RAY STAATS
Age: 85
Hometown: Mertens, Texas
Residence: Desert Hot Springs and Hoodsport, Wash.
Military branch: U.S. Navy; USS Gridley (DD-380)
Years served: 1943-1945
Rank: Signalman second class
Family: Wife Dee; six children, Renee Wigner of Issaquah, Wash., Becky Owens of Bellevue, Wash., Cathy Homelvig of Sacramento, Randy Weaver of Bothell, Wash., Robert Weaver of Shelton, Wash., Richard Weaver (deceased, 2005); 15 grandchildren; five great-grandchildren
Coming tomorrow
For our neighbors to the north, World War II was well under way by the time the United States got involved on Dec. 7, 1941. In an eight-page tribute to our Canadian and British heroes, many of whom call the Coachella Valley home part-time and year-round, they recall their roles in the war, close calls with the enemy, and their exuberance when the U.S. joined the fight.
About this series
Staff writer Denise Goolsby will profile desert veterans from World War II Wednesday through Sunday through the end of 2010 — the 65th anniversary of the end of the war. Contact her at denise.goolsby@thedesertsun.com
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U.S. Navy veteran Ray Staats spent many months in hostile waters aboard the destroyer the USS Gridley during World War II, supporting invasion operations including the invasions of Iwo Jima and Leyte Gulf.
The destroyer and its crew survived three consecutive kamikaze hits, rescued scores of downed fliers, sank a submarine and knocked down six enemy aircraft while Staats was stationed on the ship.
“Every time we returned a flier we got 10 gallons of ice cream,” Staats said.
Staats, a signalman second class, got in on the early action in the war in the Pacific.
“When we left Hawaii, the first offensive in the South Pacific was being formed,” he said. “We took off with Task Force 58 from Honolulu to the Gilbert Islands.”
There, the ship shelled the beaches of Tarawa and Makin as the Marines fought their way onto the island shores.
“It scared the hell out of me,” said Staats, recounting his first combat experience. “In that invasion, we lost an escort carrier, the USS Liscome Bay.”
In the early morning of Nov. 24, 1943, a torpedo launched from an enemy submarine smashed into the Liscome Bay, hitting its stockpile of aircraft bombs. The major explosion engulfed the entire ship, sending more than 600 men to their deaths.
The USS Gridley sailed behind aircraft carriers, screening the big ships from enemy attack as the fleet leapfrogged from island to island across the Pacific, invading and capturing one after another, as the fleet made its way to Japan.
In Saipan, the ship got word that the Japanese fleet was heading out.
“Fliers from our task force took off from the carriers to intercept them,” Staats said.
Although the fighter pilots inflicted substantial damage on the Japanese ships — even destroyed some of the vessels — they stayed out too long attacking the enemy ships, he said.
The planes returned to the fleet after dark, but since the ships didn't run at night with their lights on — to prevent detection by the enemy — the pilots had trouble finding their carriers in the pitch-black sea.
“There were so many fliers in the air and running low on gas,” he said.” “We chased 72 smoke-floats that night.”
When the pilots ran out of gas, they'd land their planes on the water — think Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger on the Hudson River, said Staats — and smoke would signal their location.
That night, one of the pilots who scrambled out of the ocean and back to the ship said he saw one of his buddies land safely in the water and get out of the plane and into a life raft.
“We knew he was out there but we couldn't find him,” Staats said.
The ships had to sail and the pilot was left behind.
Ten days later, the rescued pilot talked the admiral into going back to same area to see if they could locate his friend.
“After 10 days, he was there in his life raft. By God, we found him,” he said.
The raft carried some emergency food and the pilot was able to subside on the meager rations.
“We went up and invaded Lingayen Gulf,” he said. “That's when we got hit. Three kamikazes came out of the China area and came right over the sun at us. It was late afternoon. All three got us. When we discovered them, it was too late to get to our guns.”
Although all three planes slammed into the ship — one of them flying about 15 feet above Staats' head — none of the hits were extremely serious, he said.
One plane took out the ship's number one gun, another hit near the fantail, “the other one took (out) the masts over our heads on the bridge,” he said.
“When we were hit, we knew we were out of action,” he added.
The attack ended his combat career. He spent the rest of his tour on occupation duty in the Mediterranean.
