Roy Seth Albiston

Roy Seth Albiston was born Aug 25, 1925 in Richmond to Heber LeRoy and Iva Day Albiston. Roy was a veteran of World War II, dying in action.

Military Service

Seth enlisted in the Navy Air Corps in March 1943 and trained in San Farnsisco, California. He shipped out to sea on the USS Franklin on Feb 1, 1945. While on sea, he was called to serve as Branch President Second Counselor in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for Saints aboard the ship.1

"Before dawn on 19 March 1945, Franklin, which had maneuvered to within 50 miles of the Japanese mainland, closer than any other U.S. carrier during the war, launched a fighter sweep against Honshū and later a strike against shipping in Kure Harbor. The Franklin crew had been called to battle stations twelve times within six hours that night and Gehres downgraded the alert status to Condition III, allowing his men freedom to eat or sleep, although gunnery crews remained at their stations. A single Yokosuka D4Y "Judy" dive bomber approached Franklin without being detected by radar. As Franklin was about halfway through launching a second wave of strike aircraft, the Japanese dive bomber pierced the cloud cover and dropped two semi-armor-piercing bombs before the ship's anti-aircraft gunners could fire. The damage analysis came to the conclusion that the bombs were 550 pounds.  According to the war film The Saga of the Franklin, the leader of Air Group 5 shot the bomber down.

"One bomb struck the flight deck centerline, penetrating to the hangar deck, causing destruction and igniting fires through the second and third decks, and knocking out the combat information center and air plot. The second hit aft, tearing through two decks. At the time she was struck, Franklin had 31 armed and fueled aircraft warming up on her flight deck, and these planes caught fire almost immediately. The 13 to 16 tons of high explosives aboard these planes soon began detonating progressively, and although "Tiny Tim" air-to-surface rockets were loaded aboard Vought F4U Corsairs, their three-point, nose up attitude allowed most of the rockets to fly overboard when their motors ignited. The hangar deck contained planes, of which 16 were fueled and 5 were armed. The forward gasoline system had been secured, but the aft system was operating. The explosion on the hangar deck ignited the fuel tanks on the aircraft, and a gasoline vapor explosion devastated the deck. The twelve "Tiny Tim" rockets aboard these planes ricocheted around the hangar deck until their 138 lb (63 kg) warheads detonated. Of the personnel who were in the hangar only two survived. One "Tiny Tim" warhead lodged on the third deck below the forward elevator, and was not removed until Franklin reached Ulithi. 

"Dense smoke soon filled the engineering spaces, which were ordered evacuated with the throttles set.  Franklin was soon dead in the water, without radio communications, and broiling in the heat from enveloping fires. On the bridge, Captain Gehres ordered Franklin's magazines flooded but this could not be carried out as the ship's water mains were destroyed by the explosions or fire. Cruisers USS Pittsburgh and USS Santa Fe with destroyers USS Miller, USS Hickox, USS Hunt and USS Marshall left the task group formation to assist Franklin. Accompanied by Rear Admiral Bogan, Rear Admiral Davison transferred his flag to the destroyer Miller by breeches buoy and suggested abandoning ship, but Gehres refused to scuttle the Franklin as there were still many men alive below deck.

"The other destroyers fell in astern of the carrier to rescue members of the crew who had been blown overboard, or jumped off to avoid the fire. Some of the destroyers put their bows against the side of the burning carrier to take off men trapped by the fire. Some of the crew from the assisting ships were killed or wounded, but the hundreds of officers and enlisted men who voluntarily remained saved many lives, and then saved the ship... When totaling casualty figures for both Franklin cruises numbers increase to 926 killed in action, the worst for any surviving U.S. warship and second only to that of battleship USS Arizona."2

Epilogue