For our next filming trip, we went to the West Coast to conduct interviews at the USS Hornet Sea, Air and Space Museum in Alameda, CA. There are five aircraft carrier museums in the U.S., and we have filmed on four of them: the USS Midway in San Diego, CA, the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi, TX, the USS Yorktown in Mt. Pleasant, SC, and most recently, the USS Hornet. The fifth is the USS Intrepid in New York City. I’ve contacted them and they informed me that they do not have any exhibits pertaining to the USS Franklin, so we likely will not film on the Intrepid.
The USS Hornet (CV-12), a WWII-era Essex-class aircraft carrier, was named after the USS Hornet (CV-8) that was sunk during the battle of Santa Cruz Islands. Commissioned 29 November 1943, CV-12 is the 8th U.S. Navy ship to carry the Hornet name.
The USS Hornet museum has an exhibit about “sister ships,” i.e. other Essex-class carriers including the Franklin, but that exhibit was closed when we were there because it’s being refreshed. We were able to see and film some of the Franklin artifacts during our interview with Anthony Wilson, Director of Collections, Exhibitions and Aircraft. In addition to bringing out items that had been donated by USS Franklin veterans and their families, he also showed us the different areas on the ship where artifacts are stored and how the curatorial staff enters items into their archival system.
In the first two photos below, Tim O’Laughlin (Director of Photography) and Zach Noblitt (Sound Mixer) were loading the filming and sound equipment up to the ship. In the third image they were setting up for the interview with Anthony Wilson (on the right). The last photo was taken by Zach of me interviewing Anthony with Tim filming.
Click here to go to the website of the USS Hornet Sea, Air and Space Museum
The main reason we were on the Hornet was to conduct an interview with the son of a USS Franklin pilot. Lieutenant Commander Allan Christie “Ace” Edmands, skipper of torpedo squadron VT-5, was in his TBM Avenger on the flight deck waiting to take off when the bombs were dropped on the ship the morning of 19 March 1945. Although he made it out of his plane and was seen with several other men at the landing signal officer’s station at the port stern of the flight deck, an explosion blew the men off the ship and Edmands was not seen again. Later he was listed as missing and then subsequently as killed in action.
His son, Allan Christie “Ace” Edmands, Jr. was not quite three years old when Ace Sr., was killed. Ace Jr. attended Franklin reunions later in life in the hopes of meeting Franklin veterans who knew his father from their time on the ship. One such person was Jack Hensel, who was a turret gunner in VT-5. Although Jack didn’t fly with Ace Sr., he knew him from being in his squadron, and he was able to provide Ace Jr. with valuable stories.
I was introduced to Ace Jr. when I saw him in a video from the 2006 Franklin reunion in Seattle. He told a compelling story in the video that I thought would be important for the documentary, so I got his contact information from a reunion roster (thank you Ken and Elaine Young) and I reached out to him for an interview. He agreed, and it was he who suggested that we interview him on the Hornet, in front of a plane like the one his father piloted on the Franklin. That suggestion lead to the most interesting venue for an interview we have had so far.
Ace gave a poignant, emotional interview and was very generous in sharing his memories. He also shared with us a collection of artifacts that had belonged to or pertained to his father. His generosity had previously been extended toward the museum as well. We saw evidence of that during our interview with Anthony Wilson, who showed us that Ace Jr. had donated a number of artifacts to the museum some years ago, which included his father’s Purple Heart that had been awarded posthumously.
Ace Jr. wrote a tribute about his father a few years ago that can be accessed with this link – it’s worth the read.
While on the Hornet, we also filmed in the ship’s chapel. As I had hoped, Franklin chaplain and Medal of Honor recipient Father Joseph O’Callahan was represented there.
The chapel office was the storage location for the USS Franklin memorial plaques which used to be part of the Sister Ships exhibit. These plaques list the names of all the men who were killed during service on the USS Franklin. The plaques were taken down and are being stored in the chapel office while the exhibit is being refreshed. Tim and Zach set them up in the pews so Tim could film them. The plaques are similar to the set that we delivered to the USS Lexington, but these on the Hornet are black instead of the dark brown color of the other set. These might also be smaller than the set on the Lexington.
While on the ship, we were fortunate to be invited to ride with a T-28 Trojan aircraft from the hangar deck to the flight deck. The preparation with attention to safety was impressive, and we had a unique experience that most people do not get the opportunity to enjoy.
