Joe Rochefort: The Man Who Turned the Pacific Theater of WWII

by Martha Hutchens

image by @everett225, deposit photos

He was an unlikely sort to be able to make such a claim. While he was a naval officer, he was by all accounts an indifferent seaman. He was known to wear slippers and a smoking jacket to his most important WWII assignment. His work was not even acknowledged until years after his death. He was politically inept and narrowly escaped a court-martial in 1921, when the tanker he was duty officer on dragged its anchor in San Francisco Bay.

And yet, all of the war in the Pacific turned on this single man.

To understand this, you have to understand the Battle of Midway, fought on June 4–7, 1942. At this point, much of the U.S. Pacific Fleet was still on the ocean floor at Pearl Harbor. The U.S. had at best three functional carriers, but two was more accurate. Japan had ten operating carriers. The Battle of Coral Sea was fought in May 1942 and stopped Japan’s advance but was technically a draw. The Battle of Midway was the first clear U.S. victory in the Pacific and ended with the sinking of all four Japanese carriers there. Most historians consider it the turning point of the war in the Pacific.

So what was Rochefort’s assignment? He led Station HYPO, the Navy’s codebreaking unit.

Rochefort first started work in cryptanalysis in 1925. Codebreaking was not a prestigious assignment. Everyone knew you had to go to sea to get promoted. But it appealed to Rochefort. In 1929, he was posted to Japan for three years, where he was to learn the language. He then spent several years at sea until returning to Pearl Harbor in late 1939.

In late 1940, the U.S. Army broke the Japanese code Purple. This was a diplomatic code, not a military one. The equivalent Navy code was designated JN-25, and it became Station HYPO’s main objective.

image by @zim90, deposit photos

In December 1941, JN-25 remained unbroken. Traffic analysis told the team that the Japanese were planning something big, but the target was elusive. For months, Rochefort had been tracking large units of the Japanese fleet, but in mid-November Admiral Yamamoto put up a dense “electronic smokescreen” that allowed the carriers that attacked Pearl Harbor to slip through. The team at Station HYPO was devastated at their intelligence failure, which in reality belonged equally to the Army, the Navy, and Washington politicians.

Not long after Pearl Harbor, Rochefort told his team to “Forget Pearl Harbor and get on with the war.”

When Admiral Nimitz was assigned to be the Pacific Commander-in-Chief, he was not impressed with Rochefort, who narrowly kept his position.

Rochefort was not responsible for the actual codebreaking—that task fell to Lieutenant Commander Thomas Dyer, who led the work beautifully. By mid-January 1942, HYPO was decrypting fragments of messages. By the end of March, Americans were reading a substantial number of JN-25 messages.

Rochefort’s responsibility was to determine the significance of these messages, a difficult task considering well more than half of the messages they received remained unbroken. And in early 1942, his record was spotty. He did accurately predict an air raid on Hawaii on March 4, 1942. Buried in the minutiae of these decryptions was the Japanese designation for Midway: AF.

In early May, HYPO was receiving between 500 and 1,000 intercepts per day and reading parts of around 60% of them. Rochefort told Nimitz it was clear the Japanese were planning a major new initiative, but he didn’t know where.

Many potential targets were considered—Pearl Harbor, the U.S. West Coast, even the Aleutian Islands (where there was a small incursion, but that’s a different blog post).

image by @PhotoWorks, deposit photos

But on May 13, a decryption landed on Rochefort’s desk. A Japanese ship was to load supplies and proceed to Affirm Fox—AF. With tens of thousands of messages between the two of interest, Rochefort remembered that AF was Midway. Nimitz sent Captain Lynde McCormick to “the dungeon," the home of Station HYPO. It took a full day, but Rochefort and crew convinced him that Japan intended to commit four carriers to Midway. Then they had to convince Washington, and no one there had much confidence in Rochefort.

But Nimitz did, and this was confirmed by another intercept on May 16. But how to convince Washington?

Here comes one of the most impressive sleights of hand in military history. One of Rochefort’s subordinates, Jasper Holmes, suggested sending an encrypted message to the naval air station on Midway. It instructed the officers there to send an unencrypted message reporting difficulties with their distillation plant.

Midway had no source of fresh water and depended entirely on these plants. Not long after, HYPO decrypted a message saying there was a water problem on AF. The ruse had worked.

The battle at Midway was hard fought, and the victory required both skill and a measure of luck. But America’s fleet wouldn’t have even been there if it weren’t for Joe Rochefort.

He was nominated for a Distinguished Service Medal, but the recommendation was quashed. In Washington, Rochefort was considered an insubordinate cuss, difficult to work with and unpleasant to be around. He was relieved of duty at Station HYPO in October 1942.

Joe Rochefort died in 1976. In 1985, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal posthumously. And even today, few know his name or the pivotal role he played in WWII.

Best-selling author Martha Hutchens is a history nerd who loves nothing more than finding a new place and time to explore. She won the 2019 Golden Heart for Romance with Religious and Spiritual Elements. A former analytical chemist and retired homeschool mom, Martha occasionally finds time for knitting when writing projects allow.

Martha’s debut novel, A Steadfast Heart, is now available. You can learn more about her books and historical research at MarthaHutchens.com.

When his family legacy is on the line, rancher Drew McGraw becomes desperate for someone to tame and tutor his three children. Desperate enough to seek a mail-order bride. But when the wrong woman arrives on his doorstep, Drew balks.

Heiress Kaitlyn Montgomery runs straight from the scandal chasing her toward a fresh start on a secluded ranch. She strikes a bargain with Drew—a marriage convenient for both of them.

But the more Kaitlyn adapts to ranch life and forms a bond with Drew’s children and their enigmatic father, she realizes that this ranch is where she is meant to be. And then her past catches up with her…

From Plymouth to Plymouth

Over four hundred years ago, the people we now know as "Pilgrims" set out from Plymouth for the New World, seeking relief from religious persecution in their home country. Every Thanksgiving, children don paper hats and cardboard bonnets to reenact the life of these settlers after their arrival. Their difficult journey as well as salvation at the hands of the local Native American tribes is the stuff of legends (as well as the basis for a national holiday).

But how much do you know about the Pilgrims before they were Pilgrims?

The Pilgrims, in fact, never called themselves Pilgrims. Instead, they were "Separatists" or "Saints," a congregation of disgruntled English Protestants from the village of Scrooby in Nottinhamshire. They did not want to pledge allegiance to the Church of England, an entity they viewed as a merger between church and state and one that, in their opinion, was as corrupt as the Catholic Church it had replaced not so long ago. Not only did Separatists believe that true worship must progress from an individual relationship with God rather than state-mandated religion, they also saw many of the church's doctrines and practices as direct contradictions to the Christian gospel to which they claimed to adhere. For example, the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer was viewed as blasphemous, having not been inspired by God nor having no scriptural justification. The Separatists wished to break away and form their own independent churches guided by the Holy Spirit rather than government assignation. (This was a split from another group of Separatists known as Puritans who sought to reform the government church.)

But, at a time in which church and state were combined, any break from the church was viewed as treason, and the Separatists were forced to flee to Holland. Although they found religious freedom in their new home, they also found themselves struggling to adapt to the realities of living in a foreign country, one in which they didn't speak the language nor understand the prevalent culture or customs. The language barrier prevented all but the lowest-paying jobs, and the relatively "modern" society was viewed as sinful and depraved.

It was soon clear that Holland was not the answer to their quest. They needed a place where they could establish their own culture, form their own society, and worship in a way free of government influence. The best place for this, they decided, was somewhere far from England, uninhabited and away from distraction.

A place like the New World.

Photo Credit: history.com

The Separatists returned from Holland, hoping to formulate a plan and secure finances for this new adventure. The Virginia Company, already staking claim in what would soon be America, gave the Separatists permission to establish a plantation on the East Coast between 38 and 41 degrees north latitude (roughly between Chesapeake Bay and the mouth of the Hudson River). The King of England, perhaps seeing the voyage as a solution to the headache the Separatists were causing, bid them a hearty farewell, so long as "they carried themselves peaceably."

Joining the Separatists on their journey was a group of not-so-kindly named "Strangers," non-religious people simply seeking fortune or a new life in America. Approximately 102 people bid England farewell in August 1620 aboard two merchant ships, the Mayflower and the Speedwell.

They returned only a few days later.

The Speedwell had begun to leak almost immediately, forcing the travelers to return to port and, after a thorough inspection, was deemed unseaworthy for the voyage. Rather than delay any longer and await, not only the finances for another ship, but also the unlikely availability, the passengers and crew of TWO ships instead merged onto one. The Mayflower now carried double the people, in addition to double the food supply, double the weapons cache, and an overwhelming assortment of live animals, including sheep, goats, chicken, and dogs).

When the Mayflower finally set sail on September 16, 1620, she was over-burdened and had also missed the window of opportunity for a smooth voyage, setting sail right in the height of the Atlantic storm season. In addition, the ship itself was never meant for a cross-ocean trip; more suitable for short crossings, its high, wall-like sides made it difficult to sail in the strong winds that often blew across the Atlantic. A voyage that should have taken a month instead lasted 66 days, causing illness, food shortages, poor tempers, and even a few deaths.

Even more hardships waited for them upon arrival. They landed well north of their allotted land, in the midst of Native American land in which they had no right to be (although the "right" of the Virginia Company to its own claimed land is still up for debate as well). The long journey had depleted their supplies and broken their bodies, and the New World wasn't at all what they had expected it to be.

Photo Credit: brittanica.com 

And yet they persisted, establishing a colony for the glory of God and the right to worship in the way they saw fit. Their determination and drive set the precedent for what we now know as the "American Spirit"--and became the basis for our modern day Thanksgiving celebration. 

Jennifer L. Wright grew up wanting to be a reporter, but it only took a few short months of working in journalism for her to abandon those aspirations for fiction writing instead. She loves to reimagine and explore forgotten eras in history, showcasing God's light amidst humanity's darkest days. Her books have won multiple awards, including Golden Scroll and Angel awards. She currently lives in New Mexico with her husband, two kids, a couple of hyperactive dachshunds, and an ever-growing herd of guinea pigs. 

 

Lighthouses During World War II

Although more than one thousand lighthouses have been constructed in the U.S. over the years, according to the US Lighthouse Society, there were never more than 850 in operation at the same time. During the colonial period, beacons were primarily used as navigational aids, then lighthouse ships came into being, followed by lighthouses.

Initially under the Treasury Department, lighthouse operations moved to the Department of Commerce in 1910. Nearly two decades later on July 1, 1939, the service merged with the U.S. Coast Guard. Keepers were given the choice of staying on as civilians or joining the Coast Guard with a military rank. Additional Coast Guard members were assigned to the lighthouses, living and eating with the keeper’s family.

Along the East Coast, the more than six hundred lighthouses became observation posts where “Coasties” patrolled the shoreline for U-boat activity on foot with K-9 units, horseback, and jeeps. Wireless radios were installed at the top of lighthouses to provide communication with others lighthouses on the coast.

Two lighthouses in Florida had additional responsibilities.

The St. Augustine lighthouse added a training station where hundreds of men and women received

basic training. Headquarters was set up in the famous Ponce de Leon Hotel, a luxury hotel built between 1885 and 1889 by Standard Oil co-founder Henry M. Flagler and known as The Ponce.

The Jupiter Inlet lighthouse added naval married men’s quarters and the super-secret Station J, an operation using high-frequency direction finding (HF/DF), AKA “Huff-Duff” designed to intercept U-Boat radio messages and tip off U.S. forces to attack enemy vessels. According to the National Park Service, this highly successful site ended German dominance of the Atlantic.

Do you know of other lighthouses with special duties during World War II?

_________________________

Linda Shenton Matchett writes happily-ever-after historical Christian fiction about second chances and women who overcome life’s challenges to be better versions of themselves. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she was born a stone’s throw from Fort McHenry (of Star-Spangled Banner fame) and has lived in historical places all her life. She is a volunteer docent and archivist at the Wright Museum of WWII and a former trustee for her local public library. She now lives in central New Hampshire where she explores the history of this great state and immerses herself in the imaginary worlds created by other authors.

Legacy of Love: Part of the Cheerful Heart Christmas Anthology

Will their love come at a cost?

Escaping Boston to avoid a marriage of convenience aimed at garnering society’s respect for her family name in the shadow of her father’s war profiteering, Meg Underwood settles in Oregon. Despite leaving behind the comforts of wealth, she’s happy. Then the handsome Pinkerton agent, Reuben Jessop, arrives with news that she’s inherited her aunt’s significant estate, and she must return home to claim the bequest. Meg refuses to make the trip. Unwilling to fail at his mission, Reuben gives her until Christmas to prove why she should remain in Oregon and give up the opportunity to become a woman of means. When he seems to want more than friendship, she wonders if her new-found wealth is the basis of his attraction.

Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4qd3eR2

Photo Credits:

Biscayne Lighthouse: Pixabay/Jeff Raymond

St. Augustine Lighthouse: Pixabay/Michelle Barnhill


Sources:
https://www.staugustinelighthouse.org/2020/08/11/world-war-ii-on-americass-first-coast-part-two-the-american-response-semper-paratus/

https://monheganmuseum.org/WWII/war-begins-landing-page/war-begins-coast-guard

https://www.jupiterlighthouse.org/blog/station-j-world-war-2/

https://serenewandering.com/2024/06/30/world-war-ii-tower-and-the-cape-may-lighthouse

https://uslhs.org/sites/default/files/articles_pdf/Ponce_de_Leon_WWII.pdf

https://www.coastalgeorgiahistory.org/visit/world-war-ii-museum/

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/history-of-lighthouses.htm

The Frontier Midwife Who Solved the Mystery of a Deadly Illness

By Mary Dodge Allen

From the early 1800s until 1927, a mysterious illness claimed the lives of thousands of Midwestern U.S. settlers, including Abraham Lincoln's mother. It was known by various names - "the trembles" or "the slows" - but most often it was called "milk sickness" because people often died after consuming dairy products. During the epidemic of 1818, Nancy Hanks Lincoln died of milk sickness when her son Abe was only nine years old. 

Nancy Hanks Lincoln (Public Domain)

Milk Sickness - Mysterious and Feared:

In 1809, Thomas Barbee, a doctor from Bourbon County, Kentucky was the first to document the symptoms of milk sickness in writing. The illness baffled frontier doctors, and the standard treatment, bloodletting, did nothing to help the victims. Its fatality rate was high, often taking the lives of half the settlers in a frontier community. A healthy person could be struck down in a matter of days, progressing from trembling, vomiting and delusions, and ending in coma and death. 

It's easy to see how settlers came to fear this mysterious ailment that could kill so quickly. Some blamed the cause on poisoned alkali water, arsenous fumes in the air, and even the work of evil spirits. Nursing animals, like calves and lambs, also died of the illness. Doctors assumed the adult livestock were consuming some kind of poison that tainted their milk, but they were unable to identify the source of this poison.

Enter: Anna Pierce Hobbs - Frontier Midwife:

Anna Pierce Hobbs (Public Domain)

Anna Pierce was born in Philadelphia in the early 1800s and headed west with her family as a young girl, settling in Rock Creek, an area in southern Illinois. Anna's budding interest in medicine grew as she saw the many illnesses, like cholera, that plagued the early settlers.

As a young woman, Anna went back to Philadelphia to study medicine. Nursing, midwifery and dental extractions were the only areas of medicine a woman was allowed to study and practice in the 1820s. It's unclear exactly where Anna studied, but she returned to Rock Creek after finishing her education.

Anna became the only medical practitioner in Hardin County, serving settlers across the large region. Her patients regarded her with affection, calling her "Doctor Anna." In the early 1830s, Anna married Isaac Hobbs. At this time, milk sickness had become an epidemic in Hardin County, killing many, including Anna's mother and her sister-in-law.

Anna's Mission to Find the Cause:

The deaths of close family members made Anna even more determined to find the source of the poison that caused milk sickness. She observed that the illness occurred mostly in summer and early fall, and she came to believe a seasonal plant was the source of the poison. 

In her spare time, Anna began tracking the cattle in the area and observing their grazing habits. They most often grazed in open fields, but in times of drought, they would stray into forested areas to graze.

One fall day in 1834, Anna packed a lunch, took her rifle and set out with her dogs to observe the cattle who were grazing in the nearby woods. While there, she encountered an elderly Shawnee medicine woman, who was hiding to avoid her tribe's forced migration to Kansas. (In 1834, this migration was forced upon the Shawnee tribes in Illinois, as a result of the 1830 Indian Removal Act.)

Lithograph of a Midwestern Shawnee Village, "Kanya Village" by George Lehman

Anna took pity on the woman and gave her the lunch she had packed. Then she escorted her to her own home, so the woman could rest. When the medicine woman learned about Anna's interest in milk sickness, she declared she knew the source of the poison. The medicine woman took Anna back into the woods and showed her a plant with bunches of fuzzy white flowers.

Close up of white snakeroot (Public Domain)

This plant was a perennial herb called white snakeroot, Ageratina altissima. It is seasonal, flourishing in the summer and early fall and grows mostly in wooded areas. Anna experimented by feeding the plant to calves, and she soon saw the clear symptoms of milk sickness.

White snakeroot flourishing in forested area (Public Domain)

She began warning settlers all through the county about white snakeroot. She even grew a few of the plants in her garden, to show people what it looked like. Men in the area went out through the fields and forests abd uprooted this plant. After three years, white snakeroot was largely eradicated in this area of southern Illinois, along with occurrences of milk sickness.

Anna is known to have sent letters informing doctors across the frontier that she'd discovered white snakeroot as the cause of milk sickness. But she got little response. There were no medical journals in these frontier areas, and the male doctors in this era weren't inclined to give much credence to the discovery of a frontier midwife. 

As a result, milk sickness continued claiming hundreds of victims. But in the early 1900s, this illness gradually declined, due to industrialization - changes in feeding cattle and the mass production of milk.

The dark areas show the large range of white snakeroot

It wasn't until 1927, nearly 100 years after Anna's discovery, that researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture published a report on the toxic substances in white snakeroot. They confirmed milk sickness was cause by white snakeroot's main toxic ingredient: Tremetol. 

It is a poison that is very potent. If tremetol contaminates bales of hay, it can retain its toxicity up to five years. Tremetol is also fat soluble. It concentrates in milkfat, which is why it was so deadly.

Newspaper article about the USDA report on Tremetol and milk sickness (Public Domain)

Later Life:

When Anna was in her late 50's, her husband Isaac Hobbs died of pneumonia, leaving her a generous inheritance. By this time, Anna had also accumulated a tidy sum from her medical practice. 

Eson Bixby, a younger man with an abundance of charm, proposed to Anna. She married him, ignoring warnings that he was a ne'er-do-well interested in her money. But Anna also took the precaution of hiding most of her fortune.

One night, Eson lured her from the house on the pretext that he knew someone who needed medical help. In a remote area, under cover of darkness, he attempted to tie her up so he could force her to reveal the location of her money. But Anna escaped from him, and she gradually recovered from her wounds. Eson ran off and was never heard from again.

It is alleged that Anna hid her money in a cave near a small town called Cave-In-Rock in Hardin County - now known as Anna Bixby Cave. There is a marker in Anna's honor at Cave-In-Rock. 

Anna Bixby Cave (Public Domain)

Anna Pierce Hobbs Bixby died in 1869 and was buried next to the grave of her first husband, Isaac Hobbs. Anna's life-saving discovery of the source of milk sickness, and her success at locally eradicating the disease was all but forgotten - until the 1960s - when historians rediscovered her accomplishment and began a campaign to give her recognition. 

___________________________

Mary Dodge Allen is currently finishing her sequel to Hunt for a Hometown Killer. She's won a Christian Indie Award, an Angel Book Award, and two Royal Palm Literary Awards (Florida Writer's Association). She and her husband live in Central Florida. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Faith Hope and Love Christian Writers. 

Website: www.marydodgeallen.com

Recent release, anthology devotional: El Jireh, The God Who Provides

Mary's story, entitled: A Mother's Desperate Prayer, describes her struggle with guilt and despair after her young son is badly burned in a kitchen accident. When we are at the end of all we have, El Jireh provides what we need. 

Click the link below to purchase on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/El-Jireh-God-Who-Provides/dp/1963611608

Mary's novel: Hunt for a Hometown Killer won the 2022 Christian Indie Award, First Place - Mystery/Suspense; and the 2022 Angel Book Award - Mystery/Suspense.

Click the link below to buy Hunt for a Hometown Killer at Amazon.com:

Hunt For A Hometown Killer: A Novel: Allen, Mary Dodge: 9781952369704: Amazon.com: Books

Link to Mary's Spotlight Interview:   Mary Dodge Allen Author Spotlight EA Books

How A Nineteenth Century Mining Town Became The Most Irish Community between the West Coast and the Mississippi River."

 By Donna Wichelman

Over the last year, I’ve written about how the influx of immigrants to find their fortunes settled the western territories of the continental United States. The Territory of Colorado, in particular, saw the population explode due to immigrants who heard there were vast resources of gold and silver in the region. Many African Americans and whites, who’d helped fight for their emancipation, also came from the northern states and wanted to put the Civil War behind them.

In her book, The Rise of the Silver Queen, Historian Christine Bradley speaks about the many ethnic groups who arrived in Georgetown, Colorado, during the town’s silver mining heyday (1868 – 1878). They came “from every point of the globe…,” she says (The Rise of the Silver Queen, p. 88). These included Cornish, Chinese, Germans, French, Welsh, Jewish, and Italians, hoping to make it rich on a large silver lode.

Ruins of the Terrible Mining Company near Georgetown, Colorado: Donna's Gallery, June 2019

Among the many groups who arrived, one could argue that no other impacted the Territory of Colorado more than the Irish, and nowhere is that more evident than in the Alvarez Cemetery in Georgetown and the Evergreen Cemetery in Leadville, Colorado. If one walks the grounds of these two cemeteries, it becomes immediately apparent that a massive amount of gravestones exist engraved with Irish surnames such as Bruce and McHugh, Dougherty and O’Donnell, McHugh and McGuiuggan, and Flannery and O’Sullivan.

Alvarez Cemetery, Georgetown, Colorado, Donna’s Gallery, October 2018

Alvarez Cemetery, Georgetown, Colorado, Donna’s Gallery, October 2018

In 2023, the Evergreen Cemetery in Leadville, Colorado, completed an Irish Immigrant Miner's Memorial honoring the 1,300 Irish who settled in Leadville in the nineteenth century. The monument stands as a testament to those whose hopes and dreams brought them to America and who struggled to make a life in the new world.

In honor of my Irish protagonist, Anna Sullivan, in my Gilded Age historical romance, A Song of Deliverance, I wanted to visit the memorial. Though I’d seen a picture of it in my research, I didn’t know what to expect. So, when I walked into the area sectioned off for the Irish gravestones and memorial, I wasn't prepared for the heart-wrenching moment that impacted me.

Donna Standing Next to the Irish Memorial, Evergreen Cemetery, Leadville, Colorado: Donna’s Gallery, June 2025

According to one plaque at the memorial, approximately one-fifth of all residents of Leadville in 1880 were of Irish heritage, making it the "most Irish community per capita of any community between the West Coast and the Mississippi River."

Yet, despite their significant presence in Leadville, the Irish, as a whole, could not rise much above the poverty they had experienced in Ireland. Most couldn’t afford a proper burial for their kin. Scanning the names on the tall Plexiglas lists of people who lived and died in Leadville, I noticed the great number of children who died as infants or in early childhood. Most of them were buried in unmarked graves or with a simple wooden marker in the Catholic Pauper section of the cemetery, because their families couldn't pay the $15 that was required for a gravestone.

Name of Those Who Died in Early Childhood: Donna's Gallery, June 2025

Unmarked Irish Graves in the Catholic Pauper Section of the Cemetery: Donna's Gallery, June 2025

 

For more than a century, the graves of the Irish dead were left to deteriorate, some of them becoming a part of the forested cemetery--only impressions in the ground. But in 2003, Dr. James Walsh, a historian from the University of Denver working on his doctoral thesis, came across the Everygreen Cemetery. He and his students, and the Irish Network Colorado, undertook the project to identify the graves, using church records.

Today, a spiral labyrinth leads to a bronze statue of an Irish miner now nicknamed Liam O'Sullivan. The miner is surrounded by mining tools, an Irish harp, and the names of those who were once lost and unknown in the unmarked graves--a tribute to their lives and their impact on Colorado.

A personal note of interest: Long before I discovered the Evergreen Cemetery, I had already written A Song of Deliverance and had named my protagonist and her uncle. Ironically, I had chosen the names Anna O'Sullivan (she chose to change it to Sullivan in the book) and Liam O'Hallesey. Coincidence or an act of Providence?

Weaving history and faith into stories of intrigue and redemption grew out of Donna's love of travel, history, and literature as a young adult while attending an international college in Wales, U.K. She enjoys developing plots that show how God's love abounds even in the profoundly difficult circumstances of our lives. Her stories reflect the hunger in all of us for love, belonging, and forgiveness.

Donna was a communications professional before writing full-time. Her short stories and articles have appeared in inspirational publications. She has two indie-published romantic suspense novels, Light Out of Darkness and Undaunted Valor, in her Waldensian Series. Her Gilded Age historical romance, A Song of Deliverance, released in December 2024.

Donna and her husband of forty-one years participate in ministry at their local church in Colorado. They love spending time with their grandchildren and bike, kayak, and travel whenever possible.

The Need for Fireboats - Not What You Might Think

On our latest trip to Washington state, we passed notable history markers while walking along the coast. One such site - impossible to miss, Fireboat No.1. This massive steel-hulled ship in all its crimson glory, rests ashore on Point Ruston. Upon first glance, I thought it aided with wild hillside conflagrations or house fires. Yet in researching for this piece I discovered the original purpose of fireboats along the entirety of the west coast is not fire related, but rather fire adjacent. What drove the need? I’ll let you ponder that a bit while you peruse this vessel. 

Have you guessed yet?

For California, initially earthquakes predicated the desire for fireboats. Who knew? Earthquakes disrupt and dismantle. When water mains break underground, sea water is the best option to tackle fires.

For Washington state, the varied jobs of fireboats centered around the many facets of the lumber industry, from shipping to milling, and storage. The fireboats' efficiency kept fires from spreading amongst the warehouses. There were then and still are areas today of the Tacoma coastline where roads do not exist. The only manner of fighting fires was and is from the coastline for those locations. 

Fireboat No. 1 fun facts. Three shifts of twelve firefighters served to keep this 96'6" long boat running. It seems the red suits her better than her original gray and black. Don't you agree? Weighing in at 88.5 gross tons, this beauty has five engines, three propellers, and one rudder. Imagine the volume of water as her seven monitors (nozzles) could deliver as much water as ten firetrucks! She wears an electric winch, a searchlight, and a boom for the life boat. 2,500 feet of fire hoses can be attached at six outlets of the manifolds on each side. Even with all of these accoutrements, she could travel at nearly 16 miles per hour. Pretty quick for an old girl. In fact, in 1929, she was among the fastest of her kind.

Look at the red monitor (water cannon) at nearly the middle of the boat in the photo at left. It sports a white nozzle. Do you see it? Aptly named, "Big Bertha," this cannon delivered 6,500 gallons of water per minute - 475 feet. What a powerful tool to fight fires. 

Not only did the fireboat use water from the 38 miles of Tacoma waterfront, it also deployed foam in oil and gas fires. Above and beyond fires, Fireboat No. 1 served Tacoma by responding to emergencies. Bridge jumpers and sinking vessels fell under her purview. She carried out an estimated 80% of the emergency rescues since the Coast Guard operated less than 24 hours per day. 

Fireboat No. 1 raced into action on October 1, 1929. She faithfully served for 53 years. Then, she helped train firefighters before the transition to newer, more advanced fireboats. Independence Day Celebrations featured her in all her glory, often shooting colorful water from her monitors. Other local festivities offered a chance for her to shine over the years. When asked in a 1976 survey for favorite landmarks, the second highest votes landed on board Fireboat No. 1, shadowed only by Mt. Rainier. Fine company indeed.

One of my favorite findings while studying the history of Fireboat No. 1 is Robert Fields' assessment in the 1978 nomination form for Tacoma Register of Historic Places Inventory. "Its appearance is, perhaps, as dated as 'antique' firetrucks of this period, but the fireboat has remained almost unchanged because it so completely satisfied the function it was designed to perform, and because its durability has allowed it to remain 'in service' for more than half a century."

What a legacy. May we learn from her.

As a child, Rebecca loved to write. She nurtured this skill as an educator and later as an editor for an online magazine. Rebecca then joined the Cru Ministry - NBS2GO/Neighbor Bible Studies, at its inception. She serves as the YouVersion Content Creator, with over 135 Plans, in 45 languages on the Bible.com app.

Rebecca lives near the mountains with her husband and a rescued dog named Ranger. She is a proud mom of an American soldier and an Aerospace grad student. If it were up to Rebecca, she would be traveling - right now. First up, trips to see their two grown sons. As a member of ACFW and FHLCW, she tackles the craft of fiction while learning from a host of generous writers. 

Connect with Rebecca: Facebook Goodreads Instagram Pinterest X/Twitter

Fields, R. (1978, January 24). Tacoma Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form. Tacoma; CMS City of Tacoma.

Famous Instruments in History: The Organ of Johann Sebastian Bach

Blogger: Amber Lemus

Johann Sebastian Bach
Public Domain

Johann Sebastian Bach is a household name today. He is known as a masterful musician and a gifted composer. But during Bach's lifetime, he was better known as an organist. 

When compiling my list of the most famous instruments in history, I figured Bach's organ had to be on the list. However, I was surprised to find that while Bach owned many instruments, he didn't own an organ, the instrument he was most known for. 

Why didn't Bach own an organ?

That was my question as well. Turns out, in those days, they didn't have the small household organs we have today, they only had the massive, piped organs you see built into the walls of churches. These were not considered personal property but rather part of the architecture and infrastructure of the building, so the organ was owned by the institution, such as the church or royalty, rather than by the musician that was hired to play them. 

Then, what is considered the Bach organ?

Bach's entire professional career was built around the organ. From his very first appointment, he was playing the organ. So there are several instruments that are attributed to Bach.

The first resides at the Bach Church in Arnstadt. When Johann first came to work there, it was known as the New Church. The previous one had burned down, so a new one had been constructed on the same site. The organ was built by Johann Friedrich Wender, and inspected by eighteen-year-old Bach upon its completion. He was hired shortly afterwards to be the church organist. However, he only served here for a short time. After his term, his cousin took over, continuing the legacy of an organist by the name of Bach. While the organ has been altered and repaired over the centuries, it is the closest to the original that Bach played out of all the organs on record. The church was renamed after Bach in 1935 to honor Bach's connection to that church.

Current version of the Wender organ in the Bach Church, Arnstadt
Mtag, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Johann Sebastian Bach Church Anstadt
By Michael Sander - Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0,

The second would be the organ at the court of Duke Wilhelm Ernst at Weimar. This is the organ Bach used to compose the majority of his organ compositions. It was considered his golden age as an organ composer. However this organ was later destroyed by fire, so it no longer exists. 

The third is the organ at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig Germany. This church is often referred to as "Bach's Church" although that is not its official name. Bach was the music director there from 1723 until his death in 1750. The building has been rebuilt or renovated many times and the organ from Bach's time is no longer present. However, they did build a replica of Bach's organ there in 2000. Bach's remains are now buried in the church, although they were not there originally. There is also a statue honoring Bach in front of the church. For these reasons, this is the church and organ most famous and commonly referred to as "Bach's". 

St. Thomas Church
By Dirk Goldhahn - Fotografiert von Dirk Goldhahn.,
Public Domain

Statue of Bach in front of St. Thomas Church
By Eric Pancer - I (Creative Commons)

Did Bach own any instruments?

While Bach didn't own an organ, he did own many other instruments. The inventory of his estate included five harpsichords, two Lautenwerckes otherwise known as lute harpsichords (which we will have to circle back to, because it is super interesting.), a spinet, three violins, three violas, two cellos, one lute, and several other instruments. These instruments were the ones he took with him and used at home to compose and also teach his students. 

Another fun fact is that Bach, in addition to being a masterful musician of many instruments, also had a wonderful voice. In fact, his scholarship to music school was because of his voice, not his instrument playing. 

Which of these organs do YOU think should be considered "The Bach Organ"? 

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Two-time winner of the Christian Indie Award, Amber Lemus inspires hearts through enthralling tales She has a passion for family, faith, facts and fiction. This combination results in what her readers call "historical fiction at its finest".  

She lives at the foot of the Rocky Mountains with her prince charming and two boys. Between enjoying life as a boy mom, and spinning stories out of soap bubbles, Amber loves to connect with readers.

Amber is a proud member of the American Christian Fiction Writers Association. Visit her online at http://www.amberlemus.com/  and download a FREE story by subscribing to her Newsletter!