SATURDAY NOVEMBER 6, 2010

VOLUME 4 NO. 44

ANNUAL VETERANS 
DAY CEREMONY 
NOVEMBER 13TH

The Public is invited to the annual 
Veteran’s Day ceremony to be held 
at Hart Memorial Park in Sierra 
Madre on Saturday, November 13, 
2010 at 11:00 am at the Veteran’s 
Wall.

 Although Veteran’s Day will be 
officially celebrated on November 
11th, the ceremony will be held on 
Saturday. VFW Commander David 
Loera will officiate and Sierra Madre 
Police Chief Marilyn Diaz will be 
the guest speaker.

WORLD WAR II VETERAN RECALLS THE ATTACK ON THE USS SARATOGA

Gordon Caldwell is a well respected, 
long time resident in Sierra Madre. The 
retired owner of GEM Plumbing, he is a 
fixture almost daily at Bean Town and 
a member of the Sierra Madre Kiwanis 
Club for more than twenty years. He 
is also an active member of the Sierra 
Madre Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 
3208. He served in the United States 
Navy during World War II on the USS 
Saratoga.

 Earlier this year, Gordon, accompanied 
by his wife Mary Lou, attended a 
reunion of those who served on the 
Saratoga. There he met, for the very first 
time, a Sierra Madre neighbor, Gordon 
Hawkins, who served on the same ship 
at the same time.

 Both men lived through the 
unimaginable - an attack on their ship 
during WWII and both have lived 
very productive lives since then, only to 
discover they are, and have been for a 
long time, neighbors living less than a 
mile from each other. 

 That fateful encoounter at the ship’s 
reunion inspired Caldwell to bring the 
two together back home and share their 
story.

 On October 26, 2010, at a presentation 
to the Sierra Madre Kiwanis Club, 
Gordon told and amazing story of 
patriotism, strength and courage. An 
excerpt has been printed that it might 
inspire others as we remember and 
celebrate our veterans this Thursday.

S, Henderson, Editor - MVNews

Excerpts From Gordon Caldwell’s 
Presentation:

 The Saratoga engaged in landing 
rehearsals for the Marines on February 
12, 1945 at Tinian located in the Western 
Carolines Islands 80 miles north of 
Guam. Tinian had been secured in 
1944, and had the Largest airfield of 
the war. The Tinian North runway was 
20 miles long and 425 to 500 feet wide. 
In August The Enola Gay flew from the 
Tinian airfield, and 
dropped the first 
atomic bomb on 
Hiroshima. 

 After 
Leaving Tinian the 
Saratoga proceeded 
to Tokyo where 
she carried out 
diversionary strikes 
on Tokyo on the 
nights of February 
16 and 17. The 
Saratoga was 
assigned to provide 
fighter cover while 
the remaining 
carriers launched 
the strikes on 
Japan. In the 
process, her fighters 
raided two Japanese 
airfields. She then 
set out to return to 
Iwo Jima, refueling 
on the way. When 
she arrived on 
February 21, 1945 
the Saratoga was 
detached with an 
escort of three 
destroyers to join 
the amphibious forces and carry out 
night patrols over Iwo Jima and night 
heckler missions over nearby Chi-Chi 
Jima. ( ChiChi Jima was an island 150 
miles north of Iwo Jima and 640 miles 
south of Tokyo. It was defended by 
25,000 Japanese troops which served as 
the reinforcements for Iwo Jima.)

 As the Saratoga approached 
Iwo Jima at 5:05p.m., on February 21, 
1945, an air attack developed. Taking 
advantage of low cloud cover, and 
the Saratoga’s insufficient escort, the 
Japanese planes attacked. Within 3 
minutes The Saratoga received more 
varied types of damage all at once, than 
any ship since Pearl Harbor. About 
1 ••• hours after the first attack, with 
darkness setting in, more enemy planes 
appeared and dropped another bomb 
on the carrier before crashing. Damage 
from the second attack, although 
severe, was soon brought under control. 
The Damaged aircraft and debris were 
jettisoned overboard and the ship was 
able to receive its airborne pilots who 
were circling the ship while their fuel 
supplies ran low.

 All in all, the Saratoga 
sustained seven direct bomb hits and 5 
Kamikaze hits. The ship had a gaping 
hole in the flight deck; another bomb 
had penetrated the foredeck. The flight 
deck was wrecked. Her starboard side 
was holed twice, and massive fires were 
ablaze on the hanger deck where the 
enemy bombs had set the fully fueled 
night fighters on fire. 

 At 5:00 PM another sailor and I 
were taking a shower. When the order 
for General Quarters sounded, we 
assumed it was a drill. We had had so 
many drills in the last few days. But then 
it came over the speaker that we were 
under attack. Here we were soaking 
wet, without any clothes coming 
under attack. We had to run down 2 
decks and across the hanger deck and 
through a hatch in the deck to where 
my locker was to grab some clothes. 
The sailor that was with me never made 
it through the hatch. I do not know his 
name or what happened to him. I never 
saw him again.

I now had clothes on, but I was trapped, 
the ship was completely locked down 
for battle. I was trapped, above a boiler 
room; and I could hear the ak-ak fire. 
There was an air intake for the boiler 
in this area, which was approximately 
the size of a door. I went up the ladder, 
about 20 feet and could see out through 
the air intake and watched as the 
Kamikaze (continued on page 4)

 
The General Plan Steering 
Committee is hosting its first Town 
Hall Forum on November 14, 2010 
at the Youth Activity Center (YAC), 
611 E. Sierra Madre Boulevard 
(second story of the Community 
Recreation Center). Residents and 
community members are encourage 
to drop in between 2:00 and 4:00 
p.m. to provide input on framing 
the future of the town. Participants 
do not need to be in attendance 
during the entire two hour event.

 The General Plan is the document 
that defines how the City of Sierra 
Madre is economically managed 
and developed over a ten to twenty 
year period. The General Plan 
guides the policy-making of City 
government. The current 1996 
General Plan is available on the 
City’s website. 

 The November 14th forum will 
solicit community input regarding 
six "General Plan Areas.” The 
areas are: Public Safety; Economic 
Development, Parking, Traffic 
and Transit; Resources, Public 
Services;Treasures/Seniors, 
Hillsides, Historic Preservation, 
Trees; Recreation, Parks, Library, 
Special Events; and Land Use, 
City Council Approved Housing 
Element. 

 Each area will be hosted by a member 
of the General Plan Committee, 
and will have related text from the 
1996 General Plan. Residents and 
community members will be asked 
to comment and provide input at 
each area in exchange for a chance 
to be entered into a raffle. The 
General Plan Steering Committee 
has also created a survey and will 
have a suggestion box to gather any 
additional thoughts related to the 
General Plan Update.

 For additional information call 
De Alcorn at 626-355-4793, or City 
Hall at 626-355-7135. You can also 
inquire about the General Plan 
Update by email at GeneralPlan@
cityofsierramadre.com. Information 
is also available on the City’s website 
at www.cityofsierramadre.com. 

GENERAL PLAN 
TOWN HALL 
MEETING

Gordon Hawkins (left) and Gordon Caldwell (right) met at the reunion of the SS Saratoga on 
Memorial Day. Both men are longtime residents of Sierra Madre. Both men were on board 
the SS Saratoga when it was attacked in WWII. Photos courtesy of G. Caldwell


Sierra Madre Environmental Action 
Council’s Annual General Meeting

SMEAC members, friends, and all those interested in the environment are 
cordially invited to attend SMEAC’s annual General Meeting, to be held 
Wednesday, November 10, 6:00pm, at the Sierra Madre United Methodist 
Church, 695 West Sierra Madre Blvd., located on the northeast corner of the 
Blvd. and Michillinda Avenue. Parking access is off Michillinda. The meeting 
will include the usual potluck dinner and social, piano entertainment by the 
talented Vincent Johnson, a few organization-related comments, followed by 
our featured guest speaker. The latter will be Kirstyn Perry from the firm of 
PBWS Architects. Her topic will be “How Green Is Our New Middle

School”, dealing with the implementation of Leadership in Energy and 
Environmental Design (LEED) practices in the design of the new Sierra Mesa 
Middle School so that the school LEEDS the way in this field. 

Bring your favorite dish to share. Beverages will be provided by SMEAC. Call 

Allison Snow at (626) 355-1544 if you have any questions. We hope to see you 
there. 

Photo of the burial at sea. Eleven sailors of Fire Room 9, Gordon 
Caldwell’s assignment, were killed.

League Of Women Voters Hold Election 
Post Mortem


Inside This Week...

CALENDAR Page 2 

PARKERS PUMPKINS - 
Part II Page 3

SIERRA MADRE Page 4

PASADENA/ALTADENA

 Page 5

ARCADIA Page 6

MONROVIA/DUARTE

 Page 7


Participants in the event included (sitting left to right): Nan Kaiser, Joan 
Zukoski and Laurie Cooper. Standing (2nd from left to right) Debbie 
Hemp, Yvonne Pine,Past President; Jessica Levinson, Petite Morrison, 
President and Samanta Lau.

 On Thursday, the Pasadena 
Area League of Women Voters 
held an ‘Election Post Mortem’, to 
discuss the outcome of California’s 
Gubernatorial Election. Leading 
the panel discussion was Jessica 
Levinson adjunct professor at 
Loyola Law School and director 
of political reform at the Center 
for Governmental studies.

 Questions were raised regarding 
the impact of the votes on ballot 
measures. The League does not 
endorse candidates.

 Although there remain more 
than 2 million ballots that have 
not been counted, the fate of all 
the ballot propositions had been 
by the time the forum was held.

 The 2010 mid-term elections had 
fewer voters participating in Los 
Angeles County than the 2006 
mid-term elections. Despite the 
contentious gubernatorial race, 
turnout for this election was only 
45.54% of the registered voters. 
The previous mid-term election, 
held in 2006 had a 52.14% 
turnout.

 Want to know how LA County 
voted on the candidates and 
issues? See the chart on page 4.

FEATURES

Education & Youth Page 8

Good Food & Drink Page 9

 Peter Dills....Table For Two

Legals Page 10

Left Turn/Right Turn Page 11

Opinion Page 12

The World Around Us Page 13

The Good Life Page 15

Homes & Property Page 14

SPORTS Page 16 

 Bobby Eldridge - On The Course

 Guy Miali - My Call 


Read The Paper Online At: www.mtnviewsnews.com