Shawnee veteran attends commissioning of new Navy ship

Navy Veteran Bobby Mullinax, who spent many hours aboard the USS Makin Island during his service in World War II, recently visited California, where he attended the commissioning ceremony of the Navy’s newest ship, also named the USS Makin Island.
“I felt it was an honor and I thank God I was able to go,” the 84-year-old Shawnee resident said.
The new USS Makin Island (LHD-8), is an amphibious assault ship named after the earlier ship that was a carrier vessel escort (CVE-93). That first ship, launched in 1944, was involved in World War II combats, many while Mullinax was aboard, with that ship earning five Battle Stars as well as the Navy Unit Commendation during its tour. The ship, never damaged, was heavily used and was decommissioned in 1946, then scrapped in 1947.
Mullinax, who grew up on the family’s cattle farm on land that is now occupied by the Shawnee Police Department’s gun range along North Kickapoo Street, joined the Navy at age 17 and served from 1942 to 1946.
Mullinax said he knew he wanted to join the Navy instead of being drafted into the Army.
“I always had a love for the Navy, I guess. In my small, 17-year-old brain, I thought I’d at least have a dry bed,” he said. “I also wanted to see the world, and the Navy was the best way.”
After basic training and time at a diesel-electric school, he became a Navy electrician and was able to return to Shawnee for a 10-day leave. After waiting two days at the airport in Tulsa, he encountered some difficulties getting a military flight to return to his base, so he sent telegrams and hitchhiked to San Francisco.
“I was three days and 18 hours late, so I went to the brig,” he said. While in the military cell for three weeks, he was assigned kitchen duties. After a captain saw the telegrams and questioned why he was in the brig, Mullinax was given an assignment on a seagoing tug — a vessel about 200 feet long.
“It was the first time this farm boy had been in the ocean,” he said. While traveling through San Francisco Bay, he and a buddy ran up to the bow of the ship to see the Golden Gate Bridge.
“You’ve never seen two sicker kids,” he said, as he dealt with his first bout of seasickness. And every time he was under way on a journey, he said he would be seasick from the time they left port for about the first three months of their tour at sea.
Mullinax would spend time working the areas around the Aleutian Islands as they would tow other ships into port. When planes hit wind shears and flipped, his units would be sent in for recovery efforts.
When an opportunity came, he took an electrician test aboard the tug and passed, so he left the Aleutian Islands assignment in January 1944 and went to a base in Washington, where he was assigned to the Harbor Master for a few weeks before returning to Shawnee for a leave. He was assigned to the USS Makin Island in March 1944.
While aboard, the ship traveled to San Diego, then to Honolulu, he said, where crews were still clearing debris from the channels where ships sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The ship unloaded planes and returned to San Diego before deploying to the Marshall Islands, taking a zig-zag course to avoid submarines, he said.
His ship was involved in the Invasion of Kiska and was one of the ships involved in activities before the Invasion of Iwo Jima.
“Twenty-two days before the invasion, our planes were bombing the island,” he said. While his job was being an electrician, he also was assigned a battle station operating a search light high above the ship’s crow’s nest.
“Anything I saw I reported back to the bridge,” he said. During some of the war, the original USS Makin Island saw action as Japan used kamikaze planes to hit and sink three sister ships.
“We were missed but one hit 100 yards away,” he said. When he finished one intense battle watch, Mullinax said he had two black eyes — caused from his binoculars rubbing against his face as he was shaking during the ordeal.
“I was conscious about planes diving and could see them hitting other ships,” he said. “You don’t get scared until after you’re done.”
“Our ship was 1,000 yards from one hit by a kamikaze,” he said. “The USS Makin Island was called the ‘Lucky Lady’ and she was.”
During less intense times on board the ship, he and other sailors would enjoy their off time by playing cards — everything from hearts to poker.
“There was lots of card playing and dice-throwing,” he said.
Mullinax, who has kept in touch with the ship’s alumni association and attended reunions over the years, was surprised in March when he received a letter telling him about the commissioning of a new USS Makin Island, for which they hoped he, as a former crew member, could attend.
The event was held at the Naval Air Station in Coronado, Calif., Oct. 24. Mullinax made the trip for the event, along with his son, also named Bobby, who served in the Navy during Vietnam.
A crowd of about 2,000 attended and Mullinax, along with several other fellow crew members of the original USS Makin Island, were recognized during the program.
“I feel pretty honored we received the invitation,” he said. The new ship, with a crew of about 3,000, is much bigger than the original, he said, which had about 500 to 700 sailors aboard plus Naval fighting squadrons.
Mullinax, proud of his Navy service and the chance to go see the new ship, said he enjoyed the trip.
After his stint in the Navy, Mullinax worked for OG&E and then worked 19 years at Shawnee’s Sylvania plant before it closed, then transferred for a time to the Sylvania plant in Iowa. He retired from MobilChemical, now known as ExxonMobil.
Mullinax and his wife of 19 years, Zona, live in Shawnee and enjoy all their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
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Kim Morava may be reached at 214-3962.