give me the range on the ship ahead." One of our radarmen changed Farragut's supposed demand to reflect our frustration with those serving as Officer of the Deck who annoyed us with that request every minute or so.
The USS Pickens was second behind the Hinsdale in our column of troop ships loaded with Marines and headed for Okinawa. We were just one week away from that Japanese island and knew that we were getting closer and closer to danger from attacks by suicide planes. We were watching our radars intently, knowing that by the time a blip on the radar screen indicated a plane was headed our way the plane would be only seconds away.
I cannot recall how much we members of the crew knew officially, but I remember Tokyo Rose telling us that our losses would be high. A number of islands had been wrested from the Japanese, but Okinawa was the first that was part of the home land. If the Americans took this island, Tokyo Rose said, Japan would keep fighting but would have no possibility of winning the war.
The USS Pickens was second behind the Hinsdale in our column of troop ships loaded with Marines and headed for Okinawa. We were just one week away from that Japanese island and knew that we were getting closer and closer to danger from attacks by suicide planes. We were watching our radars intently, knowing that by the time a blip on the radar screen indicated a plane was headed our way the plane would be only seconds away.
I cannot recall how much we members of the crew knew officially, but I remember Tokyo Rose telling us that our losses would be high. A number of islands had been wrested from the Japanese, but Okinawa was the first that was part of the home land. If the Americans took this island, Tokyo Rose said, Japan would keep fighting but would have no possibility of winning the war.
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