Uss Franklin Aircraft Carrier

Va. seeking WWII memories for state library

All four Thomas brothers fought in World War II, leaving behind the coal mines of Southwest Virginia for battlefields in the faraway Pacific: Fiji , the Solomon Islands and New Guinea . One left a leg behind and another survived the sinking of his ship, but all four came home.

For the Thomas family and many others, the extraordinary experiences of the Virginians who served in World War II have been preserved in photos and letters home, often stuffed in boxes packed with mementoes and stored in an attic.

The Library of Virginia is collecting those memories, asking veterans, their spouses and children to submit documents, diaries and photographs that will help keep alive the wartime experiences of those 300,000 Virginians. About 11,000 never returned from the war.

"This 'Greatest Generation' is passing from the scene," said Sandra Gioia Treadway , librarian of Virginia . "While people are still alive and their records — their letters, diaries, artifacts, medals — are still in family hands, we want to raise awareness that this is history and that this is the perfect place to bring those items."

Michael Thomas, an attorney with the State Corporation Commission, heeded the call recently. He brought a panoramic photograph of his father, Charlie, taken on July 5, 1943, as his unit departed for the Pacific. He also brought stories of the remarkable Thomas brothers, all coal miners from the Wise County crossroads of Banner.

"My father always joked throughout the rest of his life that the best thing that ever happened to him was World War II because it got him out of the coal mines," Thomas said.

All of the Thomas men found adventure in the Pacific.

Charlie's anti-aircraft unit was part of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's Army "as it leapfrogged from New Guinea into the Philippines," Thomas said.

Howard Thomas served on the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, which lost more than 700 crew members in a Japanese attack. Ray served on the USS Laffey, a destroyer that suffered heavy casualties and sank after a fierce, close-quarters battle with several Japanese warships. John, a Marine, lost a leg scrambling out of a foxhole in Guadalcanal.

"We're probably losing 100 of the World War II vets a day across the United States," Michael Thomas said. "They have important stories to tell. I felt compelled to come down and at least tell my father's story."

Robert C. "Clinker" Moss III felt the same tug to share the wartime experiences of his father, Robert C. Moss Jr. He came bearing stories, letters and even a map his father drew of Chef-du-Pont, Normandy, where he and other D-Day troops arrived by parachute in 1944. He crashed through the thatched roof of a stone barn.

USS Franklin Aircraft Carrier: 1944 | Shorpy Historic Photo Archive

Most of the photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs, 20 to 200 megabytes in size) from the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here .) Many were digitized by LOC contractors using a Sinar studio back. They are adjusted by your webmaster for contrast and color in Photoshop before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here.

In this image, the USS Franklin can be seen from aboard the USS Duane. According to a site dedicated to the USS Franklin, the ship spent a majority of its time in World War II in the Pacific. The ship has an unbelievable history of its own – it was the closest US carrier to the Japanese mainland, and was attacked by a Japanese plane. During the attack, 724 crew members were killed and 265 were wounded. Amazingly, the battle torn ship did not sink and eventually made its way back to New York. It has been called “The ship that wouldn’t die”.

This photograph came from my grandfather John "Jack" Baker's Warbook. This book contains pictures from while he was in the USCG on the cutter ship USS Duane. This image is believed to have been taken from it.

In looking at the USS Franklin’s history – it was on the East Coast of the United States and sailed to Trinidad in March of 1944. It is likely that this photograph was taken during this time as it was in the Pacific thereafter – while the USS Duane was in Europe. The photographer of this image is unknown as Dale Rooks (who took many of the other photographs in the Warbook) wasn’t on the ship during the time period this was believed to be taken. View full size .

Citation on awarding the gold medal for valor to the U.S.S. aircraft carrier Franklin, officers and crew ... given in New York ... twentieth day of June, nineteen hundred forty-five

Big Ben, the flat top, the story of the U.S.S. Franklin

Inferno, The Epic Life and Death Struggle of the USS Franklin in World War II

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Aircraft Carriers

Aircraft Carriers