I had the pleasure of meeting Eric and Deanna at the Gartforvets & Kaiser Willys Jeep Rally August 27th at Heber, Utah. Eric and Deanna traveled in from Colorado to participate with their Flat Fender CJ-3A. Fantatstic people and very patriotic. Here they have submitted their family members who have served us all. This is a family of patriots. From youngest to oldest…
Now it gets interesting when WW2 kicks off and thereafter what happens to her and where some of her parts are:
Oregon was redesignated with the hull number IX-22 on 17 February 1941. After the United States entered World War II with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the Navy determined that Oregon ought to be sold for scrap to free resources for the war effort. She was accordingly struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 2 November 1942 and was sold to ship breakers on 7 December. In March 1943, she was towed to Kalama, Washington to be broken up, but after the work began the Navy decided that Oregon would be of use during the planned reconquest of Guam scheduled for mid-1944, either as a storage hulk or as a breakwater. The Navy requested that the breakers stop after the superstructure had been cleared and her internal fittings and equipment had been removed and to return her. She was then loaded with ammunition to support the forces that would invade Guam and towed there as part of the invasion fleet.
The vessel remained moored in Guam through the end of the war in 1945 and for several years thereafter. During this period, on the night of 14–15 November 1948, Oregon broke free from her moorings during Typhoon Agnes and drifted away. After an extensive search, aircraft located the vessel adrift some 500 nmi (930 km; 580 mi) southeast of Guam. The ship was towed back to Guam, and she remained there until 1956, when on 15 March she was sold to Massey Supply Corporation, which in turn resold her to Iwai Sanggo Company of Kawasaki, Japan. She was then towed there and broken up.
Several parts of the ship remain in Portland; her military foremast was erected in 1956 at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park and her wheel is held in the collection of the Oregon Historical Society. Both of her funnels also survive, but are not on public display.
Thank you both for coming out to support my campaign and for following through and forwarding me your family of patriots photos so that I could honor them here. Friends for life, see you during my trip across America. Capt. Scott