Rose Festival cruise pays tribute to veterans

The House brothers, from left, Chuck, 92, Bill, 84, and Jim, 83, wait Thursday to board the USS Shoup at the Port of Kalama. All three Kalama natives served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. (Steven Lane/The Columbian)

World War II veterans and their families prepare to board the USS Shoup at the Port of Kalama late Thursday morning. The special Rose Festival cruise carried the guests to Portland. (Steven Lane/The Columbian)

The U.S.S. Shoup leaves Kalama after picking up guests Thursday for a Rose Festival cruise to Portland. (Steven Lane/The Columbian)

Guests board the U.S.S. Shoup at the Port of Kalama Thursday morning as the guided missile destroyer prepares to finish its voyage to Portland as part of the Rose Festival fleet. (Steven Lane/The Columbian)

Chuck House, 92, a Navy veteran of World War II, gets ready to step aboard the U.S.S. Shoup at the Port of Kalama Thursday. (Steven Lane/The Columbian)

KALAMA — The veteran relaxing on the dock along the Columbia River with his two brothers had participated in one of the milestone events of the war in the Pacific.

As a crewman on an attack transport ship, Jim House took part in the invasion of Okinawa.

Another veteran standing nearby might have guided House's ship there. As a Navy cartographer, Virginia Carlson Kipper drew up maps for troop landings in the Pacific.

They were among the veterans honored Thursday on a special Rose Festival cruise from Kalama to Portland. They joined Rose Festival officials and community leaders for a three-hour voyage aboard the USS Shoup, a guided missile destroyer.

Altogether, four House brothers served in World War II. Joining the Navy was an easy decision for the Kalama natives.

"Our father was a commercial fisherman, and we grew up on the water," said Chuck House, the oldest of the trio at 92.

By the time Jim House turned 18 and enlisted, there was no decision.

"When I took my physical, I was eligible for the Army, Navy and Marines," said Jim, now 83. "There was a tussle among the three recruiting officers, and the Navy won because three of my brothers were already in."

Jim, who still is a Kalama resident, was on the APA 143, the numerical designation for his attack transport, the USS Claremont.

"All the action was over by the time we arrived," Jim said. "We brought in replacement troops."

His 84-year-old brother Bill begged to differ.

"You were at the invasion of Okinawa," said Bill, a Centralia resident. He worked at a ship-repair facility in the Pacific.

Chuck, a Longview resident, served on the escort carrier USS Savo Island, which was built in Vancouver at the Kaiser shipyard.

While sea duty was an easy transition for the House brothers, Kipper the cartographer played a role in some of the biggest battles of the Pacific without ever leaving Washington, D.C.

She was a member of the Navy's WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) program.

"I drew charts for landings," the Portland resident said. "We knew six weeks ahead of time where the invasion was going to be. Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, we did them all."

Including one that never happened. Kipper said her unit drew up plans for the invasion of Japan, and didn't stop even when the war ended.

"We kept at it because we thought they wouldn't quit," she said. Their charts even designated caves where defenders might have mounted a last-ditch resistance.

Bob Graves' commemorative T-shirt displayed an image of his destroyer, the USS Bowers. But you had to look closely to see the wreckage of a Japanese kamikaze that had crashed into the ship's bridge.

"I was a throttle man in the forward engine room," Graves, of Longview, said. "It was a good place to be. Everyone topside was exposed and was killed."

The Southwest Washington veterans were escorted by Sandy and Jana Kearns of Vancouver. They're members of the Blueback Council — primarily Clark County residents — of the Navy League of the United States.

The organization is for veterans of the seafaring branches of service, including merchant marine, Sandy Kearns said.