Older man wearing a navy cap with the USS Franklin CV-13 insignia, orange sunglasses

USS Franklin Survivor Walt Gallagher Celebrates 100Th Birthday

by

A survivor of the USS Franklin turns 100

Walt Gallagher was asleep on a canvas cot three decks below the flight deck when a Japanese dive bomber struck the USS Franklin in March 1945.

An 18-year-old Navy aviation ordnanceman at the time, Gallagher survived one of the most devastating days for any American warship in World War II, ARLnow reported.

The Dover Crystal resident celebrated his 100th birthday on Oct. 29. His survival stands in stark contrast to the immense loss of life aboard the Essex-class carrier, which remains one of the most heavily targeted vessels in naval history.

According to the National Museum of the U.S. Navy, the March 19, 1945, attack killed 807 men and wounded 487 others. When including an earlier kamikaze strike, the Franklin lost more than 924 crew members during the war. This figure is second only to the USS Arizona in terms of American casualties suffered by a single ship, per the Naval History and Heritage Command.

The chaos of the March attack

Gallagher’s journey into the Navy began by accident in 1943. Growing up in New Jersey, he attempted to join the Marine Corps on his 17th birthday, but the recruiters told him they had already filled their monthly quota. He simply walked next door to the Navy recruiting station and signed up there instead.

By March 1945, Gallagher was in charge of the bomb elevators on the third deck. His crew had spent three days working with little rest to move bombs from the magazines to the planes. On the night before the strike, the crew had been called to battle stations 12 times.

When the dive bomber released two bombs, the first exploded in the hangar deck near Gallagher’s position. The second hit near fueled and armed aircraft, triggering 126 secondary explosions of rockets and ammunition. Gallagher described the scene from the mess hall, where he witnessed badly burned crew members being brought in for triage.

Despite the carnage, Gallagher refused to leave his post immediately. “I said, no, I’ve got to stay here and take care of these bombs, I can’t leave them fused up like this,” he told ARLnow, explaining his decision to stay and defuse several bombs at the elevators with other ordnancemen.

As the ship began to list and lose power, an officer ordered divisions not trained in firefighting to cross over to the USS Santa Fe, a cruiser that had come alongside to assist. Gallagher was among those who moved to the Santa Fe, which took on 826 men in just half an hour.

A legacy of service and memory

After the war, Gallagher used the G.I. Bill to attend American University. He eventually transitioned into a technical career, working for Melpar/E-Systems and later serving as the head of the Automated Systems Office at the Library of Congress.

USS Franklin Survivor Walt Gallagher Celebrates 100Th Birthday

He remained deeply connected to his wartime experience, attending USS Franklin reunions whenever possible. In 2023, he was the only veteran from the ship to attend a reunion held in Corpus Christi.

Gallagher has expressed a desire to ensure the sacrifices of his generation are not forgotten by a modern world that often moves past the realities of conflict.

“Our collective memories are short when it comes to war,” Gallagher said. “I wish we could keep those memories so alive that future wars do not keep happening.”

Keep reading

Read next