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Show EDWI CAN ON' D' WI D R B R 22 2 1 because we'd gone to morning chow and I had gone down th r and didn t ha my li[i b It n, which we should have done, the whole ship was on alert and I didn t have my lifl b lt n. Wh n we got hit and had to abandon ship I had to tread water except we d been taught how to tak ur pants off and, you know, pull it- BEC: Make a float out of it? NED: Make a float out of it, which saved me. Although I was a pretty good swimmer, but treading water in ... but, anyway, the attack. We were at chow and we got that terrible clanging alarm noise on the ship that signaled emergency and then the captain, or the executive officer, or whoever saying over the intercom, "All hands to general quarters. All hands to general quarters. We're being attacked from the northwest," or whatever. And so, all hands hustled to the battle stations. My station was on the second five-inch gun mount up forward, the radar thing, and so I dashed up there. My quarters were the lower forward part of the ship so I didn't have time to get my life jacket. I just went up to my battle station. The suicide planes were just swarming in on us. Five planes hit our ship. There was another US destroyer, the Hale, right near us. And, anyway, the battle lasted for nearly an hour, no it was ninety minutes because I remember them saying that. So that would be about an hour-and-a-half, with planes coming after both of us. Our ship shot down twenty-four of those kamikazes and still has, as far as I know, the Navy record for planes shot down. BEC: Wow. NED: And five of them hit the ship at waterline. I remember the one; I thought my number was on it. You could see him coming right at you. You're up on the upper part and I could see the expression on the pilot's face, and he was coming right straight at our gun emplacement. And I thought-you know how you think a lot of things in a split second-! 29 |
