The Morning I Was Late for General Quarters

As I was thinking about the  up-coming anniversary of the battle for Okinawa, a long forgotten event came to my mind -- the time I failed to hear the call to General Quarters and reported late.  It was our practice at that time in waters where kamikaze attacks were probable to report to battle stations around 5 in the morning..  The Japanese liked  to attack at dawn, preferably from the east,  flying just above the ocean at 350 knots.

I had been on watch from midnight to 4 a.m. and had fallen so deeply asleep that I didn't hear the clanging of the call to General Quarters.  I woke up to a quiet and abandoned compartment and with a muscle cramp in my right leg. I climbed two ladders, went out on the main deck, dragging my leg across a cable, then on to the radar shack.  I don't recall what was said to me but it wasn't treated as a big deal.

If he is still living, there is one former radarman  who owes his life to being late for General Quarters.

The aircraft  carrier Ben Franklin contributed in action after action and paid the price. In different actions the ship was hit by a plane, a bomb, and a kamikaze with deaths and wounded the result. But the greatest hurt was done March 19, 1945, when enemy planes struck at dawn, dropping two 550 pound bombs, demolishing, among other damage, the  Combat Information Center. Among the 724 killed were 45 radarmen.  Two escaped death because they were in a different area manning an emergency radar.  One radarman, supposed to be on duty with the 45, wasn't awakened by the call to General Quarters and was a few minutes late, thus avoiding the fate of his mates.