James enlisted into the U.S.Navy on December 6, 1944 at the
age of 17.
He was trained as a Quartermaster but according to James,
spent his naval career mostly in training or waiting at some receiving station
for a permanent assignment. This was not
at all unusual in stories that this writer has heard from military personnel during
World War II.
One night, as James was pulling guard duty, he had the
occasion to guard a perimeter fence surrounding a naval base. During his patrol
he observed a figure walking towards him. James yelled “Halt!” The man, who
turned out to be an Army Air Forces officer, had been out too late and was
drunk. Luckily, James did not shoot, and loaded the officer into a jeep when an
MP finally drove by.
When the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan in August, 1945,
James was on the west coast waiting for an assignment. Eventually he was
shipped out to another receiving station in Hawaii. He boarded the escort
carrier U.S.S. Kwajalein and sailed to Guam. While on board the carrier, James
witnessed the massive Typhoon that hit the Pacific fleet during this late
summer of 1945, seriously damaging many ships and resulting in many casualties
among the fleet.
After four months on the island of Guam, James got a
permanent assignment to LST (landing ship tank) 930. This ship had been
involved in the landings on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
The ship was designated at this time a small hospital ship,
the entire port side on the second deck had been set up as operating rooms and
aid stations.
During James’ time on LST-930 the ship sailed to Milne Bay,
New Guinea where they loaded surplus war equipment to transfer to Hollandia,
New Guinea. Later the ship sailed to Saipan, back to Guam and then to Hawaii.
During the trek from Guam to Hawaii, both of the ships engines quit, and she
was towed about half the distance to Hawaii.
James was awarded the American Theater medal, the Asiatic-Pacific
Victory medal and as James states “The same as everyone.”
He was discharged from the Navy with the rank of 3rd
class Quartermaster on July 8, 1946.
No comments:
Post a Comment