TARAWA goes Hollywood

 Or maybe Hollywood comes to the TARAWA. In any case in late 1979 the TARAWA (LHA 1) returned to San Diego from her maiden voyage in the western Pacific. The intent of this first cruise was to show off the US Navy’s newest war ship which had a crew of 600 and could carry hundreds of Marines along with the helicopters and assault craft to get them ashore quickly; in addition she had a 300 bed hospital with which to support the troops ashore. The cruise was successful and the crew was looking forward to a little quiet time in port in San Diego. Higher authority had different ideas.

   The Navy has had a long relationship with Hollywood and if a new movie wants some scenes filmed aboard a ship the Navy will jump to it as long as the movie will be good for recruiting. So as it turned out several days of filming was done on board the TARAWA while we were in port in San Diego. The film was Raise the Titanic, which was released in 1980. I don’t know for sure, but it may have been the worst film that year. Roger Ebert’s review said “...The movie is a misconceived, anticlimactic, wooden, phlegmatically paced and waterlogged travelogue that donates so much time to its nautical machinery that there’s none left over for even an approximation of interaction among the actors.” It grossed about $7 million at the box office, and cost about $35 million to make. Later the producer said “It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic”.

   However the officers and enlisted men had a good time for the few days that the actors and film crew were on board. There were good actors: for instance Alec Guinness, Richard Jordan, and Jason Robards and so on. Jason Robards was my roommate for a few days. As the senior watch officer I had a comfortable stateroom with room for 2, and I hit it off with Jason from the start. I had seen the 1970 movie The Ballad of Cable Hogue which Robards had starred in, and I had thought it was great. He agreed and said it was his best work. 

   The first evening I escorted Jason to supper in the officer’s mess and introduced him around. It was pleasant and casual but certainly not exciting. Later in the evening he asked if I could arrange for him to eat in

the CPO mess where he said he would be more at home. There were at least a dozen Chief Petty Officers on the TARAWA, and they had their own meals. I took him to the CPO quarters and introduced him; after that he spent most of his time with the Chiefs when the filming was not in progress.

Late at night in my stateroom we had some interesting conversations. In particular, he talked about his service in the Navy. He had enlisted in 1940 and on Dec 7 1941 he was a radioman 3rd class on the cruiser NORTHAMPTON, at sea about 100 miles from Pearl Harbor. NORTHAMPTON operated in the south pacific throughout 1942. On 30 November the battle of Tassafaronga near Guadalcanal was one of the worst defeats for the U.S. Navy, and the NORTHAMPTON was sunk. Jason survived, but treaded water for hours until he was picked up by a U.S. destroyer. He was assigned to another cruiser, the NASHVILLE, and two years later he was a radioman 1st class and off the northern Philippines for the invasion of Mindoro. On Dec 13 the NASHVILLE was hit by a kamikaze and was damaged severely, with 223 casualties. The NASHVILLE limped back to Pearl Harbor and then on to Bremmerton, WA for repairs. So this ended Jason’s combat. 

   But he had a little more to say: just at the end of the war he had been selected for promotion from First Class to Chief Petty Officer. He had gone ashore with his buddies and had celebrated too much. He was so drunk he had spent the night in jail, and his promotion was terminated. He had not been aboard a Navy ship since 1946, and he had now been accepted by the TARAWA’s CPO mess - he considered it a good part of his bucket list.

   Jason Robards died in 2000. Fair Winds and Following Seas, Chief Robards.