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| Warrant Officer Francis Green served on the sea plane tender Curtiss when it was hit by a kamikaze at Okinawa. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/72018534/francis-peter-green https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Curtiss_(AV-4) |
Francis Peter Green never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on February 6, 1919 in Osage, Iowa. His parents Peter and Mary were also both born in Iowa. Three of his grandparents were born in Germany. His father worked as an implement shop laborer and later as a farmer. Francis had one older sister and one younger sister.
He joined the navy on May 23, 1938. He was assigned to the cruiser USS Minneapolis in March 1939. He was eight miles at sea when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He was at the battles of Coral Sea, Midway, and Tassafaronga where Minneapolis was damaged by two Japanese torpedoes. He was transferred to the escort carrier USS Guadalcanal in June 1943.
He married Velma Rodamaker in July 1943. They had one son. Guadalcanal was sent to the North Atlantic in January 1944 to search for German submarines.
He was next sent stateside to serve at the naval air station in Corpus Christi, Texas in October 1944. In March 1945 he was assigned to the sea plane tender USS Curtiss (a ship that had survived attack at Pearl Harbor) which was sent to the Pacific to support the Okinawa campaign. On June 21, 1945 Curtiss was hit by a kamikaze plane. The bomb penetrated to the third deck and exploded, killing 35 (including Francis Green) and wounding 21 of the crew. The ship was saved and retired to San Francisco for repairs.
His grave is at Calvary Cemetery in Charles City, Iowa. His widow remarried after his death.
Last year on this date I profiled Stephen Pipito, 4th Infantry Division. You can read about Stephen here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
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