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USS Pinckney, DDG-91.

USS Pinckney (DDG-91) is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer in the United States Navy. She is named for African American Officer's Cook First Class William Pinckney (1915–1976), who received the Navy Cross for his courageous rescue of a fellow crew-member on board the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CV-6) during the Battle of Santa Cruz.

Pinckney was laid down on 16 July 2001 by Ingalls Shipbuilding, at Pascagoula, Mississippi; launched on 26 June 2002; and commissioned on 29 May 2004 at Naval Construction Battalion Center Port Hueneme.

As of January 2018, Pinckney is home-ported at NS San Diego, and assigned to Destroyer Squadron 23.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pinckney

 

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USS Makassar Straight, CVE-91.

The passage in the Malay Archipelago between Borneo and Celebes which connects the Celebes Sea with the Java Sea. During the Japanese invasion of the Netherlands East Indies which began in January 1942, outnumbered Allied naval forces engaged the enemy in a series of naval battles which harassed and delayed the Japanese conquest of the East Indies and helped thwart the invasion of Australia. On 24 January the four‑piper destroyers of DesRon 29 made a daring and successful night torpedo and gunfire attack on an enemy transport convoy, anchored off Balikpapan, Borneo. This gallant raid into Makassar Strait, which was the first American surface action in the Pacific war, cost the enemy four transports and a patrol ship; and, while it failed to halt the Japanese advance across the Malay Barrier, it was a tactical victory which bolstered the morale and determination of hard‑pressed American and Allied naval forces in the southwest Pacific.

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/m/makassar-strait.html

 

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91st Division

 

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[kingofnerf]

NASCAR driver and owner, Junie Donlavey.

After retirement as a driver, became owner of the Helig-Meyers team with Dick Trickle as the driver.

 

[kingofnerf]

USS McKean, DD-90.

USS McKean (DD-90, later APD-5), 1919-1943

USS McKean, a 1060-ton Wickes class destroyer built at San Francisco, California, was commissioned in February 1919. She served in the Atlantic area during 1919-1922, making one deployment to European waters in May-July 1919. Decommissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in June 1922, she remained in reserve until mid-1940, when she was reclassified as a high-speed transport and given the new hull number APD-5. Following conversion for her new mission, McKean recommissioned in December 1940 and operated in the Atlantic for more than a year.

In May 1942, McKean was sent to the south Pacific, where she arrived in time to take part in the invasion of Tulagi in early August. During the long and difficult campaign to hold Guadalcanal she performed in logistics support and escort duties. After an overhaul in the first part of 1943, McKean returned to the south Pacific to join in the Allied offensive up the Solomon Islands chain. She participated in landings at Rendova and New Georgia in June and July 1943, and at Vella Lavella in August. During late October and early November, she landed troops at Mono Island, Choisul and Cape Torokina, on Bougainville. During the morning darkness on 17 November 1943, while bringing up more Marines to Bougainville, McKean was torpedoed by a Japanese plane. She sank within a half-hour, with the loss of more than a hundred crewmen and Marines.

Circa 1943.

 

[kingofnerf]

USS Thetis Bay, CVE-90.

Thetis Bay got underway for San Diego where she conducted brief shakedown training. On 2 June, she moved to San Pedro to load planes and passengers for Pacific bases. The new escort carrier put out to sea on 5 June; called at Pearl Harbor on the 11th; and continued on, via Makin and Majuro, to Kwajalein. There, she embarked the Army's 50th Engineer Battalion which she offloaded at Pearl Harbor on 5 July.

Two days later, the carrier got underway for Alameda with 41 aircraft that needed repairs. She arrived on 13 July and, after offloading the aircraft, proceeded to Terminal Island for a three-week yard period. Between 11 August and 13 September, the escort carrier delivered spare parts, replacement aircraft, and personnel to Hawaii and the Marshalls. From September 1944 through mid-April 1945, Thetis Bay made five round-trip voyages from California ports to bases in the Pacific ranging from Pearl Harbor to Finschhaven, New Guinea.

On 12 June 1945, Thetis Bay arrived at Pearl Harbor from San Diego with a load of aircraft. There, the aircraft were readied for combat within 72 hours, and the ship got underway for Guam. She arrived at Apra Harbor on 25 June and was assigned to Task Group 30.8 for duty as a replenishment carrier. Thetis Bay made her first rendezvous with Task Force 38 on 12 July when she transferred 40 planes to various carriers. She returned to Guam on 22 July and remained there until 24 July to load more aircraft before joining the fast carriers again on the 31st. The ship reloaded at Guam once more and resupplied the task force from 14 August to 8 September when she returned to Apra Harbor en route to the United States.

Thetis Bay arrived at Alameda on 7 September 1945 and was assigned to "Magic-Carpet" duty, returning veterans from overseas bases to the United States. She served in this capacity until January 1946 when she began inactivation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Thetis_Bay

 

[kingofnerf]

USS Chafee, DDG-90.

USS Chafee (DDG-90) is an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer in United States Navy. She is named for Senator John Lester Hubbard Chafee (1922–1999), a Marine veteran of Guadalcanal who also served as the Secretary of the Navy. Chafee was laid down by the Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine on 12 April 2001, launched on 2 November 2002 and commissioned on 18 October 2003 in Newport, Rhode Island, the home state of the ship's namesake.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Chafee

 

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[kingofnerf]

Insignia for the 90th Bombardment Group, the most famous B-24 Liberator group of WWII, known as the Jolly Rogers.

The group was first organized as the 90th Bombardment Group at Key Field, Mississippi in April 1942 as a Consolidated B-24 Liberator unit. The group's original squadrons were the 10th Reconnaissance Squadron and the 319th, 320th and 321st Bombardment Squadrons, although within a week of activation the 10th was renamed the 400th Bombardment Squadron. The group trained with Liberators in the southeastern United States under III Bomber Command until August.

The group moved to Willow Run Airport, Michigan for conversion training on newly manufactured Ford Liberators. Assigned to VII Bomber Command with B-24Ds, The unit moved to Hickam Field, Hawaii in September. The group arrived in northern Queensland, Australia in November 1942 and began bombardment missions under V Bomber Command almost immediately.

The group attacked enemy airfields, troop concentrations, ground installations and shipping in New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, Palau and the southern Philippines. The group was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation for operations in Papua through January 1943,  The unit participated in the Battle of Bismarck Sea in March 1943, and earned another citation for strikes on enemy airfields at Wewak, New Guinea in September 1943 despite heavy flak and fighter opposition.

During 1944, the 90th supported the New Guinea Campaign through the end of June, then made long-range raids on oil refineries at Balikpapan, Borneo, in September and October. In January 1945, the group moved to the Philippines and supported ground forces on Luzon, attacked industrial targets on Formosa, and bombed railways, airfields, and harbor facilities on the Asiatic mainland. Shortly before the end of the war in the Pacific, the 90th moved to Okinawa, from which it would be able to strike the Japanese home islands.

After VJ Day, the group flew reconnaissance missions over Japan and ferried Allied prisoners of war from Okinawa to Manila. Ceased operations by November 1945. The group was inactivated in the Philippines in early 1946.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/90th_Operations_Group

https://www.jollyrogers1942.com/the-90th-bomb-group.html

 

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90th Division

 

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