BIO
Maurice "Barney" Hamlett was born March 18, 1920 in Clayton County, Iowa, to Otley and Hulda (Berens) Hamlett. He joined the Navy right out of High School in 1938 and served in the Navy until 1946. He served much of this time on the USS New Orleans as a Gunners Mate. He was serving on the ship USS New Orleans when the Japanese pulled off a surprise attack on the US Navy Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on the morning of Dec 7, 1941. Maurice Hamlett ended up in 16 different battles. He married Mary “Bonnie” Bissell in 1952. He owned and operated Barney's Tavern in Edgewood, Iowa from approximately 1948-1963. He then worked at John Deere in Dubuque, Iowa. He passed away on Dec 8, 1985.
On Nov 30th, 1942 an Edgewood, Iowa young man was involved in a Navy battle halfway around the world. Maurice "Barney" Hamlett was on the ship USS New Orleans when that evening it was engaged in an intense battle near the Solomon Islands near the island of Guadalcanal near the Tassafaronga point. Maurice was Gunners Mate and I believe was assigned to the 2nd turret when the Japanese navy and the American Navy came together for a large battle involving several ships. Another US ship, the USS Minneapolis, was hit by torpedos and my dad's ship the USS New Orleans had to turn sharply to avoid running into the Minneapolis.
When in the middle of that sharp turn the USS New Orleans was hit in the bow (the front of the ship) in the fuel tank area and 125' of the ship were blown off and ended up scraping along the side of the ship putting several more holes in the side of the ship. There was a large explosion and fire and the heroics of the entire crew saved the ship from sinking. The next day, Dec. 1st, the crew pulled into a harbor and quickly put up netting and cut down trees from the island to camouflage the ship from further air attacks.
The crew then took 11 days to cut away shredded metal and they fashioned cut logs to try and fill the gap that the explosion had caused. They then sailed backwards at 2 knots ( approx 2.3 mph ) for some time until they could hobble into a harbor in Australia and get a plate welded onto the front of the ship and then sail backwards all the way to the US for repairs. Many men died in that battle but Maurcie Hamlett survived and after the war returned to Edgewood, Iowa. The photos show my dad's ship before the attack and the damage the torpedo did.
Source: Info and Photos provided by son, Bart Hamlett
