Addison Field, Juneau-Douglas City Museum currator of collections and exhibits, unfurls a "commissioning pennant" from the USS Juneau LPPD 10 that was flown from Jan. 1, 2008, to July 26, 2008. The pennant, donated to the city by the officers and crew of the USS Juneau, is part of the new collaborative exhibit titled "The 'Mighty J'" and "Only Ten Survived," opening Nov. 6 at the museum.
The U.S.S. Juneau CL 119, a light cruiser, was the second of three U.S. Navy ships named after Alaska's capital.
Juneau-Douglas City Museum Currator of Collections and Exhibits Addison Field smoothes the edges on a display piece that is part of the new collaborative exhibit titled "The 'Mighty J'" and "Only Ten Survived," opening Nov. 6 at the museum.
What: Opening reception for an exhibit about the Navy's three USS Juneau ships.
Where: Juneau-Douglas City Museum.
When: 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6.
Story last updated at 10/29/2009 - 10:35 am
Retired U.S. Navy Lt. Commander Glenn L. Smith believes the catastrophic tale of the USS Juneau CL-52 in the Battle of Guadalcanal should be told more often.
"Juneau's story to me is one of the most compelling stories that came out of World War II, but at the time it wasn't told at all, particularly in the press in the United States," he said. "The fact that Juneau was lost was kind of glossed over."
Smith, the mayor of the Borough of Orrstown, Penn., contacted Juneau mayor Bruce Botelho in 2008 to inquire about creating a museum exhibit combining his hobbies of military history and stamp collecting. An opening reception of the collaborative two part exhibit, named "The 'Mighty J'" and "Only Ten Survived," will be held Nov. 6 at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum. The exhibit will be on display until next summer.
It features a digital display of more than 50 images Smith created that are related to the USS Juneau, some that include stamps and covers tied to the ship. Some of them have been enlarged and placed on panels, which will be on display with several items related to the three separate USS Juneau ships that served the Navy since the 1940s.
The USS Juneau CL-52 earned notoriety during the November 1942 Battle of Guadalcanal when it was sunk and only 10 of the 695 service members aboard survived. Books and movies have been written about the ship's service, many of them addressing the deaths of the five Sullivan brothers that were serving together on the USS Juneau.
"That's why I decided to tell this story and hopefully you'll look at it and understand why to me it was such a compelling story," Smith said. "Juneau was a catastrophic event and it happened mainly because of lack of communication."
Smith had a conversation with a fellow stamp collector at a show in North Carolina about a year and a half ago about how to get more people involved in their hobby.
"We're a bunch of nuts that collect Naval covers," Smith said, referring to a stamp on an envelope that has been canceled aboard a military ship or base. "It has a postmark that ties it to a particular Navy ship, Coast Guard cutter or Marine base."
Collecting naval covers is a specialized area of philately, the official term for stamp collecting.
"This has been a viable hobby now for almost 100 years, where people have been collecting these little bits of postal and military history," Smith said.
Smith is a member of the Universal Ship Cancellation Society and wanted to generate more interest on the topic.
"One of the things we want to do is raise awareness of our hobby and we were talking about what we can do to create some interest," he said. "One of the ideas I had was to tie a particular ship to a particular place. I've had a long standing interest in the history of World War II."
Addison Field, curator of collections and exhibits at the city museum, said the exhibit probably wouldn't have come together on its own.
"We do a little bit of collecting with the USS Juneau because the ship bears the name of our community, but I don't think we would have been doing this exhibit if this guy from Pennsylvania didn't approach us," Field said.
Two other Naval boats were named after Alaska's capital following Guadalcanal. The USS Juneau CL-119, a light cruiser known colloquially as "The Galloping Ghost of the Korean Coast," was decommissioned in 1955. The USS Juneau LPD-10, an amphibious transport dock, was decommissioned a year ago Friday.
"The thing that I tried to convey is there have been three USS Juneau's and to show people the difference between the three ships and let them learn a little bit about each of those three different ships," Field said.
The three ships that have held the name of Alaska's capital have seen action in most of the major U.S. conflicts during the past 60 years, he said.
"Those ships were to some extent very involved in the history of our country," Field said. "In World War II for the first USS Juneau, the Korean conflict for the second USS Juneau and the Vietnam War for the third Juneau."
• Contact reporter Eric Morrison at 523-2269 or e-mail eric.morrison@juneauempire.com.
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