Lt. Harry Schultz and Son Mike

7-16-06: The above photo was donated by Mike Botula. The photo is most appropriate, it's symbolic of the job Schultz had to perform aboard the 920. He had to hold a lot of immature hands belonging to his green officers and men. All of his officers were 90 day wonders, none had ever served at sea. Of the enlisted men, only 3 or 4 had previous sea duty, most were fresh out of boot camp. It seems like a monumental task for one man to pull together this motley group of civilians into a smart functioning sea-worthy crew. Fortunately for us he had been preparing for the job all his adult life.

Captain Schultz differed from the rest of his officers in the fact that he was "regular navy" starting as a teen-age enlisted man he rose through the ranks to Chief Quartermaster and then received a war-time commission and command of LST 920.

Joining the crew for the first time, he was noted wearing four hash-marks, each stripe signifying 4 years of service, making his navy service between 16 and 20 years at that time.

As an enlisted man I didn't have much contact with Captain Schultz. I am indebted to Boatswain Mate Harold Dunagan and his daughter-in-law Joyce for there assistance in gathering material for this article .

7/24/08 Web Master's Note: The following information is quoted from a Tim Schultz email.

I don't have a copy of Dad's military record but I do have a hand written journal he produced when he was in his seventies.
I will try to construct a chronology of his career after leaving the LST 920. I know that he spent a couple of years (that he did not enjoy) at the Pentagon.

This journal included a picture taken with some fellow officers from the LST 920 on New Years Eve.

He's wearing a sombrero, everybody is holding whiskey glasses. He identifies one of the men as being Lieutenant Lehrer.

Photo is below!

He also wrote quite a bit about a man named Willis. He was very impressed with Willis.

He wrote in his memoir

"I had a ship full of good men. I wish it would have been possible to keep in touch with them all. But right after the war, I did not want to be too close to too many people. I had been on one ship, the Jarvis for 4 years and 9 months and a crew gets pretty close. Of course that crew with exception of a couple us is all gone. Luck is hard to describe. When a ship does down 'with all hands' - thats about as bad as it gets. And when you known everyone of them for so long it's terrible."

The Destroyer Jarvis was sunk off Guadacanal on August 8, 1942. This was his second ship. He hoisted the flag at it's commissioning. He was on it during the attack at Pearl Harbor and in the Action Report 5 days later, along with others was recommended for a commendation for meritorious service. He finally received this commendation in 1951.

Dad retired with 20 years service in April 1957. His final rank was Lieutenant Commander.