DOHERTY, MICHAEL

Michael Doherty

Navy

Ridge

Michael Joseph Doherty was born May 23, 1924 in Bronx, NY. He completed high school and was living in College Point, L.I. and working as an auto mechanic in Flushing when he enlisted in the Navy on Nov. 11, 1942. After 6 weeks of recruit training in Newport, RI he was sent to boot camp at Great Lakes, Ill. for 6 months. He received additional training on Oil Burning at a Navy training school in Philadelphia, PA. He was assigned to the assault transport USS PIERCE which had been commissioned June 1943 in California and after a brief shakedown period they sailed for Hawaii to join the Fifth Amphibious Force, Pacific Fleet.

During the next two years the PIERCE transported assault troops to various islands in the southwest Pacific including the Gilbert Islands, Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, Saipan in the Marianas, Angaur in the Palau Islands, Leyte and Luzon in the Philippine Islands, and Okinawa. The Pierce was in San Francisco for repairs in June and July of 1945 and Michael was assigned to the transport USS BUTTE which had been active in the Pacific and was back in Calif. during the same period. The BUTTE departed Seattle July 8, returning to the western Pacific and arriving at Okinawa on August 12, three days before hostilities ceased.

After the Japanese surrender on Sept. 2, 1945 the BUTTE carried troops to Korea and North China and in mid-December, returned to the U.S. Michael was discharged March 5, 1946 at Lido Beach, Long Island.