{"id":72,"date":"2011-08-10T15:59:49","date_gmt":"2011-08-10T15:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/americainuniform\/?p=72"},"modified":"2011-08-15T13:50:43","modified_gmt":"2011-08-15T13:50:43","slug":"dont-shoot-were-republicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/2011\/08\/dont-shoot-were-republicans.html","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Shoot! We’re Republicans!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>From our subscriber:<\/em><\/p>\n

This\u00a0interesting read (Hey, I have days like this!) received from a USMC\u00a0associate, includes a U.S. Secret Service nexus\u2026.and best of all, it\u2019s\u00a0true!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

DON’T SHOOT! WE’RE REPUBLICANS!<\/strong>
\nA Bit of Naval History You May Not Know<\/em><\/p>\n

From\u00a0November 1943, until her demise in June 1945, the American destroyer\u00a0‘William D. Porter’ was often hailed – whenever she entered port or\u00a0joined other Naval ships – with the greetings: “Don’t shoot, we’re\u00a0Republicans!’<\/p>\n

For a half a century, the US Navy kept a lid on\u00a0the details of the incident that prompted this salutation. A Miami news\u00a0reporter made the first public disclosure in 1958 after he stumbled\u00a0upon the truth while covering a reunion of the destroyer’s crew. The\u00a0Pentagon reluctantly and tersely confirmed his story, but only a\u00a0smattering of newspapers took notice.<\/p>\n

In 1943, the Willie D as\u00a0the Porter was nicknamed, accidentally fired a live torpedo at the\u00a0battleship Iowa during a practice exercise. As if this weren’t bad\u00a0enough, the Iowa was carrying President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the\u00a0time, along with Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, and all of the\u00a0country’s W.W.II military brass. They were headed for the Big Three\u00a0Conference in Tehran, where Roosevelt was to meet Stalin and Churchill.\u00a0Had the Porter’s torpedo struck the Iowa at the aiming point, the last\u00a060 years of world history might have been quite different.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0USS William D Porter (DD-579) was one of hundreds of assembly line\u00a0destroyers built during the war. They mounted several heavy and light\u00a0guns, but their main armament consisted of 10 fast-running and accurate\u00a0torpedoes that carried 500-pound warheads. This destroyer was placed in\u00a0commission on July 1943 under the command of Wilfred Walker, a man on\u00a0the Navy’s fast career track.<\/p>\n

In the months before she was\u00a0detailed to accompany the Iowa across the Atlantic in November 1943,\u00a0the Porter and her crew learned their trade, experiencing the normal\u00a0problems that always beset a new ship and a novice crew.<\/p>\n

The mishaps grew more serious when she became an escort for the pride of the fleet, the big new battleship Iowa.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0night before they left Norfolk, bound for North Africa, the Porter\u00a0accidentally damaged a nearby sister ship when she backed down along\u00a0the other ship’s side and her anchor tore down the other ship’s\u00a0railings, life rafts, ship’s boat and various other formerly valuable\u00a0pieces of equipment. The Willie D merely had a scraped anchor, but her\u00a0career of mayhem and mishaps had begun.<\/p>\n

Just twenty four hours\u00a0later, the four-ship convoy, consisting of Iowa and her secret\u00a0passengers, the Willie D, and two other destroyers, was under strict\u00a0instructions to maintain complete radio silence. Since they were going\u00a0through a known U-boat feeding ground, speed and silence were the best\u00a0defense.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, a tremendous explosion rocked the convoy. All\u00a0of the ships commenced anti-submarine maneuvers. This continued until\u00a0the Porter sheepishly admitted that one of her depth charges had fallen\u00a0off her stern and exploded. The ‘safety’ had not been set as instructed.<\/p>\n

Captain Walker was watching his fast track career become side-tracked.<\/p>\n

Shortly\u00a0thereafter, a freak wave inundated the ship, stripping away everything\u00a0that wasn’t lashed down. A man washed overboard and was never found.<\/p>\n

Next, the fire room lost power in one of its boilers.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Captain, at this point, was making reports almost hourly to the Iowa\u00a0about the Willie D’s difficulties. It would have been merciful if the\u00a0force commander had detached the hard luck ship and sent her back to\u00a0Norfolk. But, no, she sailed on.<\/p>\n

The morning of 14 November 1943\u00a0dawned with a moderate sea and pleasant weather. The Iowa and her\u00a0escorts were just east of Bermuda, and the president and his guests\u00a0wanted to see how the big ship could defend herself against an air\u00a0attack. So, the Iowa launched a number of weather balloons to use as\u00a0anti-aircraft targets. It was exciting to see more than 100 guns\u00a0shooting at the balloons, and the President was proud of his Navy.<\/p>\n

Just\u00a0as proud was Admiral Ernest J King, the Chief of Naval Operations;\u00a0large in size and by demeanor, a true monarch of the sea.<\/p>\n

Disagreeing with him meant the end of a naval career. Up to this time, no one knew what firing a torpedo at him would mean.<\/p>\n

Over on the Willie D, Captain Walker watched the fireworks display with admiration and envy.<\/p>\n

Thinking about career redemption and breaking the hard luck spell, the Captain sent his impatient crew to battle stations.<\/p>\n

They began to shoot down the balloons the Iowa had missed as they drifted into the Porter’s vicinity.<\/p>\n

Down\u00a0on the torpedo mounts, the crew watched, waiting to take some practice\u00a0shots of their own on the big battleship, which, even though 6,000\u00a0yards away, seemed to blot out the horizon. Lawton Dawson and Tony
\nFazio were among those responsible for the torpedoes. Part of their job\u00a0involved ensuring that the primers were installed during actual combat\u00a0and removed during practice. Once a primer was installed, on a command\u00a0to fire, it would explode shooting the torpedo out of its tube.<\/p>\n

Dawson,\u00a0on this particular morning, unfortunately had forgotten to remove the\u00a0primer from torpedo tube #3. Up on the bridge, a new torpedo officer,\u00a0unaware of the danger, ordered a simulated firing. “Fire 1, Fire 2,”\u00a0and finally, “Fire 3.” There was no Fire 4 as the sequence was\u00a0interrupted by an unmistakable whooooooshhhhing sound made by a\u00a0successfully launched and armed torpedo. Lt H. Steward Lewis, who\u00a0witnessed the entire event, later described the next few minutes as\u00a0what hell would look like if it ever broke loose.<\/p>\n

Just after he\u00a0saw the torpedo hit water on its way to the Iowa and some of the most\u00a0prominent figures in world history, Lewis innocently asked the Captain,\u00a0‘Did you give permission to fire a torpedo?’ Captain Walker’s reply\u00a0will not ring down through naval history… although words to the\u00a0effect of Farragut’s immortal ‘Damn the torpedoes’ figured centrally\u00a0within.<\/p>\n

Initially there was some reluctance to admit what had\u00a0happened, or even to warn the Iowa. As the awful reality sunk in,\u00a0people began racing around, shouting conflicting instructions and\u00a0attempting to warn the flagship of imminent danger.<\/p>\n

First, there\u00a0was a flashing light warning about the torpedo which unfortunately\u00a0indicated the torpedo was headed in another direction.<\/p>\n

Next, the Porter signaled that the torpedo was going reverse at full speed!<\/p>\n

Finally, they decided to break the strictly enforced radio silence.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0radio operator on the destroyer transmitted “‘Lion (code for the Iowa),\u00a0Lion, come right.” The Iowa operator, more concerned about radio\u00a0procedure, requested that the offending station identify itself first.<\/p>\n

Finally, the message was received and the Iowa began turning to avoid the speeding torpedo.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile,\u00a0on the Iowa’s bridge, word of the torpedo firing had reached FDR, who\u00a0asked that his wheelchair be moved to the railing so he could see\u00a0better what was coming his way. His loyal Secret Service guard\u00a0immediately drew his pistol as if he was going to shoot the torpedo. As\u00a0the Iowa began evasive maneuvers, all of her guns were trained on the\u00a0William D. Porter. There was now some thought that the Porter was part\u00a0of an assassination plot.<\/p>\n

Within moments of the warning, there\u00a0was a tremendous explosion just behind the battleship. The torpedo had\u00a0been detonated by the wash kicked up by the battleship’s increased\u00a0speed.<\/p>\n

The crisis was over and so was Captain Walker’s career.\u00a0His final utterance to the Iowa, in response to a question about the\u00a0origin of the torpedo, was a weak, “We did it.”<\/p>\n

Shortly\u00a0thereafter, the brand new destroyer, her Captain and the entire crew\u00a0were placed under arrest and sent to Bermuda for trial. It was the\u00a0first time that a complete ship’s company had been arrested in the\u00a0history of the US Navy.<\/p>\n

The ship was surrounded by Marines when\u00a0it docked in Bermuda, and held there several days as the closed session\u00a0inquiry attempted to determine what had happened.<\/p>\n

Torpedoman Dawson eventually confessed to having inadvertently left the primer in the torpedo tube, which caused the launching.<\/p>\n

Dawson had thrown the used primer over the side to conceal his mistake.<\/p>\n

The whole incident was chalked up to an unfortunate set of circumstances and placed under a cloak of secrecy.<\/p>\n

Someone\u00a0had to be punished. Captain Walker and several other Porter officers\u00a0and sailors eventually found themselves in obscure shore assignments.\u00a0Dawson was sentenced to 14 years hard labor.<\/p>\n

President Roosevelt intervened; however, asking that no punishment be meted out for what was clearly an accident.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0destroyer William D. Porter was banished to the upper Aleutians. It was\u00a0probably thought this was as safe a place as any for the ship and\u00a0anyone who came near her.<\/p>\n

She remained in the frozen north for almost a year, until late 1944, when she was re-assigned to the Western Pacific.<\/p>\n

However,\u00a0before leaving the Aleutians , she accidentally left her calling card\u00a0in the form of a five-inch shell fired into the front yard of the\u00a0American Base Commander, thus rearranging his flower garden rather\u00a0suddenly.<\/p>\n

In December, 1944, the Porter joined the Philippine\u00a0invasion forces and acquitted herself quite well. She distinguished\u00a0herself by shooting down a number of attacking Japanese aircraft.\u00a0Regrettably, after the war, it was reported that she also shot down\u00a0three American planes. This was a common event on ships, as many\u00a0gunners, fearful of kamikazes, had nervous trigger fingers.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0April, 1945, the destroyer Porter was assigned to support the invasion\u00a0of Okinawa. By this time, the greeting “Don’t Shoot, We’re Republicans”\u00a0was commonplace and the crew of the Willie D had become used to the\u00a0ribbing.<\/p>\n

But the crew of her sister ship, the USS Luce, was not\u00a0so polite in its salutations after the Porter accidentally riddled her\u00a0side and superstructure with gunfire.<\/p>\n

On 10 June, 1945, the\u00a0Porter’s hard luck finally ran out. She was sunk by a plane which had\u00a0(unintentionally) attacked it from underwater.<\/p>\n

A Japanese bomber made almost entirely of wood and canvas slipped through the Navy’s defense.<\/p>\n

Having\u00a0little in the way of metal surfaces, the plane didn’t register on\u00a0radar. A fully loaded kamikaze, it was headed for a ship near the\u00a0Porter, but just at the last moment veered away and crashed alongside\u00a0the unlucky destroyer. There was a sigh of relief as the plane sunk out\u00a0of sight, but then it blew up underneath the Porter, opening her hull\u00a0in the worst possible place.<\/p>\n

Three hours later, after the last\u00a0man was off board, the Captain jumped to the safety of a rescue vessel\u00a0and the ship that almost changed world history slipped astern into\u00a02,400 feet of water.<\/p>\n

Not a single soul was lost in the sinking.\u00a0After everything else that happened, it was almost as if the ship\u00a0decided to let her crew off at the end.<\/p>\n

Kit Bonner, Naval Historian<\/p>\n

Click here for specifications of the USS William D. Porter<\/a><\/p>\n

…WDB<\/p>\n

Loyal\u00a0Subscribers! We need some help. The purpose\u00a0of our\u00a0“Heart” section is to publish stories of the experiences, contributions\u00a0and sacrifices of our military (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and\u00a0Coast Guard) and public service personnel (police officers, fire\u00a0fighters, EMS, merchant marines and others in the public sector) as\u00a0well as stories of their families. Please search your memory\u00a0and\u00a0computer for a few and send them to Bill (CPT\u00a0Otis) O’Quin at boquin@ix.netcom.com\u00a0for possible publication. Thanks!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From our subscriber: This\u00a0interesting read (Hey, I have days like this!) received from a USMC\u00a0associate, includes a U.S. Secret Service nexus\u2026.and best of all, it\u2019s\u00a0true! DON’T SHOOT! WE’RE REPUBLICANS! A Bit of Naval History You May Not Know From\u00a0November 1943, until her demise in June 1945, the American destroyer\u00a0‘William D. Porter’ was often hailed –…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interesting-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nDon't Shoot! We're Republicans! - America in Uniform<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/2011\/08\/dont-shoot-were-republicans.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Don't Shoot! We're Republicans! - America in Uniform\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From our subscriber: This\u00a0interesting read (Hey, I have days like this!) received from a USMC\u00a0associate, includes a U.S. Secret Service nexus\u2026.and best of all, it\u2019s\u00a0true! DON’T SHOOT! WE’RE REPUBLICANS! A Bit of Naval History You May Not Know From\u00a0November 1943, until her demise in June 1945, the American destroyer\u00a0‘William D. Porter’ was often hailed –…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/2011\/08\/dont-shoot-were-republicans.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"America in Uniform\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-10T15:59:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-08-15T13:50:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/americainuniform\/files\/2011\/08\/williamdporter-300x237.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Evan Derrick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Don't Shoot! We're Republicans! - America in Uniform","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/2011\/08\/dont-shoot-were-republicans.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Don't Shoot! We're Republicans! - America in Uniform","og_description":"From our subscriber: This\u00a0interesting read (Hey, I have days like this!) received from a USMC\u00a0associate, includes a U.S. Secret Service nexus\u2026.and best of all, it\u2019s\u00a0true! DON’T SHOOT! WE’RE REPUBLICANS! A Bit of Naval History You May Not Know From\u00a0November 1943, until her demise in June 1945, the American destroyer\u00a0‘William D. Porter’ was often hailed –…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/2011\/08\/dont-shoot-were-republicans.html","og_site_name":"America in Uniform","article_published_time":"2011-08-10T15:59:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-08-15T13:50:43+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/americainuniform\/files\/2011\/08\/williamdporter-300x237.jpg"}],"author":"Evan Derrick","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/2011\/08\/dont-shoot-were-republicans.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/2011\/08\/dont-shoot-were-republicans.html","name":"Don't Shoot! We're Republicans! - America in Uniform","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/2011\/08\/dont-shoot-were-republicans.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/2011\/08\/dont-shoot-were-republicans.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/americainuniform\/files\/2011\/08\/williamdporter-300x237.jpg","datePublished":"2011-08-10T15:59:49+00:00","dateModified":"2011-08-15T13:50:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/#\/schema\/person\/68e4e9ba5576f099b2ee841da00ac7cb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/2011\/08\/dont-shoot-were-republicans.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/2011\/08\/dont-shoot-were-republicans.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/2011\/08\/dont-shoot-were-republicans.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/americainuniform\/files\/2011\/08\/williamdporter-300x237.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/americainuniform\/files\/2011\/08\/williamdporter-300x237.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/2011\/08\/dont-shoot-were-republicans.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Don’t Shoot! We’re Republicans!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/","name":"America in Uniform","description":"Just another weblog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/#\/schema\/person\/68e4e9ba5576f099b2ee841da00ac7cb","name":"Evan Derrick","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/author\/ederrick"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions\/81"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}