Lucky Lady: The World War II Heroics of the USS Santa Fe and Franklin

by Steve Jackson

Book Overview

Steve Jackson's Lucky Lady chronicles the saga of the aircraft carrier Franklin, the light cruiser Santa Fe, and their tragic encounter on March 19, 1945, when a Japanese bomber broke through U.S. air cover and dropped two 500-pound bombs on the Franklin. Fires were set off as ammunition and fuel exploded. The Franklin was near sinking, with all her 2,500 sailors in mortal danger. To the Japanese high command, American aircraft carriers represented...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786713100
• ISBN13: 9780786713103
• Release Date: December 2003
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 504 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

A great, exciting book, it put me in touch with what my dad must have gone through

I wish my dad was still alive to see this book, and that I could talk to him about it. He (Robert H. Hofer) was a Machinist's Mate on the Santa Fe for most of its career, and I remember hearing him describe the saving of the Franklin, and seeing steel burn as the Franklin's magazines exploded and showered the deck of the Santa Fe with fire; and also what it was like to work down in the engine room while the ship manuvered off the beach at Iwo Jima, exposed to shore fire. The descriptions in this book are incredibly vivid and exciting, and answer a lot of the questions I wish I could ask my dad today. Forgive any errors of fact -- maybe the author has read all the reviews and will put out a revised version in the future. If you've ever wondered what it must have been like to be 19 years old, in the middle of the Pacific, fighting the Japanese in the biggest naval battles in history, then you've got to read this book.

Two Heroic Ships and Their Fight Against the Japanese

Author Steve Jackson has done a remarkable job of describing the lives of two great ships; the light cruiser USS Santa Fe and the aircraft carrier USS Franklin. Jackson got his inspiration for this great book by coming across a lock of hair that his mother had sent to his father, who was a radioman aboard the Santa Fe. The Santa Fe was one of the newest light cruisers in the Pacific fleet. weighing in at 11,000 tons, it was hard to describe her as "light". She packed a powerful punch, with twelve six-inch guns in her main battery, and numerous 5-inch, 40mm, and 20mm for anti-aircraft defense. She also held the record for the longest cruise without being sent back to the United States, but she claimed her nickname, the "Lucky Lady", from somehow managing to stay out of harm's way, and she suffered no casualties of her own during the course of the war. The Franklin was one of the new Essex-class aircraft carriers that began rolling out of U.S. Navy shipyards in early 1943. At over 850 feet long, she was nearly as big as three football fields, plus she could carry 100 aircraft as well. However, she had her share of run-ins with the Japanese and, unlike the Santa Fe, was heavily damaged by a kamakaze in October 1944. These two ships' lives intertwined forever on the day of March 19, 1945. Sailing less than 100 miles from mainland Japan, an enemy dive bomber managed to make it past the combat air patrol and the anti-aircraft defenses to put two 500 lb bombs into the Franklin. The carrier was loaded with bombs, torpedoes, and thousands of gallons of oil and aviation gas and soon became a blazing inferno. The Santa Fe was part of the screening force surrounding the carrier group and was soon on her way to help the injured flattop. Undeterred by the flames and explosions, the captain of the Santa Fe manuvered his ship directly alongside the Franklin to assist in fire-fighting operations and the removal of injured personnel. For over two hours, the Santa Fe risked herself to help the Franklin and its crew. Despite the horrendous damage and the loss of over 700 of her crew, the Franklin managed to limp back to the United States under her own power for repairs. Much of the credit for the saving of the Franklin belongs to her heroic crew, who fought fires and rescued wounded comrades without regards for thier own personal safety. The Santa Fe also deserves credit for assisting in fire fighting operations as well as removal of wounded men while placing herself directly in harm's way. This is an extraordinary book. The author does an excellent job of describing the saga of these two ships and their crews. The camaraderie of the crewmembers shines through on each page, and the heroics of these young men are discussed vividly. He devotes equal time to the stories of each ship, their crew, and the battles they fought. The highlight of the book is the impeccable narrative concerning the bombing attack on the Franklin and the heroic actions of

An excellent lesson for all to read.....

Very interesting reading.. so much I never knew nor would have known had I not read this book.. reading from the perspective of the men, is very emotional.. knowing what they were thinking, what they went through and how they felt at that time, rather than just reading generic accounts of the War and how the War was fought.. To be able to get into these truly brave mens lives, to put a person with a name.. who was waiting for them back home and what they did to help win the War and to get themselves home to their loved ones.. An excellent lesson for all to read..

Human war, human history

Sometimes, a lock is the key.When Colorado author Steve Jackson found a lock of honey-colored hair buried deep in an old box his father kept from World War II, an epic story unfolded before him. The hair was his mother's - before she was his mother, or even his father's bride - and the story was the story of a generation before it became known as the "greatest generation."Jackson's new non-fiction book "Lucky Lady" - a departure from his best-selling true-crime books such as "Rough Trade" and "No Stone Unturned" - is the story of two ships, two crews, and at its heart, the relatively few years that changed his father's life. The result: a history of men at war with all the pathos of Ernie Pyle and the historic intuition of Stephen Ambrose. All told, Jackson's account is unsentimental when it might have been maudlin, and eloquent when it might have been academic.A Midwestern farm boy from a broken family, Donald Jackson joined the U.S. Navy before the war. He was due to muster out in 1942, but then came Dec. 7, 1941. The radioman, wearing his sweetheart's ring around his neck with his dogtags, came aboard the cruiser USS Santa Fe in 1943.Known as the Lucky Lady because she logged the war's longest tour - 221,750 miles with stops in such exotic hotspots as Wake Island, Tarawa, Saipan and Iwo Jima -- with only two casualties and insignificant damage, the Santa Fe became her crew's guardian angel and surrogate soul.The USS Franklin was the United States' fifth Essex-class aircraft carrier and the fifth naval vessel to carry the name - the original was a fishing boat loaned to the Continental Army in 1775 and re-named for Ben Franklin. Although "Big Ben" bore the seemingly unlucky naval designation as CV-13, she'd become World War II's most decorated naval vessel.The Franklin and Santa Fe crossed historic paths on March 19, 1945, when a lone Japanese plane dropped two bombs on Big Ben, penetrating both the ship's bowels and brain. Dead in the water without radio contact and very little power, the Franklin was burning fast and listing badly. Worse, much of its crew had been blown overboard, killed or wounded.With 724 killed and 265 wounded, the Franklin's surviving 106 officers and 604 crewmen valiantly tried to save the ship. Jackson recounts the heroic efforts of many of them, including eventual Medal of Honor winners Lt. Cdr. Joseph T. O'Callahan, a chaplain who administered last rites, organized firefighters and rescuers, and helped flood munition magazines before they could explode; and Lt. (jg) Donald Gary, who discovered 300 men trapped in a charred mess hall and made several trips below to lead them to safety.The Santa Fe's crew was no less heroic as it pulled alongside to pluck sailors from the sea and cram its decks and wardrooms with the Franklin's wounded. But "Lucky Lady" isn't just the story of inanimate steel, fuel oil, and gunpowder that make warships. It's about the men - boys, really - who are the spirit and soul of these two ships.Th

A Fascinating Read

As the son of one of the men on the Santa Fe, I had the privilege of being allowed to read the original draft of Lucky Lady. My father told many stories about the war as I was growing up, but the author was able to draw out considerably more than I ever could have from my father, as well as from many others. This book is not all guns and bayonets, but goes into the lives of the crewmembers, and to some extent, the families waiting back home. It was fascinating following the transformation of the sailors, some only teenagers, as they fought for their lives, and how their lives were forever changed by the experience. Lucky Lady is written in a way that shows how the entire generation of people changed, not just the few selected for the book.Through the eyes of many different men on different ships, from engine rooms to airplanes, Lucky Lady makes the reader feel like a part of the crew. The rescue of and survival of the Franklin is the obvious highlight of this book, but that incident was one day of a multi-year experience. The reader shares the terror of being on a ship hit by a Kamikaze, and the sadness of watching the Marines land on an island. Even the victory of sinking a Japanese ship was not cause for celebration as the men on the surviving ships knew it could have as easily been Americans waiting to die in the water.Regardless of your age or interest, I think everyone will enjoy Lucky Lady.