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Message: [QUOTE="Ricker, post: 3649442, member: 1245"] Interesting question which caused me to reflect on what is success, how damn few direct relatives I have, and, how mainstream vanilla most lives have been. Is success or fame an achievement at a moment in time, or does it have to endure? Is success the effect on other people's lives, or your own? Its only 9am and you've burned up all my thinking capability for the day. I'll use one definition of success as proving the ability to arise to a big moment when a normal person is faced with an extraordinary challenge. My wife's uncle, Frank Riduka, (from Pittsfield), won the Navy Cross on the destroyer Smith in the Solomon Islands in the Battle of Santa Cruz Oct. 26, 1942 in the early days of Guadalcanal. A Japanese plane crashed into the ship, knocked out the bridge, and set the whole ship afire killing 57 men. As Helmsman, keeping his cool during the carnage, he took control at a secondary manual station at the stern and by causing the ship to list violently while smashing down thru the wake of another ship, he caused the burning fuel to be washed overboard, the fires to be reduced to manageable before ammunition on board could explode, and, put the ship back in action in its screening position next to the Enterprise. I have his Navy Cross and his original typed commendation from Admiral Halsey. The account is included in of one of tv's Battle 360 series entitled 'Bloody Santa Cruz' but they don't mention him by name and give credit to the Capt. (Her uncle said the Capt was in and out of consciousness at the beginning). I guess this post was meant to give his moment of fame some sunshine and give [USER=1]@temery[/USER] something to read. (Her father also won the Silver Star in the Philippines) [/QUOTE]

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