Select Page

Vet 480

JAMES  VERDOLINI  (480-1988)

United States Navy, Carriers

VerdoliniJust a 17-year-old kid out of Philadelphia, JIM joined the United States Navy and was posted to aircraft carriers.  His first assignment was USS GUADALCANAL, the Flagship of a hunter-killer task group.  He was a radioman aboard USS GUADALCANAL when they sank U-515 under Werner Henke in April 1944 and was again aboard this ‘bird farm‘ when they captured U-505 on 4 June 1944.  He took the white cap off the cook and donated it to Sharkhunters …not the Skipper’s white top, but the cooks usually wore a white version of the cloth cap the crew wore and that is what he took.

JIM was soon transferred to the Pacific where he served aboard USS RANDOLPH, again as a radioman.  He was heading through the hangar deck going to his compartment to get some sleep but the movie they were showing on the hangar deck caught his attention, so he grabbed a chair and sat down to watch the film.  It saved his life!  Soon after he sat down, the ship shook under a violent explosion. A Japanese Kamikaze plane had slammed into the ship and exploded – exactly in the radio compartment where JIM had been heading when the movie caught his attention.  Everyone in the radio compartment was killed.