Name/Title
Walter S. Edge UniformEntry/Object ID
NavyUniform2022.15Description
Walter Smith Edge Jr.
SN:22385
Enlistment: September 26, 1940
Pearl Harbor survivor
USS Whitney
Received: December 20, 1940
Transferred: February 20, 1943
Transferred to Receiving Station Epic, For further training, Navy Yard, Washington D.C. for class of Optical School (Long Course)
USS Hamul
Received: Believed to have been transferred at some point in 1945 to the USS Hamul, exact date unknown.
Transferred: September 23, 1946
Transferred to Receiving Station Orange, Texas for discharge.
Binder
Rating does not match and records on file for Walter S. Edge. Possible that the uniform was re-issued, however, I would be led to believe that the hand stitching would have been taken out.
About the USS Whitney:
(Courtesy of Naval History and Heritage Command)
Whitney tended the destroyers of the Fleet into the late autumn and early winter, as tensions increased in the Pacific and Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet, kept the fleet working in an intensive training program. His warships followed a routine pattern of movements, but the entire fleet was never allowed in port at any one time, lest the Japanese might attack.
Such a routine was being followed on the weekend of 6 and 7 December 1941 as two carrier task forces were at sea. All the battleships, however, were in port, as well as a number of other ships engaging in routine upkeep and repairs or rest and recreation.
Among the ships in upkeep status were the destroyers Conyngham (DD-371), Case (DD-370), Reid (DD-369), Tucker (DD-374), and Selfridge (DD-357), moored alongside Whitney at berths X-8 and X-8S. The destroyer tender was providing steam, electricity, as well as flushing and fresh water to the five destroyers alongside. Most of the tender's officers and some 90 percent of her enlisted men were on board.
Unbeknownst to the men at Pearl Harbor that Sunday morning, a Japanese carrier task force had approached Oahu undetected and had launched aircraft within 200 miles of the island. As the harbor began to awaken, death and destruction were winging their way toward it. Shortly before 0800, the attack began.
Whitney Sailors witnessed the attack's beginning; and, at 0800, the ship went to general quarters. A minute later, the first Japanese plane passed over the Whitney nest, strafing as it came. Within five minutes of the general alarm, Whitney had unlimbered her .50-caliber machine guns.
At 0809, she began to make preparations to get underway, and began issuing supplies to the ships alongside, most in "coldiron" status with dead machinery plants due to their upkeep status. A minute later, Whitney's heavier antiaircraft guns began firing, her 3-inch guns barking at passing Japanese aircraft, hurling out the first of the 88 rounds she would send up at the Japanese attackers.
Whitney began issuing ammunition and ordnance stores to the destroyers alongside at 0830, securing steam devices to those ships at about the same time. At 1000, shortly after the attack ended, Reid and Selfridge got underway, followed much later by Case, Tucker, and Conyngham. Although all Japanese planes had cleared the area shortly after 0945, jittery gunners, uncertain of the nationality of any planes appearing overhead, fired accidentally at American aircraft throughout the day, Whitney logging firings at 1105 and 2110.
After the Japanese had left, there was plenty to do in the wake of the devastating attack. At 1130, Whitney received orders to remain at anchor, which she did. At 1335, the tender sent over five lengths of hose and two submersible pumps to Raleigh (CL-7), then fighting for survival where she had been torpedoed alongside Ford Island early in the attack. With no wounded on board, Whitney's doctors assisted in handling casualties on board Solace (AH-5), moored nearby.
Comdr. N. M. Pigman, Whitney's commanding officer, subsequently wrote in his after action report that his men had been "calm and unexcited throughout" the attack, manning their battle stations efficiently and carrying out their orders "promptly and without confusion." He gave them the highest praise for their conduct during the engagement that had catapulated the United States into global war.
Over the next few months, Whitney performed her vital tender services at Pearl Harbor, before she took on a cargo of ammunition, torpedoes, fuel, and supplies in late April 1942 and departed Hawaiian waters on the 18th of that month bound for the Tonga Islands. Ultimately arriving at Tongatabu on 29 May 1942, Whitney operated at that port, providing services to destroyers and other combatant ships through midsummer.
Departing Tongatabu on 16 August, nine days after the start of Operation "Watchtower," the invasion of the Solomons and the first American amphibious assault of the war, Whitney arrived in Noumea, New Caledonia, on the 20th. She was based there during the critical period in the Solomons operations and provided battle-damage repairs and tender upkeep services to numerous destroyers, enabling them to return quickly to action and help the United States Navy to gain the upper hand.
Very much in need of an overhaul for herself and rest and recreation for her crew, Whitney departed Noumea, headed for Australian waters, and reached Sydney on 23 April for a fortnight's stay.
Returning to Noumea on 8 May, Whitney repaired over the next few months and kept in operation many units of the hard-pressed destroyer forces which were fighting for the northern Solomons. Heading for the New Hebrides on 10 September, she arrived at Espiritu Santo on the 12th and conducted her vital labors there until 27 October, when she received orders sending her to Purvis Bay in the Solomons.Label/Inscription/Signature
name is hand stitched into both the jumper and pantsParts
Count
2Parts
Jumper top and pantsCondition
Overall Condition
ExcellentDate Examined
Aug 15, 2022Provenance
Notes
established from name hand stitched in uniform top and pantsCreate Date
August 15, 2022Update Date
November 22, 2022
