Trending
Editor's note: This is part of a series published every Monday between Memorial Day and Veterans Day honoring local veterans.
CHAMPION -- Champion resident William Mullane Sr. says he served exactly three years and one day in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
He started in the U.S. Navy on April 5, 1943, and ended his military experience April 6, 1946.
Mullane also served on the USS California, a battleship that had been damaged and sunk at Pearl Harbor but was raised, salvaged and repaired, and put back into service.
During his senior year in high school at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, New York, Mullane said he did not want to be drafted into the Army, so he enlisted in the Navy at age 17 in 1943.
"Back then you could enlist or wait be drafted. When they drafted you, they told you where to go, so I picked the Navy so I would not have to walk in the mud,'' he said.
Mullane said he did not mind being on a ship in water remembering being on his father's small boat when he fished.
''He went out on the boat every weekend, and I used to go out with him every once in a while,'' he said.
Mullane went to basic training and boot camp at Great Lakes Green Bay, Wis., and learned to be an electrician.
During the war, Mullane installed lights, motor and gun-firing circuits on ships.
Mullane was stationed on the USS California, which he helped clean and repair. The ship had 164 guns on it and from 1943 to 1946 carried 2,500 people as it patrolled the Pacific Ocean.
''The USS California was one of the five ships sink at Pearl Harbor. They raised it and redid it and put new equipment on it to be able to use it again,'' Mullane said.
During his time on the ship which was near Hawaii, he was in six invasions and one sea battle where the ship fired at Japanese airplanes.
"There were air attacks on the ship. I was unprepared the first time they fired at us. I was below deck and did not expect it. You don't even hear the planes. You do hearing the firing of the guns on the ship,'' he said.
In January 1945, the ship was hit by a Japanese kamikaze at Lingayen Gulf, and 44 men died and over 100 were wounded.
Another incident occurred when the USS Tennessee lost power and accidentally rammed the ship at its bow, and six men died. The ship was repaired and returned to action.
Mullane was in the invasion of the Marianas on May 5, 1944, conducted shore bombardment of Saipan in June 1944, and acted as a part of the attack during the Guam and Tinian operations in July and August of that year.
In September 1944, the USS California prepared for the invasion of the Philippines and in October and November played a key role in the Leyte operation, including the destruction of the Japanese fleet in the Battle of Suriago Strait.
After the war ended, Mullane did more wiring work as engineers and electricians were needed.
''I was in Philadelphia for the last four months doing electrical work,'' he said.
Mullane said there was a free tour of Cape Town, Africa, Singapore and other places following the war. While on the ship he remembers, there was a radio station, and the crew could listen to music.
He said the USS California was decomissioned in 1947.
''I was proud to have served my country and will always remember the guys I served with and what we did,'' he said.
bcoupland@tribtoday.com
William E. Mullane Sr.
AGE: 92
HOME: Champion
BRANCH: U.S. Navy from April 1943 to April 1946 during World War II as electrician's mate third class on USS California
MEDALS: Good Conduct Medal; Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal; Philippine Liberation Medal
FAMILY: wife Adelaide (deceased); three sons, Bill, James and Daniel; three grandchildren
OCCUPATION: electrician at Western Electric of AT&T and Induction Heating Corp.