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Veterans of the World War II-era aircraft carrier USS Franklin held their final planned reunion Friday in South Carolina.
The gathering, held at the USS Yorktown at the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum in Mount Pleasant brought together about two dozen of the remaining crew members.
The Franklin was badly damaged in a Japanese attack on March 19, 1945. During the bomb attack, more than 800 sailors were killed and almost 500 were wounded.
Most of the survivors in attendance at Friday's reunion said they never saw the single Japanese plane come in and had no choice but to jump blindly into the sea, The Post and Courier reported.
"I was gasping for breath because of the fumes," David Baruch, 86, a gunner's mate on the carrier, told the newspaper. "I don’t know how much longer I could continue breathing. So I jumped."
Bill Schauer, 86, who was on the third deck on the morning of the attack survived because he was below the worst of the fire that engulfed the deck above him, according to The Post and Courier report.
"We were thrown all over," Schauer told the paper, recounting his escape through air vents and tunnels. Hundreds of other crew members were trapped on lower decks.
One of the members of the crew was Lt. Cmdr. Joseph O' Callahan, who later received the Medal of Honor for his actions that day. He was the only chaplain to receive the Medal of Honor during the war.
After the war, the Franklin was decommissioned and later sold for scrap.

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Three United Nations observers posted in the buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights were seized by armed anti-government forces and held for five hours this week before being released unharmed, the U.N. said.It marked the third time this year that U.N. personnel along the Golan Heights had been abducted, highlighting how the Syrian conflict has been destabilizing the region. All so far have been released unharmed.
The U.N. Security Council on Thursday “strongly condemned” the latest kidnapping, which it blamed on “anti-government armed elements” who detained the three observers and “looted” a U.N. observation post a day earlier.

Also this month, five peacekeepers were seized and held for five days before being released at the Israeli border. In March, 21 peacekeepers were carjacked and detained for three days.

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NEW YORK – An extraordinary multi-agency policing effort came to a climax on Thursday, as search warrants executed from New York to Virginia led to 16 arrests in connection with a cigarette smuggling ring that authorities believe is the work of Hamas and Hezbollah operatives.

The scheme, which took in at least $65 million, involved Palestinians smuggling up to 20,000 cartons of cigarettes per week from low-tax states, for illegal resale across state lines.The cost in lost tax revenue to New York State alone is estimated at $80m., authorities said. Based on previous operations, investigators believe the proceeds were being channeled to the two Islamist terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip (Hamas) and Lebanon (Hezbollah).

“The proceeds from this alleged scheme can be used to fund a host of other criminal acts that threaten national security and public safety of Americans at home and abroad,” said James T. Hayes Jr., special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New York.

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NEW YORK – An extraordinary multi-agency policing effort came to a climax on Thursday, as search warrants executed from New York to Virginia led to 16 arrests in connection with a cigarette smuggling ring that authorities believe is the work of Hamas and Hezbollah operatives.

The scheme, which took in at least $65 million, involved Palestinians smuggling up to 20,000 cartons of cigarettes per week from low-tax states, for illegal resale across state lines.The cost in lost tax revenue to New York State alone is estimated at $80m., authorities said. Based on previous operations, investigators believe the proceeds were being channeled to the two Islamist terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip (Hamas) and Lebanon (Hezbollah).

“The proceeds from this alleged scheme can be used to fund a host of other criminal acts that threaten national security and public safety of Americans at home and abroad,” said James T. Hayes Jr., special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New York.

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The attacks are believed to be retaliation for attacks against Shias on Wednesday and Thursday. Almost 100 Iraqis are believed to have been killed in this latest outbreak of sectarian violence.
On Friday, two bombs were detonated near a Sunni mosque and another targeted a Sunni funeral procession. One bomb exploded as worshippers were departing a mosque in the city of Baquba, north of Baghdad. A second bomb hit after crowds had gathered to help the injured, in a tactic that has become common in Iraq. At least 49 people are believed to have been killed, and another 57 wounded, police and a doctor told the AFP news agency.
Meanwhile, in Madain, south of Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded near a funeral procession for a Sunni man, killing eight people and wounding at least 25, security and medical officials said. Gunmen also shot dead the brother of a Sunni MP in Baghdad on Thursday.

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The US State Department will add Sheikh Abu Muhammad al Julani, the emir of al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists in a decision to be announced formally tomorrow. The addition of al Julani to the US's list of global terrorists takes place just one month after he reaffirmed his allegiance to al Qaeda's emir, Ayman al Zawahiri, and confirmed that his group is part of the global terrorist network.

The US government added the Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in December 2012. Additionally, two senior Al Nusrah Front leaders, Maysar Ali Musa Abdallah al Juburi and Anas Hasan Khattab, were added to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists the same day that the Al Nusrah Front was named as an FTO. Al Juburi and Khattab are both al Qaeda in Iraq operatives.

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Bomb attacks in Shi'ite areas of Baghdad and in northern Iraq killed more than 35 people on Wednesday, following weeks of violence by Sunni Islamist insurgents determined to unleash sectarian confrontation.

Tensions between minority Sunni Muslims and the Shi'ites who now lead Iraq are at their highest since U.S. troops pulled out in 2011, with relations coming under more pressure by the day from the largely sectarian conflict in neighboring Syria.

A string of car bombings hit Shi'ite neighborhoods across the capital Baghdad on Wednesday evening, including one outside a cafe and another at a market, killing at least 22 people and wounding dozens more, police said.

"I saw a bright flash followed by a strong explosion that shook the building. Glass was shattered everywhere, people immediately ran to the scene and started evacuating the wounded and the dead," said Jabar al-Rubaie, a policeman at the scene in Sadr City district in Baghdad.

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Several Syrian rockets landed early Wednesday in the Mount Hermon area of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, on the border with Syria, the Israeli military said.
"Initial reports indicate that the rockets are a result of (the) domestic situation in Syria," a spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces said.
"As a result the Hermon side of the mountain will be temporarily closed for visitors."
The Israel Defense Forces has been in touch with the U.N. force stationed between the two countries, the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, over the incident, it said.

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The Egyptian state news agency reports that the three suspected terrorists tied to al Qaeda arrested in Cairo Saturday belonged to a cell which planned attacks on the French and US embassies. The French mission was targeted in revenge for the French-led military operation in Mali to dislodge al Qaeda control of the north

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A 75-year-old resident of a New Jersey senior citizen housing complex is suspected of running a prostitution ring that employed some elderly residents as sex workers, NBC 4 New York has learned.
The suspect, James Parham, 75, was also accused, along with Cheryl Chaney, 66, of allowing residents and visitors to use crack in their apartments, police said.

Both are charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and maintaining a nuisance, and Chaney is also charged with possession of crack cocaine.

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