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743. Pensacola's November Loss 11-25-1943 WWII

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Updated: Feb 28, 2022

US Navy Chief Yeoman Harold Edwin Carlson Sr. was born in McGregor, Iowa on December 26, 1913, the son of Carl August Carlson (1878-1950) and Emma Sophia Henriette Lindemann (1887-1972). His father was born in Sweden and immigrated to America in 1895. His mother was a native of Mederville, Iowa and the two were married in 1907 in Clayton County, Iowa. For most of his life, Carl supported his family as a farmer.


His son Harold would enlist in the US Navy on March 15, 1935 in Des Moines, Iowa during the Great Depression. He was sent to a receiving ship in San Francisco, California on February 20, 1939 as a Seaman 1st Class via the USS Rathburne via USS Henderson. He would reenlist on July 5, 1939 two days before he reported to NAS Pensacola as a Yeoman 2nd Class. On August 10, 1941, he was promoted to Yeoman 1st Class while still stationed at NAS Pensacola. While stationed here, he met a young Pensacola girl by the name of Clara Hilda Dunaway Murphy (1920-1996), the daughter of Pensacolian Hiram Dunaway (1884-1977) and Myrtle "Myrtie" Olsen (1901-1983). She had recently divorced her first husband Arthur Murphy in 1942 after a two-year marriage. At the time, he was the owner of a barber shop in Wildwood, Sumter County, Florida. Harold and Clara would marry in Pensacola in 1942 of which one child would result from the union Harold Edwin Jr. (1943-2004). Harold Jr. would serve his country as a sergeant in the US Air Force in Vietnam.


Clara's grandfather, Malcolm C. Dunaway (1835-1906) had enlisted as a private in Company "B" of the 33rd Alabama Infantry Regiment. During his service, his regiment served in all the engagements of the Army of Tennessee before being annihilated at the Battle of Franklin in 1864. He would marry his second wife Nicey Jane Sefronia Cooley (1850-1918) in 1874 in Pensacola. Upon their death they were buried in the Beulah Baptist Church Cemetery


As the war expanded in the South Pacific, the American war industries were building ships faster than the Navy could man them! In response, Chief Yeoman Carlson was transferred to the new carrier USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56) on September 28, 1943. By November 20, 1943, the US Marines had stormed ashore on the beaches of Tarawa (Betio) as the Japanese recalled nine submarines to disrupt the landing. Six of the submarines were sunk by US forces. However, the I-175 arrived on November 23rd to find an American task force made up of seven destroyers, one cruiser, and three battleships. Supplying the air strikes were three escort carriers, made up of the Liscome Bay and her two sister ships Corregidor, and the Coral Sea.


At dawn, the flight crews readied thirteen fueled and armed planes for the morning launch. As the Liscome Bay turned into the wind to launch, the I-175 fired three torpedoes that struck behind the aft engine room, which detonated the bomb magazine. Suddenly, there was a huge, deafening explosion that engulfed the entire ship. Every ship around her felt the concussion of the explosion and were struck with falling and flying debris. The explosion tore off the entire stern of the carrier, killing everyone aft of the engine room. At 05:33, only 23 minutes after the initial explosion, the carrier listed to starboard and sank taking 53 officers and 648 enlisted men.


The remains of Chief Harold Edwin Carlson Sr. was never recovered or if they was they were buried at sea. A memorial stone was placed in the Klondike Cemetery in Pensacola, Florida and his name was etched on the "Courts of Honor, Garden of the Missing" at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, HI.

























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