Combat Loaded: Across the Pacific on the USS Tate

6. In Floating Reserve: We Slept at Our Guns

Chapter 6 IN FLOATING RESERVE We Slept at Our Guns The morning of april 3, 1945, brought a new and tragic awareness to the crew of Tate. They wore a somber communal expression that only a fellow combat veteran could appreciate. As one of the ship’s veterans recalled, “There was a lot of activity in the ship’s laundry that day.” The question on everyone’s mind was surely “Why were we spared?” Was it luck, fate, or divine intervention? The arbitrary manner in which war selects its victims has always been a mystery to those who escape unharmed. The men who were below and missed the action listened to their shipmates ’ descriptions of their narrow escapes and the destruction of neighboring ships. Decades after the war, Ens. Lewis Crew summed up the near miss of the plane passing over Tate’s stern: “It was so close, I could have hit him with a potato.”1 Seaman 1st Class Fortunate (“Forty”) Salerno was the hot shell catcher on the 5"/38. His job was to knock down the hot five-inch brass shell casings with asbestos mitts as they ejected, then kick them out of the way of the men serving the gun. During the previous day’s attack, he had remained focused on the gun’s breech, never looking up while waiting for an ejecting shell. Concerned only with his job, Forty saw none of the action around him. This was exactly the type of behavior the navy expected of its men.2 Gunner’s Mate 1st Class Hubert Six was now over his pessimistic foreboding that Tate was a doomed ship. In his last diary entry prior to the major air attack, he boasted that he believed his ship was “Ready for anything.” Then, after the attack he wrote these words: “Fired at Jap Betty, got hits [as it] made [a] run on Tate, but my 40mm was throwing too much lead for him to stand. This ship must have a 4-leaf clover in her keel. We got 6 Jap Bettys. They got five of our ships. We sure lost on that raid, but we will get the damned devils. My gun ran two away from the ship. Boy, I love that baby.”3 This was the first experience in a major air attack for most of the men on Tate, just as it was for the majority of those in Transport Squadron 17. Telfair’s 68 COMBAT LOADED captain noted that 30 of the 51 officers and “377 of the 488 enlisted men were serving their first sea duty.” In their captain’s eyes, Telfair’s crew performed admirably despite their lack of experience. He reported that the forward 40-mm mount continued firing despite the impact of a kamikaze six feet away. “Fire and damage control parties were on scene almost immediately and extinguished the fire caused by burning oil so that absolutely no damage was caused from the fire. The stretcher bearers and First Aid people handled casualties expeditiously and personnel were quickly transferred to dressing stations. Some personnel refused to leave their stations and were not treated until after the action ceased.”4 Four survivors of Dickerson spent the night in the water clutching an oil drum. Their fate took an auspicious turn when the destroyer escort Abercrombie (DE-343), returning from a night retirement, nearly ran over them. Spotting the screaming survivors bobbing in Abercrombie’s wake in the moonlight, the ship stopped. Rescued from the heavy seas by a rubber boat, one man was burned and a second was barely conscious, but they were still more fortunate than many of their shipmates.5 After being towed to Kerama Retto, Henrico’s embarked troops transferred to the attack transport Sarasota (APA-204), which assumed its operational role in Transport Squadron 17. The hospital ship Solace (AH-5), a veteran of Pearl Harbor, received Henrico’s wounded. Over the next several days, the ship underwent emergency repairs to restore its engines and electrical power, but the Photo 6.1. Fortunate (“Forty”) Salerno, hot-shell catcher for the 5"/38. Courtesy Fortunate G. Salerno. FLOATING RESERVE 69 ship needed to return to a stateside shipyard for extensive repairs. The war was over for Henrico.6 Under tow, Dickerson arrived at Kerama Retto during the night. The next day some of its officers returned with a salvage inspection party. Finding...