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, by Andy Porter – Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, 2013-August
- Ernest Baumgardner’s obituary – Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, 2014-January
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.