![]() Ailes discovered that tools had been thrown overboard, but would not let that deter his return to action. As sailors from a tender boarded Cassin Young with tools to repair the damaged ship, Wheeler and the work party took those same tools and dumped them overboard, "figuring without tools, we couldn't get fixed up" and they would have to return to the U.S. Wheeler remembered that he and the crew were not ready to return to Okinawa and the danger it represented. FC3 Sumner Wheeler was assigned to the work detail to repair the ship. The first hit occurred on April 12, 1945, causing damage to the main mast, the port yardarm, and numerous radar and antennae, forcing Cassin Young to undergo repairs. Despite his best efforts, Kamikazes struck the ship in two separate attacks during the Okinawa Campaign. Ailes' "maneuvering of the ship," in Finnegan's opinion, "saved it on several occasions from being hit." Finnegan believed Ailes was "great at anticipating just how the plane would come out of its dive at us, and would just put the ship in configuration that it would be fading away from the attack…" The radical maneuvering "did save us on couple occasions," Finnegan believed.Īiles mastered maneuvering Cassin Young to avoid being hit by Kamikazes. Finnegan remembered that during Kamikaze attacks, Ailes was everywhere on the bridge, screaming orders, and that he "was almost like a madman" while fighting aerial threats. Finnegan felt comfortable placing his life in Ailes's hands. Ailes led a crew of 324 young men, and beginning in November 1944 those men faced a new threat –Kamikazes. Possibly his greatest responsibility was the welfare of Cassin Young's crew. Years later, Finnegan recalled that his former captain "was an excessively efficient officer" and that Ailes was "…Very respected by the men." The skipper "never gave any indication that he didn't know exactly what he was doing," Finnegan recollected, "and I think the fact was that he did know what he was doing almost all the time…He was an ideal skipper for a destroyer." Finnegan stepped aboard Cassin Young at about the same time as Ailes. On October 18, 1944, at 37 years old, Ailes stepped aboard Cassin Young as relief for Commander Earl T. This attack forced Ailes and his country into war. It was said that Ailes was "amply capable of much success," and that during his training at the academy, he "comes into his own on the cruise."Īiles was stationed at Pearl Harbor with his wife, Edith, and their two young boys when Japanese forces attacked on December 7, 1941. Appointed to the US Naval Academy in 1926, Ailes graduated in 1930 and was commissioned an ensign. At age 22 "Red" or "J.W.," as he was called by his classmates, possessed a small figure, red hair, a winning smile, and a deep love for Pittsburgh. Commander Ailes was a talented officer whose aggressiveness and determination helped secure victory for the Allied forces in the Pacific during World War II.īorn on September 9, 1907, John William Ailes III grew up in Donora, Pennsylvania. Assigned to be the second captain of USS Cassin Young, John Ailes assumed command of the ship in October 1944. A ship's performance, and the performance of her crew, is in many ways a reflection of the individual commanding that ship.
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