35 cents
VOL. 3/ISSUE 23
THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2015
He fought at both D-Day and Iwo Jima aboard the USS Nevada Navy veteran Richard ‘Dick’ Ramsey displays a painting done by a former fellow survivor of the crew of the USS Nevada, Ed Armstrong, signed by many other survivors, at Ramsey’s home in Port St. Lucie.
Mary Kemper STAFF WRITER
mkemper@veteranvoiceweekly.com
(Editor’s note: To mark the recent observance of the 70th anniversary of the conquest of Iwo Jima during World War II, Veteran Voice is privileged to share stories from those who fought there and those who had connections to that campaign. Please see the story on Fred Walshak, whose cousin, a Marine, was on Mount Suribachi when the American flag was raised.) She was already a storied ship before a young Richard “Dick” Ramsey, Port St. Lucie, boarded her in 1943. The USS Nevada had already served convoy duty in World War I. On Dec. 7, 1941, she was the only battleship to get under way when Pearl Harbor was bombed by Japanese forces. Still, she was hit by one torpedo and at least six bombs while steaming away from Battleship Row, forcing her to be beached. Subsequently salvaged and modernized at Puget Sound Naval Yard, the Nevada served as a convoy escort in the Atlantic ocean and as a fire-support ship in four amphibious assaults — the D-Day invasion of Normandy and the invasions of southern France, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Ramsey, trained as a gunner’s mate, boarded the Nevada after maneuvers off the Aleutian Islands as part of the Battle of Midway. “We left San Francisco and went through the Panama Canal,” Ramsey said. “We performed seven convoy missions (in the Atlantic) after that.” Then came D-Day — “1 a.m. June 6 — and we were under way,” Ramsey said. The Nevada was part of the first invasion force. “Our objective was Utah Beach, and we fired the first salvo of D-Day,” he said. “We also supported the 101st and 82nd Airborne units. Our guns could fire 20 miles inland (taking out German troops and fortified weapons emplacements).”
Staff photo by Mary Kemper The Nevada was part of a massive armada the likes of which have never been seen. “Ships as far as the eye could see,” Ramsey said. In all, the invasion fleet was drawn from eight different countries’ navies, comprising 6,939 vessels — 1,213 warships, 4,126 transport vessels (landing ships and landing craft), and 736 ancillary craft and 864 merchant vessels. Four American destroyers were lost during the campaign, Ramsey said. In true can-do American spirit, however, one
enterprising sailor helped brighten the otherwise terrible day. The USS Corry, one of the destroyers, was supposed to have had a protective smoke screen, but the plane assigned to drop it had been shot down. The ship was hit multiple times, and eventually sank, with only her mast left above water. “One seaman took the (American) flag and put it up,” Ramsey said. “I like to think it was the first American flag planted
See RAMSEY page 3