Edward N. Hahnemann

Edward N. Hahnemann was born in May 1923 in Newark, New Jersey. His father had a navy career, which inspired Hahnemann to consider enlisting. The grandfather had also urged him to enlist in the service.

Hahnemann’s father, a member of the US Navy Armed Guard on the merchant ship SS Joseph Cuddahy, had to spend three days on a lifeboat after his ship was hit by a German torpedo. A British ship was able to pick him up; and, after reaching Norfolk, Virginia, he contracted spinal meningitis. He was, thankfully, able to recover, and his journey inspired his son to follow him.

Hahnemann attempted to enlist in the Navy a number of times, but was rejected due to being low in protein and underweight. He was finally able to meet service health requirements and was accepted in November 1943. Hahnemann trained in the Philadelphia Navy Yard and went to aviation school there, where he learned about arresting gear, which halted planes landing on aircraft carriers.

Hahnemann boarded the USS Langley for observation training, then proceeded to Norfolk, Virginia to board the USS San Jacinto. The San Jacinto sailed down to Trinidad on a shakedown cruise to test the ship’s performance, then underwent “de-gauzing,” the placement of electric wiring around the ship’s body to deter torpedoes. Hahnemann recalled former president George H.W. Bush being on the ship as a pilot, his plane painted with a big number two.

When he was shipped overseas, Hahnemann went through a detailed “initiation” from “Polliwog” to “Shellback” on crossing the equator. He recalled being dunked in a tank, sprayed with antifreeze, electrically shocked, and spanked! While subjected to all of this, he had to yell “I’m a Shellback!” over and over again. 

Hahnemann was promoted to Aviation Mate 3rd Class, a rank he held until the end of the war. His job was to help planes land and take off safely. Hahnemann recalled very few accidents, although there was one tragic incident when a sailor on the deck crew backed into a moving propeller and was cut clean in half. Hahnemann said this accident did not affect morale, because everyone knew that anything could happen at any given time. He added that he was glad he was on a carrier back then and not now, because of how much faster planes take off and land today.

Hahnemann remembered the USS Franklin and USS Belleau Wood being hit by Kamikaze suicide planes. One night while working on the flight deck, Hahnemann noticed a plane moving towards his ship in the distance. The front of the plane’s lights looked odd, but he said, “that night we were landing anybody.” The plane flew about twenty feet overhead and Hahnemann recalled seeing a Japanese flag painted on its side.  The pilot was desperate to land, and ended up jumping into the ocean. Hahnemann recalled that the crew on his ship rescued the pilot. 

While stationed near the Philippines, Hahnemann got several short shore leaves, during which he bought German-American beer from the locals. Some hard liquor from US Marines who were stationed there was kept in their whiskey cache buried in the sand.

During the second atomic bomb drop on Nagasaki, Japan, Hahnemann recalled, “We were only sixty miles away… the whole world shook.” After the bomb dropped and the Japanese surrendered, Hahnemann’s ship remained on duty off the coast of Japan until January 1946. He said that while there, they had to maintain area cover and make sure that nothing untoward happened, even though Japan had surrendered.

Once discharged, Hahnemann used the GI Bill to attend college to earn an engineering degree and buy a house. He served his country for three years and was awarded the Asiatic Pacific Medal 7 stars, the Philippine Liberation Medal 2 stars, the Good Conduct Medal, the Victory Medal and the Presidential Unit Citation.

Edward N. Hahnemann died on October 18, 2016 at the age of 93.