Charles Easy Venable was received from the USS Hunt (DD-674) on 20 March 1945. He had a fracture, compound, skull and deceased on 22 March 1945. He had extensive intracranial damage. He was received in a comatose condition and showed no response to all efforts to save him. He was buried at Sea and is memorialized at the Honolulu Memorial.
Charles was the son of Bertie Powell of Oakdale, TN.
The history of the USS Franklin is quite remarkable and tragic and relatively unknown I think. On March 19, 1945 the carrier was attacked about 50 miles from mainland Japan, the closest any US carrier had been during the war. Casualty figures were 807 killed and more than 487 wounded. It is the most decorated ship in Naval history (2 Medal of Honors, 19 Navy Crosses, 22 Silver Stars, 1,100 Purple Hearts). The Franklin survived the attack and was able to sail back to the US under its own power, eventually reaching the Brooklyn Navy Yard on April 28, 1945 with 704 surviving crewmembers.
–Submitted by Edwin Fort
- Rank: Signalman First Class
- Date of death: 22 March 1945
- County: Morgan
- Hometown: Oakdale
- Service Branch: Navy
- Division/Assignment: USS Franklin (CV-13)
- Theater: Pacific
- Conflict: World War II
- Awards: Purple Heart
- Burial/Memorial Location: Honolulu Memorial, Honolulu, Hawaii
- Location In Memorial: Pillar XVI, Middle Panel
- Sponsored by: Edwin Fort
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