The 2023 USS Franklin reunion was held February 16-19 in Corpus Christi, Texas. Filming the reunion for the documentary was successful and captured some great moments for the film.
On the first day of the reunion, author Glenn Ross, who is conducting research for a new book about the USS Franklin, allowed the film crew to document his guided descent into the lower decks of the USS Lexington in order to retrace the escape routes taken by Father O’Callahan and Lt. Gary the day of the attack in March of 1945.
Because the USS Lexington is an Essex Class carrier like the USS Franklin, the layout of the two ships would be similar. However, upgrades and refitting over the years, plus modifications to the USS Lexington to make her into a museum, may have significantly changed areas along the escape routes, or might have closed them off completely compared to what existed on the USS Franklin during WWII. Therefore, Glenn could not be sure that the paths we took during the hardhat tour were 100% the same as those that O’Callahan and Gary took that fateful day in 1945.
We conducted interviews with some of the attendees at the reunion. This is something we do at every reunion, and we are grateful to the people who generously put themselves in front of the cameras and speak to us about their experiences. We also filmed: the 80th birthday party of the USS Lexington (of which the Franklin group played a part), a group who toured the ship after a Franklin reunion lunch on the hangar deck, the USS Franklin plaques that had been framed and mounted in the Lexington’s “Carrier Row” exhibit in time for the Franklin reunion, the memorial service aboard the Lexington to honor the Franklin crewmen who gave the ultimate sacrifice, and the 8 O’Clock Report.
This year, our production crew was joined by photographer Clay Rausch, Steve Rausch’s son-in-law, who photographically documented the reunion and the filming.
