BEMISS, Guy Morton
BEMISS, FACTOR, FIX, BARNES, LISTER, PICKRELL, WILSON
Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 10/13/2015 at 14:48:55
Obituary - Guy Morton Bemiss
June 21, 1918 ~ May 26, 1954Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Thursday, May 27, 1954, Page 1Mason Cityan Dies in Blast
91 Known Killed in Disaster on Carrier
Inquiry Is Started by Navy Board
201 Injured in ExplosionQUONSET POINT, R. I. (UP) - Adm. John (Peg Leg) Hoskins, chairman of a naval board of inquiry, said Thursday, "We haven't the slightest notion" as to the cause of a fire aboard the aircraft carrier Bennington that killed 91 and injured 201.
As he opened the board's first session, Hoskins said he expected the hearings to last for "quite a lengthy time." He said the hearings would be open to the press except when classified information is involved.
"At the present moment we haven't the slightest notion of what caused this accident," he said.
Shortly after convening the four board members left the hearings room to make the first offical inspection of the explosion site in the Bennington's vitals. The inspection trip was labeled secret and newsmen were barred.
The board convened a few hours after a small fire broke out on a pier alongside the crippled warship. The fire in the rubbish was quickly extinguished.
Team of Experts
The Navy Bureau of Ships dispatched a team of experts here to appraise the Bennington damange.
Until the group submits a report, expected Monday, the Navy declined to estimate the damage or the length of time it will take to repair it.
The 32,000-ton carrier, a proud bearer of numerous battle honors in World War II, was rocked by the disaster early Wednesday off New England.
A violent blast on the second or third deck below the flight deck was followed by searing flames which roared through many forward compartments. Then came at least one more explosion.
Scores were trapped in sleeping quarters. Many suffocated. Many perished in the flames.
One of Worst
The disaster, one of the worst in peacetime U.S. naval history was the second aboard a carrier in New England waters in less than a year. Last October, 37 died in an explosion and fire on the carrier Leyte while she was docked in Boston.
Secretary of Navy Charles S. Thomas, who flew to Quonset for a quick inspection, and Capt. William F. Raborn, Jr., Bennington skipper for only a month, said there was no indication of sabotage.
Raborn, from Oklahoma City, said the cause of the explosion is "a mystery to me."
No Explosives
"All leads have proved groundless," he said. "There was nothing explosive in the area where the explosions took place."
The "best information," he said, is that the blast occurred "possibly at the five-inch fuse magazine." He emphasized that this information had not been confirmed.
Guy Bemiss Was Ship's Camera Man
Navy Veteran for 17 YearsGuy Morton Bemiss, whose wife lives a 623 10th N.E., chief photographer on the aircraft carrier Bennington, was one of three Iowans killed in a bomb-like explosion early Wednesday aboard the carrier while at sea. He was a veteran of 17 years in the Navy and had been on the Bennington 18 months.
Bemiss, 35, was born in Mason City, June 21, 1918, the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Willis M. Bemiss, 726 11th N. E. He attended Mason City schools and was graduated from the Mason City High School in 1936.
In 1937 he decided to make naval photography his life work and joined the Navy. After training at the naval photography school at Pensacola, Fla., he was assigned to front action and was on the Argonne, first photography ship at the time of the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor.
He was in charge of design and construction of the photography laboratory on Treasure Island in San Francisco bay in teh summer of 1942 and in November was transferred to the naval air station at Kodiak, Alaska.
Chief Petty Officer
Advancing steadily in rating, he attained the rank of chief petty officer with the rating of chief photographer and was placed in charge of the photographic division of that base.
In 1944 he returned to Pensacola to study camera repair and later served on such bases as San Juan, Puerto Rico, Saipan, Guam and Tsingtao, China. He had just completed a cruise on the Mediterrean.
He was married to Patricia Faktor, who survives him. He is also survived by a daughter, Lynne, his parents and a brother, Clair, who lives at Milltown, N.J.
Bemiss was a member of the First Methodist Church of Mason City. The body will be returned to Mason city for burial [at Memorial Park Cemetery].
The Navy has identified the other Iowans as killed in the blast:
Chief Boatswain Leo Francis Fix, whose wife, Ruth Marie, lives in Dubuque.
Lt. (j.g.) Roger Earl Barnes, whose mother, Mrs. I. C. Lister, lives in Sioux City.
Boiler Broke
Fix had been with the Bennington since shortly before the carrier was recommissioned in November of 1952. He was aboard the ship last year when a boiler exploded off Cuba, killing eleven men. Fix had been scheduled for reassignment Sunday.
Barnes, a Navy pilot attended high school in Sioux City. His father, Herbert T. Barnes, lives at Plymouth, Ind.
Seaman Keith Wayne Pickrell was injured in the explosion and fire. His mother, Emily Pickrell, lives in Ottumwa. Pickrell's injuries were described as not serious.
Clarion Sailor Tried to Reach Trapped Men
QUONSET POINT, R.I. - (AP) - An Iowan, 23-year-old Merle Wilson of Clarion, was one of the firemen aboard the carrier Bennington who aided in the tragically futile struggle to reach a number of trapped men before they suffocated.
Wilson told of the rescue effort as follows:
"A chief carpenter down there pleaded with us to get in with oxygen," Wilson said.
"He said he wanted to get the other guys out first. He was one of the men we found dead in there.
"Just as soon as the fires were killed and we could down men with oxygen breathing apparatus went below to get the casualties. We found a lot of bodies on the forward mess deck and I guess about one third of all of the steward's mates were killed.
"Other dead were in the warrant officers' wardroom and the port catapult room. And when we got down there pumping I suppose we'll find other bodies under the water."
Wilson was a state high school wrestling champion. His mother now lives at Hackensack, Minn.
Wilson represented the Navy in the Olympic wrestling tryouts at Iowa State College in 1952.
NOTE: USS Bennington CVA-20 was steaming off the Atlantic coast off Marragasett Bay, Rhode Island, on Wednesday, May 26, 1954 for carrier qualifications. By 0800 hours, preparations to launch aircraft had been completed and aircraft had begun the procedure for launching. The crew now directly involved in the launch activity were in the process of awaking when at 0811 hours, with the propulsion system in used on the flight deck, a violent explosing erupted which involved the forward third of the carrier. Officers on deck reported two explosions; others proclaimed there was a series of explosions.
It was determined that one of the carrier's caapults exploded which set of a series of secondary explosions. Under her own power, Bennington was able to land at Quonset Point, Rhode Island.
She was completely rebuilt at the New York Naval Shipyard which was completed in March of 1955. She was involved later in the U.S. space program, recovering the unmanned Apollo IV spacecraft northwest of Hawaii on November 9 1967. Bennington was decommissioned January 15, 1970, striken from the Navy List in 1989, and sold December 1, 1994 for scrapping.
SOURCE: navysite.de/cv/cv20.htmTranscription and note by Sharon R. Becker, October of 2015
Cerro Gordo Obituaries maintained by Lynn Diemer-Mathews.
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