Aviation Machinist’s Mate, Third Class RALPH E. FIELDS

Aviation Machinist’s Mate, Third Class RALPH E. FIELDS, US Navy R. He fought with the escort carrier USS Kalinin Bay CVE 68 in the great Battle of Levte Gulf when the ship was hit 25 times by shells and suicide planes and suffered 12 near misses by torpedoes on October 25, 1944. Husband of Betty E. Fields, 2460 Trichel Street, Bossier, and son of Mr. and Mrs. Marida Wedsil Fields, Route 1, Shreveport Louisiana, he attended Fair Park High School and was a mechanic and welder prior to entering the Navy April 18, 1942, at St. Louis. He was assigned to the Naval Training Station, Farragut, Idaho, and Naval Air Stations at Pudget Sound, Bremerton, Washington, Sands Point, Washington, and Alameda, California, as air crewman and aviation machinist mate. He spent 26 months with the USS Kalinin Bay and the USS Hornet CV-12 in the Pacific. In addition to Leyte Gulf where his ship was under fire from the Japanese fleet and air attack for three hours and 55 minutes, he served in the Marshalls, the Marianas, and the Palau Islands, Australia, the Philippine Islands, Okinawa, Iwo Jima, and the Occupation of Japan (Tokyo Bay). He has the Asiatic Pacific Theater (PTO) Ribbon and Philippine Liberation Ribbon with campaign stars and the Navy Unit Citation Badge, and was honorably discharged December 20, 1945, at Bremerton, Washington.

Source:

1- THE FIGHTING MEN OF LOUISIANA – LOUISIANA HISTORICAL INSTITUTE – 1946