texttuckerglenng1946.html

North High School Wall of Honor
Glenn Gorham Tucker
Class of June, 1946

Research done by Claradell Shedd, Class of 1953. PAGE IN PROGRESS

Glenn Gorham Tucker

Glenn enlisted in the Navy (fibbing about his age) and never reported to school for the second semester. He was considered as having graduated from North High School in June, 1946. His service number was 3227162. Glenn's next of kin was listed as his father, Mr. Glenn Tucker, Sr., 1906 9th Street, Des Moines, IA.

Glenn Gorham Tucker

Year		Rank		Status

January, 1945	x	Enlisted	x	Enlisted in US Navy (fibbing about his age) and never reported to school for the second semester. North High considered Glenn as having graduated in June, 1946.
February, 1945	x	US Navy/Rank	x	Great Lakes Naval Training Center, IL
March-April, 1945	x	Enroute	x	Troop train to Treasure Island, CA (harbor of San Francisco)
April, 1945	x	US Navy	x	(1) USS Sabik (AK-121), a troop transport, from Treasure Island to Guam, Mariana Islands. Posted to *Fleet Hospital #115 on Guam.
date	x	US Navy	x	***(2) USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107). Saipan, Rota, Pearl Harbor, etc.
date	x	US Navy	x	From Pearl Harbor to San Diego to Norfolk, VA
date	x	US Navy	x	****(3) USS Lake Champlain (CV-39)
August 10, 1946	x	US Navy/ Seaman1stC	x	Discharged at USN PSC; Shelton, VA (Norfolk, VA)
date	x	Enroute	x	From Norfolk, VA to Des Moines (land, air?)
1946-1948	x	US Navy Reserves	x	While in college (where?) after getting my high school diploma, joined Navy Reserve and spent two years in San Diego at Reserve Officers Corps, being selected to attend officers school. .
January, 1947	x		x	Enrolled in Drake University. Two years.
1950	x		x	Married and transferred to Iowa State Teachers College (UNI).
1950	x	Employment	x	Teaching in Iowa, Illinois.
1958	x		x	Divorced and moved to Florida where I taught at Riverview High School in Sarasota. Riverview High School Rams.
1965	x	Employment	x	While teaching summer school in Sarasota, was visited by a professor from the University of Florida who offered me a fellowship starting in 1966.
1967	x		x	University of Florida, Master's in Education
1968	x	Schooling	x	University of Florida, Ed S
1969	x	Schooling	x	University of Florida, Ph.D.
1966-1969	x		x	University of Florida offered me a fellowship. Ph.D.
1960-	x		x	Taught at Marshall University, Austin Peay State Univesity, served as a Georgia State Science consultant, a high school principal, and an adjunct professor of Science Education at Valdosta State University. .
1992	x	Retired	x	From teaching
2005	x	Civilian	x	Wrote two books (see below)
2006	x	Civilian	x	Wrote two books (see below)
3011	x	Retired	x	Retired, living in GA

(1) USS Sabik (AK-121)


		Flat Hoist/Radio Call Sign: N - H - B - W

USS Sabik; AK-121 Awards, Citations, and Campaign Ribbons

Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row - American Campaign Medal
Bottom Row: Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (2)
World War II Victory Medal; Philippines Liberation Medal (1)

*(1) USS Sabik (AK-121)
Following shakedown off Norfolk, Virginia, USS Sabik proceeded to Bayonne, New Jersey, where she loaded cargo and marines and sailed on 5 June for the New Hebrides. She arrived at Espiritu Santo on 13 July and then continued on to the Russell Islands, commencing a schedule of inter-island shuttle runs that ranged the southwestern Pacific Ocean during the course of the war.

Island-hopping in the South PacificFor nearly 15 months, the cargo ship plied the waters between Guadalcanal, Tulagi, Munda, the Russells, the New Hebrides, Bougainville, Peleliu, Anguar, Ulithi, Eniwetok, Manus, Hollandia, Guam, Saipan, and Tinian. She participated in landings, during this time, at the Tacloban and Dulag beaches on Leyte, and at the Hagushi beaches on Okinawa. She finally sailed for Pearl Harbor on 29 July 1945, arriving on 13 August. She then proceeded to San Francisco, California, passing under the Golden Gate bridge on 22 August.

End-of-war activityFollowing long needed repairs, Sabik departed the Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 24 September en route to Guam and Majuro for Operation Magic Carpet duty. Returning troops to the United States, she returned to San Francisco exactly three months later on 24 December and remained there to await inactivation.

Fleet Hospital 115: Guam, Mariana Islands
United States Fleet Hospital No. 115, Built by 48th N.C.B. and Hospital Staff, Commissioned 7 Dec. 1944, Completed 1 April 1945.

(2) USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107)

	Flat Hoist/Radio Call Sign: N - K - A- T

***(2) USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107)
After shakedown training, Gilbert Islands departed San Diego on 12 April 1945 for exercises in Hawaiian waters. She sailed on 2 May with an escort carrier force that closed Okinawa on 21 May. Her aircraft blasted and strafed concrete dugouts, troop concentrations, ammunition and fuel dumps on Okinawa from 24–31 May. In the following days she helped neutralize outlying Japanese airfields and installations with repeated bomb and rocket attacks. Four of her Marine pilots and three TBM Avenger gunners were killed in action in all of 1945. She departed Okinawa on 16 June to replenish at San Pedro Bay, thence to Balikpapan, Borneo. She gave air cover to Australians storming that shore 1 July and remained 4 days to attack all targets in sight. With the Australians securely established, she returned to Leyte on 6 July.

Gilbert Islands departed San Pedro Bay on 29 July to screen logistic ships replenishing 3rd Fleet striking forces along the coast of Japan. On that station 15 August she joined a task group that included nearly all the 3rd Fleet and heard Admiral Halsey's laconic direction: "Apparently the war is over and you are ordered to cease firing; so, if you see any Jap planes in the air, you will just have to shoot them down in a friendly manner." After replenishment at Okinawa, she departed on 14 October to participate in a show of air strength during occupation of Formosa by the Chinese 70th Army. She was then routed onward via Saipan and Pearl Harbor to San Diego, arriving on 4 December 1945. She remained in port until 21 January 1946, then set course for Norfolk where she decommissioned on 21 May 1946 and was placed in reserve.

(3) USS Lake Champlain (CV-39)

	Flat Hoist/Radio Call Sign: N - T- C- R

****(3) USS Lake Champlain (CV-39)
Commissioned in mid-1945, Lake Champlain did not participate in World War II, but did serve as a transport, bringing troops home from Europe as part of Operation Magic Carpet. Like many of her sister ships, she was decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, but was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s, and redesignated as an attack carrier (CVA). She participated in the Korean War but spent the rest of her career in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Mediterranean. In the late 1950s, she was redesignated as an antisubmarine carrier (CVS). She was the prime recovery ship for the first manned Mercury and for the third manned Gemini (Gemini V) space missions.

Above: 1945; F4U Corsair Rt: San Diego Naval Trng Ctr; Rt: Norfolk, VA

Books Published (permission for references/graphics by Glenn G. Tucker)

2005: Exile Island	2005: University Past Time	2006: I'll See You in 20 Years	2006: I'm Sorry I Missed You

Publications with ISBN References
2005: Exile Island	ISBN 1420824732 (1-4208-2473-2)
2006: I'll See You in Twenty Years	ISBN 142591005X (1-4259-1005-X
2006: I'm Sorry I Missed You	ISBN 142085934X (1-4208-5934-X)
2005: University Past Time	ISBN 1420889370 (1-4208-8937-0)

Glenn G. Tucker Seaman 1st Class/E3 Navy Group United States Navy

American Campaign; Victory Medal; Asiatic Pacific Medal

References

(1) Information was obtained from the Records on Military Personnel Who Died, were Missing in Action, or Prisoners of War as a result of the Vietnam War. This document can be found online at the National Archives and Records Administration at http://www.archives.gov/.

(2) The comprehensive list of names from North High's 1893-2018 graduation classes are from Claradell Shedd's North Des Moines High School website. The names of North High School graduates can be found online at: http://www.ndmhs.com/. Glenn Gorham Tucker's 1946 class page is: http://www.ndmhs.com/pages/yearclass1946(2006.60).html.

08/14/11. Living in GA.

Music: "Anchors Aweigh"