Welcome to http://www.ussfranklin.org. I invite you to leave USS Franklin comments below. I am also looking for people interested in contributing to this site. Please contact me at franklin@ussfranklin.org with any information you may have.
Update Feb 2013, I have set up a “Forum” tab as a more appropriate place to leave comments for everybody to see.
The forum is here: http://www.ussfranklin.org/?page_id=393
Thank You.
USS Franklin Museum Association 
Hello and thank you to all of the brave men living and passed who worked lived and fought on the USS Franklin. I am the great-nephew of Y1C Donald W. Forsyth who was killed on March 19 1945 aboard the Franklin. He was a Naval Reservist who was acting as a press correspondent when he was killed. I am trying to locate any information I can to add to what I already know about him because I am trying to put together a story about his life culminating with his demise aboard the Franklin that day. If anyone might have known him or have any memories or perhaps some other information (photos, articles, etc) of him I would greatly appreciate hearing from you. My contact info is foda01 at epix dot net. My sincere thanks, David Forsyth
LikeLike
To the Franklin crew:
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! I have the priviledge when I am on board Big Ben’s sister The Yorktown at Patriot’s Point, Charleston, South Carolina to do the commentary on our USS Franklin display. On occasion, I have been asked by the public how many crew members still survive and how they would like to be remembered. Any comments that you would like to leave on this subject would be more than appreciated. Also, any other history that I can lecture the public on would be greatly appreciated.
In conclusion, It is my great priviledge to discuss with the American public (and foreign visitors, also) your heroic story. God bless you.
Frank Seagriff, USS Yorktown Volunteer
LikeLike
Hello. I also express thanks to the many men who fought for our freedom. I have been helping my grandfather, Irving Kidwell, write “his story.” He too, was on the USS Franklin that infamous day and survived. It has been an honor to learn more about what he and others went through. Thank you.
LikeLike
I have written about 30 pages of my life aboard the USS Franklin and have share them with some church groups.
I put the ship in commission January 31, 1944 and stayed with her until the fateful day March 19th. I did not bring her home for I was transferred to the cruiser for smoke inhalation from being trapped below decks.
I worked the fight deck and was one of the hook release men for the planes coming in,
If interested I could relate to you some of the things I went through and saw during my time in the Navy. I retired with 20 years in.
robcar@comporium.net
LikeLike
Robert, I would love to hear some of your stories and post them on the website if it is OK with you. If you post them here, I will copy them and post them under the “stories” category. Also, see a few posts below this one on the website. Frank Seagriff, a USS Yorktown Volunteer is looking for input from Franklin crew members, when he guides tours to the USS Franklin exhibit aboard the Yorktown. I will send you each others contact information off line. Thank You for your Service Robert.
LikeLike
please. my dad is turning 90 on march 23 , we are having Aaron where is hi
Harry Smeltzer
CLC nursing living center one
patient
Northern Arizona VA
500 n 89 highway
86313
we really want 90 cards and we would love some sent to him from his fellow crew members or family …if any one knows bill Vaughn email or phone, they served next to each other on the Franklin and I would like him to send a card!
thanks this aspect of serving was. very important to my dad’s life!
LikeLike
Does he remember a Norman E. Cherry Jr.? My father, and if he does I’m sure he would like to correspond with him, probably by phone. Contact me at “rdlcherry@bellsouth.net”. Thanks, Russell Cherry.
LikeLike
Does anyone remember Austin Swearingen? He was on the USS Franklin, and I believe he was working as a radar technician. He died on March 19th on his 19th birthday. He was killed at the onset of the attack.
LikeLike
To Whom it may concern…as a past president of the USS Intrepid (CV, CVA, CVS-11) Association, Inc. (’03-’05) I’ve accumulated a number of ‘carrier’ articles, one being ‘The Ship that wouldn’t be sunk’ Story of USS Franklin. It is an 8 page article that was posted as a ‘All Hands Special Supplement’ in November, 1964. If anyone on the Franklin Association’s Board of Directors is interested in having this article, I would be more than happy to mail it to him. Thank you ALL for your service … and … as I’ve always professed to my fellow shipmates … “Let Us Not Forget Those Who Have Gone Before Us” – John Simonetti, AMS3, V6 Division, May ’61-Sept ’62, Email: cv11texfcm@gmail.com
LikeLike