That Easter Sunday 1945

The sun dawned bright that Easter morning April 1, 1945. Every ship in the huge armada had been at battle stations since 5 a.m,when out of the sun came the kamikaze, planes flown by Japanese pilots on a mission to die attacking American ships.

I was in the radar shack trying to detect the planes as they came in skimming the top of the ocean. Out ship, the USS Pickens, APA 190, was second in line behind the USS Hinsdale, APA 120, in a column of transports carrrying the Second Marine Division.

Suddenly, hell was was unleashed; Japanese planes attacked like flies on jam. At around 5:50 a.m. a plane hit the Hinsdale near the waterline, exploding and creating several holes. A plane headed for us but hit the mast of an LST, fell to the deck and exploded, setting off several explosions of ammunition,

The Pickens put boats in the water and picked survivors off the Hindale and LSTs 724 and 884, Flag officers transferred from the Hinsdale to the Pickens.

That Easter Sunday was the beginning of the largest sea-land battle in history. Navy casualties exceeded those of the Army and Marines combined. In fact, one seventh of all Navy casualties of World War 11 were suffered at Okinawa.

Talk to a navy veteran who was at Okinawa and slated to invade Japan and he will say something like "Mr. Truman saved my life," or, "Dropping the atom bomb saved my life."