Meet
the U.S.S. Kadashan Bay CVE-76 Squadron VC-20
Reprint from Alaskan Southeaster Magazine.
The USS Kadashan Bay
I flipped the 6x9 inch brown manila envelope in my hand and wondered if I should discard it in file thirteen.
Probably someone trying to declare me a winner in a sweepstake and make another dollar off me, I thought.
Curiosity overturned my trepidation and I opened it and unfolded the contents.
It
was a letter from a Zackery Z. Zink, and he explained to me that he had recently been in Spokane, Washington at a basketball
tournament where he sat behind an elderly couple. The elderly man turned around and looked at him.
Zack was wearing a hat that had written on it USS Kadashan Bay. “The gym was noisy and hard
to hear,” he wrote, “but the man asked him if he knew the location of Kadashan Bay.”
“All I know is that it is somewhere in Alaska. He then gave me your address and said to write
to you and you’d tell me all I want to know about Kadashan Bay."
I finished
the letter and turned my attention to the other contents in the envelope. My meddlesome eyes checked over
the inside page; across the top was written U.S.S. Kadashan Bay CVE---VC-20. And then I began to read:
The Kadashan Bay slid down the ways at the Kaiser-Vancouver shipyards destined to become
part of the U.S. Navy fighting the war in the Pacific. This ship of the newly designed Casablanca class,
standard in design and urgently needed to carry the war toward Tokyo. The Maritime Commission wrote the
specification and the Kaiser Company constructed the hull and supplied the installations required. Certain
special parts for the ship were fabricated elsewhere by the Navy and added to the ship at the fitting-yard at Astoria, Oregon.
But let’s begin with the day our carrier became something of steel rather than a number on a plan.....
After I had taken to heart
the eleven page historical document and allowed it to penetrate my comprehension I called Zackery Zink at his home in Clarkston,
Washington. A new friendship, a bonding you might conclude, was evident as we talked and I listened to
him reminisce for an hour or more. Never before had I talked to a stranger as I have with this guy and
felt such an affinity for an individual. I tried to visualize what he might look like, but determined that
he must be in his seventies or more.
“The
U.S.S. Kadashan Bay was one of the hundred Jeep Carriers built during the last segment of the Second World War,” he
said. “I don’t know how the ship got its name but I think it was because the war---at that
time---was shifting toward the Aleutians.”
The people responsible for
naming and commissioning the ship obviously examined the map of Alaska. Kadashan Bay was pinpointed and
so the ship was given the name Kadashan Bay.
The Kadashan Bay was named after my great grandfather’s family. His name was John Kadashan
and he had a brother, David, who stake claimed a piece of land under the 1906 Native Allotment Act on Chichagof Island and
people began to call it Kadashan's Bay.
Kadashan was a friend of the naturalist and world traveler, John Muir. It was Kadashan, Sitka
Charlie and Toyetta who guided Muir through the inside passage of the Southeast Alaska Panhandle and eventually into Glacier
Bay. Later, Kadashan, a master of protocol and a peacemaker, eventually became the leader
for his people from the Wrangell area.
Zack is one of he survivors of one thousand crew members of the Kadashan Bay. Today there are only
about 430 of them left.
I was astonished at the statistics of this particular carrier. It destroyed 20 aircraft, 7 artillery
emplacements, 1 heavy anti -aircraft positions, 4 auto anti-aircraft positions, 11 machine gun positions, 3 oil dump, 15 trucks,
1 oil barge, 3 boats, and several buildings and probably could take credit for destroying 2 battleships, 3 heavy cruisers,
1 light cruiser, 2 destroyers, 6 trucks, 3 aircraft (on ground) 11 boats (35 to 50 feet) 1 barge, 13 pillboxes.
From these campaigns, which took place
in the Philippians, there were no personnel lost and only three were wounded. Today the survivors’
of the ship are in their seventies and Zack, who serves as the Kadashan Bay Club secretary, sends out a monthly newsletter.
I am now a part of the Kadashan Bay mailing list.
There could have been one casualty. It
happened when a Japanese plane crashed into the side of the Kadashan Bay. It still had two 250 pound bombs
in each of its wings. One exploded upon impact. The motor passed through the skin of
the ship and tore a hole in the deck of one of its compartments, it also marred Lieutenant A.W. Buddington’s stateroom,
which was adjacent to the damaged area. After the plane struck it slid off the carrier and splashed into
the water; Lieutenant Buddington was washed through the gaping hole in the ship’s side. He was picked
up and returned to the ship, suffering from external injuries---but he survived to tell the story.
These guys have a reunion every year. This year it was in San Diego. I was invited
but couldn’t go. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t take time from commercial fishing.
The next one will be in Mississippi. You can bet your last Super Saver Mileage Plan I will be at
that one.[ii]
[i] This article appeared in the February 1999 issue of the Alaskan Southeaster Magazine.
[ii] Since then I have attended two Kadashan Bay Reunions and got to visit with about 200
of these shipmates. They are quite the bunch and I am planning to attend their next one in September.
It will be in Spokane,
Washington.
Want to make a commnet about the USS Kadashan Bay? Perhaps you are a crew member or a relative of a crew member,
or know of a crew member. I would be very much interested in hearing from you. Use the box below for your comment.
