I learned something recently about my cousin and hope its ok to share. The following story was told by his grandson at the recent funeral service of Harold Thomas Trettin 1926-July 6, 2014 (shown in the 60s photo I posted on 7/20/2014) He was my Dads nephew, son of Ed who was killed in a car accident when Harold was 7. Because of that, Dad took him under his wing.....at 16 years older, he was sort of a big brother, or father figure. Grandson Steven, was working with another young guy. They became friends and would share stories. One day Steven started talking about his grandpa being in the Navy during WWII. The other guy said his grandpa had served then, too. Steven told him what his grandpa did, and his friend said his grandpa had been a pilot. Steven told about the USS Bunker Hill and the battle his grandpa had been in. The friend said his grandpa had been on that ship. Harold joined the Navy at 18 during WWII, serving on the USS Bunker Hill. He was a mechanic on the aircraft carrier. He had to make sure the airplanes were in proper working order and had to sign off during flight inspection with the pilot immediately before take off. On the morning of May 11, 1945, while supporting the invasion of Okinawa, Bunker Hill was struck and severely damaged by two Japanese kamikaze planes. Each plane dropped a 550lb bomb on the carrier. (Wikipedia USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) ). Over 300 sailors and airmen were killed and another 300 missing or injured. Marian said Harold had told her about it, but she didnt think she would ever want to repeat any of it. He never wanted to see any war movies or tv shows about wars. Harold had always thought about the plane he checked and pilot who took off in it that day, whether he had made it or not. He hadnt returned to the ship. Harold didnt know if his plane was mechanically sound, if the pilot was shot down, if he landed or crashed, if he lived or died. Steve contacted one of his cousins who has connections in Washington, to see if there was a way to find the documents for the planes on that day. It took lots of research and time but they finally found it........Stevens and his friends grandfathers signatures together that day. The pilot had always wondered if his mechanic had made it.......with over 600 casualties, hed probably never know. Now they each knew that the other had survived, and both lived in Oregon!! The families thought they should have a reunion, but both were content just knowing each other had survived that hellish time. This revelation was about 3 years ago. The pilot passed away last year. When I was growing up we had a number of pictures of Harold..........several were of him in his Navy uniform. Its how I will probably always remember him.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 01:39:55 +0000
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