PARSONS, CHARLES HERBERT, Seaman First Class (no. 3562509), USS Pillsbury (DD-227), US Navy, †10/12/1941
Father, Mr. Odis E. Parsons, 1900 E. Plymouth, Long Beach, Calif.
Reported missing since Dec. 10, 1941, following a bombing raid while his ship, the destroyer Pillsbury, was in the Manila Naval Yard, P. I. (Cavite Naval Yard in Manila Bay)
Reported dead: (D.N. Feb. 12, 1943) (ND List, July 1946)
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Pillsbury was part of the Asiatic Fleet. When the war started it was based in the Philippines.
On the afternoon of December 10, 1941, the Cavite Naval Yard in Manila Bay came under Japanese high-level air attack. Pillsbury avoided major damage but when the attack was finished, S1 Parsons was missing so he was classified as MIA.
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Excerpt from Disaster at Cavite, Naval History Magazine, Vol. 32, No. 6, by John J. Domalgalski:
Morning light was just beginning to emerge over Manila Bay as Rear Admiral Francis Rockwell stood staring calmly at the brightening sky from his headquarters building near the Cavite Navy Yard. "They ought to be here any minute," he told a subordinate. The grim-faced admiral was referring to the Japanese bombers he believed would be arriving. Only hours earlier his command had received an ominous message from his immediate superior, U.S. Asiatic Fleet commander Admiral Thomas Hart: "Japan started hostilities. Govern yourselves accordingly."
The Cavite Navy Yard and adjacent facilities served as the operational home of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet and together constituted the Navy's largest base in the Pacific west of Pearl Harbor.
On the morning of 8 December, fog shrouded Japanese airfields on Formosa, delaying the start of air operations against the Philippines … The fog dissipated quickly on Formosa during the morning of 10 December, allowing a large group of naval planes, numbering about 52 A6M Zero fighters and more than 80 bombers, to take off at approximately 1000 headed south across Luzon. Thirty-five U.S. fighters rose to challenge the attackers but were overwhelmed by the escorting Zeros. No U.S. fighter planes were available to protect the sky over the naval facilities farther south on Sangley Point … The Japanese air armada divided into two groups north of Manila, with one moving to attack airfields and Army installations near the capital. The second, composed of 54 bombers, continued south toward Sangley Point. Half the bombers soon turned off to attack ships in Manila Bay, while the remaining 27 continued toward Cavite.
"Practically all bombs (including many fragmentation and incendiary) fell within the navy yard limits, and direct hits were made on the power plant, dispensary, torpedo repair shop, supply office and warehouses, signal station, commissary store, receiving station, barracks and officers' quarters, and several ships, tugs, and barges along the waterfront," Rockwell reported. "The entire yard and about one third of the city of Cavite was set ablaze from end to end, but fortunately no direct hit was made on the Naval Ammunition Depot itself which still contained much powder and ammunition." A warehouse full of torpedoes took a direct bomb hit, resulting in a tremendous blast. Flames later reached a building storing small arms and ammunition, setting off a series of intermittent explosions … The admiral estimated that some 500 people were killed or seriously wounded in the attack.
The USS Pillsbury avoided major damage, but when the attack was finished Charles Ramsey Wise, James Kenneth Sorensen, Carl Blake Ashing, John James Bishop, Hayden Fred Brendle, Charles H Parsons, Robert Alexander Ross, and Walter Payton were missing.
Note: USS Pillsbury (DD-227) was later sunk off the coast of Java March 1, 1942
Father, Mr. Odis E. Parsons, 1900 E. Plymouth, Long Beach, Calif.
Reported missing since Dec. 10, 1941, following a bombing raid while his ship, the destroyer Pillsbury, was in the Manila Naval Yard, P. I. (Cavite Naval Yard in Manila Bay)
Reported dead: (D.N. Feb. 12, 1943) (ND List, July 1946)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pillsbury was part of the Asiatic Fleet. When the war started it was based in the Philippines.
On the afternoon of December 10, 1941, the Cavite Naval Yard in Manila Bay came under Japanese high-level air attack. Pillsbury avoided major damage but when the attack was finished, S1 Parsons was missing so he was classified as MIA.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpt from Disaster at Cavite, Naval History Magazine, Vol. 32, No. 6, by John J. Domalgalski:
Morning light was just beginning to emerge over Manila Bay as Rear Admiral Francis Rockwell stood staring calmly at the brightening sky from his headquarters building near the Cavite Navy Yard. "They ought to be here any minute," he told a subordinate. The grim-faced admiral was referring to the Japanese bombers he believed would be arriving. Only hours earlier his command had received an ominous message from his immediate superior, U.S. Asiatic Fleet commander Admiral Thomas Hart: "Japan started hostilities. Govern yourselves accordingly."
The Cavite Navy Yard and adjacent facilities served as the operational home of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet and together constituted the Navy's largest base in the Pacific west of Pearl Harbor.
On the morning of 8 December, fog shrouded Japanese airfields on Formosa, delaying the start of air operations against the Philippines … The fog dissipated quickly on Formosa during the morning of 10 December, allowing a large group of naval planes, numbering about 52 A6M Zero fighters and more than 80 bombers, to take off at approximately 1000 headed south across Luzon. Thirty-five U.S. fighters rose to challenge the attackers but were overwhelmed by the escorting Zeros. No U.S. fighter planes were available to protect the sky over the naval facilities farther south on Sangley Point … The Japanese air armada divided into two groups north of Manila, with one moving to attack airfields and Army installations near the capital. The second, composed of 54 bombers, continued south toward Sangley Point. Half the bombers soon turned off to attack ships in Manila Bay, while the remaining 27 continued toward Cavite.
"Practically all bombs (including many fragmentation and incendiary) fell within the navy yard limits, and direct hits were made on the power plant, dispensary, torpedo repair shop, supply office and warehouses, signal station, commissary store, receiving station, barracks and officers' quarters, and several ships, tugs, and barges along the waterfront," Rockwell reported. "The entire yard and about one third of the city of Cavite was set ablaze from end to end, but fortunately no direct hit was made on the Naval Ammunition Depot itself which still contained much powder and ammunition." A warehouse full of torpedoes took a direct bomb hit, resulting in a tremendous blast. Flames later reached a building storing small arms and ammunition, setting off a series of intermittent explosions … The admiral estimated that some 500 people were killed or seriously wounded in the attack.
The USS Pillsbury avoided major damage, but when the attack was finished Charles Ramsey Wise, James Kenneth Sorensen, Carl Blake Ashing, John James Bishop, Hayden Fred Brendle, Charles H Parsons, Robert Alexander Ross, and Walter Payton were missing.
Note: USS Pillsbury (DD-227) was later sunk off the coast of Java March 1, 1942
PARSONS, CHARLES HERBERT, Seaman First Class (no. 3562509), USS Pillsbury (DD-227), US Navy, †10/12/1941
Father, Mr. Odis E. Parsons, 1900 E. Plymouth, Long Beach, Calif.
Reported missing since Dec. 10, 1941, following a bombing raid while his ship, the destroyer Pillsbury, was in the Manila Naval Yard, P. I. (Cavite Naval Yard in Manila Bay)
Reported dead: (D.N. Feb. 12, 1943) (ND List, July 1946)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pillsbury was part of the Asiatic Fleet. When the war started it was based in the Philippines.
On the afternoon of December 10, 1941, the Cavite Naval Yard in Manila Bay came under Japanese high-level air attack. Pillsbury avoided major damage but when the attack was finished, S1 Parsons was missing so he was classified as MIA.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpt from Disaster at Cavite, Naval History Magazine, Vol. 32, No. 6, by John J. Domalgalski:
Morning light was just beginning to emerge over Manila Bay as Rear Admiral Francis Rockwell stood staring calmly at the brightening sky from his headquarters building near the Cavite Navy Yard. "They ought to be here any minute," he told a subordinate. The grim-faced admiral was referring to the Japanese bombers he believed would be arriving. Only hours earlier his command had received an ominous message from his immediate superior, U.S. Asiatic Fleet commander Admiral Thomas Hart: "Japan started hostilities. Govern yourselves accordingly."
The Cavite Navy Yard and adjacent facilities served as the operational home of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet and together constituted the Navy's largest base in the Pacific west of Pearl Harbor.
On the morning of 8 December, fog shrouded Japanese airfields on Formosa, delaying the start of air operations against the Philippines … The fog dissipated quickly on Formosa during the morning of 10 December, allowing a large group of naval planes, numbering about 52 A6M Zero fighters and more than 80 bombers, to take off at approximately 1000 headed south across Luzon. Thirty-five U.S. fighters rose to challenge the attackers but were overwhelmed by the escorting Zeros. No U.S. fighter planes were available to protect the sky over the naval facilities farther south on Sangley Point … The Japanese air armada divided into two groups north of Manila, with one moving to attack airfields and Army installations near the capital. The second, composed of 54 bombers, continued south toward Sangley Point. Half the bombers soon turned off to attack ships in Manila Bay, while the remaining 27 continued toward Cavite.
"Practically all bombs (including many fragmentation and incendiary) fell within the navy yard limits, and direct hits were made on the power plant, dispensary, torpedo repair shop, supply office and warehouses, signal station, commissary store, receiving station, barracks and officers' quarters, and several ships, tugs, and barges along the waterfront," Rockwell reported. "The entire yard and about one third of the city of Cavite was set ablaze from end to end, but fortunately no direct hit was made on the Naval Ammunition Depot itself which still contained much powder and ammunition." A warehouse full of torpedoes took a direct bomb hit, resulting in a tremendous blast. Flames later reached a building storing small arms and ammunition, setting off a series of intermittent explosions … The admiral estimated that some 500 people were killed or seriously wounded in the attack.
The USS Pillsbury avoided major damage, but when the attack was finished Charles Ramsey Wise, James Kenneth Sorensen, Carl Blake Ashing, John James Bishop, Hayden Fred Brendle, Charles H Parsons, Robert Alexander Ross, and Walter Payton were missing.
Note: USS Pillsbury (DD-227) was later sunk off the coast of Java March 1, 1942
Father, Mr. Odis E. Parsons, 1900 E. Plymouth, Long Beach, Calif.
Reported missing since Dec. 10, 1941, following a bombing raid while his ship, the destroyer Pillsbury, was in the Manila Naval Yard, P. I. (Cavite Naval Yard in Manila Bay)
Reported dead: (D.N. Feb. 12, 1943) (ND List, July 1946)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pillsbury was part of the Asiatic Fleet. When the war started it was based in the Philippines.
On the afternoon of December 10, 1941, the Cavite Naval Yard in Manila Bay came under Japanese high-level air attack. Pillsbury avoided major damage but when the attack was finished, S1 Parsons was missing so he was classified as MIA.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpt from Disaster at Cavite, Naval History Magazine, Vol. 32, No. 6, by John J. Domalgalski:
Morning light was just beginning to emerge over Manila Bay as Rear Admiral Francis Rockwell stood staring calmly at the brightening sky from his headquarters building near the Cavite Navy Yard. "They ought to be here any minute," he told a subordinate. The grim-faced admiral was referring to the Japanese bombers he believed would be arriving. Only hours earlier his command had received an ominous message from his immediate superior, U.S. Asiatic Fleet commander Admiral Thomas Hart: "Japan started hostilities. Govern yourselves accordingly."
The Cavite Navy Yard and adjacent facilities served as the operational home of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet and together constituted the Navy's largest base in the Pacific west of Pearl Harbor.
On the morning of 8 December, fog shrouded Japanese airfields on Formosa, delaying the start of air operations against the Philippines … The fog dissipated quickly on Formosa during the morning of 10 December, allowing a large group of naval planes, numbering about 52 A6M Zero fighters and more than 80 bombers, to take off at approximately 1000 headed south across Luzon. Thirty-five U.S. fighters rose to challenge the attackers but were overwhelmed by the escorting Zeros. No U.S. fighter planes were available to protect the sky over the naval facilities farther south on Sangley Point … The Japanese air armada divided into two groups north of Manila, with one moving to attack airfields and Army installations near the capital. The second, composed of 54 bombers, continued south toward Sangley Point. Half the bombers soon turned off to attack ships in Manila Bay, while the remaining 27 continued toward Cavite.
"Practically all bombs (including many fragmentation and incendiary) fell within the navy yard limits, and direct hits were made on the power plant, dispensary, torpedo repair shop, supply office and warehouses, signal station, commissary store, receiving station, barracks and officers' quarters, and several ships, tugs, and barges along the waterfront," Rockwell reported. "The entire yard and about one third of the city of Cavite was set ablaze from end to end, but fortunately no direct hit was made on the Naval Ammunition Depot itself which still contained much powder and ammunition." A warehouse full of torpedoes took a direct bomb hit, resulting in a tremendous blast. Flames later reached a building storing small arms and ammunition, setting off a series of intermittent explosions … The admiral estimated that some 500 people were killed or seriously wounded in the attack.
The USS Pillsbury avoided major damage, but when the attack was finished Charles Ramsey Wise, James Kenneth Sorensen, Carl Blake Ashing, John James Bishop, Hayden Fred Brendle, Charles H Parsons, Robert Alexander Ross, and Walter Payton were missing.
Note: USS Pillsbury (DD-227) was later sunk off the coast of Java March 1, 1942
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PARSONS CHARLES H - SEAMAN 1C - USN - OKLAHOMA
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