Flag Folding at Lewis Swart's Burial

Two sailors folding the flag that draped my grandfather's coffin. He had served aboard the U.S.S. Belknap during World War II. He was buried on May 24, 2010 in Fletcher, Oklahoma.

Knowing that he would no doubt be drafted because of his German name, grandpa volunteered for the U.S. Navy, and entered service in September 1942. All six Swart boys would end up serving during the war, and amazingly, all six returned home.

He attended training in San Diego, California and St. Paul, Minnesota. He spent time in Boston, Massachusetts until he was assigned duty aboard the U.S.S. Belknap, a destroyer in the Atlantic. The Belknap was given the Presidential Citation Award for her success in bombing German U-Boats.

The Belknap did escort duty for cargo ships, and grandpa traveled to Newfoundland, Morocco, Bermuda, and the Caribbean. I remember him telling of a stop in the Hawai'ian Islands and seeing the damage of Pearl Harbor for himself.

In 1944, the Belknap was sent to Papua New Guinea and then to the Philippines as part of the liberation of those islands from the Japanese. The Belknap assisted in the invasion of Leyte, and also the invasion of Lingayen on January 9, 1945. The ship provided artillery backup from the Lingayen Gulf for forces on the ground. Japanese swimmers attempted on several occasions to take out ships in the fleet by strapping explosives to themselves and swimming below the ships. On January 11th, crewmen of the Belknap killed thirteen of these suicide swimmers -- including one who had attempted to throw a grenade on the ship.

On the morning of January 12th, several kamikaze planes were spotted heading for the ships in the gulf. The most effective way to deal with this problem was a barrage of gunfire trained on the planes. Though efforts were made to take down these aircraft, a suicide plane crashed into the number two stack of the Belknap at 7:46 a.m. One of the plane's two bombs fell into the sea before the crash, but the other exploded on the deck of the Belknap which sustained "extensive" damage according to reports.

Thirty-eight members of the crew were killed instantly or mortally wounded. Forty-nine were injured, included grandpa, who sustained shrapnel wounds in his legs. He told my father that the only reason he survived was that he was below deck. He also spoke about the horrible sights he witnessed after the explosion. Grandpa was awarded the Purple Heart in January 1946 for wounds sustained in the kamikaze attack.

That afternoon, the bodies of the fallen comrades were buried at sea with full honors. The ship was damaged so badly it had to be towed to Manus Island of Papua New Guinea. Repairs were made until the 18th, and the ship was taken back to San Diego, and then through the Panama Canal to Philadelphia where it was decommissioned and scrapped. Grandpa was one of 23 crewmen that stayed aboard the Belknap on the voyage to Philadelphia.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• flag
• folding
• funeral
• navy

[sutonchef]

my brother tom stanton served on the Belknap 1962 during the Cuban missle crisis

[tatethompson1234]

Im sorry for your loss. Both of my grandfathers and there brothers served in WW2. One of my grandfathers in the Navy and other in Army. Served on D-Day and was wounded 3 times. My grandpa in the Navy,served on the USS Clermont and was a gunner and was at Okinawa. I have their flags proudley with their medals locked up. Again,sorry for your loss. That was the toughest thing for me, when they played taps in 2007 and folded my grandpas flag.

[johnnyshark42]

Thank you Hero.