RESCUED OFF SHIP HORNET AS IT SINKS
The horoscope of Charles Haynes, 19 year-old storekeeper with the Navy, must have had a lucky star for Oct. 26, for he was one of the rescued off the aircraft carrier Hornet, which sank to the bottom of the South Pacific.
Word of his safety has been received by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Morley C. Haynes, 1805 West Third street, who revealed it Tuesday after the Navy had announced the Hornet’ sinking.
The 20,000-ton Hornet sank after a battle that inflicted heavy damage on two Japanese carriers and bomb and torpedo hits on an enemy battleship and five cruisers.
Explosions from Japanese planes which dive-crashed to the Hornet decks, wrecked the superstructure and set the big ship aflame, but Haynes was lucky enough to escape safely when the order was given to abandon ship.
Source: The Waterloo Daily Courier, January 12, 1943 (photograph included)