Carmen’s Diary is a bird’s-eye view of
one year in the life of a young man serving on an aircraft carrier
in the Pacific during World War Two. You will come to know Carmen
and his buddies and feel you are there with them. Carmen reports
much more than action on the Hornet, but on other ships too.
Carmen Franceschelli is a perfect example of the
young American service man who fought for us in World War Two.
He and his buddies were made up with special patriotic qualities
instilled in them through their parents and teachers. Here we
have a nineteen year old son of immigrants from Italy, right
after the Depression, enlisting to serve in the United States
Navy. Until the time he joined the Navy on June 14, 1943, Carmen
had never been away from his hometown of New Britain, Connecticut.
His father owned Jimmie’s Barber Shop and his mother sewed
in a coat factory (owned by Naomi Sokol Zeavin’s father).
Mr. Franceschelli was a quiet, thoughtful person, who loved music
and for six months before enlisting, worked in Corbin Screw Company
as a draftsman. His hometown at this time was known as the “Hardware
City of the World.” He was assigned to the U.S.S. Hornet
(CV-12) and served aboard that ship in the Pacific theater, attaining
the rank of Aviation Machinist’s Mate (1) Class. It was
on this aircraft carrier that he lost his innocence and met life
head on and head held high.
Diaries were not allowed during the war, but thank
goodness for historians, we have this diary. Carmen hid under
his blanket at night for one full year and with a flashlight
he would write full days’ events that will amaze and move
you, for the journal entries reveal the fears, hopes, and idioms
and language prevalent at the time. This is a defining event
in the lives of us who lived through the war, impacting most
significantly upon all our subsequent thoughts and actions.
The diary starts off February 1944 loading up to
go to Pearl Harbor to drop off two thousand Marines. The ship
is full of men, six thousand of them. So many that they
can only serve two meals a day. They take on enough equipment
and supplies for four months: Jeeps, trucks, planes, etc. You
read of Marines sleeping wherever they can find an inch, hangar
or flight deck. Many of them are seasick.
After a few days in Pearl Harbor they are on their
way to the Majuro Islands in the Marshalls. They are with a large
task force. Carmen wrote, “This is the real thing, and I’m
sure we will see plenty of action soon.” They leave Majuro
with a large task force of forty-eight ships. He said almost
two hundred planes were in the air. This is only one-third of
the complete task force and was to be the biggest in Navy history.
The ship passed the equator, and that meant that
he was a “Shellback” not a “Pollywog” anymore.
The Captain tells them, “They are going to meet the enemy
very soon, they are murderous etc, but we are better-equipped
and better men. He told them that every man has to do his job
in the best efforts he can.” That they do throughout the
diary.
The Hornet sees action for 16 continuous months.
The ship and her planes participated in actions as part of the
fast carrier task force from March onward, the Marianas, the
Philippines, and attacks on the Japanese home islands, Iwo Jima
and Okinawa. (The book contains a pull-out map to follow the
events as you read.) Under air attack 59 times, she was never
hit. She holds many records, one being 30 of 42 VF-2 pilots attained
aces. Between June 4th and 5th a typhoon sent the forward edge
of her deck drooping. She and Carmen came home. A job well done!
