We sailed from Leyte in a huge convoy in March 1945. We soon learned we would be invading Okinawa, a stronghold of the Japanese. While en route to Okinawa, the tail end of another typhoon engulfed the entire convoy. Our platoon was perched under a large canvass on the deck of a Tank Landing Craft (LCT) which was piggy-backed on a larger Tank Landing Ship (LST).
The waves rose tremendously high and water splashed all over as we rolled heavily. During the night I turned on my cot in an effort to keep my balance and realized that my fatigue jacket had fallen on the deck. In a semi-frantic effort to rescue my jacket, I twisted my knee, tearing multiple ligaments (the same knee I had injured in amphibious training in California). Since I could not walk, I had to stay aboard the LST when we landed on Okinawa.
We landed on April 1, Easter Sunday. In the absence of a chaplain, I was asked to hold an Easter service for those on our vessel on Saturday afternoon. I was only nineteen, and many of the men were older than I. I did not know of another truly born-again Christian in our outfit. It was an awesome responsibility. Many of those men were swept into eternity in the ensuing battles.
Somehow two Japanese kamikazes penetrated the greatest concentration of American forces assembled during all of World War II. One of the kamikazes succeeded in finding its target--another LST like ours a few hundred yards east of us, close to the beach. Like us it was still loaded with ammunition. The explosions shook the whole area, and 218 lives were snuffed out in a flash. The second plane headed for us. Fortunately, I was below deck resting my leg and avoiding the cold and rain. The blasts of thousands of anti-aircraft guns sent me scampering topside. Our fire diverted the second kamikaze, and he missed us by about twenty feet.
As I looked around to try to comprehend the situation, I saw men shouting, crying, laughing, and some struggling to restrain a seventeen-year-old sailor who had cracked up. I was again thankful that God had chosen to spare me, in line with His Word given to me by moonlight in Jaro, Leyte, from Psalm 56:3-4, "When I am afraid, I will put my trust in Thee. In God, whose word I praise, in God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?"
CAH
