Cottonwood resident and World War II Navy veteran Mel Snoke is approaching his 100th birthday on Saturday, March 16.
Snoke was born in 1924 and grew up in Hammond, Ind., which he called “just a regular town.” He later enlisted in the Navy at age 17 on a minority cruise, which allowed minors to enlist with the ability to leave at age 21.
Snoke said by the time he was 21, the war had started, so he had to stay. Snoke had enlisted with three or four buddies that wanted to join the Navy but he was the only one out of the group that passed out of basic training.
Snoke was initially assigned as a yeoman 3rd class, or an office worker, and was later promoted to leading seaman, which he described as a rank in which a sailor teaches the new guys, or “boots,” that come aboard the duties of the ship, just as long as they don’t get seasick.
When the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor took place on Dec. 7, 1941, Snoke was on board the Gridley-class destroyer USS Craven [DD-382], about two days out from port.
Launched and commissioned in 1937, the USS Craven was based at Pearl Harbor from April 1, 1940, where she served as an anti-submarine screen for carriers and participated in fleet exercises, later being assigned to the raids on the Marshall and Gilbert Islands and Wake Island in 1942. She later sailed from Pearl Harbor on Nov. 12, 1942, to join the fight for Guadalcanal by escorting transports for nine months.
Snoke was later transferred to the USS Shaw [DD-373], an older Mahan-class destroyer. The Shaw was in drydock at the time of the attack, when it was hit by three bombs on the forward portion of the ship. After the fires caused by the bombing resulted in the ship’s abandonment, the forward magazines detonated and the ship sank in the dock. Although originally thought to be a complete loss, the Shaw was refloated and given a new bow.
Snoke said that he spent his time during the war bombarding the islands the Japanese held in the South Pacific. He said that they always attacked at night and that only the officers ever knew what was going on.
“I was just a little ol’ sailor, so you don’t you don’t hear nothing,” Snoke said. “You don’t know what the hell is going on. You just follow orders.”
During the period he spent in combat zones, none of the ships he was aboard came under attack.
Snoke was later transferred to Miami, Fla., for shore duty until the end of the war. He worked in an office at the naval station there and was discharged when the war was over.
Snoke eventually married a woman who lived in Phoenix, which is how he came to Arizona. He attended Arizona State University and graduated in 1950 with a degree in business. Snoke then became a police officer in San Fernando, Calif., for about five years before joining the sheriff’s department in Los Angeles County, where he worked for the next 30 years.
Snoke went on an Honor Flight in 2016, a program that takes veterans to Washington, D.C. to visit the memorials that commemorate their service.
