This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Cheryl Baimbridge-Family
to remember
Baimbridge, Horace (Joe), LCDR USN(Ret).
If you knew or served with this Sailor and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Contact Info
Home Town Morrow Bay
Last Address 10603 Raydell Drive Houston
Date of Passing Jan 02, 2009
Location of Interment Houston National Cemetery (VA) - Houston, Texas
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On January 2nd, 2009, at 0845 CST, Joe Baimbridge slipped his lines to this mortal coil and set his course for that eternal harbor where he dropped his anchor for the last time.
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The following is an obituary or legacy, as it is called in the Houston Chronicle, and I think I prefer that term better:
H. "Joe" Baimbridge
LCDR H. H. "JOE" BAIMBRIDGE Ret. passed away on Jan. 2, 2009 in Houston, TX. Born on Oct. 23, 1925 to Bill & Ruby in Warren, AR. Joe was preceded in death by parents; 3 brothers; first wife, Mattie & daughter, Stacy Busard & is survived by his loving wife Diana; daughters Cheryl Juarez, Melinda & Rebecca Baimbridge; sons, Wayne, Clay & Scott Baimbridge; 3 brothers; 3 sisters; 10 grandchildren; 7 great grandchildren. When his country called, Joe answered by joining the United States Navy, achieving the rank of Lt. Commander and serving in WWII, Korea and the Vietnam Wars. Visitation - Mon, Jan 5, 2009 from 6-8pm. Funeral Service - Tue Jan 6, 2009 10 am at Crowder in Webster & Burial - 1:15 pm at Houston National Cemetery.
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His full name was Horace Haywood Baimbridge.� During his first assignment on a ship in the Navy someone called him "Joe" ... which was sort of like calling someone "Bud" or "Pal" back then, but the nickname stuck and thereafter it was how everyone knew him.
Joe also became known as Diver Joe or DJ on NTWS because the thread he was most active on had three Joes, and to identify each a modifier was added to their "Joe".
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My intentions are to leave, intact, his words on this Profile, written by his own hand and in a style that represents his personality.�
It is a singular honor that I have been allowed to be the caretaker of his Profile.� For which I am deeply humble.
In checking over my comments with the pictures, I keep referring to my "Second Family". Maybe that needs to be explained. The day after my retirement, my wife of 25 years, announced that she was "divorcing me", because she "didn't want to be married anymore". Our divorce became final on November 1, 1971 (just one month after my retirement). In the spring of 1972, I started dating a college student who was 20 years younger than me. We were not going to get serious and certainly not going to have any children if we did. She was 27, I was 47. We were married on June 15, 1972 and our first of five children arrived on March 5, 1973. She is the one that I refer to as "My Deceased Daughter". My ex-wife, whom I had met at NAS Corpus Christi, Texas, where she worked at the 'Gedunk Stand". Passed away in April of 2003. That 'first child' of my 'second family' passed away in October of that same year. No, I'm not superstitious! Well...maybe...just a tad? Nah! My second wife, Diana, and I have now been married 35 years, and we had *five* children. Four of them still with us, the youngest turned 20 yesterday.
Description The plan of the Pacific subseries was determined by the geography, strategy, and the military organization of a theater largely oceanic. Two independent, coordinate commands, one in the Southwest Pacific under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and the other in the Central, South, and North Pacific (Pacific Ocean Areas) under Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, were created early in the war. Except in the South and Southwest Pacific, each conducted its own operations with its own ground, air, and naval forces in widely separated areas. These operations required at first only a relatively small number of troops whose efforts often yielded strategic gains which cannot be measured by the size of the forces involved. Indeed, the nature of the objectivesùsmall islands, coral atolls, and jungle-bound harbors and airstrips, made the employment of large ground forces impossible and highlighted the importance of air and naval operations. Thus, until 1945, the war in the Pacific progressed by a double series of amphibious operations each of which fitted into a strategic pattern developed in Washington.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
January / 1943
To Month/Year
September / 1945
Last Updated: Feb 13, 2021
Personal Memories
People You Remember I don't remember individuals
Memories I was in a unit called ACORN 12. We arrived at Guadalcanal in September 1943, via Noumea, New Caledonia. We then were transported to Banika in the Russell, Island Group. I had been trained in Port Hueneme, California in a Unit called the Acorn Training Detachement. It was housed in a former Maritime Academy. In addition to small arms training, I was trained to operate several types of landing craft, notably LCVP's and LCM and a small boat used to transport seaplane crews. After more training in the Russells,and a landing at a place I think was called Vella Lavella. We then made a 'beachhead' landing on a smail island north of Bougainville. This was around 1 November of 1943. The name of the Island was Stirling in the Treasury Island group. My division officer was a LT R.M. NIXON, USNR. He was designated the Legal Officer and took over another department. The 87th CB built an airstrip on the island, and I was moved from driving boats to driving a truck and jeep after an Army B25 group was based there and in between Japanese air attacks, I hauled the pilots to their planes as they flew missions against Rabaul (a major Japanese basd) almost around the clock. I personally captured a Japanese Marine and turned him over to the Army. I personally came under intence fire while hauling/landing a Seabee operator and his bulldozer onto the beach in an LCM. We didn't know until I dropped the ramp that we were about 25 feet from a machine gun bunker. They opened up on us and the Seabee lowered the blade on the dozer and simply covered them up. The bullets were bouncing off the dozer blade until the dirt rolled over them,while I was "retracting" and getting the hell out of there. He waved to me and took off down the beach and I never saw him again. I recently heard that he was given a Silver Star for the incident. He earned it! I was given three battle stars for the operations I participated in. I believe on of them included "Consolodation of the Solomon Islands.?????? When I took the Japanese Marine's rifle, the front sight scratced my wrist. I would have been laughed out of the Navy if I had even suggested that I was "wounded in action". I returned to San Francisco on a merchant tramsport, the SS Cape Viotory, standing gun watches until we dropped anchor in San Francisco, two days before Christmas in 1944. The ACORN Unit was called an Unsinkable Carrier. I was issued Marine Corp fatigues, backpac, and Springfield '03 rifle. There is mention of our operations in WWII History DVD that I have.
