This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Elisabetta Ambrosini-Family
to remember
Marine MGen Oscar Ray Cauldwell (Speed).
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Contact Info
Home Town Nyesville, Ind
Last Address Hartford, Conn
Date of Passing Sep 08, 1959
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
ACCORDING TO CORP DONALD WITHEE, AFTER I INTRODUCED THE GENERAL TO GYSGT JOHN BASSILONE (MOH), HE SAID THE GENERAL WAS GRACIOUS AND DOWN TO EARTH. WE HAD A GOOD " MARINE TO MARINE " CHAT.
USS Nevada (BB-36), the third United States Navy ship to be named after the 36th state, was the lead ship of the two Nevada-class battleships. Launched in 1914, Nevada was a leap forward in dreadnought technology; four of her new features would be included on almost every subsequent US battleship: triple gun turrets, oil in place of coal for fuel, geared steam turbines for greater range, and the "all or nothing" armor principle. These features made Nevada, alongside her sister ship Oklahoma, the first US Navy "standard-type" battleships.
Nevada served in both World Wars. During the last few months of World War I, Nevada was based in Bantry Bay, Ireland, to protect supply convoys that were sailing to and from Great Britain. In World War II, she was one of the battleships trapped when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Nevada was the only battleship to get underway during the attack, making the ship "the only bright spot in an otherwise dismal and depressing morning" for the United States.[13] Still, the ship was hit by one torpedo and at least six bombs while steaming away from Battleship Row, forcing the crew to beach the stricken ship on a coral ledge. The ship continued to flood and eventually slid off the ledge and sank to the harbor floor. Nevada was subsequently salvaged and modernized Puget Sound Navy Yard, allowing her to serve as a convoy escort in the Atlantic and as a fire-support ship in five amphibious assaults (the invasions of Attu, Normandy, Southern France, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa).
At the end of World War II, the Navy decided that, due to age, Nevada would not be retained as part of the active fleet and she was instead assigned as a target ship for the atomic experiments at Bikini Atoll in July 1946 (Operation Crossroads). The ship was hit by the blast from atomic bomb Able, and was left heavily damaged and radioactive. Unfit for further service, Nevada was decommissioned on 29 August 1946 and sunk for naval gunfire practice on 31 July 1948.
Chain of Command Ports of Call
Port Angeles, CA
NyD Bremerton, WA
NyD San Pedro, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Panama Bay, Panama
Colon, Panama
Panama Canal, CZ
Culebra, Virgin Islands
Balboa, Panama
Nyd Puget Sound, WA