Monthly Archives: April 2014

Ernest Baumgardner – Coxswain, WWII

2018-07-21 Update: All online versions of the articles mentioned previously below are no longer available, so here they are in downloadable .pdf form:

Ernie Baumgardner’s War was written by Andy Porter, of the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, in August of 2013. Ernie was a landing craft coxswain aboard the Calvert during WWII. Andy’s article provides great insight into what Ernie, and other coxswains aboard the Calvert, experienced during the Sicilian invasion and subsequent invasions in the Pacific during the “island hopping” campaign.

This is the first time I had heard of, or read, an account on the Calvert’s crew preparing for the possibility of chemical warfare in advance of an invasion (in this case, Sicily).

Sadly Ernie died in January of 2014.

Landing Charts: Sicily, Roi-Namur, Saipan

The following landing charts were graciously provided by Mark Fountain, son of Matt Fountain (BM1c). Each chart is original size and provides excellent detail (click on each to open to full-size document in a separate window). These images are photocopies of the original documents, which themselves are are in great shape given they were created over 70 years ago.

1943-July: Scoglitti, Sicily – Operation Husky

1944-January: Roi Namur – Operation Flintlock

1944-June: Saipan – Operation Forager

Dr. John Hus Valcik, Beach Party Surgeon, Makin Invasion

Many thanks to Nick Valcik for providing the following information and photographs on his grandfather’s WWII service, including time served aboard the U.S.S. Calvert during the invasion of Makin, Gilberts Islands in the Fall of 1943.

Dr. John Hus Valcik was a USN surgeon assigned to 2nd Marine Division Fleet Marine Force during World War II. Throughout the war Dr. Valcik served on number of ships and stations, including the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station Hospital, the Aleutians, the S.S. Mormachawk (see more below), the S.S. Paul Revere, and the U.S.S. Calvert.

Dr. Valcik boarded the Calvert in Hawaii at the end of October 1943, just prior to the Calvert’s departure for the Gilberts campaign. He participated in the initial landing at Makin Island on Nov 20th acting as a beach commander and beach party surgeon.

With “Makin Taken” by the 23rd of November, he and other members of the Calvert’s beach party and several boat crews (including my grandfather, Sterling Funck), assisted at Tarawa. While on the beach at Tarawa, while directing triage and logistics, and with heavy fighting still in progress, he was knocked unconscious and injured. According to his grandson Nick, all Dr. Valcik remembered was one minute he was on the beach and then he woke up in the hospital. He was transferred to the USS Solace (AH-5) for treatment and transported back to San Diego U.S. Naval Hospital in time for Christmas, 1943.

During invasions the Calvert’s enlisted mess area was organized into a surgical ward to accommodate the wounded if they were brought aboard for triage. We’re not certain that the following photographs were taken aboard the Calvert, but my grandfather believed that they were as he remembered how the Calvert’s mess hall was reconfigured into a surgical ward during invasions.

After the war Dr. Valcik practiced medicine in Decatur, TX. He was also on the inactive Naval reserve list and Army inactive reserve list until he died in 1986.