Profiles Spring-Summer 2013 HFDFW

 

Reuben had always wanted to be in the Navy. He enlisted into the service and was soon on his way to basic training in the U.S.Navy on November 1, 1943 at the age of 18.

He completed boot camp at Camp Peary, Virginia and was then assigned to the massive Philadelphia navy yard. He was then given orders to report to the transport and cargo ship U.S.S. Zaniah (AG-70.)The Zaniah was a Basilian class cargo ship launched in 1943.

Reuben saw 19 months of overseas duty primarily in the pacific theater of operations. He was trained as a welder and was transported to different areas to work on damaged ships that had been hit by the Japanese.

The Zaniah sailed at different times in the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, and the great harbor of Ulithi transporting her crew to repair other ships that were out of the war for a time after suffering battle damage.  In 1945 she sailed to Okinawa, a month after the invasion of that island. The ship was the first of her type in the area and was badly needed because of the massive damage inflicted by Japanese kamikazes on the American fleet.  Reuben and the other workers were busy being sent to other ships in the area welding and repairing battle damage.

On June 22, 1945 several Japanese kamikaze aircraft made it through a massive barrage of anti-aircraft fire put up by the Zaniah and other ships. Two nearby ships, LST-534 and the USS Ellyson were hit, Reuben saying that he saw the aircraft passing his ship and that he could plainly see the Japanese pilot.

The Zaniah with Reuben onboard continued to work heroically through the end of the war, and the ship received one Battle Star from the Navy. She was taken out of service in 1946 and sold for scrap in 1972 after being in mothballs for many years in the Navy’s reserve fleet.

Reuben, who in typical “Greatest Generation” fashion has said that he had it very easy in the war compared to some sailor’s and he doesn’t deserve any special treatment ( this writer disagrees) was discharged from the Navy on May 4, 1946 with the rank of Metalsmith 1c.