JOHN S. WOLONS, EM1/C, born April 21, 1922 in Spencer, MA, joined the USN Feb. 27, 1941 and was assigned to the USS Washington May 27, 1941, I.C. and Gyro Compass and fire contact circuits.

He participated in the Atlantic convoys, Savo Island and Leyte Gulf while at sea.

His memorable experience includes the collision with the Indiana.

Wolons was awarded the American Defense, Asiatic-Pacific, LAME, Philippine Liberation and 11 Battle Stars.

He was discharged March 7, 1947. He married Agnes O'Malley and they have three sons and five grandchildren. Now retired as chief electrician from Bendix.

GAY PASCAL YOUNGBLOOD, SK3/C, born Oct. 26, 1917 near the Coldwater community of Calloway Co., KY where he and his nine siblings often boasted that they scalded hogs in Coldwater. Edgar and Alma Youngblood contributed four sons to the war and sacrificed a son-in-law on the European front. He entered the USN on July 17, 1943, came aboard the USS Washington April 1944 and served continuously until Jan. 27, 1946 as a storekeeper third class in the supply office. His vivid recollections include the fires after the tragic skip bombing of the USS Franklin seen from the bow of the Washington.

He married Edith Smith Oct. 13, 1940. While aboard BB-56, his son Eddie Lee was born and he first saw him one year later. Two more sons and a daughter (Wayne, Diane and Harmon) were born to the 57 year marriage. Youngblood and brothers founded a variety of businesses in Mayfield, KY including hardware, discount center, supermarket and furniture stores, putting his Navy storekeeping skills to good use. Today, his son Wayne manages the True Value Home Center to which you are all invited.

NORMAN D. ZORB, SGT, born Dec. 16, 1924 in St. Johns, WA, joined the service Nov. 13, 1942 and was assigned to the USS Washington March, 7, 1943 and departed Sept. 5, 1945, 5" gun merchants.

While at sea he participated in Gilbert Islands, Northern Solomons, Marshall, Marianas, Palau, Philippine, Tokyo Japan, Iwo Jima, Okinawa.

Discharged Sept. 13, 1945 and married June 1, 1946 and has five children, (two boys and three girls): Mike, Sandy, Pat, Vikki, Georgine. Retired and working odd jobs only.

HENRY A. YOUNG, born June 2, 1923, Clifton, NJ. Nicknames: Hank / Moe. Enlisted in USN March 3, 1941, Brooklyn Navy Yard, NY. Boot camp: Naval Training Station, Newport, RI.

Prior to assignment to USS Washington, attended Boatswain's Mate School in Great Lakes, IL. He served in the Deck Division as a coxswain, and manned one of the Quad 40mm anti-aircraft guns during GQ-battle stations. Transferred to the USS HELIOS (ARB 12), a Battle Damage Repair Ship (formerly USS LST-1127), prior to Washington's arrival at the Puget Sound Navy Yard in June 1945.

Medals/awards: American Campaign Medal, American Defense Service Medal (w/ Fleet clasp), Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (w/ 1 silver star), European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal (w/ 1 bronze star), and World War II Victory Medal.

On September 3, 1942, on the Washington's initial cruise to the Pacific, he and several hundred lowly 'polywogs' were properly and thoroughly initiated into the secrets of King Neptune's reign. They emerged as tried and true 'Shellbacks', during 'Crossing the Line' ceremonies after crossing the equator, for the first of four times, on the way to Tonga Tabu, in the Friendly Islands. The Washington was the only fast battleship in the South Pacific, and covered the approaches to the Solomon Islands and our famous hold on Guadalcanal.

He was youngest of 6 children, who's mother died when he was 3. He and a younger sister, Teresa, lived for a time in an orphanage during the Depression. His oldest brother, John, received a family deferment during WW II (married with children). His brother, Martin, was discharged from the Army after only 6 months, on a medical deferment. Another brother, Wendel, served in the Army during WW II. His oldest sister, Anne, of Clifton, along with her husband Hugh R. Smith Jr., owned and operated Smith's Homemade Chocolates located on Broadway in Passaic, NJ. Prior to enlisting, Hank lived and worked at a CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) Camp in Utah, where he displayed his skills in the boxing ring. He also participated in boxing smokers held on board the Washington.

Honorably discharged on October 31, 1945, NTC Lido Beach, Long Island, NY, as a Seaman 1st Class. He served 4 years in the Merchant Marines after WW II and saw many icebergs in the North Atlantic.

He married Clara Filko of Passaic, NJ on October 4, 1952. A lifelong NY Yankees fan, he courted her by taking her on dates to Yankee Stadium in 1951 and 1952, with his buddies, to help teach her about the game of baseball. They watched Joe DiMaggio play the outfield in his final season and Mickey Mantle as a rookie. They moved to Garfield, NJ in June 1959, where his wife, a retired accounting clerk, still lives.

He has two children and three grandchildren. His oldest son, Mark, of Alexandria, VA, a computer systems programmer for Lockheed Martin Corp. in Maryland, is a former Navy Chief Petty Officer, who was inspired to Navy life by his dad's war stories. Hank was his son's Little League baseball coach. He continued coaching and served as secretary-treasurer in the Garfield Little League for many years. Hank's oldest grandson, Mark II (1979), lives in Florida. Hank's daughter, Kathleen Zmuda, a graduate of Seton Hall University, is a nursing supervisor in the Neo-Natal Care Unit at St. Joe's Hospital in Paterson, NJ. She has two children, Alyssa (1990) and Timothy (1991), and lives with her husband David, a paramedic, in Glenwood, NJ.

The onset of Alzheimer's disease forced him to retire in June 1983 from the Bakery & Confectioners Union, having worked for 20 years at S.B. Thomas in Totowa, NJ making Thomas' English Muffins. He is currently a resident of the Veterans Nursing Home in Paramus, NJ, since March 1992.

Note: Hank's nephew, Martin Altis of Pequannock, NJ (youngest son of sister Teresa), an Electrical Engineer & Marty's oldest daughter and Hank's grand niece, Steffanie, a recent college graduate, worked in lower Manhattan when the World Trade Center was bombed on 9/11. They both made it home safely.

BYREL WOOLSEY. I started my Navy career in January 1943, and was on a Army Transport in the 7th fleet attached to Macarthur's command and made the New Guinea Campaign from 1943 to August 1944. Went to advanced Gunnery School and from there was assigned to the USS Washington. From the Philippines through all the campaigns the Washington made to the end of the War. I left the ship In Philadelphia in November to be discharged in November 1945. I received a personal letter from the Secretary of The Navy upon my return home as well as the usual ribbons and medals. My first battle station was in Mount Nine. After Okinawa, I was transferred to the F Div and put in charge of the Armory and the Magazines and the F Div gun crew.

I first married Sheila Jennings in 1944 and had a son and two daughters, She died from cancer in 1960. I married again in 1967. I raised 5 stepchildren. I now have 15 grandkids and 12 great grand-children. I went into the grocery and meat business after the war and expanded from there, I have owned several businesses and was VP of a National Bank for four and a half years. I also ranched for fifty years. I had a real estate and appraisal business for 25 yrs and a small construction company for a few years. I have been a member of the Masonic Lodge for over 50 years and a lifetime member of the VFW.

LUTHER VERNON OAKES, gunner's mate on the USS Washington, married Bernice Brummett on Christmas Day 1945 in Erwin, TN. He attended East Tennessee State University on the GI Bill and became a school teacher. He and his wife moved to Titusville, Florida in 1953 where he taught school for several years. Later he studied electrical engineering and began working as an electrician at Cape Canaveral. He had a pilot's license and was a member of the Civil Air Patrol. He also enjoyed boating and never gave up his love of the ocean. When he died in 1979, his cremated remains were scattered in the ocean in a committal ceremony performed by the U.S. Navy at the request of his daughters. His survivors include two daughters, a granddaughter, and a grandson. View 3 Newspaper Articles on the Rescue