Name: Francis Joseph Glassett Rank: Seaman First Class Service Number: 2016062 Service: USS Pillsbury (DD-227), United States Navy Awards: Purple Heart, US Navy Combat Action Ribbon, American Defense Service Medal; Fleet clasp, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal; 2 battle stars, Philippine Presidential Unit Citation, Philippine Defense Medal, US Army Presidential Unit Citation, WWII Victory Medal Date of Birth: October 11, 1920 Place of Birth: Somerville, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts Date of Enlistment: November 10, 1937 Place of Enlistment: Boston, Massachusetts Address at Enlistment: Somerville, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts Age at Enlistment: 17 Occupation: Student Marital Status: Single Religion: Romnan Catholic Date of Death: March 2, 1942 Age: 21 Memorial: Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Philippines Reference: Walls of the Missing Francis Jr. was the only child of Francis Joseph ‘Frank’ Glassett Sr. (1876-1938) and Joanna Crosskill ‘Anna’ (Betcher) Glassett (1881-1963). His father Frank Sr. was born in East Boston, Suffolk Co., Mass., and Anna was born in Pugwash, Cumberland Co., Nova Scotia. She emigrated from Nova Scotia in 1898 and became a U.S. citizen in 1914. His parents married in 1913 in Somerville, Mass. Francis Jr. graduated from Somerville High School on June 9, 1937. That fall, he applied for enlistment in the U.S. Navy. He filled out the enlistment forms and obtained his father's permission to enlist for four years. After completing a physical and dental exam, Francis was accepted. He was sworn into the U.S. Navy at the Navy Recruiting Station (NRS) in Boston on November 10, 1937, as an Apprentice Seaman. Next, he transferred to the Naval Training Station (NTS) at Newport, Rhode Island, for three months of recruit training. Francis graduated from recruit training in early February 1938. He was granted 10 days of leave to visit family and friends before being assigned to a ship of the U.S. Fleet. Upon completion of his leave and return to NTS Newport, he was transferred to the Receiving Ship at the Philadelphia Navy Yard as a member of the pre-commissioning crew of the light cruiser USS Savannah (CL-42). Upon her commissioning on March 10, 1938, he reported on board for duty with many hundreds of other officers and men. After operations in the Atlantic and Caribbean Sea over the next year, Savannah prepared to change her homeport from Norfolk, Virginia, to a West Coast port. On May 26, 1939, Savannah transited the Panama Canal en route to San Diego, arriving on June 17, 1939. Her new homeport would soon be Long Beach, California. During his tour of duty on Savannah, Francis advanced to Seaman Second Class (S2c). On November 12, 1939, he detached from Savannah with orders to report to the Asiatic Station, Manila, Philippines, and the Clemson-class destroyer USS Pillsbury (DD-227) for duty. He was to travel across the Pacific via the repair ship USS Medusa (AR-1) for further transfer to the transport ship USS Henderson (AP- 1). Francis boarded Medusa in San Diego for the short trip to San Pedro, California, where he boarded Henderson on November 15, 1939. She steamed up the coast to San Francisco Bay on November 18 where she was to undergo a period of maintenance at Mare Island. Underway on December 4, 1939, she steamed under the new Golden Gate Bridge bound for Hawaii, making Honolulu on December 11. She departed Honolulu on December 14 and made passage to Guam, arriving on December 27. She departed Guam on December 29 and spent New Year's 1940 at sea en route to Manila, where she arrived on January 3, 1940. Francis disembarked from Henderson upon arrival and reported on board Pillsbury on January 6, 1940, for duty. Japanese aggression continued to increase in East Asia during 1940, forcing many foreign governments to begin withdrawing their ground-based forces and the majority of their naval forces, as well as evacuating military and civilian expatriates from China. By the autumn of 1940, the unstable international situation in the region and Japan's persistent aggression made the presence of Asiatic Fleet ships untenable. Adm. Thomas C. Hart, the Commander in Chief, U.S. Asiatic Fleet, ordered the withdrawal of all major Navy blue- water ships from China on October 21, 1940, leaving only the gunboats on the Yangtze. When USS Peary (DD-226) departed from Shanghai a short time later, it marked the end of the U.S. Navy's blue-water ship presence in Chinese ports. As the Asiatic Fleet reduced its presence in China, its operations indefinitely shifted to the Philippine Archipelago. On November 16, 1940, Francis advanced in rate to Seaman First Class (S1c). One week later on November 23, he transferred to the destroyer tender USS Black Hawk (AD-9) for treatment of an illness. He returned to duty on board Pillsbury on November 30, 1940. The threat of hostilities between the U.S. and Japan grew closer to the boiling point as the year 1941 began. In July 1941, as Japanese aggression intensified with their move south into lower Indo-China, Admiral Hart warned his officers that he had no doubt war would come, although he didn't know how or when hostilities would start. Hart trained his destroyer crews hard, keeping them on a war-footing for extended periods and away from Cavite Naval Base as much as possible by exercising his "defensive deployment." About October 15, 1941, while engaged in maneuvers, Pillsbury and Peary collided, causing serious damage to Peary. Both headed for the Cavite Navy Yard for repairs and long-overdue maintenance. On November 25, 1941—two days in advance of the "war warning" predicting that hostile Japanese action in the Pacific was imminent—Admiral Hart directed units of the Asiatic Fleet, including the destroyer tender USS Black Hawk (AD-9) and other ships of Destroyer Squadron 29 (DesRon 29), to execute his "Defensive Deployment" well south of Manila. The ships arrived on the morning of November 29, 1941, in Balikpapan, a major oil port on the eastern coast of Borneo. Four destroyers of Destroyer Division 59 (DesDiv 59) remained at Cavite: two of them, Pillsbury, and Peary, were moored at the Cavite Navy Yard for collision damage repair, and two others, Pope and John D. Ford, remained for anti-submarine and escort duties. On December 8, 1941 (Manila Time), Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor. On December 10, 1941, a massive Japanese aerial bombing attack occurred that almost completely destroyed the Cavite Navy Yard. Pillsbury managed to get underway and was not damaged. She began escort and anti-submarine patrols in and around Manila Bay until the evening of December 26, when she was ordered to proceed south to Balikpapan in Borneo, arriving before January 5, 1942. During January 1942, Pillsbury's primary duties were convoy escort and anti-submarine screening. On February 14, Pillsbury and other ships of the ABDA force steamed from southern Sumatra to attempt an attack on a Japanese naval force. The following day, a large force of Japanese bombers attacked the Allied ships causing minor damage, and the force turned back due to a lack of air cover. On February 19, 1942, Pillsbury was again part of an Allied striking force that attempted to stop the Japanese invasion of Bali. She fired several torpedoes and may have hit the destroyer Michishio with gunfire. However, the Japanese heavily overpowered the Allied force, rendering it unable to halt the Japanese conquest of the Dutch East Indies. Out of torpedoes, Pillsbury was ordered to Tjilatjap for replenishment, but replacement weapons were not readily available. As the collapse of the Dutch East Indies to Japanese invaders became a reality, many Allied vessels made a mad dash across the Indian Ocean toward safety in either Australia or Ceylon. At mid-afternoon on Sunday, March 1, 1942, Pillsbury left Tjilatjap bound for Australia. For the first 21 hours, her fortunes seemed bright. Yet, sometime during midday on March 2, Pillsbury was spotted by a Japanese reconnaissance plane that misidentified her as a light cruiser. Contact information was forwarded to Vice Admiral Kondo's main body. Kondo decided to try an intercept with his two heavy cruisers, Takao, and his flagship Atago. About five hours later, Japanese lookouts spotted a small ship in the dark about 10 miles away. Japanese records indicate that Pillsbury seemed to turn toward the two heavy cruisers—actions that, according to Japanese witnesses, came as quite a surprise. As Pillsbury got to within about three miles, the Japanese ships illuminated her with their powerful searchlights, and Pillsbury transmitted frantic recognition codes. Several minutes later, Japanese 8-inch main battery guns commenced point-blank fire upon Pillsbury at a range of about 2.5 nautical miles. In a span of 340 seconds, no fewer than 170 projectiles were fired at her—roughly one shell every two seconds. For a few moments, gun crews returned several rounds, but fatal damage was quickly done. Pillsbury sank less than six minutes after the first salvos hit the hapless destroyer. The Japanese made no effort to search for survivors; their records simply noted that an "enemy light cruiser of the Marblehead class" was attacked and sunk at 2102 hours. Although ship identification was incorrect, the coordinates where Pillsbury sank were close to coordinates recently messaged to Allied ships fleeing Java who were instructed to rendezvous in that vicinity and proceed together to Exmouth Gulf. In the darkness, it is possible that Pillsbury mistook the Takao and Atago for Allied ships. Pillsbury's exact fate remained a mystery for almost 70 years until Japanese records became available, though a more current theory suggests the Japanese had broken U.S. communication codes and knew in advance where and when U.S. ships would rendezvous. On March 19, 1942, Mrs. Glassett received a telegram from the Department of the Navy informing her that her son had been missing in the service of his country since March 2, 1942. Later, on November 28, 1945, she received a letter from the Chief of Naval Personnel stating that he was officially presumed dead as of November 25, 1945, with the date of death established as March 2, 1942. Lost at sea, Francis Joseph Glassett is remembered on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.