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The article below, which appeared in the Journal on August 4, 1962 tells the tale of Sgt. Gayl E. Latto, U. S. Army and native of Lorain, who was stationed in the Canal Zone and became aware that the USS Charles Berry was arriving.
As the article notes, "Sgt. Latto had grown up with a Charles Berry in Lorain, and he recalled having read sometime later that Berry, as a marine corporal, had been posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest decoration for the military, for heroism during the World War II battle of Iwo Jima.
"Considering the possibility that the USS Charles Berry had been named after his friend, Sgt. Latto made inquiries and found that this was indeed the case. He decided to visit the ship.
"Over a cup of coffee Latto tried to recall as much as he could about Charles Berry. During their school years Latto lived above the Hobby Shop, owned by his father, at 956 Broadway in Lorain.
"Berry lived about a block away. He remembers Berry as being a tall, blonde, quiet boy, and something of a "loner." Latto quit high school before graduating and didn't see much of Berry after that. He joined the Army in March, 1944 and has been going from place to place all over the world since then.
"Berry, the son of Carl and Caroline Berry, was born in Lorain July 10, 1923. He was graduated from Lorain High School in 1941 and a few months later, joined the Marine Corps on Oct. 1.
"Cpl. Berry landed on Iwo Jima on D-Day, Feb. 19, 1945. He was killed in action on March 3, 1945. At the time he was serving with a machine gun crew in the First Battalion, Twenty-Sixth Marines, Fifth Marine Division.
"The USS Charles Berry, named after the Marine hero, is one of the Navy's newest ships. She was christened by Mrs. Carl Berry, mother of Cpl. Berry, on March 17, 1959 and was placed in commission Nov. 25, 1959.
"Since that time the Charles Berry has established a reputation as being one of the smartest ships in the fleet."
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So what became of the USS Charles Berry?
According to this Wikipedia entry, it was sold to Indonesia in 1974 renamed KRI Martadinata in honor of Vice Admiral Raden Eddy Martadinata, a former Indonesian naval commander. It was decommissioned in September 2005.
Click here to visit the USS Charles Berry page on navsource.org.
3 comments:
Why does others articles say he went to Clearview high school ?
We had a trophy case in the lobby with his memorabilia when I went to Clearview. Latter I found out they removed it and put it in the Lorain Public Library.
...There was a suggestion - and sadly never really followed up on - to bring the BERRY to Lorain as a museum and memorial when she was decommissioned in 1974. As nice as it would have been, a berth would have had to have been prepared for her (IIRC the discussion was to have her approximately where the old Coast Guard station was) and former warships simply are not cheap to maintain, not to mention the fact that during the winter, attendance would have been....iffy.
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