Hello, everyone, thank you for tuning in on this short notice and special occasion of Memorial Day 2023.

I want to read to you a little something that I've known about for a very long time that I don't think a lot of our listeners or viewers do know about.

And it's a specific letter that was written during the Guadalcanal campaign. It's one of the most powerful

letters I've ever read in my entire life, and I want to read it to you and give you a little

bit of background and have you reflect on this and the meaning of Memorial Day, every day.

John J. Shea was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on January 30th, 1898.

He earned a scholarship to Boston College at the age of 16.

He enlisted in the Naval Reserve on June 11, 1918, and right after graduation, became a naval aviator after completing training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Shea had been on active duty since 1930, serving from 1934 to 1936. meeting at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Shea had been on active duty since 1930, serving from 1934 to 1940 as executive officer,

Naval Air Station, Squantum, Massachusetts.

After a brief stint at the Bureau of Aeronautics in Washington, D.C., Shea reported aboard the USS WASP as assistant air officer in March

1942. Boston Globe columnist Joseph Driscoll who sailed aboard wasp during a

convoy run in the Atlantic that spring called Shea quote the softest spoken man on the

ship. After serving the Atlantic during the neutrality patrols,

wasps served in the mid escorting multi-convoys before she was transferred to the Pacific Fleet.

Designed small, not as fast, and possessing a weak power plant, Wasp was not what one would call an appropriate fleet carrier to roam off the waters of Guilacamao.

But she was destined to do that very thing. Necessity called her to the blue waters of the

Pacific after Lexington, CB2 had been lost at Coral Sea. WOSP played an important role in the

early Guile Canal campaign, her aircraft covering the initial landings on August 7th, as well as Henderson

Field shortly thereafter. On Tuesday, September 15, 1942, WOSP, in company with North Carolina, Hornet, and ten other warships were escorting transports laden with the Marines from the 7th Marine Regiment.

At 1444 hours, a lookout spotted three torpedoes forward of the starboard beam. Walsp attempted to avoid the fish but could not, and absorbed all three torpedoes forward of the starboard beam. Wasp attempted to avoid the fish

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