{"id":120420,"date":"2021-12-10T08:00:43","date_gmt":"2021-12-10T13:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=120420"},"modified":"2021-12-07T21:29:09","modified_gmt":"2021-12-08T02:29:09","slug":"valor-friday-150","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=120420","title":{"rendered":"Valor Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Howell Forgy, USN Chaplain Corps, circa 1941<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As we passed once again the \u201cdate that will live in infamy\u201d, I\u2019d like to highlight one of the people that was there. Reverend Howell Forgy of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Howell \u201cHow\u201d Forgy was a physically imposing man. At 6\u20192\u201d and 200 pounds, in high school he\u2019d been a standout football player. He was even on the West Philadelphia High School team when they won a championship and continued playing football at Muskingum College (now Muskingum University) in Ohio. His family and friends knew of his intention to join the clergy and they jokingly called him \u201cFather Forgy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forgy attended Princeton Theological Seminary, graduating in 1937 and was ordained in the Presbyterian Church. His first church assignment was to Ft. Collins, Colorado. He soon was sent to Murray, Kentucky, a small rural city in the far southwestern part of the state.<\/p>\n

Arriving in Murray, How found “nine Presbyterians, very little money and a great desire to build a church.” While there, he built up that church. By 1940 they had a church building, an active congregation of 150 souls, and Forgy had met his future wife Louise Morgan when she sang in the choir.<\/p>\n

He was remembered by one of his original congregants, Mrs. Jessie Rogers, as a “dynamic minister, elegant in his speaking.” She said he “became well known and well liked in his associations not only with his congregations but with the other churches and ministers in the city.” Before leaving Murray, How had earned another degree, this time from the Murray State Teacher\u2019s College, Kentucky.<\/p>\n

Soon though, the world was once again at war. As Forgy watched, Germany marched across Europe and Japan across the Pacific Rim. At age 32, in 1940, Forgy volunteered his services as a chaplain to the Navy. His place was with America\u2019s young men should they too join the war. At that time, even the staunchest of isolationists realized it was only a matter of time before the US entered the war.<\/p>\n

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USS New Orleans (CA-32)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Forgy\u2019s first and most fateful fleet assignment was to the cruiser USS New Orleans (CA-32), stationed out of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory.<\/p>\n

New Orleans was the lead ship of her class. The class were the last cruisers the US built according to the Washington Treaty of 1922, which limited ship tonnage and other characteristics. Despite this, the 588 foot long ship with a crew of nearly 1,000 men and officers was formidable. Carrying nine 8\u201d guns, eight 5\u201d anti-aircraft guns, eight .50-caliber machine guns, and a complement of four floatplanes, she was no slouch.<\/p>\n

Early in the morning on 7 December, 1941, the chaplain was lying in his bunk. Looking out the small window in his room he saw a beautiful, clear morning. It was Sunday morning. Being peacetime and at port, most of the officers and men of New Orleans were ashore, recovering from a night of drinking, dancing, and merriment.<\/p>\n

As Forgy lied there thinking about his morning\u2019s sermon the ship suddenly shuddered. The ship\u2019s turbines were offline. The boilers and their turbines were down for most ships at dock except for USS Nevada (BB-36), which the OOD Ensign Taussig had earlier lit a second boiler. This allowed Nevada, which wasn\u2019t docked adjacent to any other ships, to be the only battleship to get underway during the battle. Taussig would receive the Navy Cross for his actions that day, but Nevada was soon scuttled as it succumbed to battle damage.<\/p>\n

As the New Orleans shuddered, Forgy probably initially thought it was something to do with ship\u2019s maintenance. Many heavy repair tasks or preventive measures are conducted at port. Instead he was putting together his sermon, the topic being “We Reach Forward.”<\/p>\n

The sermon was to be based on Paul’s advice to forget “those things which are behind” while “reaching forth unto those things which are before.” Forgy was going to use Paul’s words to remind the sailors that their “fate lay in the days ahead and not in those that had passed.”<\/p>\n

The shuddering wasn\u2019t routine maintenance. The battle stations claxon sounded and, immediately the ship\u2019s 1MC (intercom or public address system to those with dry feet) blared, calling men to battle stations. The claxon wailed as the ship\u2019s speakers announced, \u201cAll hands to battle stations! All hands to battle stations! This is no drill! This is no drill!\u201d Similar messages were going out across the docked Pacific Fleet as the first wave of Japanese aircraft commenced their attack. It was just before 0800 hours.<\/p>\n

Forgy ran to his battlestation, in sickbay, and asked the doctor, \u201cIs this for real?\u201d The sounds of battle outside announced that it was indeed real. The chaplain asked and received permission to go topside.<\/p>\n

As the young minister walked out the hatch and onto the deck, one of the Japanese aircraft buzzed right overhead. Enemy bullets were ricocheting off the hull nearby. Forgy said, \u201cI did a jig down the deck\u201d to avoid the enemy rounds pinging all around.<\/p>\n

Looking over all the mighty American warships so heavily under siege, Forgy just then saw \u201cwhat was to remain the most shocking sight in my whole life.” Nearby, lined up with the other battleships, the pride of the Pacific Fleet, USS Arizona (BB-39) suddenly exploded.<\/p>\n

To say Arizona exploded is a bit of an understatement in point of fact. An enemy bomb had gotten very lucky. It pierced the top deck\u2019s armor plating near turret two, striking down several decks, and into the ship\u2019s magazine, where the powder for its massive main guns was stored. The resultant explosion immediately cleaved the ship open like a clam, nearly cutting the whole bow of the ship off.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure in that moment, Chaplain Forgy\u2019s mind went from \u201cOh, shit\u201d to \u201cOh, fuck\u201d right quick. This wasn\u2019t just a battle. This was a battle they were losing.<\/p>\n

The loudspeaker announced that \u201cthe man with the keys to the ammunition locker to lay (go) below!” It would seem the man with the keys to the ship\u2019s ammunition had gone ashore, the critical keys still in his pocket.<\/p>\n

Then-Lieutenant Edwin Woodhead (later a captain) was nearby Forgy. Just then a Japanese plane went down aflame, into the water. Forgy exclaimed, \u201cWe got one of those sons of bitches!\u201d Woodhead ordered the men to break into the ammunition lockers.<\/p>\n

Forgy helped as the men and officers used fire axes to bust into the stores. The ship\u2019s electrical system was down (it took some time for these systems to be spun up) and they\u2019d lost their connection to shore power. This meant the ammunition hoists weren\u2019t functional, as they were electrical. In order to get the munitions up to the guns, Forgy and Woodhead organized the men into a bucket brigade of sorts, handing ammunition up from man to man.<\/p>\n

Forgy, a large man whose football training and experience led him to instinctually want to hoist the large 5\u201d shells (weighing more than 50 pounds each) himself, was suddenly reminded of his training. \u201cA chaplain cannot fire a gun or take material part in a battle,” He recalled.<\/p>\n

The chaplain did what he could as he moved down the line, encouraging the men. Forgy later said, \u201cI guess I used unchaplainlike language because afterward on the well deck of our cruiser I overheard a couple of boys say, ‘Chaplains can cuss like a bo’sun mate when they have to’.”<\/p>\n

“Minutes turned to hours,” Forgy wrote. “Physical exhaustion was coming to every man in the human endless-chain of that ammunition line. They struggled on. They could keep going only by keeping faith in their hearts. I slapped their wet, sticky backs and shouted, ‘Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.'”<\/p>\n

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Word spread quickly of the chaplain\u2019s quick turn of phrase. Perhaps the shortest sermon of all time, it became one of the more famous lines in American naval history. It\u2019s easily as recognizable as \u201cI have not yet begun to fight\u201d and \u201cDamn the torpedoes…Full speed ahead!\u201d Within months, a song would be written by Frank Loesser (who donated proceeds from the song to the Navy Relief Society). It was one of the biggest musical hits of the war;<\/p>\n

Down went the gunner, and the gunner’s mate<\/em><\/p>\n

Up jumped the sky pilot, gave the boys a look<\/em><\/p>\n

And manned the gun himself as he laid aside the Book, shouting<\/em><\/p>\n

“Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition! Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!<\/em><\/p>\n

“Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition and we’ll all stay free!”<\/em><\/p>\n