Broderick, Richard USN
Posted on 14 September, 2021 by in Veterans By Name, B
This bio of Richard Broderick is being written by Larry Martin June 13 2019 from notes taken in 2012 as well as memory. Dick was born in March 1925 in Massachusetts.
I met Dick at one of my WW II programs at Bet-Mar where I lived during the winters in the town of Zephyrhills Florida. The programs subject was Dr. Eugene Bleil who had survived the fighting and the Death March on Bataan in the Philippines. When I talked to Dick I found out he was a WW II veteran, but would not give me a interview because after listening what Dr. Bleil went through Dick said he did not “deserve” to be interviewed since he did not get into combat in the was that Dr. Bleil did. Dick was a combat veteran as a crewman aboard the USS Iowa. He also had some very interesting history aboard the Iowa as well as the USS Wisconsin which he was a “plank holder or owner” of both ships. It finally took a “order” from his wife Fay for him to give me a interview.
Dick enlisted in the Navy in August 1942 at seventeen years of age. He was aboard the USS Iowa as a primer man in Nov. 1943 on the #1 turret 16in (406mm) guns. The Iowa was taking Pres. Roosevelt, Sec. Of State Cordell Hull, General Marshall, General Hap Arnold, Admiral Ernest King, Admiral Leahy as well as their staffs to the Tehran conference to meet with Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Russian leader Joseph Stalin. Dick personally spoke to General’s Marshall and Arnold when they inspected the ships guns. Some people may remember when the USS Iowa had a explosion of one of her guns in the 1980s killing several crewmen I think. Dick was at a different gun but it was the same ship the USS Iowa. In Dick’s words, he was not satisfied being on a battleship because he wanted to kill more Japs. He volunteered for the Navy UDT which were then what would become the Navy Seals. Dick did all of the training successfully and was a member of UDT team 23. I went to the UDT museum in Fort Pierce Florida in about 2014 where I found Dick Brodericks name in several places at the museum. I remember asking Dick if they loaded back onto their rubber boats like I had seen on TV by a very strong UDT man flinging them out of the water back into the boat with a rubber ring. He said that is exactly how you would get from the water to the boat which was traveling at a pretty good clip. When I asked Dick if that hurt his shoulder he laughed and said when you are 19 and in shape nothing hurts you.
This is very interesting after Dick gave me his interview I went to my home just up the street from where Dick and Fay were staying that winter. I heard a knock at my door and a man gave me several written pages about a WW II (many people were helping me find both WW II veterans and information) incident involving the USS Iowa and it was a incident that Dick had described but knew no other information about. It was the incident where the USS Porter had fired a torpedo at the Iowa while the president was aboard. I took the papers back to Dick where he read it and we did another 10 or 15 minutes of interview so Dick could tell me about what he personally witnessed that day in November of 1943. Dick also tells of the initiation of becoming a Shellback instead of a lowly polliwog after crossing the Equator for the first time.
February 20th 2016 Dick’s wife Fay called me from their home in Maine to tell me how much Dick appreciated the work that I do to preserve and present WW II history to the public. Also Dick bought me a book about WW II facts, such as how many tanks. Trucks, and other military hardware each country produced. I do not have the with me so I can not tell you the actual name.
In 2017 Dick and Fay’s son Richard Jr. called me to give me a personal thank you for the great job that I had done in Dick’s interview and how much the entire family enjoyed the interview because it had so much information all on one DVD disc that they could watch and have for the rest of their lives.
13 July 2019 notes from Feb. 17th 2013. Dick Broderick witnessed the accidental torpedoing by the USS Porter DD356. The Capt. Of the USS Iowa which had Pres. Roosevelt aboard taking him, his civilian and military staff to the Terhan Conference in Nov. 1943. The Iowa was showing the immense fire power of the USS Iowa. The Capt. Allowed the other ships to fire at large balloons. The Capt. of the Porter Lt. Commander Wilfred Walter was given permission to fire also. Walter decided to have torpedo practice also. He ordered the crew to general quarters (battle stations) and started some practice using the Iowa as a target. Unknown to Lt. Commander Walter a Chief Torpedoman named Lawton Dawson had left a primer in place so when that torpedo tube was fired a live torpedo was sent toward the USS Iowa which was emanated by the wake or wash of the Iowa. The Iowa lowered its guns at the Porter thinking that this was a assassination attempt on the President. The Porter was sent back to the Caribbean area for a court martial. Chief Dawson was sentenced to 14 yrs hard labor (different sources say different sentences) when Pres. Roosevelt found out that it was simply a mistake he struck down the sentence on Chief Dawson.
Further history of the Porter she was in many more battles after the Nov. 1943 incident. She was sunk by a nearly all wooden Japanese kamikaze bomber on 10 June off Okinawa with no loss of life. The bomb exploded below the keel of the Porter sinking her by the stern first in 2,400 ft of water.
July 15 2019. Fay Broderick (Dick Broderick’s widow) sent me a WW II photo of Dick as well as his obituary and a personal note to me about her feelings of the interview Dick did with me in 2014 at Betmar in Zephyrhills Fl. Where I live in the winter.
“The copies of the memories that he (Dick) shared with you will be passed down through generations. A sincere thank you from me and our family.”
Signed,
Fay Broderick