| Summary: | (6:33) Mr. Roden gives a summary of his time on the battleship USS Idaho during World War II.
Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Robert E. Roden
July 5, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood
(Also present is Mr. Roden’s wife, Jean Roden)
Clip 2
Robert E. Roden: We stayed in Long Beach until, until the spring of '43. We trained out at Catalina Island. You've heard of Catalina Island, I'm sure. Well at that time it was just a target practice for us, of course, they got people living on it now. But anyway, we bombarded that and practiced gunnery and whatnot there. Then we left there; our first assignment was the Aleutian Islands. We left and we went into the Bering Sea, which was the first battleship to ever go into the Bering Sea.
Clint Alley: Now was it cold up there? Even in the summer time?
RER: Well, not really. I mean, it wasn't as bad as it is in the winter time, you know, ‘cause, I mean, we wore flannel clothing, you know. The sun never went down, hardly. And, ah, we had to dark―to darken the ship so the crew could go to sleep. You know, it, it was in the summer time, you know. We was in the Aleutian Islands, Attu and Kiska, April until August. Then we come to Frisco and stayed there during the month of September. October we went back to Long Beach and ah, in November went to, to the Gilbert Islands, which was Makin Island, consisted of Makin Islands and the Gilbert Islands. Stayed there during Thanksgiving and then in December of that same year we spent Christmas back in the Ha―, Hawaii Isl―, in Honolulu. Then in 1944, in January, we went to the Marshall Islands. We was in the Marshall Islands, and then in March we went, April we made a routine pass down to the, to Sydney, Australia―
CA: Okay.
RER: ―for leave and recreation. And then we come back, that was in April, and come back in May and then in June, in June to July we was at Saipan, Guam and the Marianas Islands. We bombarded all them places and we landed troops. That was our biggest job, you know, being a battleship, you know. All during this time I was in the antiaircraft division so we didn't have too much oper— interference with airplanes at that time, you know. Then in June and July went to Saipan and Guam and the Mariana Islands. And August of that same year – let's see, what does that say right here?
RER: Eniwetok.
CA: Okay.
RER: The flag came aboard. That's when we changed captains.
CA: Okay.
RER: And then in September of '44 we went Palau, Peleliu, Palau Islands. And then in October went to the Marianas Islands. We done bombarded these places and landed troops see. And the Marines, or the soldiers, or the Army, one time it'd be the Army, and one time it'd be the Marines that we, we'd be landing them. Then in December―this is when we were coming back, come back to the States and we had Thanksgiving and New Years. That's the first time I come back to the States then.
CA: Oh, okay.
RER: Then in '45 we had a shake down at San Pedro, that's out in California, then at, and then at Pearl Harbor. And then on February then went to Ulithi, I can't pronounce that, anyway, Saipan and then to Iwo Jima. In March, Iwo Jima we stayed there until―and then we went on to Okinawa. In April, Okinawa, we stayed there until the first big raid [unintelligible]. Then, April, we went back to Guam.
CA: Let me ask you about this right here, this Kamikaze raid.
RER: Yeah.
CA: Was that, that was the Japanese that would fly into the ships?
RER: That was the Japa― the suicide raids, you know, they made on us. Now we played a big part, the aircraft, the antiaircraft people like I was in played a big part in that part right there because that's the only time we ever had air― planes to dive on us.
CA: Um-hm.
RER: And, of course, we got hit while we was there. Anyway, I left the ship in December of '45, when I left it.
CA: Okay.
RER: I stayed aboard it three years.
CA: Three years.
RER: And I just wanted to give you a sort of a shake down about it.
CA: Um-hm.
RER: See this is our Aleutian operation. This is the battleship I was on, the USS Idaho, earns seven battle stars in Aleutian service and [unintelligible]. There is the Aleutian Islands, that's one battle star, the Gilbert Islands and the Marshall Islands, the Marianas operation.
CA: Um-hm.
RER: And that’s the Caroline operations and Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The seven battle stars we got, we got, the Idaho earned a "A" on the defense medal and so forth and so on. The reason I'm telling you all this, see, all the time I was in the Navy I was aboard ship, this ship, and everywhere it went from, from 1942 until it was decommissioned after I left. It was decommissioned, I think, in 1946 or maybe '7. And ah, but I, I was on it for three solid years.
CA: Okay, okay.
RER: And uh, all this, all this time that they earned all this out in the Pacific I was aboard it.
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