Santa Claus at sea
Corsale recalls Christmas visit by Santa on USS Wisconsin
SARATOGA SPRINGS— Gene Corsale has plenty of great Christmas memories.
One of his most unforgettable is from 1951, when he was a sailor aboard the USS Wisconsin, a battleship waged in combat during the Korean War.
On Christmas Day, the ship had two important visitors — Cardinal Spellman, archbishop of New York, and Santa Claus, who came aboard on a high wire connecting the Wisconsin and a nearby destroyer.
“The cardinal came over on a boat,” Corsale said, smiling. “They wouldn’t put him on the wire. He probably would have gotten wet because the ships were going up and down on the waves.”
“Cardinal Spellman was the military vicar of the Armed Forces,” he added. “He was visiting the troops. Everybody turned out, including Jewish and Protestants — it didn’t make any difference. We were the biggest ship in the fleet, so we’re the ones he visited first.”
The Wisconsin was part of the 7th Fleet’s Task Force 77. In the weeks before Christmas, it pounded North Korean shore batteries with nine-gun salvoes — fired by its huge 16-inch guns— and smaller five-inch guns at night.
On Christmas, the crew was given a rest.
“North Korea had no navy, no air force to speak of,” Corsale said. “They weren’t able to come out after us.”
Following the cardinal’s visit, sailors were treated to a huge Christmas feast.
“Everybody was in dress uniform,” Corsale said. “For sup- per they gave us turkey. It was a banquet— no powdered food.”
He was joined by three others from Saratoga Springs— Joseph DeVivo, Tony Sansiveri and Lou Alonzo.
“So we weren’t lonesome,” Corsale said.
The next day, however, the men went back to work, fighting a war.
Corsale, a second-class petty officer, was a welder assigned to damage control. Whenever the Wisconsin took a hit from enemy shells, he went to work making sure the ship remained seaworthy.
His battle station was right beneath the massive third turret.
One time he was topside when the big guns fired.
“You could follow the projectiles,” Corsale said. “They were five feet long. It looked like a giant football going through the air.”
Corsale was in the Navy from October 1950 until August 1954. An older brother, Francis— better known as “Lefty” — had been in World War II during the Battle of the Bulge. An observer pilot for the field artillery, he survived after getting shot down.
During the war, Christmas was not a happy time for some families.
Corsale said he remembers a Western Union man showing up at his family’s Walnut Street doorstep one time. In World War II, families were notified by telegram if a loved one had been killed.
“Nobody would answer the door,” Corsale said. “We knew he was the bearer of bad news. Finally, my father went. Fortunately, it was something else. It turned out to be nothing.”
In 2008, Corsale was named the New York Military Heritage Institute’s Veteran of the Year and he has been a tireless advocate on behalf of veterans of all ages, from World War II to the War on Terror.
Most recently, he was largely responsible for the renaming of the Route 9P span over Saratoga Lake as the Veterans Memorial Bridge. He is past vice commander of Adirondack Post 60 Korean War Veterans of America; is a Friends of the New York State Military Museum board member; has co-chaired Saratoga County’s Honoring Our Deceased Veterans program for more than a decade; and was instrumental in the restoration of the St. Peter’s World War II Memorial.
This Christmas, more than any other, Corsale doesn’t care about getting presents. He’s celebrating the greatest gift of all — life — just happy to be surrounded by his loving wife, Barbara, family and friends.
On Sept. 9, during 9/11 Remembrance Day ceremonies in Congress Park, Corsale was stricken and would have died if quick-thinking firefighters hadn’t sprung into action. His heart stopped and he had to be revived.
He takes things a bit slower, but 60 years after leaving the service, it’s clear how he feels about being a veteran.
“When the Navy said join up and see the world, they kept their end of the bargain,” Corsale said. “I’ve been to 25 countries. We crossed the Equator, the International Date Line and Arctic Circle.”
Today, the USS Wisconsin is a floating battleship museum, anchored in Norfolk, Va.
“You’ve got to be proud that you served on one,” Corsale said. “There aren’t too many left.”