Joe Henson Proudly Served In Two Wars by Randy Ark

Joe Henson was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, on June 3, 1925, so he will be 83 years old this year. Joe attended all his school years in Portsmouth and recalls hearing about the bombing of Pearl Harbor when he was about a sophomore or junior in high school. He thinks he was probably in church at the time he heard about it because it happened on a Sunday morning. He said that he and his friends just couldn’t believe what they were hearing, and that they all wanted to sign up for the military, and “go get those Japs!”

    When Joe graduated from high school in 1943, he and his buddies decided to join the Navy. He said the Navy appealed to him because he did not want to be stuck in a foxhole with bombs coming in. He wanted to be on the deck of a ship where he could see who he was fighting and that he just “felt safer” on a ship. He said that every young man wanted to join the military back then and that he was no different. So Joe joined the Navy at 18 years of age.

Joe went from a clarinet player in his high school band to a sailor in a Naval boot camp. He recalls that his initial training began near Chicago along the Great Lakes. He and his buddies had all decided that they wanted to be aircraft mechanics, which are called machinist mates in the Navy. 

After boot camp, Joe and his buddies got a little time off before shipping out to the next duty station. Joe is on the far left in the picture that I am not able to insert, but wish I could. :o) From boot camp, Joe recalls training somewhere in California. From there he was shipped out to Pearl Harbor where he is assigned to an aircraft carrier. 

Joe told me that Pearl Harbor was still “a real mess.”  He saw sunken ships, bombed airstrips and bullet riddled buildings with debris everywhere, and it was scary for a young kid to see the effects of war for the very first time.  Joe said he had more training there in Hawaii before they finally set out upon the ocean. He said, “We were ready for the doin’!” I looked puzzled and asked what he meant by that and he said, “You know, ready to go get the Japs!" 

Joe said that once they were at sea, they pretty much stayed at sea, stopping now and then to re-supply and refuel. The planes on the carriers would look for Japanese convoys and transports and run bombing missions on the islands occasionally. He does not remember ever being fired upon or even being afraid of being fired upon. He also said that he worked on all sorts of aircraft aboard the ship: the Grumman TBF Avenger, first used at the battle of Midway in June 1942, and was effective as a torpedo aircraft; the F6F Hellcat fighter; the SBD Dauntless, a dive bomber in use until the Hellcat replaced it; and finally the F4U Corsair. Joe said these planes would sometimes come in all shot up or damaged from artillery flack and it was their job to patch them up if possible. He said that there were two elevators, one at each end of the ship, that would lower the planes down below deck to the working area. Joe worked on his carrier in 1944 through 1945, and was eventually shipped home to the states in 1946.

One time, Joe related that a plane crash landed onto the deck of the ship and the pilot was strapped in upside down. Joe said that he was wrongly cut out of the plane and the pilot broke his neck falling from the cockpit and died in the fall. He also said planes that came in on fire were often tossed overboard. One time Joe’s carrier was docked at Okinawa and a kamikaze plane was headed toward their ship, or so they thought. It turns out that the target was the ship ahead of them instead. There were more kamikaze attacks on ships at Okinawa than anywhere else in the Pacific war at one time. Luckily, of 193 attacks, 169 were destroyed. 

By the time Joe arrived at Okinawa, after 82 days of battle, almost 7400 American men had lost their lives there. This was in July of 1945. Joe was 20 years old then. What a sight to see for a twenty year old man. 

Joe doesn’t remember exactly when it happened, but he said his father died while he was at sea. Joe told me that his father fought in WWI as an infantryman and was gassed somewhere in France. That gassing affected his father’s health the rest of his life and that he was weak and had labored breathing in his later years. Here is a picture of Joe and his father. (since I am not able to insert images with this text, if you want to see the pictures that should accompany this article about Joe Henson, just email me and ask, and I will send you the full article with pictures)  

After the Japanese surrendered in August and September of 1945, Joe arrived back in the states in 1946. Joe’s time in service during WWII was from 18 July 1943 to 12 May 1946. But Joe’s tour of active duty was not quite over yet! I was surprised to find out that after three years of civilian life, but still in the inactive Naval Reserve, Joe was recalled once again for duty, this time off the shores of Korea. So after some brief re-training on the newer planes, Joe was serving his country again, this time from June 24th, 1949 until June 23rd, 1953. He said he didn’t mind and rather enjoyed the adventure. He said that since leaving the Navy in 1946, a new type of airplane was making its way onto the scene and onto his aircraft carrier. This new-fangled plane was called a “jet”. 

Joe did not have too much to say about Korea, except that he felt even safer on the ship than he did in WWII. He said that he was older and wiser in the Korean War, and felt that he was more aware of what was happening in the war. Communications were improved and news of the war was more complete. 

Joe related that some of the newer planes were much more sophisticated than the WWII planes, but he kept up with the technology as best he could. Here are some of the newer planes that Joe encountered during his time in Korea: The Grumman F9F Panther: the Grumman XF9F-1 Panther began life in 1946 as design G-79, and the company’s first serious attempt to build a jet powered aircraft. It was a rather cluttered looking craft with 4 Westinghouse J-30 jet engines poking through the wings. The Grumman F7F Tigercat: the Grumman F7F Tigercat was the first twin-engined fighter aircraft design to enter service with the United States Navy. They saw service in the Korean War and were withdrawn from service in 1954. The F-86 Sabre Jet: the F-86 Sabre entered service with the United States Air Force in 1949 and became the primary air-to-air jet fighter used in the Korean War.  

Joe said he matured a lot during the two wars in which he served and that he was proud to have served his country when they needed him. He now resides peacefully with his wife, Virginia, of 17 years and they attend church regularly at the Northridge Vineyard Church in Springfield, Ohio, and are actively involved there. 

Joe says that out of five kids, “there are only two of us left.” One of Joe’s brothers is missing from this picture. 

And lastly, Joe spends much of his leisurely time playing golf. It was difficult for me to get this interview scheduled around Joe’s golf schedule. Joe has become a good friend to me and I am proud to know him.  – Randy Ark