USNR Steward 2nd Class Ernest Joseph Poe was born in Pensacola on March 22, 1919, the son of Ernest Domingo Poe ((1892-1969) and Lola L. Burnette (1892-1969). His father occupied a variety of jobs ranging from a porter for the W. A. Ray Hardware Store and later one for the Pons Barber Shop downtown. He also worked for a transfer company in 1930 and by 1940 a furniture repairman. The family made their home at 320 East Intendencia Street and Joseph got his first job as a porter at Pons Barber Shop with his father around 1935.
From this point on, there is little information surrounding Joseph's life. It is assumed that he enlisted around 1943 given the fact that he was a 2nd Class Steward by 1945. We also know that he married a Pensacola girl by the name of Jean Angeline Borras on October 4, 1944 and they set up housekeeping at 411 West Romana Street. At the same time Joseph was fighting in the Pacific, his brother Marshall Lawrence Poe had enlisted in the Navy in March 1945.
But even though we know little about how he lived, we do know how the young man died. On March 19, 1945, Joseph was stationed aboard the fleet carrier USS Franklin (CV-13) affectionately known as "Big Ben." The ship was in the process of bombing mainland Japan and were within fifty miles of the shore where they were about to launch an air strike of 31 aircraft sitting armed and fueled on deck. Suddenly, an undetected enemy bomber appeared overhead and dropped two 550-pound bombs that pierced the flight deck and two decks below causing horrific explosions that devastated everything in its path. The damage was so devastating that the admiral suggested abandoning ship but the ship's captain refused because there were still men below decks to be rescued. When the fires were finally under control, 807 sailors were dead and more than 487 badly wounded. One of those that was killed that day was 2nd Class Ernest Joseph Poe from Pensacola.
But sadly, he was not the only Pensacolian that was killed on the Franklin. Donald Walter Forsyth (1907-1945), Pensacola High School Class of 1928 perished as well as did Captain Arnold Jay Isbell (1899-1945). Isbell had married a prominent Pensacola girl by the name of Miss Margarita Mayes (1907-1977), the daughter of Lois Kingsberry and Franklin L. Mayes, publisher of the News Journal. Captain Isbell had been appointed captain of the USS Yorktown and was hitching a ride on the USS Franklin to take command of his new ship when he was killed. All three families were notified by the war department that their loved ones were either dead or missing. What bodies they could find, some recognizable and some not, were buried at sea with full military honors.
USS Franklin Hit by Japanese Bomber March 19, 1945 with USS Santa Fe alongside
Pensacola News Journal 5-15-1945
Burial of the dead at sea
Brother Marshall Lawrence Poe
(1927-1992) PNJ 3-2-1945
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