HOWLAND - While most government employees have today off for Columbus Day, Chuck Marshall would prefer to observe something more near and dear to him - Navy Day.
''It was 13 October, 1775, when the U.S. Congress formed the Continental Navy. That's our birthday,'' said Marshall, who is a storehouse of facts on naval battles and the ships that fought them.
In fact Marshall's den is a naval library of sorts, with shelves lined with books and walls holding keepsakes and photos.
Part librarian and part historian, Marshall has the fondest memories of the USS O'Bannon - a destroyer he served on in World War II.
''My wife calls this my O'Bannon room,'' the Howland man said with a laugh.
He enlisted while still a student at Warren G. Harding High School.
''I was going to school and working at the Lordstown Ordnance Depot at the time. I enlisted. Went to Great Lakes (Training Center) and then headed to San Francisco, where the O'Bannon was still getting fixed up after the Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942 and after taking two torpedo hits that threw it off course, causing it to ram into another ship,'' Marshall said.
''Once we headed into the Pacific, we went to Pearl Harbor, arriving there Jan 21, 1944. I had $80 in my pocket. We saw our share of action while supplying strikes on land and getting attacks from Kamikaze pilots,'' he said, describing convoy details and sailing out of the Marshall Islands.
Marshall served as a radio striker in what he described as a Radio Shack on the ship.
''We supplied the guys on the ship with music occasionally. Mostly I helped others who were decoding Morse code,'' he said.
His battle station meant manning a No. 2, five-inch gun, and was not without its own dangers.
''I was a hot powder man. During my time, I don't think there was one Purple Heart given to a crew member. But I still remember taking one right in the face. I still got a tiny scar,'' he said, describing a heavy brass powder charge ejecting from the chamber and hitting him between the eyes.
Marshall was on the ship the better part of his stint in the Navy from 1943 to 1946. The craft went on to serve in the Korea and Vietnam wars before being junked in Hawaii in 1970.
For all his fond memories, though, at least one regret lingers.
''Perhaps the most disappointing time on the ship was after we escorted the Missouri into Tokyo Bay. But we were ordered elsewhere before the surrender papers were signed, and I never got to set foot on Japanese land,'' Marshall said.
Named after Marine Lt. Presley O'Bannon, who stormed the shores of Tripoli, the ship has remained part of Marshall's life - a life that has included membership in and serving as president of the USS O'Bannon Shipmates Association. He and his wife were at the first reunion in 1975 held in Las Vegas.
Marshall serves as historian and photographer for the group and is in charge of the O'Bannon display at the USS Radford National Naval Museum in New Comberstown.
He maintains membership in the Tin Can Sailors, a national association of destroyer veterans and several other groups, all keeping him busy since his retirement from Thomas Steel.
