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Contact Info
Home Town Pima
Date of Passing Aug 08, 2014
Location of Interment Mesa City Cemetery - Mesa, Arizona
Wall/Plot Coordinates Block 1323, Lot 1, Space 3C Lower
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Additional Information
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Obituary
Rohner, Cal V. 89, passed away on August 8, 2014, in Mesa, Arizona, surrounded by his family and sweet wife Eyvonne. He was born in Pima, Arizona to Alfred and Lavena Rohner. During his lifetime, Cal worked as a machinist, entrepreneur, contractor, dairyman, and inventor. He built equipment and machinery that was necessary for any task at hand, including parts for his concrete pumping truck as well as go-carts for his family. He joined the Navy and served in World War II. He used his skills in photography in the service and it became a lifelong hobby. Cal was an outdoor chef. He was locally famous in Southern California for his "Rohner burgers". He moved to Arizona 40 years ago where he was well known for his delicious barbecued smoked beef. He enjoyed spending time with his family and was always involved in serving others, both in and out of church callings, including nearly 20 years of service at the Mesa LDS Cannery. Cal is survived by his wife of 70 years, Eyvonne, five children and their respective spouses, 25 grandchildren, 70 great-grandchildren, and two siblings. Visitation is Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014 from 6-8 PM at Bunker's University Chapel, 3529 E. University Dr., Mesa, AZ. Funeral services are Friday, Aug. 15, 2014 at 10 AM, preceded by a visitation at 9 AM, at the Mesa East Stake Center, 2228 E. Brown Rd., Mesa, AZ. Interment will be at City of Mesa Cemetery, 1212 N. Center St., Mesa, AZ - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/azcentral/obituary.aspx?pid=172083667#sthash.hZdOczsH.dpuf
Sworn in to Navy December 7, 1942
boot training Farragut Idaho
University Of Minneapolis Navy Machinist’s School for 3 months
Advanced steam school n Milwaukee
Training in the manufacture and operation of a new type of steam engine
Uniflow steam engine. Trained on the largest ferry on Lake Michigan
Received orders to Treasure Island. After three months assigned to USS Gunston Hall (an LSD) which was being built at Murdock Ship Yard in Oakland, CA
When ship was completed left San Francisco for the Pacific War theater
First invasion Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshalls group
Made ships photographer
Involved in invasions in Guam and Guadalcanal
Promoted to machinists Mate 2nd class
Next invasion was island of Roy In the Solomon chain
Gunston Hall carried 20 LCMs, 20 medium tanks, 14 amphibious tractor
Transferred to the USS Libra an attack cargo ship
Zigzagged across the sea until invaded Guam, when secure returned to San Francisco for repairs.
Repairs completed, loaded with 14000 tons of dynamite headed for New Guinea - a lone ship of the high seas for 19 days
Ordered to attend optical school at Navy base on Mare Island in Vallejo, CA
trained on all types of navigational instruments.
While here bombs were dropped in Japan ending the war
Discharged at Terminal Island Thanksgiving Day 1945.
Rank Machinist 2nd class and specialist in optics
Link to GUNSTON HALL photos from WW II and the 1940's
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Mariana and Palau Islands Campaign (1944)
From Month/Year
June / 1944
To Month/Year
November / 1944
Description The Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, also known as Operation Forager, was an offensive launched by United States forces against Imperial Japanese forces in the Mariana Islands and Palau in the Pacific Ocean between June and November, 1944 during the Pacific War. The United States offensive, under the overall command of Chester Nimitz, followed the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign and was intended to neutralize Japanese bases in the central Pacific, support the Allied drive to retake the Philippines, and provide bases for a strategic bombing campaign against Japan.
Beginning the offensive, United States Marine Corps and United States Army forces, with support from the United States Navy, executed landings on Saipan in June, 1944. In response, the Imperial Japanese Navy's combined fleet sortied to attack the U.S. Navy fleet supporting the landings. In the resulting aircraft carrier Battle of the Philippine Sea (the so-called “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”) on 19–20 June, the Japanese naval forces were decisively defeated with heavy and irreplaceable losses to their carrier-borne and land-based aircraft.
Thereafter, U.S. forces executed landings on Guam and Tinian in July, 1944. After heavy fighting, Saipan was secured in July and Guam and Tinian in August, 1944. The U.S. then constructed airfields on Saipan and Tinian where B-29s were based to conduct strategic bombing missions against the Japanese mainland until the end of World War II, including the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In the meantime, in order to secure the flank for U.S. forces preparing to attack Japanese forces in the Philippines, in September, 1944, U.S. Marine and Army forces landed on the islands of Peleliu and Angaur in Palau. After heavy and intense combat on Peleliu, the island was finally secured by U.S. forces in November, 1944.
Following their landings in the Mariana and Palau Islands, Allied forces continued their ultimately successful campaign against Japan by landing in the Philippines in October, 1944 and the Volcano and Ryukyu Islands beginning in January, 1945.