The USS Vestal (AR-4) in 1941

While the USS Vestal was being overhauled in the shipyard at Vallejo, CA, my dad, Frank L. Dolan, was in service school from May through August 1941. Dad will be assigned to Vestal at San Pedro on September 10, 1941.

Launching of Vestal in Brooklyn in 1908
Source: Wikipedia

The USS Vestal, was the first of a class of two 12,585-ton colliers. It was placed in service with a civilian crew in October 1909, and she spent the next 3 years in the Atlantic providing coal to the ships of the fleet, including one voyage to Europe for that purpose. Taken out of service in October 1912, Vestal was converted into a repair ship (receiving the hull designation AR-4 in 1920) and placed in commission in that role in September 1913. Into 1917, she served mainly in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. Shortly after the United States entered the First World War, Vestal's area of operation was moved to Queenstown, Ireland, where she maintained U.S. ships engaged in anti-submarine escort and other wartime duties. Returning to the U.S. at the end of WWI, the Vestal continued her repair mission over the next two decades. She was modernized in 1925. Vestal supported the salvage of the sunken submarine Squalus in 1925-26, then shifted her base from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 1927. Refitted again in 1941, she was on her way to join the coming war in the Pacific.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Vestal, on which my dad Frank Dolan was stationed, was moored outboard of the battleship Arizona, awaiting repairs scheduled for the next day.

USS Vestal in 1939, prior to refitting
Source: Naval Historical Center

The USS Vestal served the Pacific faithfully throughout WWII, all the way to performing vital service functions supporting the occupation of China and Japan. She received 2 battle stars for her war service. Vestal was ultimately decommissioned in 1946. She was stripped in 1949, and like most of the ships that helped to win the war, her hulk was sold for scrap in 1950.

Sources: Frank L. Dolan's personal account;  Naval Warfare; Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships

70 Years Ago: From High School to Boot Camp

My dad, Frank Dolan, graduated early from San Diego High School in California on this date 70 years ago. Just 7 days later, he was a “boot” at the United States Naval Training Center, "a Valentine gift to the Navy," as he once wrote. The pay in boot camp was $21.00 a month. Next was service school where he learned the fundamentals of welding, shipfitting, pipe work, and foundrywork. He put in his “chit” for the weld shop and became a “striker.”

In August 1941, Dad passed his exams for service school as a metalsmith, and on September 10, went aboard the repair ship, USS Vestal, at San Pedro, California. He was a Seaman, 2nd Class as he took his first tour of the deck force and his new assignment, the welding shop.

Like many other Americans, he could see that the country was being pulled into war, although most eyes were drawn east toward Europe. But 3 months after service school, while on board the Vestal at Pearl Harbor, my 18-year old father would be a witness to the surprise attack from the West, and with it, America's entrance into WWII.

To my shame, as a boy I was not always a good listener when Dad wanted to talk about his experiences. But over time I have tried to rectify that by writing out his account of the war, collecting items he wrote or recorded, and together with other research I've been able to do, write out a more comprehensive account of his years in the service. Dad is no longer with us, but in this 70th year since the start of the war, I plan to honor his contribution to the effort, provide his insight where he offered it,  and commemorate the events he witnessed from 1941-1946.