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 Author  Topic: Obituary -Dennis J. Brancati -serving as a PT boat gunner
joker528

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message   Posted on: Nov 20, 2009 - 7:56pm
Posted in Obituaries on Thursday, November 19, 2009 11:35 pm

Dennis J. Brancati


Whitehall -- Dennis J. Brancati, 83 of Bellamy Street, passed away on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009, at the Glens Falls Hospital following a short illness.

He was born on Nov. 18, 1926, in Albany, N.Y.

He was a U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, serving as a PT boat gunner on the same boat with Robert Kennedy, which sailed along aside President John F. Kennedy, who was on PT 109. He was a member of the American Legion Post No. 49 of Fair Haven, Vt.

He was a communicant of Our Lady of Seven Dolors Church in Fair Haven, Vt., where he was an usher for many years. He was a retired brakeman for the Delaware & Hudson Railroad, retiring in 1984.

He enjoyed playing cards, bingo, spending time around his swimming pool and breakfast with his friends at McDonald's.

Besides his parents, he is predeceased by one brother and two half-brothers.

He is survived by his wife , Elizabeth "Betty" (Levesque) Brancati of Whitehall, whom he married in 1953, and many nieces and nephews.

A Memorial Mass will be conducted on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009 at 11 a.m. at Our Lady of Seven Dolors Church in Fair Haven, Vt., by the Rev. James Lawrence, pastor, officiating. Interment, with full military honors, will follow at Our Lady of Angels Cemetery in Whitehall.

There will be no calling hours.

In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy may take the form of a donation in Dennis' name to the SPCA of Upstate NY, P.O. Box 171, Hudson Falls, NY 12839 or a charity of one's choice.

Posted in Obituaries on Thursday, November 19, 2009 11:35 pm



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  Jerry Gilmartin

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Jerry Gilmartin   Send Email To Jerry Gilmartin Posted on: Nov 20, 2009 - 9:02pm
Joker,
Thanks for posting the sad news. It seems like everyday more and more of our "greatest generation" is leaving on their "Last Patrol" Although I know it was the newspaper reporter who wrote the story, I wanted to point out something that may not be accurate. The story says that Robert Kennedy was a PT Boater, which is patently false. RFK was never a PT Boater. It is strange sometimes how people mix that up. (If they are referring to JFK's brother Robert/Bobby Kennedy, who ran for president and was also assasinated in 1968 by Sirhan Sirhan.) I know there was another officer with the last name of Kennedy who was not related to JFK who was assigned to PT Boats, I think I remember seeing his name in "At Close Quarters" and it is LT Douglas "Mack" Kennedy who I think was on PT 187. If the vet was on this boat it was nowhere near PT109. THey were in different squadrons and different years. I wonder if you know what boat he was on?

The "other" LT Kennedy who was a PT boater name is LT Douglas "Mack" Kennedy (who is also listed under the "Wounded" list) in the books appendix and he is mentioned in the Invasion of Tawi Tawi island near the end of the war. Here is the excerpt from the book.

Chapter 21. TAWI TAWI

While the Tarakan PT's patrolled the Borneo coast as far north as Cowie Bay, the boats from Zamboanga, fueling from Pocomoke at Tawi Tawi, were striking at targets along the coast above Cowie Bay, principally in the Darvel Bay region. In order to facilitate these operations and to extend the range of the patrols along the northeastern Borneo coast, Squadron 8, under Lt. William C. Godfrey, moved on May 21 with the Oyster Bay to an anchorage in Chongos Bay, Tawi, Tawi. Boats of Squadron 9, under Lt. Richard M. Monahon, USNR, arrived in Chongos Bay 2 days later.

The most successful of their early operations began at dawn on May 27, when Lieutenant Monahon led nine PT's, covered by eight RAAF Kittyhawk fighters and four Navy Mariner bombers, into the harbor of Sandakan. The PT's ran at 35 knots through the narrow harbor entrance, laying smoke as a protection against the enemy fortifications. Several 75mm. shells dropped near the boats without causing damage. PT's 126, 154, and 155 each fired two torpedoes at harbor installations. Two hit the government dock, shattering pilings, leaving the dock sagging, and sinking three small launches alongside. Another overturned a 300-foot finger pier, sank three launches alongside, ripped up the tracks of a marine railway, and blew the stern off a small freighter on the railway. For 2&frac; hours, under spasmodic machine-gun fire from shore, the PT's strafed and rocketed harbor installations. They destroyed three more launches, heavily damaged a too-foot lugger, and set fire to warehouses, buildings, and a sawmill which was reported to house enemy suicide craft. The planes strafed and bombed the town heavily, damaging other buildings and knocking out a shore battery that was giving the boats trouble. The cost to the PT's was minor wounds to one officer and three men.

Two days later Lt. (jg.) F. W. Weidmann's PT 130 and Ens. B. E. Burtch's PT 144 entered Sandakan Harbor and observed nine large fires burning in the town. The boats destroyed a canoe and damaged a 60-foot sea truck, two barges, three sloops, two canoes, a motor launch, and a gig. These and subsequent raids caused the enemy to evacuate the town.

During their first 2 weeks at Tawi Tawi, the PT's destroyed or damaged upwards of 70 surface craft. Thereafter most of their activity was restricted, for lack of other targets, to strafing and rocketing shore installations, usually in cooperation with aircraft. These strikes eventually resulted in Japanese evacuation of Lahad Datu and several other coastal towns.

The PT's performed many special missions for guerrilla forces and for the Australian Intelligence Bureau. A few examples:

On June 3, Lieutenant Weidmann's PT 130 and Ens. George J. Larson's PT 189, escorted by PT's 142 and 143, towed four native craft loaded with guerrilla troops to Banguey Island, where the guerrillas landed and captured a Japanese fish cannery.

On the mornings of June 26 and 27, Lt. Mack L. Kennedy, USNR, led Lt. (jg.) Richard M. Dicke's PT 187 and Lt. (jg.) Charles J. Moran, Jr.'s PT 160 in close-range strafing of the town of Beluran in Labuk Bay to distract attention from the landing of an Australian scouting party at nearby Samarang Point. The diversionary operation was entirely successful and the boats did considerable damage to buildings in Beluran. During the runs on the second morning, made only 50 yards offshore in daylight, one man was killed by a rifle bullet and two were wounded by shell fragments.

Lt. (jg.) J. Harvey DuBose's PT 154, searching for a downed Navy Mariner patrol bomber on July 2, found it north of Labuk Bay, afloat but unable to take off. PT 154 towed the plane back to its tender, the Pocomoke, at Tawi Tawi, covering the distance of more than 200 miles in a little less than 23 hours.



Jerry Gilmartin

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QM

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message   Posted on: Nov 21, 2009 - 7:26am
Dennis would have been age 17 in November, 1943. If he had enlisted at that time, and went from boot camp to PT's he might have arrived about six months later.
Jack Kennedy was out of PT's in 1943. Robert Kennedy was not on active duty during WWll. See Google for a detailed biography of RFK.

There is a possibility that Dennis managed to enlist while under age 17. Many of the boys tried that route and some succeeded. The little discrepancies are not important now. He served his country well.

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