Crew Reminiscences Page

Dry-dock   (Lester V. Tinnin)
  I was transferred from the Navy transfer center at Camp Shoemaker to the Cowpens at Mare Island in April, 1945.  The Cowpens was in dry-dock, and the crew was staying in barracks ashore.  Also at that time President Franklin D. Roosevelt died. The date of his death was April 12, 1945.  I remember the connection between the death of Roosevelt and the Cowpens because one of my first duties on the Cowpens was raising the Jack on the bow of the ship in the morning, at the same time that the ensign was raised from the flight deck.  It was announced that all flags would be flown at half-mast for 45 days.  This meant that the Jack was also half-masted.  I forget whether I did this every day or just every fourth day when my Section of the Division had the duty.  The Cowpens was out of dry-dock before the 45 days was up.

Watching Planes Land   (Lester V. Tinnin)
  I was 18 years old when I reported to the Cowpens and anxious to see everything that was going on.  After the Cowpens left dry-dock and put to sea from Mare Island, the planes came aboard.  One day my friend, Robert Bender, and I were both off duty and thought it would be fun to go up to the bridge to watch the planes land.  Bender and I had attended  quartermaster-signalman school together and were both transferred to the Cowpens and assigned to N Division.  It was a nice day and as I remember it we had not yet arrived at Pearl Harbor, but were enroute.
  The planes were landing.  The tailhook of a plane would catch on one of the arresting cables crossing the flight deck, and then the plane would be moved forward.   Things were going fine until one plane came in too low ready to land.  Just as the plane crossed the stern of the ship the stern rose upward, pushed upward by the swells of the sea.  The plane's tailhook caught on the rear of the flightdeck, and the tailhook broke off.  It arched up into the air over the landing plane, twirling over and over.  It was going straight ahead in the same direction as the plane and the ship.  I watched it a second or two, but then the crash alarm sounded.
  When a plane's tailhook did not catch an arresting cable there were three 'barriers' made of cables, which could be flipped up from the flightdeck to catch the landing plane.  The barriers were raised and as the plane proceeded down the flightdeck, it hit the first barrier.  The nose went down a little and the tail went up.  From there I don't remember exactly what happened except the plane started heading towards the bridge where we were standing.  One wing rose up and then went back down, missing Bender and me by only three feet.  The pilot did not appear to be hurt, and there was not much damage to the plane.
  Following that close call,  Bender and I decided we had better things to do and left the bridge.  Watching the planes land did not seem to be as good an idea as we had first thought.  That was when my plane watching days ended.

Landing Signal Officer   (Lester V. Tinnin)
  The crew member I heard this story from was a bugler in N Division named Haefner.   We had two Navy buglers, both in N Division, and one Marine bugler.
  Anyway, Haefner told some of us newer crew members this story more than once.   He had enlisted when he was 16 years old, and was about 2 years older than me.   He was on the Cowpens when she pulled into Mare Island early in 1945.  He did not have 18 months of sea duty, because he was not transferred off of the ship.  This is the story as told to me.
  During flight operations one day, one of the Cowpens' planes ditched into the water.  The Landing Signal Officer (LSO), the guy who waves the paddles, saw the plane in the water and jumped overboard in an attempt to rescue the pilot.  What happened, though, was that both the pilot and the LSO were lost.

Planes in the water   (Lester V. Tinnin)
  When I had some free time I liked to sit on the fantail of the ship.  It was sort of quiet back there with not many people around, and sometimes I had a good view of something happening.  Maybe an oil tanker was alongside refueling the ship, or a cargo ship was resupplying food to the Cowpens.   But if I sat there long enough, I would often see the tail of a plane floating by.  They were not planes from the Cowpens.  I never saw a plane from the Cowpens ditch into the water.  These were planes from other ships in the fleet, and I would always see them when nothing special was happening,  just routine flight operations.
  The planes were always about the same depth in the water with only so much of the tail sticking up.  I never knew if the pilot had been rescued or not. If not, it was too late.  I asked about this down in the N Division compartment a couple of times but never got much of an answer, or no answer.  I have looked in a few navy history books, but I have never seen anyone mention a plane floating by.
  A couple of years ago I was reading a book by the former Captain of a destroyer during W.W.II, and he mentioned rescuing planes and pilots from the water, but he never gave any details; and he did not give any percentages.   Maybe someone knows the names of some books that tell about plane rescues from the water during W.W.II.

Tokyo Bay and after   (Lester V. Tinnin)
  "Men from Cowpens were largely responsible for the emergency activation of Yokosuka airfield for Allied use. Between 8 November 1945 and 28 January 1946 Cowpens made two voyages to Pearl Harbor, Guam, and Okinawa to return veterans.  Placed in commission in reserve at Mare Island 3 December 1946, Cowpens was decommissioned 13 January 1947."  (Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Naval History Division, Dept of the Navy.)
  Now I will start with a little of my version. Hopefully someone will visit your website who can add to anything I say, or correct it if necessary.  I see that you already have the above quote on your website, but it will help to refresh my memory.   I have been browsing a little more through the images.  I don't know where the Cowpens was when the photo of it was taken, but if it was in Tokyo Bay then it was during our first time into the Bay because the planes are still on the ship.
  The Cowpens went into Tokyo Bay twice.  The first time was on the "third day."  I never did find out what the "third day" was.  I thought that it was the third day after the first US ship went into the bay.  I did not keep a diary.  I do not know the exact number of days that we were anchored there.   When the airfield at Yokosuka was ready the Cowpens went out to sea again.   All of the planes were launched, to land at Yokosuka.  We then went back into the Bay, and it was during this second time in the Bay that the surrender was signed.   I will devote another letter to my own version of what happened on the day of the surrender. The surrender was September 2, and we did get to go ashore that day after the surrender was signed.  We also got to go ashore the next day, September 3, and the Cowpens also left Tokyo Bay the same day, to go  to Okinawa to pick up Navy Seabees to take them back to San Diego.
  I guess, Tim, that this would link your father up with getting off of the Cowpens in October.  We traveled at about 18 knots, with no escorts, and it took us about 18 days to cross the Pacific.  To the best of my memory we crossed nonstop.  The crew received leaves in San Diego, and then, if I remember correctly we went to Mare Island again.  There bunks six high were put on the hangar deck.  Then we went out to Guam, at 18 knots, to pick up more veterans and bring them back.  I can't remember if we made another trip or not.  With so many passengers on board returning to the US we had a "fun" time with salt water showers instead of our usual fresh water.  This time, I believe we came back to Alameda Naval Air Station.  I know that I was there for a while on the Cowpens.  The crew had gotten smaller, and changed also, as some of the crew left and others were transferred on board.  When I left the Cowpens, about May of 1946, we were back at Mare Island again.  They seemed to be getting the Cowpens ready for mothballing.
   I did see one name that I recognized on the website.  I did not recognize the Captain mentioned, G.H. DeBaun.  Probably he was transferred off when the Cowpens was at Mare Island early in 1945.  The name I recognized was Lt. Commander Ed Jarman.  He was the Navigator when I first served on the Cowpens.   He was transferred off I think at Mare Island.  I surely don't want to be trying to guess names.  The Captain of the Cowpens that entered Tokyo Bay was not the Captain that took the Cowpens out of Tokyo Bay.  The Captain had been transferred to the airbase on shore.  The executive officer took his place.

The Day Of The Surrender In Tokyo Bay

  I happened to be in Tokyo Bay on the day that the surrender was signed with Japan through no choice or decision of my own. I was a Seaman 1/c on the U.S.S. Cowpens CVL 25 that had been sent into Tokyo Bay to ready the Yokosuka Naval Air Station for American planes.  That had already been done and our planes were already off of the ship and at Yokosuka Naval Air Station on the day the surrender was signed.  I went up to the flight deck at about the time that the signing was supposed to take place.  I hoped to be able to look towards the Missouri through some binoculars.  My division stood watches on the bridge and in the wheelhouse and that might have been possible. Also there was a range finder on top of the bridge and I hoped possibly to be able to look at the Missouri with it. I had once had the rangefinder as my going to sea station.  What happened when I got to the flight deck?   There was not a soul there.  There was no one on the bridge either.  Our bow was pointed a little south I guess, and the Missouri was on the starboard side, towards Tokyo, about three miles away (my guess).  We were anchored in the vicinity of Yokosuka.  So I walked over to the starboard side of the ship and looked at the Missouri for a couple of minutes, but all I could see in the distance was flags flying on the Missouri.  Flags arranged for the occasion of course.
  Where was the crew of the Cowpens? They were all down in their quarters getting ready to go ashore after the surrender was signed.  So I went down and started getting ready too. I have not mentioned that General MacArthur had declared the day to be a holiday for the Japanese. But it was not a holiday for Americans, and the Cowpens was still getting things ready at the Naval Air Station at Yokosuka.
  After the surrender had been signed we did get to go ashore, in designated groups. We were not supposed to separate at any time while on shore, and we were not to give any food to the Japanese or accept any food from them. The food part was only for the one day. I was in a group of three, myself and two other seamen from N Division. Soon after we left the dock there was no one to be seen. This was very unusual in wartime. We saw no Shore Patrol. We saw no other sailors from the Cowpens. We saw no sailors from any other ship, and no American military of any kind. Also, since it was a holiday for the Japanese we wandered all over without seeing any Japanese either.
  We found a little store that seemed to be open, but the owner never appeared. We also came to a small two story building, looked inside and could hear voices. The voices sounded feminine and were coming from upstairs. The building looked like an office building. Upstairs we came to an open door and some young ladies, maybe in their twenties, were seated at tables that reached almost the width of the small room, about 30 by 40 feet. Everyone inside was seated facing the front of the room and no one looked around or spoke. It seemed to us to be a small business office, or perhaps a school class, and we went back downstairs and left.
  My group of three only saw two other Japanese people that day. We were getting about as far away as we were supposed to go from the dock, and perhaps farther, and our alloted time was running out on us. The time limit was perhaps a couple of hours or in that vicinity. Then suddenly we came to the edge of a small park. That seemed to be as far as we would go.
  There was a small well built house there, the top of my head reached about even with the eaves of the roof. We decided to knock on the door and see if we could get any souvenirs. At this time I might interject that though I had attended many Navy classes about how to fight the war, I do not remember ever attending a Navy class on what to do when the war was over. So we knocked on the door and a Japanese man maybe in his thirties came out wearing a black suit and holding  the hand of a young girl about four or five years old who was with him. He spoke English, and we talked a little bit. He wanted to know what ship we were on, and how long we were going to stay. We told him we were leaving the next day. We asked him where he had learned his English, and he said that he had attended a University in the United States. I think that he mentioned some location in the Eastern United States. We asked him if he had any souvenirs, and he brought out some small porcelein type animals that one would perhaps put on a shelf or something.
We accepted the small pottery figures. We were running out of time and had to get back to the Cowpens, so we left. We had not brought anything with us suitable for giving away as a gift, and the man did not want the young girl to accept a five cent piece with George Washington's face on it which I offered them. Since the atom bombs had went off only a few weeks ago the thought occurrred to me that maybe he thought the coin was contaminated. So we left.
  The next day, September 3, 1945, the crew of the Cowpens also got to go ashore again, even though the Cowpens was leaving later in the afternoon. I was again in a designated group of three from N Division, but not the same two as the day before.
  We did not walk as far from the dock as the day before and again we saw no one, until we got back to the dock. It seemed like there were a lot of Japanese women walking back and forth everywhere, seemingly carrying things back and forth to and from the dock. I got a rickshaw ride the final two blocks to the dock, first asking my two companions if it was all right. We were not supposed to separate, but we were clearly in sight of each other during my short ride. I remember the name of one of my companions was Vince, and he was from Missouri. He was one of the "old men," in N Division being about thirty.