World War II survivors from decorated Mullany ship will tour LST 325 on Labor Day

Thumbing through a September 1989 Reader's Digest, Jon Miller found an article titled, "The Ship That Outsailed Time." It chronicled the events of a Fletcher-class destroyer named the USS Mullany DD-528 from World War II.

"For some reason the name of the ship stuck in my head," Miller said. "I discussed this with my mother and sure enough, it was the ship my father had served on. I felt the urge to track down some of the crew mentioned in the article and see if they remembered my dad and anything about that time in his life."

Lt. Robert Miller, Jon's father, served as a communications officer aboard the Mullany from 1943-45. Jon could only imagine what his father went through in his early 20s.

"He was entrusted with his men's lives and was making very difficult decisions for sailors much older than himself," Jon said.

After tracking down a few of the crew through the Tin Can Sailors organization, Jon and brother Julius organized Mullany reunions for the past 30 years. They will bring their reunion group, composed of Navy veterans from 1943-71, to Evansville Sept. 4-8. They will tour the LST 325 at 9:30 a.m. on Labor Day.

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"Our group is getting smaller each year, as you can imagine," Jon said. "There are very few World War II (military men) left."

Each year, Jon and Julius hold a business meeting and choose a city for a reunion, usually with a shipmate willing to help or host nearby, or somebody steps up and volunteers.

"Evansville was primarily chosen because of the LST, but we do have a shipmate living about an hour away in Petersburg, Indiana (George Loyd)," said Jon, who lives in Washington, Illinois, near Peoria.

About 30 shipmates and spouses are expected to attend this year's reunion, down considerably from their first year (1992), when they had more than 200. During World War II, the ship typically had 275 to 325 men on board at any given time.

Miller said the Mullany, which had two Pearl Harbor survivors, was struck by a kamikaze pilot on April 6, 1945. Vice Admiral Oliver "Hap" Hazard Perry, named after Oliver Hazard Perry from the War of 1812, had been an ensign on board the Mullany with Jon's father, who died in 1967.

'He along with others was able to fill in details of my father's military service using words such as courageous, trusted and respected by his men," Jon said of his father, who also served in the Korean War and in Vietnam. "Many of our World War II veterans from the ship are passing away and I am wanting to give these men a last hurrah and truly show them how much I appreciate their service to our country."

The Mullany was the oldest ship in the U.S. Navy when it was decommissioned and sold to China in 1971. It received seven battle stars for service during World War II, but her most memorable engagement occurred on the aforementioned April 6, 1945, when manning a picket station off Okinawa.

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"On that fateful day she was struck by a kamikaze plane between her third and fourth gun mounts, shredding her superstructure like paper," Miller said. "Her gunners managed to splash two additional planes after she had already been hit. The ship caught fire and with the danger of the magazine exploding, Capt. (Al) Momm gave the order to abandon ship.

"Other destroyers came alongside and pumped water on her to cool her down and prevent her depth charges from igniting."

That night, Capt. Momm led a volunteer crew back aboard to see if the ship could be salvaged.

"They were able to ignite the forward boiler and under the power of one screw, limped their way back to Kerama Retto to assess the damage," Miller said. "In the aftermath, losses totaled 21 dead, 9 missing in action and 36 wounded."

Miller's father passed away when he was just 2 years old, so Jon never got to know him.

"I had learned from my mother and my older brothers and sisters about my dad and knew little of his military life or activities," he said.

Then came the day when he began paging through an issue of Reader's Digest.

Contact Gordon Engelhardt at gordon.engelhardt@courierpress.com or on Twitter @EngGordon.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: USS Mullany DD528 Navy vet reunion group to tour LST 325 on Sept. 5