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SC-1275 photos, articles and log books courtesy of John L. Whetzal, Jr.; Patty Yaroch; Dayton Ziehm; John L. Whetzal III, SMSgt, USAF, (Ret); Bob Dillon; Ed Baker and families of the crew. Huge thanks to the courageous and dedicated crew of the SC-1275
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Dayton Ziehm in his Navy years during World War II	The Detroit News Tuesday, July 24, 2007 Log Opens On WWII Veteran's Memories Pontiac Man Gets His Ship's Records PONTIAC -- Dayton Ziehm gently turned the weathered pages of the tomes, the fabric cover loosening in his hands. What the 81-year-old Navy veteran held in his lap were log books recording activity on a World War II submarine chaser, SC-1275, the one on which he spent six months just before the war's end. "Oh my God -- that was my ship," Ziehm said from his Pontiac apartment last week as he examined the books for the first time since he disembarked more than 60 years ago. "I never thought I'd see this." The books were sent to him by two veterans in California who came upon them unexpectedly. Their gesture gave Ziehm a chance to revisit a moment in history -- and just in time: Ziehm is defying death each passing week. He has been diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer and kidney failure. Had the logs arrived much later, "I might not be here, you never know," he said. "I really appreciate that. It brought back a lot of memories." The SC-1275 chaser was one of more than 400 such boats used during the war. The vessels were only 110 feet long and traveled at speeds up to 20 knots. But armed with depth charges and machine guns, they threatened German U-boats in the Atlantic and assisted amphibious landings in the Pacific. Ziehm's chaser, according to his recollection, patrolled the end of an Army Air Forces runway on the Guam coast. He recalled the rigid schedule by which the men took turns watching for Japanese submarines. Ziehm never saw one. He did, however, encounter tight sleeping quarters, awful food and occasional bouts of seasickness. "There was a lot of bellyaching," he said. Years after the war, the Navy turned over the chaser to the Federal Maritime Commission, along with other vessels, and lost track. The journey the logs took to end up in Ziehm's hands, however, may give some clues to its fate. In the mid-1950s, a teenage boy found them when he went exploring on a wooden boat half-sunken in the Sacramento River Delta, presumably by the Army Corps of Engineers, to help stem erosion from a levee break. "I tucked them under my arm and as fast as I could I went back out and climbed down the rope," recalled C. Ed Baker, now 65 and an Air Force veteran, in a phone interview. When recently packing up his Alameda home to retire with his wife to Louisiana, Baker turned the books over to a friend, Bob Dillon, a 65-year-old Navy veteran in Oakland, Calif. Dillon searched online for the boat's surviving mates and found Ziehm. "I'm just tickled that all these pieces came together," said Dillon in a phone interview from Oakland.	Photo by Charles V. Tines/The Detroit News Navy veteran Dayton Ziehm looks over the log of the ship he was on during World War II. His grandson, Brenden Yaroch, 11 looks on.
John Whetzal and William Rees Hawaii c. October 1945	How my Dad came to possess the PC-1275 log books… This past October [2008] my Dad visited me and gave me his WW II scrapbook, which contained over 100 photos, post cards, etc. I began researching the ship he served on, the SC-1275, which led me to a (2002) email on the Splinter Fleet web site, from Dayton Ziehm, who had also served on the SC-1275. I emailed Dayton and since Dayton had moved into an assisted living home, his daughter Patty responded. Through emails with Patty I learned Dayton had the log books. I asked Patty if she would look to see if my Father’s (or a list of 10 of his shipmates) were in the log. Patty looked in the log and my Dad’s name was the 3rd entry on the 1st page, 5 November 1944, 1630, Auckland, NZ “Garrison and Whetzal going ashore.” As Patty’s father’s name was not in either log, she and her father believed the logs should go to someone who has a connection with the logs/entries, so she sent the logs to me and I forwarded them to my Dad. He had the logs for a week or so, reading the entries and reminiscing. My brother told me my Dad was like a kid in a candy store reading the log books. My Dad returned the logs to me just prior to losing his sight. I was very thankful that Dad got to see the log, read the entries that he and his buddies had made in the logs, and go back to an exciting time in their youth, and a monumental time in the history of our country. I have made contact with 10 of the SC-1275 surviving crew/families and sent them either hard or CD versions of the photos in my Dad’s WW II scrapbook. I have spoken with several and stay in touch with Red Sizemore and Jim Garrison—both 84 years old--they are nice guys and full of interesting stories. - John L. Whetzal, III	John L. Whetzal, Jr.

Photos from the Scrapbook of John Whetzal Jr.
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1. Red Sizemore, Gunners Mate 1/c	2. James M. "Jim" Garrison, Gunners Mate 1/c	3. 40mm Gun Crew	4. 40mm gun
5. 20mm mount. Layer - Relyea, Loader - Barker	6. A. D. Ellis, RM 1/c	7. Al Godhue, Yeoman 1/c	8. Bob Horwath, MoMM 1/c
9. C. F. Schaur, MoMM 1/c	10. The Skipper - C. L. Endicott	11. C. M. Oden, EM 3/c	12. On a beached Japanese destroyer at Tulagi. Callery and Dougherty standing on gun mount Grozier, sitting on mount and John Whetzal, with hand on barrel
13. Cooper QM 2/c	14. Davis and Grozier, MoMM 3/c	15. Doc Belling	16. Dougherty and Davis
17. Jim Garrison and Dougherty scrapping the hull	18. Dougherty RdM 2/c on Japanese Destroyer at Tulagi	19. c. October 1945 Dry Dock No. 4, Pearl Harbor Navy Yard Pearl Harbor, Oahu, TH	20. Dubuc, F 1/c
21. Eugene Russell Manila, Arkansas	22. Eugene Russell, Gunners Mate 3/c	23. Ellis	24. Equator Initiation
25. Eugene Russell and Ellis	26. Francis Relyae, BM 2/c	27. GM 2/c Jim Garrison and RdM 2/c Dougherty scrapping the hull	28. Govanna Inlet, Tulagi Native "Bum" boat
29. Grozier, MoMM 3/c	30. Grozier and Buster, PhM 1/c	31. H. H. Hanshaw, MoMM 1/c Oberlin, PA	32. H. H. Hanshaw on beach
33. H. J. Callery, MoMM 2/c	34. Machinist H. L. Henson	35. Third Officer H. L. Summers	36. Hanshaw
37. Hanshaw sitting out on Engineroom watch on the way to Frisco	38. "Black Gang" 1 - Hanshaw, 2 - Schauer, 3 - John Whetzal, 4 - Wood, 5 - Grozier and 6 - Barker	39. Hanshaw	40. Hensen, Wood and Gould
41. Horwath, MoMM 1/c on Japanese destroyer	42. J. E. Wood, MoMM 3/c	43. J. E. Wood Santa Monica, CA	44. J. W. Harper, F 1/c
45. Japanese destroyer at Tulagi	46. John Casaly, SC 1/c	47. Liberty Party at Pearl Harbor Russell, Dougherty, Henson and Grozier	48. Skipper M. L. White
49. Pop Ellis	50. Pop Stewart and T. E. Dougherty - Radarmen	51. Standing: Poteet, Hanshaw, Harper, Kneeling: Bryant and Ellis at Rest Camp	52. Standing: Poteet, Hanshaw, Harper, Kneeling: Red Sizemore and Ellis
53. R. B. Davis, Ships Cook 3/c	54. R. R. Belling, CPhM	55. R. Simonis, GM 2/c Redding, CA	56. Ray Prater, Gunners Mate 3/c
57. Red Sizemore, GM 1/c	58. William Rees, RM 2/c	59. Rosica as King Neptune	60. Shellback Conference
61. Red Sizemore and Rowan	62. Red Sizemore, Rosica, ENS Endicott and Relyea	63. The Skipper - ENS Endicott	64. Springer, SoM 2/c
65. Tulagi Baseball Diamond	66. Tulagi natives	67.	68.
69.	70.	71. John Whetzal and Wood	72. William Rees, RM 2/c
73. Wood	74. Wood and Gould (The Skipper)	75. Wood at Milford Beach Auckland, New Zealand	76. Wood, Hanshaw and Grozier
77. Wood	78. Decommissioning party November 1945 Left to right: Robert Davis, Eugene Russell, McRobbie, William Rees, Harry Hanshaw, John Whetzal and Hanson.	79. "We're the Sailor's of the 1275"	.