John Cass

I have been going over my late Father-in-law's service record (John H. Cass, TM1c(T)), and found that he was assigned to the USS Norris DD859. He reported aboard on May 9, 1945 and is noted as "On board when commissioned". He didn't stay past the shakedown cruise though, as he was discharged on 1/11/46.

Attached is a photo of John just after he got out of basic training at Norfolk, and one from a couple years ago. He is the tall sailor. His companion is Lawrence Moore. John and Lawrence were born within a eight months of each other, grew up together, joined the Navy within a couple months of each other, married two lovely sisters, were lifelong companions and died within six months of each other.

John served in the south Pacific on PT boats, before being assigned to the USS Norris. Although most of his service was actually ashore, he did go on several barge busting missions. His MOS was torpedoman however he was a good machinist and did all kinds of support work on the boats. I imagine that was typical. He was very popular at company parties. His singing voice was fantastic and he could play guitar, accordion and many other instruments. After the war he worked as an optician and raised three wonderful daughters. I am married to the oldest. John sang with the Charleston (SC) Choral Society as well as several glee clubs.

Lawrence Moore was a machinist's mate and gunner on the USS Harry Lee. He survived no less than seven first wave landings, starting with Sicily and ending at Iwo Jima. He was often assigned as a gunner on Higgins landing craft, in which capacity he served in the initial landings at Tarawa. He earned two bronze stars. After the war, he was a golden gloves boxer, Olympic alternate and ran

the Boston Marathon.

Pictures and Words

sent by Son-in-Law