Personal Data
- Albert “Gus” Caire
- Tulane Naval ROTC Class of 1943
- Commissioned 1943
Historical Events
- World War II Pacific and Philippine Typhoon
Assignments / Engagements
- Assigned to the USS EVENS DD-552 1943-1945 roughly a 2 year deployment.
- Went to Anti Submarine School and Radar School, although he feels most of his training was from being switched around on jobs on ship.
- Worked with SECNAV briefly.
Other Notable Content
- During the Battle of the Marianas recovered American pilots, manned guns, directed his gun crew, and warded off submarines. During the battle his ship was most effective at anti aircraft and radar functions.
- During the Mariana Turkey Shoot the United States Eliminated almost the entire Japanese air and sea powers. The battle took place off Saipan. Gus was in charge of retrieving fallen pilots, covering the carrier from air with the radar and defending against submersed attack. He got his chance defending his own destroyer. There was an incident where Gus saw a torpedo heading towards the ship, evasive action was taken, but it was too late. Fortunately the torpedo did not explode on impact and no damage was done to the hull. He felt he was in charge of protecting his troops, and carried that out to the best of his abilities. They continued as part of the convoy in an anti submarine roll.
- During typhoon of Philippines, was one of a few ships in 5th fleet to go undamaged because captain filled empty fuel tanks with sea water to prevent 100 mph winds and 80 degree tilt other ships felt from ruining ship.
- Battle of Philippines, intercepted Japanese and prevented them engaging rest of fleet
- Battle of Okinawa, His ship was so damaged so badly that engines had to be diverted to pumping water; the ship was dry-docked in Japan and dragged back to United States to review why it didn’t sink. Damaged by torpedo from a submarine and almost completely full of water the ship barely made it.
- Refuelings at sea were difficult for him, and he never seem to get it right
- He was in charge of Alcohol watch, had lots of problems keeping account of the alcohol. He learned later, after his service, that his chief made copies of his keys every time he changed the locks.
- Chased by girls.
- Related to William Wallace “Braveheart”. Strong believer that a naval invasion of Japan would have resulted in more death than the atomic bombs did.