Thanks for an interesting story. I grew up around WWII vets from all branches. My dad would have been 88 this summer. He was a radioman on the USS Marblehead. But he was on it after it was brought back to the states and patched up. He was still in high school when it was nearly sunk in the S. Pacific. It was an older cruiser (launched 1924), and when it got rebuilt it got the newer, more up to date radar and lots of other upgrades. My dad did convoy duty in the N. Atlantic on it and less than a month before his 20th birthday he witnessed the vast fleet of small craft crossing the English Channel on D-Day. Then a couple months later witnessed the "invasion" of southern France which turned out to be only lightly defended. After the war Uncle Sam sold the Marblehead and lots of other older ships for scrap. The joke back then was: "they're gonna make razor blades outa this thing and every time you shave for the rest or your life you can think of this ship". Thanks again for the interesting post.