Name: Dewey Adamson
SSN: 252-44-1258
Last Residence: 30427 Glennville, Tattnall, Georgia, United States of America
Born: 18 Oct 1896
Died: Feb 1971
State (Year) SSN issued: Georgia (Before 1951 )
Name: Grace S. Adamson
SSN: 253-76-5460
Last Residence: 30427 Glennville, Tattnall, Georgia, United States of America
Born: 12 Nov 1903
Died: 31 Jan 1989
State (Year) SSN issued: Georgia (1963 )
JOSEPH F CHAPMAN
SSN 417-03-9119
Residence: 32401 Panama City, Bay, FL
Born 13 Nov 1915
Died 3 Jan 1988
Last Benefit: 32401 Panama City, Bay, FLNews Herald, Panama City, Survivors of USS Drexler honored
Wednesday, November 14, 2001
by TOM QUIMBY, The News Herald
The writer can be contacted at [email protected]Sailors Steve Armstrong and Joe Chapman Jr. had crossed paths on the USS Drexler, but it wasn't until after their ship sank in a Japanese attack on May 28, 1945, that the two got to know each other a bit better.
A large American flag whipped and popped in the wind high above Armstrong on Tuesday as he shared his memories of Chapman with 300 people who gathered for a memorial service to the Drexler crew. The event was at the headquarters of Peoples First Bank on 23rd Street. Bank president and founder Joe Chapman III hosted the one-and-a-half hour service on his father's birthday, and paid for 11 Drexler survivors to attend.
Joseph Chapman Jr., who died in 1988, would have been 86 Tuesday.After Japanese suicide pilots sank the Drexler, Armstrong said he and Chapman shared memories about their ill-fated destroyer while recuperating at the Army hospital in Saipan. "Our talks focused largely on the loss of our ship and shipmates. He (Joe) had a wonderful personality and was easy to get along with", said Armstrong, 78, adding that he and Chapman shared a laugh after receiving some Red Cross money. "While I was in the Navy, I had coal-black hair, a heavy beard and somewhat of a baby-face, unlike what you see now. After I shaved", Joe said, "I wish my face would look like yours when I shave". I took it as a compliment and said, "Some people have it, and some people don't." Armstrong said he regretted that he and Chapman fell out of touch after the war, "but that was the case for a lot of us. Still, we didn't forget each other."
Joe Chapman III said that as his father's health declined, he talked more openly about his experiences aboard the Drexler. "He had vivid memories of the attack. And as he got older, he had compassion for the kamikazes. He said they were young men that were simply fighting for their country. He said he could see their young faces" as they tried to fly their planes into the ship. The Drexler, which had been part of a radar picket-ship line off Okinawa, sank within a minute of the second kamikaze attack.A bronze memorial plaque that Joe Chapman III unveiled between three flagpoles outside of Peoples First tells the story. "For 15 days prior to her sinking, the Drexler performed radar picked off Okinawa. Wave after wave of kamikazes attacked the ship, only to be shot down. Then, as day broke on May 28, 1945, six kamikazes bore down on the ship in a coordinated attack. Two plunged into the ocean and two were shot down before two hit the Drexler amidships. The ship rolled over and sank in less than a minute. Losses were heavy: 158 officers and crew were killed. Another 199 were rescued, including seaman 1st class Joseph Fleming Chapman Jr."
B.C. Mills, who left his Canton, N.C., home to attend Tuesday's service, said he not only survived the sinking of the Drexler but also the sinking of the USS Corry at Normandy, during the bloody D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. "I didn't think I had a chance in either attack," Mills said. "The attacks might have been interpreted differently, but the ferocity was the same." Mills said the Corry's job off Normandy was to take out German gun installations on land, so that troops could have a better chance at invading the French province. "The Germans were firing 88 (millimeter) cannons, along with Big Berthas (larger than the 88 mm cannons)," Mills said. "The captain tried turning the ship perpendicular to the shore, so that we wouldn't be as large a target. But we took a hit. Some say we hit a mine; I say a Big Bertha hit us."
Mills said the force of the explosion on the ship was akin to water boiling out of its pot. The force buckled the center of the boat into the air, and when it came back down it buckled under, with the bow and aft rising into the smoke-filled sky. "Our commanding officer gave a call to abandon ship," Mills said. "The mast had collapsed, so I went out on it into the water." About an hour and a half later, he and other sailors were rescued. He was taken by troop transport to England, where he enjoyed six weeks of recuperation, before heading to the United States aboard the Queen Mary. "That was something," he said, laughing.
A short while later in Washington, D.C., Mills was assigned to the Drexler, which had just been commissioned on Nov. 14, 1944. "I didn't think much too much about it," he said. "The war had to be won; it was just my duty". Mills said the Drexler's crew of 357 was largely untrained. While en route to the ship's final destination near Okinawa, the crew underwent intense training. It wasn't much later that those skills were put to the test. "It was a fairly clear day, a little hazy," Mills said. "We had word that they (the kamikazes) were coming. They all came in from the starboard side. I don't know why." Around 7:02 a.m., the first plane came in under fire from the starboard gun tub. It destroyed the tub, sending burning fuel in all directions, including into Mills' port gun tub. The electricity had been knocked out. Mills said the crew tried its best to shoot down the second suicide pilot, but it was hard to get a bead on the plane with their 40 mm guns. "The guns were made to not fire at mid-level, for safety's sake, so you couldn't shoot the ship," he said. "I had to stand and watch it (the plane) come in". The damage was so severe that this time "the commander didn't have time to tell us to go overboard." The ship sank in 49 seconds.
After leaving the Navy in 1945, Mills enlisted in the Army in 1948, went to Korea in 1951 and fought there for a year. He left the service in 1958. He said he's tried to tell people that God has been looking out for him, but not many seem to believe. "For everything that's happened in your life, God is in command," he said. "Young people should take that to heart."
After Tuesday's ceremony, the Drexler survivors enjoyed lunch together and went off to Bay, Mosley and Rutherford high schools, where they talked with students about the time they fought for America's freedom. Joe Chapman, 63, said he thought it a good idea that vets talk with young people. "We take for granted other things people will die for," he said.
Most of the Drexler survivors will leave Panama City today. Armstrong said for the survivors, Tuesday's memorial service was a huge success. "It's the best thing that's happened to our reunion association since we came together in '85," he said. "We usually get together in May - that's when our ship sunk."
The 10 a.m. ceremony included servicemen from the Coastal Systems Station, delegates from Bay County veterans' organizations, singers from Gulf Coast Community College, politicians, business people and residents. Under a clear, blue sky and cool, steady breeze the names of the 11 survivors were called. Each time a survivor's name was read, applause rang out and family members of the survivors stood at attention. While standing behind a print of the Drexler autographed by the 11 survivors, the Gulf Coast Community College commodores sang America the Beautiful. Shortly afterward came a 21-gun salute from the CSS. Chapman said that next year Peoples First would host another service in which a local group or organization will be recognized for its contributions to society. Another plaque will join the Drexler plaque, he said.
Setting it Straight
A man quoted in Wednesday's USS Drexler story was misidentified. His name should have read James Armstrong.The News Herald, Panama City, Guests of Honor
by TONY SIMMONS, The News Herald
Saturday, November 10, 2001
The writer can be contacted at [email protected]
In the span of 90 seconds on the morning of May 28, 1945, a Japanese kamikaze attack sunk the destroyer Drexler off Okinawa, sending 158 men to their deaths. On Sept. 11, the terror and loss of 1945 were violently resurrected for Drexler survivors like John Gerosky of Shalimar, who saw something eerily familiar in the images of jetliners smashing into the World Trade Center towers. "I was thinking, when I was looking at the news films on the Twin Towers - honest to God, it was almost an exact replica of what happened to us," said Gerosky, 74. "I knew what those people were thinking in that tower."
Another Drexler survivor was Joseph Fleming Chapman Jr., father of Joe Chapman III, founder and chairman of Peoples First Community Bank in Panama City. Chapman Jr. died in 1988. Chapman and Peoples First will honor America's military, and specifically, the men of the Drexler with a sunrise ceremony Tuesday and the unveiling of a bronze memorial on the bank campus at 1022 W. 23rd St. Guests of honor will include Gerosky and 10 other Drexler survivors: James D. Armstrong of Elizabethtown, Ky.; L.G. "Red" Brantley of Raleigh, N.C.; Gene Brick of Prineville, Ore.; Carl Crawford of Anderson, S.C.; Father Robert Feeney of Greensburg, Pa.; Henry V. Fox of Baton Rouge, La.; Robert Hunt of Duncan, Okla.; Robert McIntyre of Virginia Beach, Va.; Buford C. Mills of Cleveland, Ga.; and Dennis Stone of Beckley, W.Va.
For Gerosky, this reunion will be a first. "They have a reunion every year, but I always had something to do," he said. "I was in the hospital a couple of times, or it was too far away. I'm really looking forward to this."
KAMIKAZE ATTACKSThe Drexler, which was launched Sept. 3, 1944, from the Bath Iron Works in Maine, was home to a crew of 357 officers and enlisted men, according to survivor Robert L. Anteau's history of the ship. The Drexler was named for an ensign, Henry Clay Drexler of Braddock, Pa., who died while trying to save crewmates aboard the Trenton on Oct. 20, 1924. Drexler, 23, was in a forward gun mount when a powder charge ignited. He tried to smother a second charge in water before it could catch fire, but the flames were too quick, and he died in an explosion.
The Drexler participated in the initial landings at Okinawa, helped retrieve downed aviators and cleaned up Japanese mines. Before the fatal attack, the ship served a month of dangerous radar picket duty without suffering a scratch. "We wondered why we weren't sunk a lot of times," said Gerosky, who was 17 at the time. "We were attacked for hours at a time, mostly at night. The son-of-a-b's almost only attacked at night."
From March to June of 1945, the battle for Okinawa claimed more than 12,000 American lives on the battlefield and 5,000 at sea.
The Drexler was part of "the fleet that stayed permanently" at Okinawa - one of 12 destroyers and three destroyer escorts sunk by kamikaze pilots. Another 13 carriers, 10 battleships and five cruisers were badly damaged, mostly by kamikazes. The first suicide bomber to strike the Drexler crashed into her starboard side about 7:02 a.m., igniting gasoline fires and causing an ammunition explosion. A second plane dived at the Drexler's escort, the Lowry, half a minute later, but it took heavy fire and spun into the water astern of the escort. About 7:03 a.m., a third suicide bomber was sighted to starboard. Chased by Marine Corsairs and struck by anti-aircraft fire from the Drexler, the plane missed on its first try and seemed about to crash into the sea. But the pilot skimmed the surface of the water in a tight circle and struck the Drexler amidships. A tremendous explosion rocked the ship, she rolled over on her starboard side and her bow rose out of the water. She sank within 49 seconds of the impact.
"After the first plane hit, our ammo racks on the port side caught fire," said Mills, who had been captain of a 40-mm gun crew. "I told my crew to leave the gun tub. Our main deck was already underwater and the bow was rising into the air." As the Drexler rolled onto her starboard side, Mills managed to climb the upturned deck and drop off the port side. "When I hit the water, suction from the sinking ship caught me and I went down - way down," Mills said. "I remember the hull of the ship with the barnacles on her side dragging against me. I turned and put my feet on her side and tried to walk up. My lungs were almost exploding." Mills finally made it to the surface. Seeing that oil from the ship was burning, he swam away from the fire as fast as he could. "I received a back injury as a result of a flying object of some sort," said Armstrong, who had been working another 40-mm gun mount during the attack. "I walked off the ship as it was going under, and when I got into the water, I discovered one of the (carbon dioxide) bottles in my life belt did not function." Armstrong shared his half-inflated life belt with another man who had no life jacket or belt, until an empty ammunition can floated by and the second man transferred to it. A rescue boat picked them up later.The Drexler's casualties numbered 158 dead and 52 wounded; the wounded included the skipper, Cmdr. Ronald L. Wilson, who attributed the high casualties to how quickly the ship sank. Gerosky went into the water with his skipper. "I was topside at my battle station next to the bridge on a 40-mm cannon," he said. "The last Japanese bomber was coming right for us, and he broke our back. One of our Marine pilots was taking our own fire trying to get him. There were explosions all over the place. Everything was chaos. It was me and the skipper and a couple or three more that was the last ones off the ship."
When Gerosky surfaced, he also encountered blazing seas. "Fire was on the water when I came up, and I had first-degree burns all over," he said. "I was all bandaged up, and they itched like hell for a month."
Many stories of heroism went down with the ship, Wilson said, but some will be recalled Tuesday at Peoples First. At sunrise, the group will have its traditional "reading of the roll call" to remember the men killed that day. A band will play Taps, and Father Feeney, a Catholic priest, will speak. At 10 a.m., a plaque honoring the men of the Drexler will be unveiled below the campus flagpoles. A commendation letter received by Joseph Chapman Jr. from President Ronald Reagan will be made a permanent part of the display.Guests at the unveiling will include officers from Tyndall Air Force Base and the Navy's Coastal Systems Station, as well as uniformed delegations from Bay County veterans' organizations and high school Reserve Officer Training Corps students. Several of the Drexler survivors will visit Bay County high schools Tuesday afternoon to discuss their experiences with ROTC classes and history classes. Gerosky said it was imperative - in light of the terrorist attacks of September and America's war in Afghanistan - that today's youths know what yesterday's youths sacrificed for the defense of liberty. "We need to keep our guard up," he said.
News Herald, Panama City, FL, 9-Nov-1999, Headline: Pioneering educator, elections official Gladys Chapman dies
At a 1990 roast in her honor, Gladys Chapman was prepared with retorts, just in case speakers crossed the line.
"I had this little blue book of things I was going to say tonight about you roasters, because don't you think I don't know some things," Chapman told the audience.
She had reason to know some things. Chapman was the longest serving public official in the history of Bay County, and she was among the best known.
She died Sunday following a series of illnesses. She was 86.
"She put up a heck of a fight," her son, Joe Chapman, said Sunday. "She kept fighting 'til the very end and she's better off. "We're happy that she's in peace."
Gladys Chapman was a fighter all her life. But she fought quietly, promoting her principles largely by inspiration and example.
Throughout her career, Chapman was regarded as a trailblazer who established a place for women in local government.
For 36 years, her place was the Bay County supervisor of elections office. When former Florida Gov. Ferris Bryant appointed her supervisor in 1961, she became the first woman to hold public office in Bay County. The next year, she became the first woman elected to public office. She was re-elected eight times and retired in January 1997.
"She was a talented, capable woman," Bryant said Sunday.
Bryant and Chapman kept in touch through the years, and he attended her retirement celebration.
"I had a fondness for her. She was such a lovely lady and so willing to cooperate," he said. "I'm really proud of that appointment because she was the first woman to hold office in Bay County."
At the time he appointed her, it was almost unheard of for women to be in such positions of power.
"It was not customary to appoint women to political offices," Bryant said.
Bryant said he broke custom because he knew firsthand that a woman was up to the task.
"I had three daughters and my wife was a very capable lady, herself," he said. "That's the way I looked at things."
Former Gov. Reubin Askew said Chapman was a "pioneer."
"I knew her as the supervisor when I was in the Legislature," he said. "I came to respect her immensely. She was one of the most respected supervisors in the state.
"I am saddened by her passing. She was a marvelous person and I enjoyed my friendship with her."
Charles Whitehead, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, remembers Chapman's appointment as supervisor.
"I remember her as being a leader when people in government, especially county government, were all males," he said. "She certainly opened the doors for an awful lot of women."
While she likely was best known for her long tenure in the elections office, Chapman's work in the community long preceded her political career.
In the 1940s, Chapman and four other teachers founded the Bay County Classroom Teachers Organization with the goal of involving teachers in the shaping of education policy.
At the time, nearly all teachers were women, while administrators and the School Board members all were men.
The organization was controversial from the start, inspiring fear among school administrators that it would function as a union.
Chapman was asked to resign, first her position as president of the organization and later her teaching position.
She refused on both counts, and the issue went to the Bay County School Board. She and other teachers who defended the teachers organization knew that they were placing their jobs in peril. But in the end, they convinced the School Board that the organization served a valuable purpose.
For nearly 30 years, Chapman was active with the Bay County Council on Aging. She intermittently served on the council's board of directors from its inception, and was a current board member.
"She helped us out significantly," said Beth Coulliette, the council's executive director. "It's going to be a real loss to our organization."
Coulliette said she often turned to Chapman for help with decisions affecting the council.
"She was one of my mentors," she said. "She would offer excellent advice to me."
Chapman's role as mentor and counsel was something that many remembered Sunday.
"There was never any doubt that her counsel was valued and it was coming from the heart," Whitehead said.
He said Chapman was one of the people who helped influence him to pursue a return to the state party chairmanship. He served in that position during most of the 1980s, and returned to the post this year.
"She was probably as strong a Democrat as I've ever known in my life," Whitehead said. "She certainly lived and supported her philosophy."
Chapman was born in Escambia County, Ala., and moved to Bay County in 1937.
In order to attend high school, Chapman moved from her rural home to the nearest city, Brewton, Ala., and lived with friends there. She later went to Troy State Teachers College and received her Alabama teaching certificate in 1935.
She taught first through eighth grades for two years in Castleberry, Ala., before moving to Bay County, where she taught third grade through junior high at Millville School and Cove Elementary School.
"She had a rapport with kids that very few teachers have," said Tommy Smith, who was schools superintendent at the time.
TWO TYPEWRITERS
Chapman was on a leave of absence from teaching when Bryant appointed her elections supervisor.
When she assumed the post, the office had two employees and two typewriters, and Bay County had 15,000 registered voters. During Chapman's tenure, the number of employees grew to five and the voter roll to nearly 77,000.
Chapman drew no challenge during her final re-election bid in 1992. She was 79 at the time.
"I'm old enough to know how to do the job, and young enough to do it," she said then, announcing that she would seek an eighth term.
Just four years earlier, Chapman had taken on two Democratic Primary opponents and a Republican opponent during the general election.
During the campaign, her age was made a subtle issue, but Chapman dismissed that criticism.
"I do not want to go home and sit down and do nothing. I've been active all my life and I want to stay active," she said, announcing her candidacy.
In repeated interviews during her final days as supervisor, Chapman never failed to mention that she loved the job.
"I've enjoyed every minute of it," she said in 1996, as she worked her final election night. "My life has been full and complete because I've been able to serve the people I love."
Funeral services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday at First Baptist Church, 32 W. 6th St. The family will receive friends at Wilson Funeral Home, 214 Airport Road, from 5 to 7 p.m. today. Mrs. Chapman's obituary appears on page 4C.
WALTER BLEDSOE
SSN 264-14-4326 Residence: 32504 Pensacola, Escambia, FL
Born 3 Aug 1911
Died Oct 1976
Name: JOHN KIRKLAND
SSN: 252-62-7727
Last Residence: Georgia
Born: 25 May 1877
Last Benefit:
Died: Nov 1963
State (Year) SSN issued: GA (1957)
Name: Nathaniel P. Kirkland
SSN: 252-18-5167
Last Residence: 30453 Reidsville, Tattnall, Georgia, United States of America
Born: 29 Sep 1907
Died: 13 Sep 1988
State (Year) SSN issued: Georgia (Before 1951 )
Name: Thelma A. Ridley
SSN: 491-09-4506
Last Residence: 64052 Independence, Jackson, Missouri, United States of America
Born: 8 Mar 1910
Died: 2 Jul 1995
State (Year) SSN issued: Missouri (Before 1951 )
his daughter (Doris Mozell Delk) said her father was a farmer - but not a very good one. He moved the family to Tampa, FL in 1923. She said he was tired of working in the sugar refinery. He did carpentry work in Tampa, FL. In 1924, he moved to Plant City, FL to try farming - which he knew he was not that good at. His daughter (Doris Mozell Delk) said her dad was too
cautious. He would plant too little crop, afraid it would not do well. Then when it did well, he wished he had planted more. Then the next year he would plant more. Then that year it wouldn't do so well. Bad timing can cost you. Later they moved to Dale City,FL and started a chicken farm. No bad memories about this farm.
http://www.garrason.com/Cemeteries/ElimCemDetailPt1.html