Petaluma WWII vet tells story

Petaluma Navy veteran Robert Banzet cleared wreckage from Pearl Harbor, survived the battle of Guadalcanal, and helped shoot down a kamikaze plane aimed at his ship.

Banzet, 95, joined the Navy in 1941 at the age of 17. A few months later, after an accelerated boot camp in San Diego, he boarded the USS Argonne, which previously survived the Pearl Harbor bombing, and cleaned up the wreckage from the attack, including victims trapped underwater.

In July of 1942, Banzet set sail with the Argonne to Kanton Island near the Marshall Islands to rescue the grounded troop ship “President Taylor.” Later that year, they docked in New Caledonia, where Vice Admiral William “Bull” Halsey temporarily set up headquarters on the Argonne to assess the Guadalcanal situation.

Banzet acknowledged the key role of the Coastwatchers, a group of brave islanders that scouted enemy ships and were sometimes tortured or executed when caught.

“They saw Japanese ships that radar didn’t catch,” he said.

Banzet also spoke of a close call, when he was loading cargo and talked into stocking a cache of forbidden liquor aboard ship.

“The captain found out and said I should be court-martialed, but understood the crew’s needs and was lenient,” he said.

In 1944, Banzet was present in the Admiralty Islands and witness to the explosion of the ammunition ship USS Mount Hood, which damaged the nearby Argonne and the Mindinao. The Argonne helped put out the subsequent fires and rescue survivors.

Later, Banzet became a gunner aboard the destroyer USS Trathen DD530. He recalled that their gun was among the fastest to load, at a shell every three seconds while most loaded every six seconds.

In early 1944, the Trathen began providing support for the amphibious invasions of the Japanese held Marshall and Solomon Islands. In August, they participated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

In December of 1944, the Trathen encountered the infamous “Halsey’s Typhoon,” which sank three other destroyers with a loss of more than 800 lives. This typhoon was the central event in the semi-fictional story “The Caine Mutiny,” which referred to a similar type of allied destroyer.

Banzet recalls that “most of the officers were incapacitated by sickness” and that he “was one of the able bodied that helped feather the two propellers to keep the ship afloat.”

At the height of the storm, the ship’s inclinometer registered a staggering 67 degrees from the vertical.

In 1945, the Trathen participated in carrier support involving the invasions of Iwo Jima and the Japanese home islands. During the invasion of Taiwan, they encountered the Japanese Navy’s new desperate weapon, the kamikaze airplane, in which the pilot made a suicide dive towards allied ships.

Banzet recalls with eyes blazing the day the Trathen stared into the face of one of these aerial charges, and emerged the victor. Ever the humble hero, Banzet acknowledged that running destroyers is a team effort, and thus no one person takes credit for a kill. In total, the Trathen group shot down five of the enemy kamikaze planes beginning on March 14, with one getting through to hit another destroyer, the Intrepid.

In July 1945 the Trathen returned to Seattle for repairs and Banzet was now done with the war, but not the Navy. He recalls that upon going ashore, he found a Japanese shell that had penetrated his sea bag, an unexpected souvenir that his son Chris later took to show-and-tell at school in Petaluma.

He spent a few months at the Naval facility at Corpus Christi, Texas, making side money as a cable splicer, a skill he’d learned aboard ship. After he’d left the Navy in late 1945 at the age of 21, he’d seen more than most men see in a lifetime.

Banzet went on to a 30-year career as a San Francisco fireman. He helped drive the ladder truck, and was nicknamed “Leadfoot,” often being the first to arrive at the fire.

He again braved bullets during the 1966 San Francisco riots, when crews were fired upon. He retired in 1976 to a quiet life in Petaluma among his family, grateful to have served and survived, humbled by those who made the ultimate sacrifice.