| Branch of Service or Wartime Activity: |
U.S. Navy |
|
Enlisted |
| Service dates: |
7/28/1944 to 6/8/1946 |
| Highest Rank: |
Seaman First Class |
| Unit, Division, Battalion, Group, Ship, etc. |
Landing Ship Median #468 |
| War, operation, or conflict served in: |
Pacific |
| Locations of service: |
Boot Camp at Camp Peary Williamsburg, VA., ATB Little Creek, VA., USS LSM 468 & USS LSM 136 |
| Battles/Campaigns: |
Took first troops into Wakayama, Japan |
| Medals or special awards: |
Ribbons: American, Asiatic-Pacific, World War II Victory Ribbon, Japan Occupation |
| Was the veteran a prisoner of war? |
No |
| Did the veteran sustain combat or service-related injuries? |
No |
| Addional Bio Info: |
After completing my junio (11th grade) of High School May 1944 and after my seventeenth birthday June 4, 1944 I joined the Navy. Went to boot camp 7/28/1944 at Camp Peary Williamsburg, VA, Little Creek, VA. (Norfork, VA) for LSM Amphib training.
Our crew picked up a new ship, USS LSM 46B, commissioned 3/16/1945 at Brown’s Ship Yard in Houston, Texas. We trained out of Galveston in the Gulf (shake down), going thru the Panama Canal, up the west coast to Frisco-Oakland before heading for Pearl Harbor.
We trained with troops in Hilo, Hawaii for the invasion of Japan later. Fortunate, Truman took care of this with the three cities and the three big bombs.
Enroute Pearl Harbor to Japan, Okinawa, we landing occupation forces on the beach at Wakayama, Japan Sept 27, 1945.
We were going to keep this up back and forth from Okinawa but the typhoon of Oct 9, 1945 (150 Knots) we landed on a reef and knocked us out for a month.
Left Okinawa for Guam 11/26/1945. Arrived @ Guam 12/6/1945. Transferred to LSM 136 from LSM 468 12/7/1945. Left Guam for Pearl 12/8/1945. Arrived @ Pearl 12/23/1945. Leave Pearl for Diego 1/5/1946, beached at San Diego 9:00 AM 1/15/46. Back home in the good old USA. |