T-R PHOTO BY MIKE DONAHEY U.S. Navy and World War II veteran Max Levis of Marshalltown reacts while looking at vintage photos and papers from a collection in his home recently. Levis is compiling a home-made book of his Navy and war experiences for his grandchildren.

A local World War II and Navy veteran is on a mission.

He is asking the public’s help to find information and pictures of other Marshalltown men who served with him on the anti-aircraft cruiser USS Flint (CL 97).

Max Levis, now in his 90s, wants the information for a book he is compiling about his Navy and war experiences to share with grandchildren.

“I am doing it for my grandchildren and my fellow crewmen, either from Marshalltown or elsewhere,” Levis said. “I am also doing it memory of my family … three of my brothers also served in the Navy during World War II. My brother Lee, a Lt. JG., was a pilot killed during the war.”

The book is a do-it-yourself project, not fancy, but straight from the heart.

The retired carpenter has carefully laid out in neat piles papers, pictures and memorabilia leading up to, during and immediately following World War II.

He is concerned today’s elementary and high school students do not have an understanding of the war which stopped a tidal wave of fascism.

All Levis lacks is information and pictures about fellow Marshalltonians he proudly served with.

They are: Anton Adolph Bachman, Robert Carl Betts, Leroy Marian Devick, Harold William Frisell, Toalson Terrill Goosey, Herbert Loren Harding, Harold Duane Miller, Laurel Eugene Phipps, Charles Andrew Propp, and Charles Omar Bruster.

Levis is well acquainted with Phipps, 97, a local resident who, until recent severe health issues, was extremely active with the joint Veterans of Foreign Wars-American Legion Honor Guard.

“I was on the Flint six weeks before Laurel came on board,” he said.

“War is hell,” Phipps, who manned the Flint’s guns said. “It is not all fun and games. The Japanesse would purposely fly their planes in between American ships in hopes some of our men would be killed by friendly fire.”

After the war, Phipps would go on to work many years at Emerson Process Management/Fisher Controls.

He would later serve on the Marshalltown City Council.

As grandfathers are wont to do, Levis, a widower, can easily recite from memory his many accomplishments in school and extra-curricular activities.

Many pictures adorn the walls of his living room in his modest, but cozy home.

Levis is truly one of the Greatest Generation, term and book tittle of the same name coined by author and NBC-TV broadcaster Tom Brokaw.

Fittingly, Brokaw bestowed the title on Levis’ generation only.

They had endured and worked to throw off the yoke of a Great Depression.

They would go on to defeat the powerful Axis powers of Italy, Germany and Japan in World War II.

Later, they would help create a standard of living that would be envied world-wide while exploring outer space and eventually landing a man on the moon.

The USS Flint

The Flint, named after the Michigan city, was launched Jan. 25, 1944 from Bethlehem Steel Works in San Francisco, Calif.

Its crew consisted of 63 officers and 785 enlisted, according to material from the notebook-thick archives about the ship accumulated by Levis.

Overall length: 541 feet

Beam: 53 feet

Speed: 32 knots

Displacement: 6,000 tons.

It was active in the South China Sea when Allied air, land and sea forces worked tirelessly and with heavy casualties to push-back Japanese forces.

It saw action at the pivotal battles of Okinawa and Iwo Jima, according to the Office of Naval Records and History, Ships’ Histories Section, Navy Department.

At times, the Flint’s mission was to provide anti-aircraft screen for her group of carriers while the strikes were being made. On several occasions she drove off Japanese “snooper” planes with gunfire.

It earned four battle stars on the Asiatic-Pacific Area Services Medal.

In May 1947, the Flint was placed out of commission in reserve, attached to the Bremerton Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet.

She was reclassified CLAA 97 in March 1949 and remained in the Pacific Reserve Fleet until stricken from the Navy list in September 1965 and sold for scrapping that same year.

If one has information on men who served on the Flint with Levis, contact him at 641-752-6372.

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Contact Mike Donahey at 641-753-6611 or mdonahey@timesrepublican.com