U.S. NAVY

Frank Kelly

In June 1944, I graduated from high school in Long Island, N.Y., knowing, as did all of the male graduates, that we needed to defend our country against the Germans and Japanese. I had decided I would prefer to serve in the Navy rather than the Army, so I enlisted in the Navy prior to my 18th birthday.  Grand Central Station in Manhattan was the enlistment headquarters where the physical exams were given. I matriculated through the exam system until I failed the eye exam and was rejected.

Undisturbed, I re-enlisted. As I proceeded through the exam process, we enlistees were stopped at the eye exam station so the examiners could have lunch. Wearing only skivey shorts and socks, I memorized the eye charts, put my glasses in my socks and moved over to the line for guys without glasses. I passed the eye exams but darn near failed the blood pressure test.  But, I passed, was sworn in and shipped off to boot camp in Bainbridge, Md. Unfortunately, at Bainbridge there was another physical including an eye exam, which I failed, but instead of being discharged I was classified as “limited service,” not to leave the continental United States.

Ten weeks later, I was on a troop train to Camp Pendleton, Calif., and eventually assigned as an able seaman to LSM 62 (Landing Ship Medium) which was 202 feet long and 35 feet wide, drawing three feet. We sailed west to Hawaii to eventually form the task force for the invasion of Okinawa on April 1, 1945. The LSM was the smallest ocean-going naval amphibious ship. LCMs, LCVPs, LCIs were crafts and not ocean-going vessels. The armament on our LSM was twin 40-millimeter anti-craft guns in the bow and four 20MM anti-aircraft guns on starboard and port sides. In Hawaii, we were additionally fitted with five deck-mounted, 50-caliber machine guns to deal with suicide swimmers or water-borne small boat attacks. We sailed to Saipan where we were loaded with five medium Sherman flame-throwing tanks and support vehicles.

On April 1, 1945, the last battle in the Pacific took place.  For some six weeks the Japanese sent an unbelievable number of suicide pilots against us.  Even a lowly LSM 62 shot one down. A sad part of this combat was that our ship was assigned to a landing at Le Shima, an island in the Okinawa chain. However, we had engine trouble and another LSM took our place. It was at this battle that Ernie Pyle was killed. Many ships were hit by the suicide pilots, including the battleship Missouri. The destroyer, SS Pringle was sunk and would you believe my future brother-in-law was one of the survivors? If I remember correctly, the Okinawa battle resulted in the highest single naval casualties in World War II. Nights at Okinawa were not for sleeping as that was when most of the Japanese struck.  The antiaircraft fire was formidable. In order to avoid the rain of antiaircraft shrapnel, we crawled into our helmets and life jackets. And yet, we would eventually catch a few dings in our extremities. At that time, we did not know we could apply for a Purple Heart so we carried on. 

The Germans’ last ditch counter attack was the Battle of the Bulge in its attempt to recapture Antwerp and cut off the Allies main supply line. Okinawa was Japan’s attempt to cut off supply to our ground forces and forestall the invasion of Japan. The failure of the Germans to achieve their objectives in the Battle of the Bulge and the subsequent capture of the Bridge at Remagen permitted the Allies to enter West Germany and eventually, stop the war.

Okinawa was Antwerp and Remagen combined only because this was island and naval warfare. The failure of Japan to repulse Okinawa was akin to the Bridge at Remagen.

Subsequent to this engagement, our ship was relocated to the Philippines for a final aspect of that operation. The time frame shifted to July 1945. A flotilla, mostly LSMs, were ordered to the South Pacific, to the islands in the Admiralty chain to support the air attack and invasion of Japan.

On our way back to the Philippines on Aug. 15, we received the radio communications that Japan had surrendered. We didn’t know about the A bomb but that news made President Truman our hero. It has since been said that his action cost too many Japanese lives and was inhumane. My reaction is reflected in the comments of my fellow soldiers and sailors: the Japanese started this thing and if President Truman hadn’t taken this action, how many of us would be buried six feet under, assuming our body parts could be found.

While the Japanese were signing the surrender on the battleship Missouri, our flotilla was following the mine sweepers and blowing up mines as we moved troops and supplies through the shallow sea lanes between Japan’s main islands.  This took me up to May 1946, when I had enough points for discharge.

Perhaps, the most memorable incident during our tour in the occupation of Japan centered on the fact that our Army found a huge cache of aerial bombs and incendiaries and artillery pieces. The cache was too large to explode so LSMs hauled this ordnance out to the depths of the sea off Japan. Although the detonation devices were removed from the bombs, the clinking of the bombs banging against each other was little consolation when you were below deck, and realize there were several thousand tons of bombs overhead.  To dispose of them we opened our bow doors, lowered the ramp and lovingly rolled them off. We made three trips to sea dumping bombs and anything that could be used as a weapon.  All I could think about was my interest in avoiding hiding in a foxhole and now the Army gives me a shipload of ordnance over my head. I am writing this so I survived.

I think the designation of the Greatest Generation is a stretch. The greatest generation were the guys who took up rifles and slugged it out over land. Add to that the airmen who flew bombers over Europe with little or no fighter escorts. These men came behind President Truman’s as my heroes. 

This part of our history is nearly 60 years behind us.  History has called us the Greatest Generation. I don’t know if we’re worthy.

What I do know is what my country does not owe me. It was interesting to read the experiences of some of my comrades. I offer my experiences in hopes some of my comrades will share theirs. One of the contributors of your earlier articles referred to the 52/20 Club. Veterans could obtain $20 for 52 weeks. Darn few did that simply because we grew up in a work ethic period that did not accept sitting on your butt and we didn’t know any different.

Finally, my country provided me with the GI Bill and I went to college, which my parents could never have afforded. There, I met my soul mate and together we have five children and now 10 grandchildren, all of whom are gainfully employed and contributing persons who understand the critical importance of the liberty and freedom the United States provides.

After completing college in 1950, I joined the U.S. Department of the Interior as an economist, serving in Washington, D.C., Denver and then back to Washington for the last 20 years of my public service.  My career was exciting and rewarding and I urge young people to join in the management of our country. 

My wife Madge and I became gainfully unemployed in July 1982, moved to Sedgwick and built our home on Eggemoggin Reach. Blue water and a less hectic way of life brought us to Sedgwick. Unfortunately, there is a dwindling number of the 15 million World War II veterans left. What we did, and the veterans who have followed, have up until 9/11/01, kept the ravages of war off our shores. Let’s be sure to keep us safe.

— Frank Jerry Kelly