Subject: Hello
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2000 09:34:26 -0400
From: "Joseph, Mike" <mjoseph@greentwp.org>
To: "'bennington@uss-bennington.org'" <bennington@uss-bennington.org>

Good Morning,
        Not so long ago, I was in email contact with Rupert Marshall
relaying Bennington stuff to my Dad.  My Father, Edward J Joseph, served on
the Bennington from her maiden voyage until his discharge from war duties in
1946.  I'm sadden to inform that Dad passed away on April 15th, 2000.  He
was 80.  He was very proud of his service on the Bennington & in W.W.II.
You'll be proud to know that at his visitation, we displayed two pictures
(of several family photos')  of the Bennington & Dad.  One was taken by a
photographer of an F6F Hellcat awaiting take off.  Dad is in this picture
(faintly).  He penciled X's around himself & sent it home to my
grandparents!  The second appears in the book "The US Navy in World War II"
& is of a Kamikaze exploding over a destroyer after taking a direct 5" hit
from Bennington gunners.  It was taken during the Battle for Okinawa.  Dad
was a subtle man & quite a few people never knew much about his war duties.
They were very interested to see the pictures & read the captions I
provided.

Respectfully,

Mike Joseph