They went to war together but only one came home.
They joined the US Navy right after Pearl Harbor and were stationed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. The Enterprise was the most decorated ship of WW2. She escaped the fate of the other ships on Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor because they were not back in to port as of yet. This treacherous, surprise attack by the Japanese on our Naval fleet left Enterprise as our only Aircraft Carrier and our Naval defenses dangerously low. However, never to be underestimated, the American people rallied and came up swinging.
Grandma's brothers were on board the Enterprise for the Battle of Midway and Doolittle's raid on Japan. Right after Guadalcanal, Uncle AZ was killed when a Japanese Divebomber dropped a 2nd bomb on the Carrier, in the Battle of the Solomon Islands, August 24, 1942. This battle was fought to keep the Japanese from recapturing the island and it also halted them from moving on to Australia. The Enterprise was badly damaged but did not sink.
(File photo of enemy plane over Enterprise's deck, Aug, 24, 1942)
Eventually she limped back to Pearl Harbor for repairs and was soon back in the thick of the action in the Pacific Theater of Operations. Uncle A.Z. was buried at sea with 76 other brave, young men. For an account of the Battle of the Solomon Islands click here.
(Alphaus Zeno McCollum)
Uncle AC "ACE" McCollum was given a medical discharge in 1944. By then he was pretty banged up and had shrapnel inside of him. He told me that he hated being discharged and would have continued to fight if they would have let him! He also told me that he cries every night for the brother that he lost. Uncle A.C. will be 90 next month.
(Alfred Clifton McCollum)
GIVING A WW2 VETERAN HIS DUE!
Daily Breeze - Torrance, Calif.
Author: Ian Hanigan DAILY BREEZE
Date: Oct 31, 2006
Start Page: A.1
Text Word Count: 957
Document Text
Copyright Copley Press, Inc. Oct 31, 2006
Long before their generation was labeled the greatest, twin brothers posed for a photograph wearing dark Navy uniforms and boyish faces.
Both were serving on the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier, fighting tyranny in the Pacific. But only one would live to see the Allied forces prevail a few years later.
The other would draw his last breath on Aug. 24, 1942, after a Japanese bomb struck the mighty ship.
More than six decades later, the World War II Memorial was unveiled in Washington to salute the sacrifices of vets like Lomita's Alfred Clifton McCollum and his fallen brother.
But for McCollum, and so many other survivors living now with frail bodies and fixed incomes, visiting their own tribute hasn't been practical. The stately pillars and dancing waters commissioned to honor them are simply too far away.
One Lomita businessman thinks he can help.
Al Rivera, owner of Al's Automotive, has made it his personal goal to raise the money needed to sponsor the trip for McCollum, a hometown hero they call "Ace." And if there are a few bucks left over, well, Rivera wants other local veterans to go, too.
Assuming everything goes as planned, McCollum, 84, will board a Washington-bound jetliner sometime after Veterans Day. He'll take with him his dark blue "Enterprise CV-6" baseball cap, countless war stories and aging memories of his brother, Alphaus Zeno McCollum, who will forever remain 20 years old.
"I'm doing these things with you, together," McCollum sometimes says to the portrait he took with his twin so many years ago. "That's the way I feel."
* * *
Rivera, who has been in business in the South Bay for 20 years, said he got the idea from a CBS news segment. It was about a group sponsoring similar trips to the World War II memorial for veterans.
The next morning, he ran into McCollum, a longtime friend who once delivered auto parts.
Rivera's wheels were turning: What if he could raise enough cash, he thought, to send McCollum to Washington?
He figured it would have to be more than just the cost of airfare. McCollum would need a hotel room and some spending money. And someone would have to accompany him.
Rivera broached the subject that same day.
"Al said, 'Would you go if you had the chance?' " McCollum recalled. "I said, 'Yeah, but I don't have that kind of money.' "
Rivera concedes he probably could have written a check to cover the trip himself. But, he said, he saw a chance to pull the community together. To tell McCollum's story.
It's not about the money," said Rivera, 45. "It was just getting everybody involved."
Robert Munger, a friend of Rivera's who agreed to escort McCollum to the nation's capital, agreed.
"That way, everybody would know about him, and what he did for us," said Munger, 66.
* * *
Stationed on the decorated USS Enterprise CV-6 aircraft carrier, McCollum served in the U.S. Navy from December 1941 through February 1944. He took part in eight major battles during that span -- all in the Pacific Theater -- and earned a chestful of medals as a result.
His role was that of a sight-setter for a gun with a 5-inch barrel on the starboard side of the ship. Cranking a pair of dials, McCollum calculated the distance and speed of enemy aircraft, compensating each time for the wind.
Here, he earned the moniker that would stick with him even after the war.
When a round once failed to discharge, fellow crew members frantically shouted "Clear the deck! Clear the deck!" and braced for the imminent blast.
Not McCollum. Without hesitation, he reached inside the cannon, removed the live shell with his bare hands and tossed it overboard.
The man previously known as A.C. was thereafter Ace, as in the Enterprise's "lucky ace."
"I figure I saved the life of about 30 people then," McCollum said proudly.
* * *
In 1945, the fighting ended, but it wasn't until 2004 that the World War II Memorial opened on the National Mall.
Granite pillars -- representing the states and territories of that era -- now ring a vast circular pool, while two larger arches represent the war's dual theaters. Separately, a wall spangled with more than 4,000 gold stars honors the more than 400,000 Americans who lost their lives.
Fortunately, McCollum was not one of them -- a fact he attributes to luck as much as anything else.
These days, he is no longer the scrappy twentysomething who slugged it out for his country. He is instead a sharp-witted octogenarian, a man blind in one eye who gets around with the help of a cane.
Nevertheless, he walks 15 to 20 blocks a day, easily enough paces to see the memorial from all angles.
Rivera, who set up an account at South Bay Bank in Torrance, hopes to get him there by the middle of November. Having printed up fliers and passed them out to the local Kiwanis Club and to the Chamber of Commerce, he figured last week he had already collected close to $2,000.
Still, he's hoping to receive donations in excess of what it will cost to send McCollum to Washington. Whatever's left over, he said, will be passed on to the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Lomita.
In the meantime, the man they call Ace is getting ready to see the memorial that honors him and so many others who did nothing more than save the free world. And, as a bonus, he's getting a little extra attention back home.
"Here's a man that no one knew about," Rivera said, "and now his neighbors are approaching him and thanking him after so many years."
This is so inspiring to me. Like so many from "The Greatest Generation" he has been tight-lipped about his service during the war. They stepped up to the plate and defended our country out of duty, honor, love & respect.
In 2008, Uncle AC was featured in 2 episodes of the History Channel's "Battle 360", on the USS Enterprise. I can't really explain the way I felt as I watched the Battle of the Solomon Islands being recreated watching his face and hearing his voice as he shared about his twin brother's premonition of death. Pride, awe, tears of emotion are just a few that come to my mind as I realized that these were 20 year old young men that served their country. If you have the opportunity to catch this series, it is very well done!
Here is a letter and envelope that Uncle AZ had written in July 1942 to my grandmother. In his letter he writes,
"Don't worry about your twin brothers because they can take care of themselves."
It was posted August 28, 1942 but he had been killed August 24, 1942 in the Battle of the Solomon Islands after Guadalcanal. She would have received this about the same time that they received the notification of his death. The irony never escapes me!
This is the newspaper clipping that was in the local paper that shared the bad news.
Many years ago, when we first went through my Great Grandmother's things, my Grandma Arra gave me permission to keep this beat up copy of LIFE Magazine on the right, that Granny Lizzie (her mother, my great-grandmother) had had all of these years. In it, it lists Uncle AZ's name. Last year, I went on EBay and purchased another to have as a back up.
A close up of Uncle A.Z.'s name within.
ENTERPRISE'S DECORATIONS
Enterprise's exploits did not go unrecognized, at home or abroad. Over the course of the war, she received 20 battle stars, three more than any other ship (sisterships New Orleans CA-32, Minneapolis CA-36 and San Francisco CA-38 each received 17 battle stars), and seven more than the next carrier (Essex CV-9, which received 13 stars).
In May 1943, while she prepared to return to the States for much needed repair and refitting, Enterprise became the first aircraft carrier to be awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. She later received a Navy Unit Commendation, becoming the only carrier awarded both decorations for service in the Second World War.
Perhaps her two most prestigious tributes were received after she left the war. In August 1945, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal cited Enterprise as the "one vessel that most nearly symbolizes the history of the Navy in this war." Two months later, following the Navy Day celebration in New York in October 1945, Secretary Forrestal recommended to President Truman that Enterprise, unable to operate the heavier, faster aircraft then entering service, be preserved "as a visible symbol of American valor and tenacity in war, and of our will to fight all enemies who assail us...."
Later that fall, while participating in the Magic Carpet program for returning servicemen to state-side from the European theater, Enterprise docked in Southampton, England on November 23, 1945. During her brief stay, she was boarded by the British First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Albert Alexander, who presented Enterprise a British Admiralty Pennant, the most prestigious decoration of the Royal Navy. Enterprise is the only ship outside the Royal Navy to have received the pennant, in the more than 400 years since its creation.
Enterprise and her veterans, included among the 16 ships and 10,000 sailors, airmen and Marines who took part in the Doolittle Raid in April 1942, were officially recognized for their daring exploit just recently, on May 15, 1995. The Task Force 16 Citation is the most recent decoration awarded Enterprise and her veterans: it may not be the last.
