Greg Haran joined the United States Naval reserve in September of 1940. He mustered into active duty on October 16, 1941. Seaman Haran's first assignment was to lay a huge submarine net in the San Francisco Bay. Following this assignment, Haran encountered the aftermath of a Japanese submarine attack on an oiler off the coast of Crescent City, California. In 1942, Haran transferred to the East Coast where he performed convoy duty in the North Atlantic. Haran spent 3 years hunting German submarines and protecting vital cargo ships in the Atlantic. He served in the North Atlantic, Caribbean, South Atlantic (off of Brasil), and supported the invasion of North Africa in 1943. In 1944, Haran transferred to the Pacific, where he served on the USS Vesuvius, a supply ship which serviced many battleships and almost every aircraft carrier in the Pacific. On the Vesuvius, Haran was promoted to Chief Quarter- master, and witnessed a lot of action including the final
(non-nuclear) bombing run on the Japanese homeland, and a torpedo attack on the USS Bunker Hill. Chief Haran spent a total of five years, sixteen days in the United States Navy and was honorably discharged on November 2, 1945. |
