Richard C. Sawtell

by Dave Thornton

Dick Sawtell was serving as a Quarter-Master Third Class aboard the Heavy Cruiser USS Quincy in 1936. One night after coming off shift while the Cruiser was in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, on its maiden voyage and shakedown cruise, powerful vibrations coursed through the 10,000-ton vessel.

Sawtell contacted the radio room. "What the Devil's going on, Sparks," he asked.

"We've been ordered to steam for Gibraltar," came the reply.

A Navy veteran at the ripe old age of 18, Dick Sawtell was about to participate in the Spanish Civil War.

There were 1,500 Americans residing in Spain at that time, Sawtell recalls. He is 77 years old now, and his wartime experiences are long behind him. But those times are some of the most vivid of his memories.

COMMUNISTS, FASCISTS

When the Communists and the Fascists squared off in Spain in what was to be a prelude to the Second World War, all foreign nationals were in danger. The United States sent two of its Naval vessels, the Quincy and the Battleship Oklahoma, to rescue Americans, if need.

The Americans would soon find themselves rubbing elbows with the crewmen of the German pocket battleship the Graf Spee, it, too, bent on rescuing civilians.

Other Nations did the same.

The Quincy was commissioned in February, 1936. She lasted exactly six years. She got her name from Quincy, Mass., where she was built.

She had a crew of 1,000 men. For armament, she boasted three huge turrets of eight-inch cannons. There were also eight five-inch anti-aircraft cannon and 8 50-caliber machine guns.

There were four 36-inch searchlights mounted on a platform between the two smoke stacks. They could be synchronized with the eight inch guns and the AA guns, so that wherever the search lights pointed, the guns would automatically train to that spot.

In August, 1936, Sailor Sawtell was alight with pride in his ship, which was the Flagship of a European squadron, formed in response to the Spanish war. Dick's mother back home at Buskirk's Bridge, clipped from the newspaper every article about it and pasted them up with Dick's letters, when they arrived.

In 1936, in a letter to his mother, Dick boasted of the five aeroplanes on board that could be launched for patrol duty or converted for pursuit. They were double-winged, and armed with twin Vickers machine-guns that were synchronized to shoot through the propeller.

A Lewis, air cooled gun was mounted on a ring around the cockpit coaming so the pilot could aim it as he flew.

The planes could fly at the breath-taking speed of 350 mph.

A major function of the planes was to provide the triangulation needed for the pinpoint accuracy of the long-range guns.

Dick Sawtell grew up on a farm near Buskirk's Bridge, where his father had grown up. Every day he and other kids from the north bank of the River would walk across the famous covered bridge to attend School # 12. The teachers were Mary Flynn and Eleanor Pratt. Today the Buskirk Fire Dept uses the school building.

Like many boys in those days, Dick dropped out of school to go to war. Before it was over, ten years of his youth would have passed, mostly spent in two cruises with the US Navy.

TRIAL RUNS

The USS Quincy was eventually relieved from the Spanish War duty by the USS Raleigh. She had been sent so precipitously into the war that the Navy had never taken official possession of her. She returned to the East Coast for testing and refitting. Off Old Orchard, Maine was a measured mile. Before the Navy would accept her, the Quincy had to steam through that mile making 36 knots.

Then, at full steam, she had to perform a tight "figure eight".

Then, while at full steam, came the command over the speaker: "Prepare for full reverse!" The screws were stopped and reversed, the whine of the turbines could be heard throughout the 10,000-ton dreadnaught.

Dick recalled that when she backed down at full speed, the entire stern would go under water.

Dick was on board when the Quincy was commissioned and he served aboard until March, 1939, when his tour was up. This was just before the Quincy steamed around the tip of South America on a Good Will tour.

While the Quincy and the USS Oklahoma finally steamed through the Panama Canal to their similar fates in World War II in the South Pacific, Dick returned temporarily to civilian life.

MONUMENTAL BLUNDERS

Both the Quincy and the Oklahoma were lost through Navy blunders of monumental proportions.

When the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor in the infamous sneak attack that brought the United States into WW II, the USS Oklahoma was one of those ships tied up along Battleship Row. The attack left her capsized at the dock.

But Navy salvage crews raised her and refitted her for action. Seventeen months after Pearl Harbor, February 13, 1944, the USS Oklahoma rejoined the Fleet.

Then, on August 9th, 1942, the Quincy was lost in one of the worst Naval blunders of the War. The US discovered that the Japanese were constructing an airfield on the strategically located South Pacific island of Guadalcanal.

 

Marines were rushed ashore under the very noses of the arrogant Japanese, who, too late, sent a powerful force to drive out the Americans.

The battle for Guadalcanal was the first American ground offensive in the Pacific. It wrote a heroic chapter in the annals of the US Marine Corps, and it marked the end of Japanese territorial gains.

But it was a chapter of pure ignominy for the US Navy.

The Japanese rushed a naval squadron to push the Americans off the island. Anticipating this, the Americans sent out two cruiser-destroyer groups to intercept the enemy near Savo Island.

Through incredible bungling, the two groups allowed the Japanese armada to approach undetected to almost point-blank range, when they opened fire. The result was that within 13 minutes of the opening salvo, four US heavy cruisers, including Dick's beloved USS Quincy, went to the bottom.

When dawn broke over the debacle, the US Navy steamed away and abandoned the handful of US Marines already put ashore. Without fresh troops or logistical support, the Marines held the island and prevented the Japanese from retaking Henderson Field.

GOOD FRIENDS LOST

Dick lost some good friends that night, for many of the original crew were still serving on the Quincy. One friend in particular is shown in a picture of Dick's quartermaster shift. As a backdrop for the picture, one of the huge, gun turrets was used.

The young sailor was fighting in that turret when a Japanese shell tore it right off.

The battle started that morning at 20 minutes after one. By daybreak, the ships lay on the bottom in 1,000 feet of water.

Recently, a U S Navy nuclear sub launched a robot mini-sub to photograph the bottom off Savo Island. There today sits the USS Quincy, as upright as if she were still sailing the high seas, clearly revealing the six gaping wounds in her hull that destroyed her.

Dick stayed retired during the first few months after Pearl Harbor. Then he returned to duty, this time as a quartermaster third class aboard the USS Veritase, a troop ship.

Until the War's end, he would ply the Atlantic, bringing home war-ravaged Veterans and carrying into combat fresh troops.

In 1945, he returned to Buskirk and bought his uncle's house. He was already married by this time, the father of three kids, at the time: Pat, Terry and Gloria.

Later would come Gail, Penny, Tammy and Jackie.

After the war, Dick drove buses in Troy. He retired from the United Traction Co.

The mother of his children, Marjorie Roberts, died in April, 1977.

Today he and his second wife, the former Jeanette Ladd, live in Cambridge, where they are very active in Capt. Maxson Post of the American Legion.

Dick still pursues his interest in miniature trains and buses.

(Note: Dick died in the fall of 2002. dt)

 

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