205415 Jnr Lt. Stephen Emerson Whicher United States Navy USS Saratoga from:Amherst, Wrentham, MA My father, Stephen Whicer, served as "night operations" officer (I do not know the correct term) on the Saratoga from shortly after the US entered the war until the end of the war.
The nature of his service is taken from his obituary, based on information supplied by the Navy. He would never willingly speak of his experiences.
Once, as a young child, I found his box containing ribbons, medals and copies of the shipboard newsletter. I saw his byline on the newspapers. This would make sense as he was earning his PhD in English at the time war was declared and would become a professor after the war. He ordered me to put it all away and never touch it again. Mother said he then burned the lot.
I have a studio portrait of my father in uniform and there survives a photograph from the Boston paper of the Saratoga with her superstructure on fire. I asked about it and my mother repeated his statement about that incident. He said he was on board, and had "just gone below decks" or would otherwise have been killed. He suffered from what we now understand to be PTSD, and died by his own hand in November, 1961, when he believed the world was inexorably heading for another world-wide conflict. We, his children, would like to understand more about the nature of his service.
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