'That man's gonna get the Purple Heart.' Then I looked down at the ribbons of burned flesh hanging from my arms and hands and thought, 'I'M gonna get a Purple Heart!'
A total of 22 men were killed by that Kamikaze and a further 117 wounded with varying degrees of severity, most of them being 2nd and 3rd degree burns.
World War II would not be delayed and the dead were buried at sea by 1930 (7:30pm) that day and the badly wounded transferred to a hospital ship the next morning. Bloodied but unbowed, her guns still needed, Tennessee went back on station and stayed there until ordered to Ulithi Atoll for repairs on 4 May.
She returned to Okinawa and was conducting bombardment missions against Japanese positions on the China coast when word came down to cease fire on 10 August. The Empire of Japan had accepted surrender terms. The War was over.
On 7 December 1945, the USS Tennessee arrived at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Her crew was discharged and she was prepared to be mothballed. That process was completed in 1947 and she was stricken from the Active Fleet. In 1959, the Big T was stricken from the Naval Register and sold for scrap. Her silver service was donated to the State of Tennessee.
During World War II, the Big T fired over 9,000 rounds of 14, 47,000 rounds of 5, 96,000 rounds of 40mm and about 10,000 rounds of 20mm in combat. A fair day's work by any standard.
The regular season for Team 119 is in the books.
Butch Jones' boys posted a satisfying (given where the program was just three seasons ago) 8-4 overall record including a 5-3 Conference mark.
Well done, Coach!
Now, let's move forward from here!
So how did the team do compared to the Maxims?
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
Tennessee very nearly slipped into their get a lead and then fade habits but a nifty return by Cam Sutton and a safety got them out of that rut. Vandy is still Vandy.
2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way SCORE!
Did they ever! Only one trip in the red zone, capped by a Jalen Hurd fumble on 4th-and-goal at the Vandy one marred the day. The aforementioned punt return and Derek Barnett's sack for a safety more than made up for it.
3. If at first the game or the breaks go against you, dont let up PUT ON MORE STEAM!
Had Vandy closed to within three points after the early Vol lead earlier this year, they likely would have emerged victorious. However, if Oklahoma or Florida were facing the late-season edition of the Vols they would have suffered dreary defeat. Timing is everything. The Vols dug deep and sank the CommonHoes with extreme predjudice.
4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
Hats off to Coach Jancek and his defensive troops. What a game! On the other side of the ball, Tennessee's O-line kept the 'Dores out of Josh Dobbs' hair (what little he has) and he posted 200 plus all purpose yards. Alvin Kamara missed a 100-yard game by one net yard. Methinks Coach Jones didn't know this until too late.
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
Vanderbilt running back Ralph Webb put up gaudy rushing yards but, until the late fourth quarter, he WAS Vandy's offense. Take way those last two CommonHo drives and Vandy had 277 yards total offense. Good show, guys, good show!
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
George Cafego smiles.
7. Carry the fight to Vanderbilt and keep it there for sixty minutes.
More like about 45 minutes, but it was enough. I refuse to acknowledge those last two CommonHo drives.
All-in-all it was just the type of Senior Day at Neyland Stadium we long-suffering Vol fans would like to get used to. Freshman Joe Young (feel free to make your own movie references) got a score as did Senior kicker George Bullock who nailed the ensuing PAT. Ralph Abernathy IV got a nifty catch and punter Ned Renfro sailed an impressive 47-yarder to end his career in Orange #PMS151.
At the end of the day, we're still TENNESSEE and they're still Vanderbilt.
Better days are ahead.
Brick by Brick, Baby!
MAXOMG
Suggested Reading:
Norman Friedman, U.S. Battleships: An Illustrated Design History
Clifton Simmons, USS Tennessee in World War II
Myron J. Smith, Jr., Volunteer State Battlewagon: USS Tennessee (BB-43)
© 2015
Keeping Your Stories Alive
MY KCHS Fightin' Arish are heading to Cookeville to play for a TSSAA Championship on Saturday against Nashville Pearl Cohn, alma mater to former Vol John Henderson. Congrats to them, the Smokey Bears, Rebels, Cherokees and Tornadoes. Bring home some hardware, guys!
Many years ago on a post-game call-in show, after a particularly hard-fought victory against Vanderbilt, Vol Legend Joe Thompson uttered a truth, At the end of the day, we're still TENNESSEE and they're still Vanderbilt.
This was driven home Saturday in the waning moments of the fourth canto. The game was clearly out of control. At one point it was a FIVE-possession game with less than eight minutes to go. HeadVol Jones had long since put his reserves in, building experience and confidence for the future. One would have thought that HeadDore Derek Mason would have done the same, after all Vandy DOES play an SEC schedule next year, too.
But, no.
Mason left his starters in to add 134 meaningless total offense yards and score two equally meaningless touchdowns. There's a point where fighting to the final gun becomes tilting at windmills.
At the end of the day, we're still TENNESSEE and they're still Vanderbilt.
---
The Tennessee State Museum houses many artifacts of Tennessee history. One of these is a silver service that once graced the wardroom of a ship that was, from 1919 to 1947, a living symbol of Our Fair State. This is one of her stories.
It was a busy day at Kamikaze Gulch. It was D+12 of Operation ICEBERG, the invasion of Okinawa. Already Marines and Army troops were engaged in vicious fighting on the island, while at sea, the Navy was getting pounded by waves of Japanese suicide planes or Kamikazes. The Kamikaze was a weapon of desperation. Unable to strike back at the Americans in any other way, the Japanese military began to use young pilots, besotted with notions of dying nobly for the Emperor and not a few shots of sake to fly their planes into American ships in hopes of perhaps sinking enough of them to convince the Yankees to go away.
Kamikaze Gulch was a triangular patch of sea between Okinawa, the island of Ie Shima and the small Kerama Retto island chain. At that time, it was the most dangerous place on the planet to be an American sailor. It was on the direct flight path from southern Japan to the landing beaches. With literally thousands of troops still on transports waiting to land, not to mention the tens of thousands of tons of supplies the men already onshore were relying on, the potential for disaster was very real. The issue was simple: how do you stop planes flown by men who are determined to kill themselves in order to kill you?
Part of the landing force was Task Force 54, the Gunfire Support Group. The mailed fist of TF 54 were twelve old battleships. They were two slow to keep up with the fast-stepping fleet carriers, but their big guns were perfect for providing heavy fire support to men on the beaches. Those big guns could reach from one side of Okinawa to the other. One of those battleships was the USS Tennessee.
Her official designation was BB-43, she was ordered in 1916 along with her sister ship USS California. Commissioned in 1920, too late for World War I, she served with the Pacific Battle Force up until 7 December 1941.
(US Navy)
She took two bomb hits that disabled two of her main battery turrets and was hit by flying debris from the Arizona when then latter exploded and finally, her stern was soaked in burning oil from other ships. Moored outboard of Tennessee was the West Virginia which absorbed several torpedoes and settled upright, wedging the Tennessee against two concrete mooring quays and trapped her there for the next ten days until the quays were dynamited and she was freed.
After repairs in Puget Sound, she joined Task Force 1 given the mission of protecting the West Coast. She sailed about the Eastern Pacific for several months before being sent back to Puget Sound for repairs and modernization. When she emerged in May of 1943 she bore virtually no resemblance to the ship which had entered there. With the exception of her interior and main battery, everything else was different. Gone were he towering cage masts topped with fire direction centers, her hull was widened by six feet, eight 5/38 gun turrets, a bunch of 40mm and several dozen 20mm guns were added for anti-aircraft protection and her entire superstructure was revamped to resemble the much newer South Dakota class. Her sister ship, California, and the heavily damaged West Virginia underwent similar rebuilds.
USS Tennessee (BB-43) departs Puget Sound, 1943. (US Navy)
After that she took part in nearly every invasion in the Pacific Theater. Her twelve 14/50 caliber guns (one caliber = the bore diameter, ergo, her 14"/50 gun tubes were 14x50 inches long = 700 inches or 58 feet, 4inches long) soon gained a reputation as being accurate and destructive and congratulatory messages from ground troops began to pile up in Captain John B. Heffernan's sea cabin.
But it wasn't those 14-inchers that brought Tennessee to Kamikaze Gulch, It was her impressive anti-aircraft suite, her radars and the fact that she could absorb Kamikaze hits better than thin-skinned transports. The hope was that Japanese pilots would be attracted to the big boys and concentrate on them instead of flying on to the transports.
The morning of 12 April saw the Tennessee and her mates and escorts battling six separate Kamikaze attacks. She knocked down several attackers. During the last attack a flight of seven Japanese broke off to make runs at Tennessee. She knocked them down in turn, the sixth only 150 yards off the port bow when plane seven lined up on her starboard bow and swept in. The bow was the least defended aspect of the ship and Captain Heffernan had her broadside to the main Japanese force when these last attacks came in. The Aichi D3A1 Val was hit repeatedly and its engine was smoking but still came on, straight at the bridge of the battle wagon. Your fearless scribe has a mental image of Heffernan imitating Jeff Chandler in the movie Away All Boats in a similar situation shouting, Get your stinking plane away from my ship!
At the last moment, the Val pitched slightly left, clipped a series of cables and slammed into No. 7 quad 40mm mount. The plane then cartwheeled down the starboard side leaving a sea of burning gasoline and a 500lb bomb in its wake before bouncing over the side into the sea.
The bomb penetrated the wooden deck covering but her thick steel deck armor kept it from doing much damage. The flaming gas was another matter.
Henry Mehl, a Marine manning a 20mm light antiaircraft gun near where the plane went over the side recalled, My first loader, Pfc. McDermott, had his head blown off. Pfc. Pollack was blown into three pieces. I was held fast to the upright gun by the harness, how I got free is anyone's guess. I jumped over the side of the gun shield and ran around the barbette (heavily armored support structure) of main gun turret No, 3 (first one astern of the superstructure) around the spud locker (door to the kitchen storage area) and saw another shipmate laying there bleeding from the stomach. I thought, 'That man's gonna get the Purple Heart.' Then I looked down at the ribbons of burned flesh hanging from my arms and hands and thought, 'I'M gonna get a Purple Heart!'
A total of 22 men were killed by that Kamikaze and a further 117 wounded with varying degrees of severity, most of them being 2nd and 3rd degree burns.
World War II would not be delayed and the dead were buried at sea by 1930 (7:30pm) that day and the badly wounded transferred to a hospital ship the next morning. Bloodied but unbowed, her guns still needed, Tennessee went back on station and stayed there until ordered to Ulithi Atoll for repairs on 4 May.
She returned to Okinawa and was conducting bombardment missions against Japanese positions on the China coast when word came down to cease fire on 10 August. The Empire of Japan had accepted surrender terms. The War was over.
On 7 December 1945, the USS Tennessee arrived at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Her crew was discharged and she was prepared to be mothballed. That process was completed in 1947 and she was stricken from the Active Fleet. In 1959, the Big T was stricken from the Naval Register and sold for scrap. Her silver service was donated to the State of Tennessee.
During World War II, the Big T fired over 9,000 rounds of 14, 47,000 rounds of 5, 96,000 rounds of 40mm and about 10,000 rounds of 20mm in combat. A fair day's work by any standard.
---
The regular season for Team 119 is in the books.
Butch Jones' boys posted a satisfying (given where the program was just three seasons ago) 8-4 overall record including a 5-3 Conference mark.
Well done, Coach!
Now, let's move forward from here!
So how did the team do compared to the Maxims?
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
Tennessee very nearly slipped into their get a lead and then fade habits but a nifty return by Cam Sutton and a safety got them out of that rut. Vandy is still Vandy.
2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way SCORE!
Did they ever! Only one trip in the red zone, capped by a Jalen Hurd fumble on 4th-and-goal at the Vandy one marred the day. The aforementioned punt return and Derek Barnett's sack for a safety more than made up for it.
3. If at first the game or the breaks go against you, dont let up PUT ON MORE STEAM!
Had Vandy closed to within three points after the early Vol lead earlier this year, they likely would have emerged victorious. However, if Oklahoma or Florida were facing the late-season edition of the Vols they would have suffered dreary defeat. Timing is everything. The Vols dug deep and sank the CommonHoes with extreme predjudice.
4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
Hats off to Coach Jancek and his defensive troops. What a game! On the other side of the ball, Tennessee's O-line kept the 'Dores out of Josh Dobbs' hair (what little he has) and he posted 200 plus all purpose yards. Alvin Kamara missed a 100-yard game by one net yard. Methinks Coach Jones didn't know this until too late.
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
Vanderbilt running back Ralph Webb put up gaudy rushing yards but, until the late fourth quarter, he WAS Vandy's offense. Take way those last two CommonHo drives and Vandy had 277 yards total offense. Good show, guys, good show!
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
George Cafego smiles.
7. Carry the fight to Vanderbilt and keep it there for sixty minutes.
More like about 45 minutes, but it was enough. I refuse to acknowledge those last two CommonHo drives.
All-in-all it was just the type of Senior Day at Neyland Stadium we long-suffering Vol fans would like to get used to. Freshman Joe Young (feel free to make your own movie references) got a score as did Senior kicker George Bullock who nailed the ensuing PAT. Ralph Abernathy IV got a nifty catch and punter Ned Renfro sailed an impressive 47-yarder to end his career in Orange #PMS151.
At the end of the day, we're still TENNESSEE and they're still Vanderbilt.
Better days are ahead.
Brick by Brick, Baby!
MAXOMG
Suggested Reading:
Norman Friedman, U.S. Battleships: An Illustrated Design History
Clifton Simmons, USS Tennessee in World War II
Myron J. Smith, Jr., Volunteer State Battlewagon: USS Tennessee (BB-43)
© 2015
Keeping Your Stories Alive
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