Lorenza Mcnair

My great-uncle was in the military during WWII. I’d always heard from my mother that after he returned, he told the family that if they had any questions about what happened, they’d better ask then because he was never going to talk about it again.  To the best of my mother’ s knowledge, he never did. 

Lorenza’ s military records show that he was a crew member on the USS Neosho when it was attacked during the Battle at the Coral Sea on May 7, 1942. 

Lorenza’s next military service was then on the USS Enterprise, which he joined in October 1942.  The USS Enterprise was the US ship with the most battle stars during WWII.  While he was on the USS Enterprise he was also involved in several more battles:

• Battle of Santa Cruz Islands - was attacked October 26, 1942 and bombed twice.  42 crew were killed, 75 wounded. 
• Battle of Guadalcanal - November 1942
• Batltle of Rennell Island  - January 1943

In November 1943, Lorenza then transferred to the USS Hornet.  The Hornet deployed in 1944 and began it’s career with a series of raids against Japanese bases in the Caroline islands; Lorenza’s records show he was on the ship during this time. 

After I learned all of this, I realize it is no wonder Lorenza did not want to talk about his service.  This was certainly a traumatic experience.  I think our family was truly lucky that he did return home after the war.