When I clicked it, I discovered that it was about my father, Ace, being the skipper of Torpedo Squadron 5 (VT5, the Torpcats) in 1944 and 1945. My father was on the World Wide Web! I was utterly fascinated. I knew that he had commanded Torpedo Squadron 5 before, but I had never heard its abbreviation VT5 or its nickname Torpcats, and I had certainly never seen this insignia, a horned black cat, astride a torpedo, grasping a rat with a stereotypical Oriental face. (For an enlargement, click the site itself.)

In a large list of commanders of VT5 (which eventually became VA-55) Ace's name was listed third, assuming command in June 1944 and replaced by Lt. Charles H. Carr (acting) in May 1945. A little further down was the following text:

March 19, 1945:
VT-5 was preparing to launch its aircraft for an attack against the city of Kobe, Japan, when the United States Ship Franklin CV 13, was hit by two enemy bombs from a Japanese aircraft. Fires were ignited on the second and third decks from the first bomb and the second triggered munitions on the carrier. All VT-5's aircraft on the flight and hangar deck were destroyed by the ensuing explosions and fire. The damage was one of the most extensive experienced by an Essex class carrier during World War II. A total of 724 men were killed and 265 wounded. VT-5's commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Edmands, was lost in the action. All surviving VT-5 personnel were transferred from Franklin and returned to CONUS.

Before August 14, 2002, I had satisfied myself that I had uncovered everything available about Ace. For some silly reason. I hadn't considered putting his name into a Web search engine. And for some even sillier reason, I hadn't thought of seeing if there were Franklin survivors, still surviving in 2002, who might have known Ace and might be able to tell me details about him.

Duhh!

Only a few weeks before, I had heard a startling statistic: World War II veterans were now dying at the rate of 1500 men per day. This number is more than twice the number of Americans who were killed or wounded per day, on average, in the war itself. If I were ever going to learn any more about what happened to my father, I had better stop procrastinating.

That very day I wrote the following to the contact address on the VA-55 Warhorse site:

Subject: Information on LCMDR Allan C Edmands (killed on CV13)

Dear sir,

My name is Allan Christie Edmands, junior, and I am the son of Lt.Cmdr. Allan Christie Edmands Sr., who was killed during the attack on the USS Franklin (CV13) on 19 March 1945. I have your address from the VA55 web site (www.skyhawk.org).

Can you tell me where I could find information on my father? I have very little.

Thank you very much.

Allan C. Edmands

I wrote back to Mr. Weber with the description of the page as well as some details about Ace, including a summary of Lt. Carr's letter to my mother, telling her about the dog tags and ring that had been "found" in Ace's room.

I have a few stories about him but not very much. I was not even 3 years old when he was killed, and I have no memories of him, since he was home from duty so seldom. I would very much appreciate it if you (or someone you can refer me to) can fill me in on some of the details of his naval career beyond the short service report the Navy Dept. sent my mom. Anecdotes would be treasured!

One of the researchers' leads surprised me: the URL to the U.S.S. Franklin group of contacts maintained by Classmates, that company that was always springing up popups in Yahoo! One persistent popup showed the pimply face of a teen over the caption "Is Dirk still a jerk?" Classmates wanted me and 50 million other Internet users to try to locate classmates from my high school days. I had always closed these popups with annoyance.

But Classmates was maintaining a group of Franklin survivors, apparently. What did I have to lose? I logged on to Classmates and filled out an online form with my name and some vital stats on myself. The only place I could put my name was in a field labeled "Shipmate." I sent the form in.

I was about to meet some heroes. My friend Kevin, a New York City fireman who was part of the rescue effort at the World Trade Center Ground Zero on September 11, 2001, scoffs when people call him a hero. Just as my father had said: "I was just doing my job." But I know Kevin is a hero, and I know my father was one, too. And each one of the Franklin survivors I've met out of this single Classmates contact is a hero as well.

Here is a little table of contents, listing the Franklin survivors I've met and interviewed. You can skip to any one of them or just continue on from this page in order.

1. Jim Stuart
2. Wally Young
3. Jack Hensel
4. Marion Gray
5. Edward McGuckin
6. Thomas Hagan
7. More Heroes
8. Yorktown and After

Continue with the narrative