John James Takacs

John Takacs, senior year portrait, class of 1940.

Bassick High School yearbook, 1940.

Quick Facts

Significance:

US Navy Sailor, World War II, KIA

Place of Birth:

Bridgeport, Connecticut

Date of Birth:

November 11, 1923

Place of Death:

Off the Southwestern Coast of Okinawa

Date of Death:

July 30, 1945

Place of Burial:

Bridgeport, Connecticut

Cemetery Name:

St. Michael’s Cemetery

John James Takacs was born November 11; his Navy file says 1923 and his headstone says 1924. There certainly were young men who lied about their age to enlist in the military in every generation. (An action for which the Navy could and would dismiss you.) But there was no need for John to lie about his age. Starting in November of 1942 you could be drafted if you were between the ages of 18 and 37.¹ John enlisted on April 12, 1943, so if he was born in 1924 he would have been 18 years old. The one-year difference possibly was due to clerical error or simply bad handwriting.

John was one of six children (three boys and three girls) of Stephen and Elizabeth Takacs, who immigrated from Hungary. John grew up in a Bridgeport, Connecticut. There were a few families of the same name living nearby, indicating a tight extended family community. He had cousins living just down the street. His two brothers served in the Army, both were stationed at the short-lived Stuttgart Army Air Field in Arkansas: Ernest was a corporal, Steven was a sergeant.²

John Takacs (right) and his two brothers Ernest (left) and Stephen (Center) all entered the armed forces during World War II.
Bridgeport Post October 15, 1944

John graduated from high school and attended trade school for five months. He worked as a machinist at the Central Machine Works, operating lathes and other machines for about two and a half years. He earned $60 a week.³ So enlisting as an apprentice seaman (AS) would be a significant drop in pay, down to $50 per month.

AS John J. Takacs attended basic training at the US Naval Training Station in Newport, Rhode Island, between April 19 and July 6, 1943. Upon graduating he became a fireman 3rd class (F3c); skipping over seaman completely must have been an acknowledgement of his mechanical skills. Firemen don’t put out fires, instead they work on ships boilers and engines; it was a term carried over from the age of steam, when the person who ran the boilers had to keep a fire going.

In July, 1943 F3c Takacs came to Boston, Massachusetts, where he attended the Navy Training School at the Wentworth Institute. There were a handful of schools in the Boston area that worked with Navy to share information and to educate Navy personnel. The program at Wentworth Institute was designed to train machinist mates. He completed the 16-week course 24^th in his class of 228. He earned excellent grades including a 95 in both Drawing and Power Plant. Completion of the course promoted him to fireman 2^nd class (machinist’s mate). He then attended a week of training on the maintenance of steam generating equipment at Consolidated Edison in New York City, and then returned to Wentworth for another month of instruction.

In mid-December he arrived in California and on December 31, 1943, he joined the crew of USS Cassin Young (DD-973),⁴ becoming an original member of the crew, or in Navy jargon, a "plank owner." While serving on Cassin Young Takacs would share many experiences with his shipmates: seven campaigns, outrunning typhoons, rescuing sailors from sinking ships, and pilots after being shot out of the sky. Destroyers are built for speed and agility, so they were often assigned to escort slower ships, or to transfer people and mail around the fleet. Personally, Takacs continued to train and became a water tender 3rd class in May, 1944, and was appointed water tender 2nd Class (trainee) (WT2c (T)) the following November.

The most dangerous duty Cassin Young performed was serving on picket duty. Destroyers would be stationed to surround the fleet or an island the way a picket fence surrounds a yard. The ship’s radar would scan the air, while the sonar scanned below the ocean surface. Ships on picket duty would relay any pertinent information back to the fleet. Ideally fighter planes would then launch from aircraft carriers and airfields within the protected fleet area to engage the enemy.

During the Okinawa campaign the most dangerous picket stations were 1, 2 and 3, which lay between Okinawa and the main islands of Japan. By that point in the war the Japanese were using kamikaze tactics, sending planes heavily loaded with explosives to crash into allied ships. On April 12, 1945, in the late morning, while Cassin Young was assigned to picket station 1, three planes were detected and fought off. A few hours later another four planes attacked. One plane, carrying a large bomb, struck the radar mast and exploded. The fragmented plane rained down onto the main deck. One sailor was killed and 59 were wounded. WT2c(T) John Takacs was wounded in his left leg. He was given treatment and returned to duty.

Cassin Young was hit by a second kamikaze on July 30, 1945. The second hit was much more severe. The old wooden plane crashed through the main deck behind the forward smokestack causing a massive explosion in the fire room below. Forty-five sailors were wounded and 22 were killed. WT2c(T) John Takacs was one of them. After the war ended, John’s body was brought home for burial in St. Michael’s Cemetery, in Bridgeport, Connecticut

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Footnotes:

1. FDR Timeline, https://www.fdrlibrary.org/timeline. Accessed July 2020.
2. Bridgewater Post, October 15, 1944.
3. Official Military Personnel File of John James Takacs, National Personnel Records Center, National Archives and Records Administration, St. Louis, Missouri.
4. Ibid.