Explosion of USS Mount Hood, November 10, 1944

Comments · 2K

• RA

  @raydewley9796 · 4 years ago

  My uncle, Arthur, died on the USS Mount Hood that fateful morning.  He had just turned 18 and this was likely his first assignment.  Thank you for presenting your research on this event in our nation's history!

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• AN

  @AndreiTupolev · 6 years ago

  I must say, deliberately NOT finding scapegoats among those who could no longer defend themselves was a radically different approach to the one authorities usually take.

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• BR

  @brynniebean · 2 years ago

  My uncle Ray passed away on the USS Mount Hood. He was a dedicated letter writer to his younger sister, my great grandmother. Reading his many letters gives you an idea of the hopes and dreams this young man had, and it makes this tragedy all the more real. Thank you for highlighting this!

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• PE

  @Pete1953-pr1oo · 1 year ago

  My uncle Charlie was onboard the USS Mt Hood and was lost in that explosion. From what I heard from my family, my aunt heard about her husband, Charlie, in the local newspaper a month later in December 1944 before the navy even told her.  Pretty sad.  Thank you for remembering this accident.

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• ST

  @steven2212 · 5 years ago

  24 year Navy career and first time hearing of this. You Sir, embody everything good regarding history and our treatment of it. Very well done.

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• LY

  @lynnwood7205 · 6 years ago (edited)

  I met one of the survivors of the USS <br>Mount Hood while out shopping a year and a half ago. &nbsp;He was wearing a baseball cap marked USS MOUNT HOOD, a ship&apos;s name which nudged my memory and so l politely asked if that ship was one the ammunition transports.<br>He said yes, explained he was ashore to retrieve the mail when his ship exploded, vanishing. He recounted the number of shipmates lost, the fellow sailors lost from other ships and the long years before the loss of the MOUNT HOOD was more commonly known. He spoke sadly of his shipmates.<br><br>The rest of the day I spent in somber reflection amazed.

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• JE

  @jebsails2837 · 6 years ago

  Lt. Collie was a close family friend of my late parents. &nbsp;He had survived the Pearl Harbor attack, being aboard the repair ship Vestal next to the Arizona and was blown into the flaming water. &nbsp;He survived, completed rehab, and was promoted from storekeeper to supply officer. &nbsp;After my parents passed I found a memento from him and returned to his surviving son. &nbsp;Thank you. &nbsp;Narragansett Bay.

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• TO

  @tomat6362 · 6 years ago

  My grandfather, Chester A. Gile, was a naval officer in Seeadler at the time, (and uniquely, an officer in WWI as well) and his eyewitness account of the Mount Hood explosion was published in Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute. &nbsp;&quot;It sounded like someone had struck a bass drum--a drum a mile in diameter!&quot; was his statement that has stuck with me since childhood.

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• TM

  @tmr3513 · 5 years ago (edited)

  My Uncle was serving on a supply ship in the harbor that had the ice cream making machine on it. He had just returned from delivering ice cream to the Mount Hood and had just stepped back on the deck of his ship when the Mount Hood exploded! It tossed him 10 feet across the deck, wrenched his back and blew out his ear drums. He always talked about how God had protected him and &nbsp;never missed Mass after that day. Sorry don&apos;t remember the name of his ship. I just remember him telling me the story. After I told him I was joining the Navy. He always thought of those men he had joked with on the ship not knowing they were all doomed less than a half hour later.

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• GA

  @garristhemont1586 · 2 years ago

  An Al Capone name drop was the biggest twist i never expected from this

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• OL

  @olliefoxx7165 · 6 years ago

  History Guy should come out with a calender posting forgotten history or maybe an app where we could get daily reminders of forgotten history on that day.

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• MI

  @mikechance3138 · 3 years ago

  My grandfather, Summerrow, Earl J., died aboard the USS Mount Hood on that fateful day. He was an Austin (TX) Firefighter before the war. He has a memorial and a tree planted at his downtown 5th Street station, and his name is on a plaque on a war memorial between the state Capitol and the Governor&apos;s Mansion.

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