Karetka, Peter E.

Subject files with letters, testimony, list of medals, survivor's story regarding the sinking of the USS Yorktown (CV 5) at the Battle of Midway, June 7, 1942; Subject file with letters, list of survivors, and commentary on the sinking of USS F.C. Davis (DE 136), April 24, 1945.

Karetka discusses his service in the Navy in World War II in USS Hughes and USS Hayter, including the Battle of Midway, the battle of Santa Cruz, and the resuce of the crew of the USS Hornet and the crew of the USS F.C. Davis in the North Atlantic. He comments on the sinking of the USS Yorktown as he remembers it, as well as crew, captains, camaraderie, and his love for the Navy.

Karetka was born in 1922 in Holyoke, MA. He left school in eigth grade and later joined the Civilian Conservation Corps. He joined the Navy in 1940 and trained at the Newport Naval Training Station. He was discharged from the Navy in 1946 and later joined the Naval Reserves. Part of the WWII Veterans Oral History Project.