Nicholas John Masciarelli
Electricians Mate 3rd Class, USS VINCENNES (CA-44)
Nicholas was born in May of 1917, the third of five children born to Palmerino and Antoinette Masciarelli. He was a 1937 graduate of the Marlborough High School and made his home with his parents at 248 South Street. While working as a pump man for a water contractor company he enlisted into the Navy the 18th of October 1940.
He was sent to Naval Training Station Newport, Rhode Island for basic training and was then assigned to the USS VINCENNES (CA-44) a heavy cruiser the 21st of December 1940 as an apprentice seaman. He was promoted to seaman 2nd class the 1st of March 1941 and again to seaman 1st class the 1st of August 1941. For most of early 1941 the VINCENNES trained in the Caribbean in gunnery and gunfire support as well as a trip to South Africa in March of 1941. Nicholas and his shipmates were underway with a convoy of British troops headed for South Africa when word of the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor reached them. Nicholas was promoted to Fireman 2nd Class the 25th of January 1942 while the VINCENNES trained with the USS HORNET (CV-8) off the east coast of the United States.
On the 4th of March the VINCENNES sailed from New York bound for the pacific. The vessel departed San Francisco in April of 1942 as part of Task Force 18 which together with Task Force 16 executed the Doolittle raid against mainland Japan the 18th of April 1942, marking the first strike back against the Japanese Empire. VINCENNES would participate in the Battle of Midway as one of the screens for the carrier YORKTOWN (CV-5) as part of Task Force 17. The vessel spent early July in the navy yard at Pearl Harbor for repairs and retrofit. Nicholas was promoted to Electricians Mate 3rd Class the 1st of July 1942. On the 26th of July the VINCENNES rendezvoused with other ships of Task Force 62 and served as the flagship for the ships supporting the landings at Guadalcanal the 7th of August 1942.
On the 8th of August Nicholas and his shipmates provided cover to the transport ships in the area against Japanese bombers shooting down a number of aircraft. On the early morning of the 9th of August 1942, the VINCENNES and a number of other ships were attacked by a superior force of Japanese ships sent to disrupt the offloading of cargo by transports onto Guadalcanal. After having been hit by a number of torpedoes and rounds from Japanese ships, the VINCENNES sank at 0250 in the morning taking 332 of her crewmen with her including Nicholas. His name is memorialized on the walls of the missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in Manila, Philippines. A cenotaph in his memory is located at the Immaculate Conception Cemetery in Marlborough, Massachusetts. Masciarelli Drive in Marlborough is named in his honor.
