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The Americans

USS CABOT
(CVL-28)

USS ESSEX
(CV-9)

USS HANCOCK
(CV-19)

USS INTREPID
(CV-11)

 

The Japanese

The Kamikazes

A6M Zero

D4Y SUISEI

IJN Kumano

IJN Yasoshima

 

Narrated By

Marvin Scott

 

Historical Advisor

Michael Marmé, PH.D.
Fordham University,
New YORK, NY

 

REcommended links

World War II
Multimedia Database

Nine Sisters

 

Gene Masucci, USS Cabot (CVL-28)

Gene Masucci was only sixteen when he enlisted in the United States Navy. Assigned as Quartermaster to the USS Cabot, Masucci was responsible for keeping the log and steering the light carrier. Cabot was one of nine light carriers, or CVLs, that were built during 1943. Cabot was smaller than the other carriers damaged on November 25, and she carried fewer aircraft. However, three of the top ten aces of the Pacific War flew off her deck.

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IN day of the Kamikaze

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“ ‘I think you have a man who’s been killed.’ ”

Gene Masucci on Intrepid Sea•Air•Space Museum	Gene Masucci in 1945

Masucci was on the bridge when the two kamikazes hit Cabot, and he wrote the official log of that action. After the battle, the ship's chaplain asked him to identify someone. It was his friend, Jerry Bennett, also a Quartermaster. 35 men were dead and 44 were wounded. Cabot burned for several hours. Back at the fleet base at Ulithi, a heavily damaged Cabot made repairs. Admiral Halsey came aboard and congratulated her crew for their efforts to save the ship.

On board the USS Cabot fifty-eight years later, Masucci shared his experiences with high school students from around the world.

[To High School Students:] “When I was 19 years of age, I was the oldest man in my division. And I had the longest amount of time in service. So it was a young people’s war, your age and not much more.

“ The chaplain came down and he said, ‘I think you have a man who’s been killed.’ I said, ‘No Chaplain, I checked the uh, everybody’s battle station and I got a report.’ He said, ‘Well then you better come forward.’ When I went forward and they had him on the deck and they pulled the blanket and it was him, he was a Quartermaster, second class, his name was Jerry Bennett.”