Carl Clark passes
One of our ninjas send us the sad news that Carl Clark, a World War II sailor passed in March at the tender age of 100 years old. Clark was aboard the USS Aaron Ward in May, 1945 when six kamikaze pilots flew their payloads into the ship. One blast blew the Steward First Class across the ship and broke his collarbone. The LA Times tells about what happened next;
Though he suffered a broken collarbone, Clark was credited with saving the lives of several men by dragging them to safety. He also put out a fire in an ammunition locker that could have cracked the vessel in half.
Even though the destroyer’s captain acknowledged that Clark had saved the ship, it took roughly 67 years to be recognized for his actions, according to Clark, because of “bigotry.”
“It wouldn’t look good to say one black man saved the ship,” he said in 2011.
The captain of the destroyer tried to make up for the slight by giving him extra leave and making sure that he was not sent back to sea, Clark said.
He was belatedly awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal for his actions in 2012.
According to Task And Purpose, Clark, also a Pearl Harbor veteran, went on serve 22 years in the Navy retiring as a Chief Petty Officer.
Category: We Remember
They made up for it with a commendation medal? Seems like a paltry acknowledgement at best
A shipmate of mine had an instructor in OCS who had one personal medal in something like 35 years of Naval service.
It was a Navy Achievement Medal for SAVING HIS SHIP FROM SINKING.
I guess medals like NCMs and NAMs have gotten a bit watered down since then.
Now you see PO3s who resemble North Korean generals for all the decorations they have.
Concur with all. I don’t really understand the need to fill up a man’s uniform with a bunch of baubles and bits of embroidered cloth just for doing what was in his job description.
Those sorts of awards were supposed to reflect gallantry above and beyond what was expected of him.
I knew LOADS of CPO’s back when I first came in who were outstanding leaders, who had nothing for their time in.
Too many times I saw (and heard) people state that if you were getting out, you weren’t getting an EOT award, but if you stayed in, you would.
Total horseshit.
I was an enlisted and commissioned cryptologist. It got to be a bit of a widespread joke in my community that a Sailor just picked up his or her Joint Service Commendation Medal at check in to the command at NSA. Just pull one from the bowl on the admin clerk’s desk.
When I was an XO, I had a Sailor ask me at check out why he only got a NAM. Interview over. Have a nice career.
Why in hell wouldn’t it “look good” to say one black man saved the ship?
Different, ugly times.
What consistently amazes me is that shipmates like Chief Clark, despite all the prejudice, still put their lives on the line for their country.
Says little about how we treated them, lots about the incredible character of the Chief Clarks.
“Says little about how we treated them”
I can only speak for myself, but I was never part of that “we” and while I feel compassion for him I feel no guilt nor take any responsibility for it.
RIP
A real, honest-to-goodness Chief Petty Officer. Rest in peace, sailor!
Should have gotten a lot more than a Comm. That irks me.
RIP Chief. God bless you and your family.
If you look at the LA Times article they say “Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal” but they show a Purple Heart, so who knows what’s going on there.
Evidently he received both the PH and Commendation Medal that day…check this pic
http://blackchristiannews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/carl-e-clark.jpg
…with Combat “V”
http://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=qWiL%2FenF&id=83810C5E902213A04C7CC430554D0C510B072C64&thid=OIP.qWiL_enFINHZJrRNTtDy6wDIEs&q=Carl+Clark&simid=608025048257003898&selectedindex=84&ajaxhist=0&first=1
Both! You know he got the purple heart for the broken collar bone and whatever other injuries from being blown across the ship!
Rest In Peace, Chief.
Rest in well-deserved peace, elder brother-in-arms. Thanks.
He reaches back with his right hand. He extracts the flag from his pocket. He tosses it skyward and, as he does, he yells “Bullshit! It lands dead center on the tall tales. Nothing backs up this account. Nothing. It’s another case, always too welcome, of a ‘hero’ going unrecognized because the ‘hero’ is black. So, w/o a scintilla of corroborating evidence, and no doubt with a word from some elected official, he was awarded a commendation. And that may have been more than he deserved.
No offense, Cav, bUT sometimes you can be more full of shit than a Christmas turkey and smell twice as bad.
Dorie Miller ring a bell?
No offense taken and fuck you, too. Where am I full of shit? I know all about Miller. His valor was recognized immediately and he received the Navy Cross. So, what is your point about Mr. Clark, that b/c Miller was black and his valor recognized, that Clark’s therefore wasn’t AT ALL? This story reads like another in the litany of idiot reporters printing the bullshit served up to them.
SEA. Go ahead. Put in the FOIA if you want to go to war. I’d like to see the PH and check the dates of his service against the ship’s roster and the log summaries. That you want something to be true does not make it so.
I can tell you lots of cases where people were recognized and weren’t based on their skin color, or at the very least a significant disparity in level of award. Let’s see, he was given a PH for the broken collarbone, received as a result of a kamikaze attack. Legit. I’d venture to guess there was more than ample evidence he did what he claims he did, otherwise he wouldn’t have received shit. Even so, a NCM with “V” is pretty low by today’s standards. Case in point–when I was a lowly radcon weenie tender puke back in the day, we had CCTV on the ship rather than try to muster 1300 people on the pier like we did on the boats. Seems one young MSSN was getting an award. A Navy/Marine Corps Commendation Medal (same as what Chief Clark received, sans “V” device.) What do you think she did to deserve such a lofty award (I say lofty because I never got one, and I know plenty of senior enlisted/LDO’s who either never got one or only as a retirement award.) She drove Bill Clinton around NAVSTA Pearl Harbor for three hours one day. That’s. Fucking. IT. Talk about a fucking joke. Contrast that with one of my highlights on that ship–one day, a shore power cable caught fire. I (by myself) called away the casualty and deenergized the shore power cables, and was getting a fire extinguisher when the DC team showed up. You know what I got for that? Yelled at by a fucking MR1 because he had no fucking clue that deenergizing the affected cable would NOT put the fire out because of backfeeding, and “You caused a loss of shore power!” He then ordered every cable except that one energized and tried to direct fire overhaul, right up to the point some poor kid was about to poke that cable with a metal fucking pole. That’s the point I went off on that booger-eating mouth-breather, lest he get some kid killed. Again, my “award” for that day was satisfaction knowing I called the command Sailor… Read more »
“The awards system was fucked up then, is fucked up now, and yes, racism did exist back in the 40’s and beyond.”
Damn straight it did. The very fact that ST1 Clark was a steward was the result of racist policies that restricted black crewman to steward and messman positions.
Imagine how much rigid institutional racism would have to exist to maintain policies like that during a time of war.
I just finished posting about how I like that this blog posts and serves as places of remembrance for the sacrifices of veterans when they pass or are honored.
And I find you disparaging this career Navy Petty officer’s service, impugning his integrity, and accusing him of fraud.
WITH ABSOLUTELY ZERO EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT YOUR CLAIM.
Well now it is clear why you defended Poe when I said he was being racist.
Why take issue with this man’s service? There has been several incidences of people getting awarded medals long after the actions for which they were earned. I do not remember you calling them out for fraud.
You do not have a SCINTILLA of evidence it was false and the fact that the Navy finally awarded this man after they investigated his claim indicates they verified at least SOME of the claim.
Maybe you should request those FOIA records before you pull this crap?
Pathetic.
According to the cruise book there is a ST1 C. E. Clark on the crew list on 3 May 1945 off the coast of Okinawa…https://www.fold3.com/image/301629251
So, we can verify he was present on board when the ship was hit with 6 kamikaze planes. I figured the Navy at least did that much before awarding the medal. Apparently, 2/17 thought they did nothing because there was not a “scintilla” of evidence to back his story.
The pictures of the extensive damage to the ship indicate that there were no safe spaces during that attack. Every plane impact caused casualties and the ship barely survived the attack.
2/17 would prefer to assume the ST1 Carl Clark was there with the shipping burning around him in the middle of attack and did absolutely nothing of merit to earn a Navy Commendation medal.
That is the narrative 2/17 prefers.
He would have to have a very low opinion of a person he has never met in his life. A career petty officer and WWII vet who survived an attack by six kamikazes.
He straight up called this veteran and career petty officer a liar.
What could possibly cause 2/17 Cav to have such a low opinion of this Petty Officer without a scintilla of evidence?
Commissar. You don’t read well, do you? You got yourself in a self righteous tizzy by piling on your own bullshit and then attributing it to me. That racism existed in the services I have neither denied nor defended. That Clark was on the USS Aaron Ward in 1945 I did not dispute. It’s the hero part I think is bullshit, and that has everything to do with embellishers and nothing whatsoever to do with racism. But it’s much easier to pull the racism card than it is to actually consider the “proof”–the evidence–of Clark’s self-reported heroism. I will address the so-called corroboration below to someone who, unlike you, has some sense.
Jeebus. Here I am backing up Lars. WTF happened over the weekend?
I know. When did we fall through the Looking Glass?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/us/66-years-after-he-saved-a-navy-ship-another-battle-is-won.html
“…I located the ship’s only known surviving officer, Lefteris Lavrakas, known as Lefty, who corroborated events and asked the Navy to award Mr. Clark a medal.”
Never thought I’d say this, but I’m with Lars on this one. I started to say you went off half-cocked on this one, but I think “half” gives you too much credit.
Gotta concur. IMO you “screwed the pooch” here, 2/17.
No, I did not, Hondo. I threw the bullshit flag because I smell bullshit. The articles that MrBill linked provide no corroboration. In fact, the 2009 article–the source that is referenced for the later one–provides this sole corroboration:
“The case may hinge on an audio interview that Ms. Dunec did in 2004 with the ship’s medical officer, Dr. John Barbieri, who died last year and was present at secret briefings recounting the battle. “He apparently had a fire hose all by himself,” Dr. Barbieri said of Mr. Clark.” That’s it. That’s all of it. That’s corroboration? But then there’s a kicker. The piece was written by a TV writer, not a reporter, and he quotes the woman behind the Clark effort. “It’s the age of Obama,” she said. “Anything is possible.”
In other words, the corroboration fails. And, as I guessed, a politician got involved and there was a nice little ceremony. What there wasn’t was any proof at all that Clark was a hero and you can bet your bottom dollar that if there was, he probably would have been in the White House in 2009 or 2010 reciving the CMOH or, if not, having a beer with the then president.
Since neither of us was there, it’s rather hard for either of us to know exactly what happened.
I will observe, however, that post-incident debriefings are conducted for a reason. Specifically, individual eyewitness accounts are not always 100% complete or accurate – but the collective version obtained by “triangulating” the result of multiple firsthand results is generally fairly close to ground truth.
It’s a free country. Believe what you wanna believe.
“Also in attendance was Faye Lavrakas and Joanna Lavrakas, niece and sister-in-law, respectively, of retired Navy Captain Lefteris “Lefty” Lavrakas. Although Capt. Lavrakas died last August, before knowing that Clark’s medal was approved, it was his testimony, as one of the last surviving officers of the Aaron Ward, that appears to have finalized the approval.
“In a November 2010 letter to Mabus, Eshoo referred to Capt. Lavrakas’ statement about expediting the award: “Please hurry up, Carl and I are both in our 90s and we need to correct this injustice for Carl.”
https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2012/01/17/world-war-ii-veteran-honored-for-heroism-after-66-years
Eshoo (D-CA)is the politician who pushed for the award. I don’t know–and the story does not reveal–what testimony the captain purportedly gave, about what, and to whom. Quite frankly, the quoted line says nothing in itself. And one might think that the captain was the ship’s captain, but one would be wrong about that. Feel free to read the 1:09 pm cmt below.
So you think that a retired Navy captain who served with Clark on that ship and provided testimony (I didn’t take him to be the ship’s captain btw), a member of Congress, and the SecNav all conspired to give Clark an undeserved award – or, most charitably, were all fooled by Clark? OK. There are some pretty experienced skeptics around here, and no one’s BS meter has been activated other than yours. As Hondo said, believe what you want.
https://www.baycitizen.org/columns/scott-james/65-years-after-heroic-act-navy-considers/
“When the ship’s only known surviving officer, Lefteris “Lefty” Lavrakas, a lieutenant who managed the deck guns, now 91, was located for the article, he said, “You go get justice for Carl.”
The statement Lavrakas filed with the Navy said, “Alone, Carl aimed the hose at the smoldering ammunition locker.” The ship stayed afloat. “Carl Clark is the reason why.”
100-years-old? Wow. Last year one of our WWII veterans in the VA Hospice turned 100. On his birthday, his family had belly dancers perform for him. And the VA allowed it!!!
Become a VA Volunteer. It will change you forever.
I don’t want to start pissing over a memorial, but this was a common theme and as a result, the Navy reviewed many awards looking for inequity. One example was the push for Dorie Miller to get the MOH, but a review of his actions, the actions of others and the awards given found the Navy Cross was to remain the appropriate award. Those that believe someone was wronged may be in some cases correct, but when the award isn’t upgraded those people are never satisfied with the review process.
again RIP Chief
True, but you and I could sit for hours swapping stories of sailors and Marines who should have been formally recognized, or been awarded a lot higher than what they got.
Especially Marines–those guys get screwed every which way but loose.
SEA. And then they write books lambasting their service and telling the world that they were shorted a medal or two, right?
Isn’t that what they do? Or maybe not, but that’s what Clark did.
Rest In Peace Brother.
Here’s a picture of the USS Aaron Ward after the Kamikaze attack… look at how low in the water she is. Have to giver her crew credit for what they did to keep her afloat.
http://www.kamikazeimages.net/books/ships/lott/index.htm
RIP Chief Carl Clark
Was that the same USS Ward that fired the opening shots at Pearl Harbor?
Different ship -The USS Ward was named after Commander James Harmon Ward and was sunk by a Kamikaze on December 7, 1944:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Ward_(DD-139)
Rest in Peace, Chief. Fair winds and following seas to you.
Thomas Overton, America’s oldest living WWII Veteran celebrated his 111’Th birthday here in Austin on Friday.
He still spends his days sitting on his porch enjoying his Tampa Sweet cigars, anywhere between 8-11 of them a day.
I went by his house on Friday and took a few pictures of the house then on Saturday I drove by a bit earlier and saw him sitting outside on his porch accompanied by his niece and her husband.
I asked if it was OK to come up and wish him a Happy Birthday a day late on Saturday and they invited me up.
I shook all of their hands and was amazed at how well he is doing for 111 years old. He seems to be quite with it and is a true joy to talk to.
I didn’t ask to take pics of him because everybody under the Sun has been taking his pics for the past few days so I thought it would be better if I just let that one go.
I was just honored to be able to shake his hand and to speak to a truly great American.
Happy Birthday Mr. Overton. We are honored to have you here with us.
Thunderstixx. Now, that is an account that is both credible and heartwarming.
Clark’s account was credible too.
Well, if you say so, it must be true.
Rest in Peace Chief.
Rest well Mr. Clark, rest well.
Resit in peace, Chief.
You deserved a more respectful remembrance than a member of this board was willing to offer.
*rest
/sigh
“*rest
/sigh”
Yes, rest, your work here is done. You really showed me. You must be very pleased with yourself, striking a blow against racism and all. Congratulations.
Let’s pretend you assuming he was lying (with no evidence or fact checking to back that assumption) was not racist.
It was still an asshat thing to do.
Especially on what is essentially a remembrance post about his passing.
Why disparage a career Navy petty officer and WWII veteran with zero evidence?
Please stop addressing Chief Clark in your comments as a “petty officer”. He retired as a Chief… it’s a slap in the face to call any selected and initiated member of the Chief’s Mess a “petty officer”. I’d never think of addressing or talking about a General or Admiral as “2nd LT” or “Ensign”, even if they were retired or deceased.
Trust me on this one, Lars… if you walked into any CPO Mess and called a member a “petty officer”, any Chief worth his or her salt would “correct you”… using some of the most colorful language you’ve ever heard.
Apologies.
If you ever bother to read the bullshit stories that local reporters–and others–write, then you begin to recognize embellishment. You ascribe it wrongly to racism, but that’s okay, that’s who you are, how you see the world. It’s part of what makes you such a predictable asshole. Now, it turns out I’m not alone in not worshiping blindly, that there just might be something to my skepticism. Try this Amazon review of Clark’s book, penned by a fellow who knew him. It’s lengthy, thoughtful and you and a few others might benefit from it. The link follows: “The United States’ racist sins (slavery, segregation etc) are widely known, studied, reported and acknowledged. About them, there is no doubt. Where debate remains is how to move forward. Carl Clark has recorded his experiences during an unfortunate time in US military history, prior to President Truman’s desegregation of the military. During World War II, black US Navy sailors were restricted to a very few rates, mostly of a servile nature, of which Mr Clark was a steward. His opportunity in writing the book was superb in that he served before and after the desegregation. Unfortunately, his effort is marred by inaccuracies and bitterness. To begin with, the cover of the book shows a young Clark in front of his ship, the USS Aaron Ward. But alas, it is NOT his ship. The ship depicted is indeed the USS Aaron Ward (DD-483) but Mr Clark served not in her but in USS Aaron Ward (DM-34). The difference is not minor. The former ship was sunk near Guadalcanal in April 1943 and Mr Clark never came near her. Surely it is evident to him that this was not the ship in which he served? They look nothing alike. It goes downhill from there. After declaring that Aaron Ward’s Captain Sanders was a “beautiful man”, Clark then declares how racist the entire crew was. So, which is it, “Beautiful or racist”? I have met Mr Clark personally through the Aaron Ward association and can attest to his bitterness over his Navy experience. I do not… Read more »
You dipshit. He never claimed to be aboard DD-483 and never claimed to have been in the battle of Guadalcanal in 1943.
An Amazon review about a book about a different ship written by a reviewer WHO NEVER SET FOOT on the Aaron Ward, was not there that night, and was never part of the crew DOES NOT refute Chief Clark’s claims.
You are correct that, Chief Clark served on USS Aaron Ward (DM-34) and not on DM-483.
And on the night of 3 May 1945, USS Aaron Ward DM-34 was attacked by the Japanese off the coast of Okinawa. It was struck by six kamikaze aircraft and nearly sunk.
Chief Clark is CONFIRMED to be on the crew list as being aboard the craft the night of 3 May 1945 according to the cruise book.
The only other living survivor of the crew CONFIRMED Chief Clark’s account and the Navy investigation led to their decision to award Chief Clark the medal.
The fact that the publisher put the image of the wrong Aaron Ward on the cover is does not suddenly mean the rest of the historical record that CONFIRMS he was on DM-34 the night it was attacked is wrong.
Lars. I realize that you rarely comment on matters of Stolen Valor and it appears, by your comment, that you don’st read the SV threads either. If you did, you would know that even the grave is not a safe place for valor thieves and embellishers.
He is not a valor thief.
You are wrong on this.
He was a serial embellisher. I watched an interview he did. He was all about himself and racism, racism, and racism. Why, even a Japanese gunner who was standing in his plane (!) took aim at him but did not shoot. Instead, the gunner smiled. Then, just for fun, the pilot took another pass but, again, the standing gunner did not fire. That’s pure bullshit. Then there’s the account of his wake-up at Pearl. He doesn’t mention the big hole in his mattress in the video interview, as he did in a later interview. Instead, he ran to the officers’ quarters and woke them up. But they told him to go away. Clark had a grand old time tellong whoppers. They all revolved around him. Hell, did you know that the captain of the DE-34 went to Washington just to get the black sailors special recognition but they wouldn’t even give him a piece of paper, according to Clark. Yeah, that’s credible. Somehow, the captain had no authority in these matters. Of course, another black sailor was recognized for valor by that captain–but it wasn’t Clark so it didn’t count. You can keep this going as long as you want. And each time, I’ll share more of Clark’s tall tales and tales of personal injustice.
You absolutely must have the last word. You and Lars have that in common. One thing that you haven’t refuted and will never refute is that no matter what stories Clark may have told, in THIS case the Navy determined that there was sufficient evidence (including Captain Lavrakas’ statement) to confirm Clark’s actions on the occasion in question.
It was a political thing. Clark lobbied for years for an award and, finally, thanks to a CA politician do-gooder and Maybus, he got his piece of paper. As for the last word, two people called me full of shit and another said I screwed the pooch. I tend to take those things personally. No one who was with Clark backed him up in his 20+ years with the Navy. That twice-removed so-called testimony of an LT rings hollow. That Clark served and suffered I have no doubt. That he was put on bread and water for looking an officer in the eye is silly on its face. He got what he wanted, ultimately–his piece of paper.
There were actually two witnesses and it sounds as if you may be confusing the two. The testimony of Dr. Barbieri, that you quoted above, was to the effect that he was present at the post-incident briefings and heard that this is what Clark did – I can see why you might characterize that as “twice-removed”. But I can’t see any reason to discount the testimony of then-Lieutenant (ultimately Captain) Lavrakas, who was there and credits Clark for keeping the ship afloat. Combined, Barbieri and Lavrakas provided enough information to substantiate the factual basis for the award.
It’s obvious that Clark rubs you the wrong way. He has a long history of moaning about his maltreatment by the White Man, and appears to have embellished some of those stories. There definitely was overt racism aplenty in those days, but you may think it unseemly for a retired Chief Petty Officer to keep going on and on about it when many others bore it with far more grace and dignity; if so, you’ll get no argument from me on that point. But the fact remains that on that day, on that ship, Clark did a good thing that may well have saved the ship and the lives of some of his fellow Sailors. You may not respect Clark as a man, and I won’t try to tell you you’re wrong for feeling that way. But try, for a minute, to forget about the man. Forget about whether or not Eshoo had political motivations in going to bat for Clark. Look at what Clark did. Were his actions on that day worthy of a Navy-Marine Corps Commendation Medal with V device? In my opinion, they were.
Fair winds and following seas, Rest in peace brother.
Carl Clark had a bone to pick and he picked it clean. In an interview he stated he once looked an officer in the eye and was told not to do so and called ”boy.” In another interview, he said he looked an officer in the eye on board the USS Aaron Ward and was thrown in jail. “I was in a cage. I couldn’t even stand up. I had to sit down in the cage, there was bars on it and all that. I got two slices of bread three times a day for three days straight.” Was that the same officer in both accounts? Or did Clark confuse the story over the years? Clark says he was at Pearl Harbor ob December 7, 1941. You won’t believe this. “They fired right through the window. I was stooping over, putting on my shoes. The bullet went right through my bed, in the back. A hole in my mattress that big, right next to me, two feet from me.” Wow. Talk about a close call, eh? I wonder what ship he was on.