Wednesday, April 06, 2011
ONE OF MY ANNIVERSARIES, APRIL 6, 1945
On April 1, 1945,, our ship, USS-YMS-176 , was part of the invasion fleet which invaded Okinawa, only 300 miles from Japan.
On April 6, the Japanese went all out to destroy our armada, sending hundreds of Kamikaze (suicide planes) to attack us. It was a major encounter.
A few months ago, in our writing class, I drew upon that experience, sort of---as follows
"Hey, Bob. I noticed you seem to be limpimg a lot. Got a sore foot or something? What happened? How did you get that? Is it serious? How long has that been going on?"
"you heard about World War 2? I was in that one, ya know,in the navy, our side, on a minesweeper. Ya heard about the big battle for Okinawa where the navy had more casualties than the army with all those Kamikaze airplanes, ya know, the suicide pilots crashing their planes into our ships. Every day for about four months. I thought we would not get out alive, but here I am."
"What a brave guy. You fought gallantly, perhaps heroically, without concern for your own safety---thinking only of our precious freedom. That had to be a horror show! And what you got out of it was a crippling handicap. So the battle for Okinawa is where you gave much of yourself and got the bum foot?"
Well, no, I got it last week at my house, in the kitchen, when I dropped a bottle of beer on my foot."
"Then what's all this about Okinawa and the Kamikaze planes?"
"I just like to talk about it."
On April 6, the Japanese went all out to destroy our armada, sending hundreds of Kamikaze (suicide planes) to attack us. It was a major encounter.
A few months ago, in our writing class, I drew upon that experience, sort of---as follows
"Hey, Bob. I noticed you seem to be limpimg a lot. Got a sore foot or something? What happened? How did you get that? Is it serious? How long has that been going on?"
"you heard about World War 2? I was in that one, ya know,in the navy, our side, on a minesweeper. Ya heard about the big battle for Okinawa where the navy had more casualties than the army with all those Kamikaze airplanes, ya know, the suicide pilots crashing their planes into our ships. Every day for about four months. I thought we would not get out alive, but here I am."
"What a brave guy. You fought gallantly, perhaps heroically, without concern for your own safety---thinking only of our precious freedom. That had to be a horror show! And what you got out of it was a crippling handicap. So the battle for Okinawa is where you gave much of yourself and got the bum foot?"
Well, no, I got it last week at my house, in the kitchen, when I dropped a bottle of beer on my foot."
"Then what's all this about Okinawa and the Kamikaze planes?"
"I just like to talk about it."
# posted by Noonski @ 3:57 PM 
