THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 29, 1995 TAG: 9512290557
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KERRY DEROCHI, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
Francis S. Blasdell wasn't in the Navy long and had no plans to make the military his career.
He had signed up before his 18th birthday to avoid being drafted. He served his time, got out and returned home to attend school, soon putting miles and years between himself and his life as a sailor.
But every Veterans Day, when he is sitting comfortably in the living room of his home in Northern Virginia, Blasdell remembers.
He thinks back to the morning of Dec. 29, 1945, when he stood on the deck of a U.S. minesweeper and helplessly watched another ship sink into the cold, dark water off Japan.
``It really gives you pause to think,'' Blasdell said. ``This horrible thing that can happen, and there's just no hope. It gives me an idea of what it is like to be a veteran.''
Fifty years ago today, Blasdell watched as the auxiliary minesweeper Minivet struck a mine off the southern coast of Japan.
Thirty-one sailors - more than one-third of the Minivet's crew - died in the blast.
Yet few would learn of the tragedy.
The explosion, which destroyed the ship less than one year after it had been commissioned, was rarely mentioned in books about World War II. Few history buffs have heard of it.
Blasdell is trying to make others remember.
As he tells it, the Minivet was part of a team of U.S. and Japanese ships sent in after the war had ended to retrieve 20,000 mines and clear the waters for commercial vessels.
The Minivet, which had arrived in Japan from Norfolk, was trying to avoid one mine in its path when it backed over another explosive. The blast cut through the minesweeper's tail, causing the ship to turn upside-down and sink.
The surviving crew members, along with Blasdell and the other sailors assigned to the minesweeping operation, were given the Battle Star.
Blasdell, then 18, was a radioman on the destroyer minesweeper Earle, which was operating about a mile from the Minivet.
He had just finished his four-hour duty and had returned to his rack to sleep when the blast shook him awake.
``We were jarred out of our racks. It was horrifying, really,'' Blasdell said. ``I remember seeing the whole room shake.''
Blasdell ran to the deck, where he stood in snow and watched the Minivet sink, stern first. It took less than 15 minutes for the ship to disappear. Blasdell timed the drama on his watch.
Rescue boats were dispatched from the nearby minesweepers and the surviving crew members were taken to the Earle.
``These poor guys, they were really in bad shape,'' Blasdell said. ``We gave them our bunks. They wrapped up in our blankets.''
The dead were carried to the torpedo deck, where they were placed, side by side, their bodies wrapped in signal flags.
The sight struck Blasdell to the core.
Though he would leave the Navy less than nine months later, he would not forget what he had witnessed.
In the years that followed, he researched the Minivet in naval records, looking for data about the ship and its crew. He made copies of official military documents detailing the blast.
He read and reread the list of those who died, trying to figure out which of the sailors he watched being placed on the deck:
Ralph Woolson, electrician's mate third class.
Harold E. Angney, a seaman.
``I can still see it today,'' Blasdell said. ``It's important to remember.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
1940s
Color photo
CHRISTOPHER REDDICK/The Virginian-Pilot
Francis Blasdell watched the ``last action'' of WWII claim 31
sailors.
by CNB