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PM3 Henry Warren Tucker
1919 –
1942
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Our ship was named in honor of
PM3 Henry Warren Tucker of York, Alabama,
USNR. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for heroism
during the Battle of the Coral Sea, 7 May 1942.
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Tucker was called to active duty in July, 1941, and
reported to the Naval Hospital at Pensacola, Florida.
On 15
January 1942, Tucker reported aboard the tanker USS Neosho (AO-23)
for duty. The Neosho
had survived the Pearl Harbor attack
despite being berthed on "Battleship Row."
During the opening phase of the Battle
of the Coral Sea, Japanese naval forces launched an all-out aerial
attack on what they believed was the main U.S. battle force. What
the Japanese found instead was the Neosho
and destroyer USS
Sims (DD-409)
waiting at a refueling rendezvous.
Facing a 60-plane attack, the fate of the two American
ships was never in doubt. The Sims
exploded and sank immediately with a loss of almost the entire crew.
Despite its cargo of burning aviation gas and fuel oil. the Neosho
managed to remain afloat for awhile.
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For his actions during the sinking of the Neosho, Tucker
was awarded the Navy Cross. The citation reads as follows:
"For extraordinary heroism and distinguished
service in the line of his professionalism following the attack
on the USS
Neosho by enemy Japanese aerial forces on 7 May 1942.
"With complete disregard for his own life, Tucker
swam between the various life rafts carrying tannic acid in his hands
to treat the burns of the injured men.
"He hazarded the dangers of exposure and exhaustion
to continue his task, helping the injured to boats but refusing a
place for himself.
"Tucker was subsequently reported as missing in
action and it is believed he lost his life in his loyal and
courageous devotion to duty.
His valorous actions enhance and sustain the finest
traditions of the United States Naval Service."
U.S. Department of the Navy
(1942)
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Welcome Aboard!
If
you ever served aboard the USS enry WHenry W. Tucker DD/DDR 875,
this is your website. We hope
that the site will help you reconnect with your shipmates and bring you to
a reunion. Enjoy!
The
USS Henry W. Tucker was in
commission in the US Navy from 1945 to 1973 and saw service in World War
II, the Korean Conflict, the “Cold War” and Vietnam. Through much of her career she was a
DDR (Radar Picket Ship) and was involved in many activities, such as the
atomic bomb tests in the Pacific, the NASA Apollo program, and the U-2
flights. in
1973, she was decommissioned and sold to the Brazilian Navy and became the Marcilio Dias D25. She was in commission in Brazil
from 1973 to 1992. After nearly
50 years continuous service, she was decommissioned and was sunk in target
practice by a torpedo of Brazilian design fired from a submarine of
Brazilian design, which was an historic event. One of her officers sent us a
newspaper article and photos of the sinking. To see the photos and a translation,
please click here. Thanks to Mike McDermott (LTJG, 68-69) for translating the article from
Portuguese to English. Click on
“history” at the top of any page to view the history.
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Reunion 2012 - Nashville, Tennessee
The next reunion will be from October 9 to 14,
2012 in Nashville, TN. The reunion hosts are Ronald Holt and his wife Jerry
Ann. They have put together an excellent reunion. Details can be found
here. They can also be found in the January 2012 Newsletter. We
discovered that the dates weren't in the newsletter and have inserted them.
We've already heard from some people who are making their plans to attend,
including some "first-timers". We're looking forward to seeing all our old
friends and making new ones.
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Newsletters
The
January 2012
newsletter is now on the website.
Please click here to view
the newsletter and all previous newsletters.
The next newsletter will have sign-up sheets with pricing
for events at the reunion.
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Crew Information
The
Crew Pages have been updatedas
of January 16, 2012.
Please
click on “her crew” at the top of any page to access the crew
pages. Please contact Bob Miller (MM3, 62-65) if you
find errors in your listing. If
this is your first visit to the site and you are a crew member, please
contact Bob, our Crew Locator, so you can be added to the database and
mailing list and begin receiving newsletters. There is now a crew page for Marcilio Dias shipmates. If you served aboard the Marcilio
Dias, please contact Bob with your name, email address, your rate or rank
and the years you were aboard.
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History
USS
Henry W. Tucker History book:
Gary O’Neil has the Tucker
History books. This book is a high quality 8 ½ X 11 size. The
History is named “HACHI NANA GO, An American Fighting Ship”.
There are 234 full color images throughout the text, and it is printed on
heavy glossy coated paper. Shipping is via media mail, and is very
reasonable. For one book the price is $23, and the shipping cost is $3.75.
If you want 2 books, the total shipping cost is $4.50. Shipping 3 books
will be $5.25, and four books will be $6.00. He will fill orders upon
receipt of payment.
Contact Gary
O’Neil by email at goneil@new.rr.com,
or Phone: 920-738-0634, or by
regular mail at:
2519
O’Connor Way
Appleton,
WI 54915
Many
shipmates have contributed to the history of the ship and Gary O’Neil (FTR3, 63-66) has
done a fantastic job compiling the information and verifying accuracy. The history is separated into
five-year segments. There are
also segments on the Marcilio Dias, statistics of the ship, medals the ship
earned, the plankowners’ list, and the history of Henry Warren
Tucker, for whom the ship was named.
Click on “History”
at the top of any page to access these documents. Please visit often as it is updated
on a regular basis. If you
would like to contribute to the history project, please email Gary. Copies of the history are available
on CD. Please contact Gary
to order a CD.
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Pictures
Tom Byrne (RM2, 60-62) has created pages
for photographs on the site. He
has created an index to make them easy to find. Please click on
“pictures” at the top of any page. If you have photos that you would like
to contribute, please contact Tom.
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Cruise Books
Bob Miller is in the
process of having cruise books reproduced on CD. If you would be interested in
getting a CD of the cruise book from your time aboard ship, please click here for Bob’s letter about the
cruise books and to see images of the cover of the books.
If
you would like to order a cruise book CD, please email Bob.
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Ship’s Store
Please
check out the Ship’s
Store for baseball caps, jackets and shirts. After the reunion (Oct. 26-31,
2010), the ship’s store will be expanded to include the ship’s
history book, “Hachi Nana Go”, cruise book CDs and coffee
mugs. Photos of most of the
items will be shown.
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Veteran Information
High Priority!!!
TRICARE
and TRICARE for Life (government health insurance for active duty and retired
military personnel) will NOT be
affected by the recently passed Health Care Bill. No benefits will be lost. Larry May sent this link from
Military.com which explains.
http://www.military.com/military-report/beneficiaries-vets-shielded-from-health-reform
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Please
visit the Veteran Information
page for information that is of interest to all veterans.
RAO Bulletins, newsletters
full of useful veterans’ information will be linked from this
page. These are compiled by James Tichacek
USN (Ret) who does an excellent job of collecting information and
getting it out to a wide audience of veterans. We thank Jim for giving permission
to post his bulletins.
There
is a link to a page of documents on Agent Orange Exposure and other health
issues which were contributed by Jim Alvarez (GMG1, 69-70).
If
you need a replacement DD 214 Form
(needed to apply for VA benefits), there is a link to the form and
instruction sheet.
Please
visit this page often. If you
know of any information and/or benefits for veterans that could be included
in this section of the site, please contact Pat Siler.
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Website Information
Our webmaster is Pat Siler, wife of James W.
“Bill” Siler, Jr. (BT3, 62-64). Pat also writes the USS
Henry W. Tucker Newsletter. Please email Pat with any
information for the website or newsletter. If you receive your newsletter
via US Mail and have an email address, please send your email address to
Pat Siler. With postage costs
increasing every year, we try to send as many out via email as possible to
save money.
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Facebook Page
If you are on Facebook, we have a group
page for shipmates. Type USS
Henry W. Tucker in the search box at the top of any page and then click on the
name of the ship. On the
left-hand side of the page click on Join Group and you’re in. If you’re not on Facebook, we
invite you to join. Go to http://www.facebook.com
and follow the instructions to join.
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The original website was created by Terry Williams (SK3, 69-71). We all owe a debt
of gratitude to Terry. If he hadn't created this site in 1997, there would
be no reunions and most of us would be still wondering whatever happened to
the ship and our shipmates.
The current “second generation” of the
website was created in 2003 by Kevin B. Skislock,
son of the late John F. Skislock (SN1/c,
45-47). Thanks to Kevin for
creating this wonderful site.
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This website is neither authorized, endorsed
by, nor approved by the United States Department of the Navy. The sole purpose of this site is to
reunite former shipmates, provide reunion information and is a collection
of their memories.
This page was
updated: 16-Jan-12
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USS
Henry W. Tucker
DD 875
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