Bio: Olson, Roger W. – Assigned to USS Tarawa (May 1976)

Transcriber: Stan

Surnames: Olson

----Source: Tribune/Phonograph (Abbotsford, Clark Co., Wis.) 02 Jun 1976

In 1943 a Marine victory left Tarawa, a Japanese ship, a niche in U.S. History. But Tarawa is more than history for Navy man Roger W. Olson, son of Mr. and Mrs. William Olson of Abbotsford. Tarawa is his ship. Olson is a Navy Ship’s Serviceman second class, and is currently assigned to the pre-commissioning crew of the new amphibious assault ship, USS Tarawa. The huge ship is just completing construction at Pascagoula, Mississippi, where Olson and other key personnel make up the nucleus crew of the new ship. His job and the job of his shipmates is to learn various operations and systems of the ship in order to instruct those crew members who will join Tarawa just before her entry into the U.S. fleet. Olson will be plank-owner (a term given to the first crew members of a new ship). He is a 1961 graduate of Abbotsford High School and entered the Navy in 1962.