{"id":86378,"date":"2025-09-12T07:49:25","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T07:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/?p=86378"},"modified":"2025-09-08T17:49:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T17:49:35","slug":"hing-history-the-sinking-of-the-usat-royal-t-frank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/2025\/09\/12\/hing-history-the-sinking-of-the-usat-royal-t-frank\/","title":{"rendered":"HING History: The Sinking of the USAT Royal T. Frank"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a compelling look back at a little-known chapter of World War II, Lt. Col. Kawika Hosea sheds light on the tragic sinking of the <em>USAT Royal T. Frank<\/em> off the coast of the Big Island in January 1942. This transport vessel, carrying Hawaii National Guard Soldiers, was struck by a Japanese submarine torpedo \u2014 just weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The survivors, later known as the &#8220;Torpedo Gang&#8221; endured the unthinkable and lived to tell a story of courage, resilience, and sacrifice that few have heard \u2014 but none should forget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This moment in history reminds us of the many untold stories that shaped the legacy of the Hawaii National Guard and our nation&#8217;s defense. Watch the podcast below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The sinking of the USAT Royal T. Frank\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zAqvQlv69oI?list=PLpiZWeMz2zVtHcHHE8RDT-zvQ0w33G9Ga\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The State of Hawaii, Department of Defense (HIDOD)\u2019 Retiree News does not endorse any of the external hyperlinks listed or posted on this site. This includes linked websites, information, products, or services contained therein. We are a government run website for which transparency and accountability are paramount. HIDOD cannot have the appearance of endorsement and are bound by the HIDOD Social Media Policy concerning political posts being respectful, honest, and accurate. Operational Security will additionally be adhered to. Retiree News does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at linked sites. Some of the sites linked to may limit the number of stories you can access without a paid subscription. All links were provided with the intent of meeting the mission of the HIDOD\u2019s version of Retiree News.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a compelling look back at a little-known chapter of World War II, Lt. Col. Kawika Hosea sheds light on the tragic sinking of the USAT Royal T. Frank off the coast of the Big Island in January 1942. This transport vessel, carrying Hawaii National Guard Soldiers, was struck by a Japanese submarine torpedo \u2014 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":17116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"37833,51863,10508,51712,35628,38378","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webmaster-comments"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86378"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86426,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86378\/revisions\/86426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dod.hawaii.gov\/retireenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}