My grandfather, US Navy Seabee during WWII, on Okinawa for Christmas 1945.
Posted on 05/28/2023 2:04:34 PM PDT by Jacquerie
“If you ever want to sleep with a blonde again, you had better shoot down these bastards as soon as they come up” - a destroyer captain motivates his exhausted crew shortly before a kamikaze attack. The sea-battle toll for Okinawa that ended on June 21st 1945 was 36 U.S. warships sunk and 368 damaged. Almost 5,000 sailors were killed in action and another 5,000 wounded.
War naturally conjures images of courageous infantrymen. Gettysburg, Flanders Fields and not the Coral Sea or Leyte Gulf.
Too often forgotten are the heroic Navy, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine sailors felled at sea. It’s understandable; there are no battlefield memorials, no marked graves, no poppies, no flags. Presidents and dignitaries visit Normandy and not Midway or Iron Bottom Sound. Few are the photo memoirs of engineering room slaughter-by-steam, of those who inhaled fire, of those blown overboard, of those who survived the battle only to die of burns, thirst, or sharks.
Hoses washed the remains of many off their ships. Some had proper burials. Did boot camp recruits know their Navy-issue hammocks did double duty as burial shrouds? I don’t know, but should your Memorial Day weekend find you on an Atlantic, Pacific, or Gulf of Mexico beach, you are graveside. Take time to say a few words of thanks.
“We therefore commit [his] body to the deep, ... in sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the body, when the Sea shall give up her dead ...”
It would be far more motivational to talk about cars, or good booze, good guy friends better than brothers, or amassing power or wealth, than to use “sleep with a blonde” as a reason to fight. Good grief.
Well... they won. So apparently it worked.
Although the statement was probably cleaned up a bit for the history books. :)
Yeah. Just don’t let your ship get sunk anywhere near where the Chinese Communists know about it, because it will cease being a sacred graveyard, and will become a source of metal to be stripped from it.
HMS Prince of Wales is a prime example.
“Shattered Sword” is the best book I have ever read about that battle.
Yes. A few months ago, I finished his trilogy. Astonishingly good.
But one of the best of his works, by far (in my opinion) is “Neptune’s Inferno”.
A remarkable work.
Were you never a young man? I like my cars, booze, friends, and cars well enough, but I’m not that old to forget what really motivated me in my youth.
Yes I read that one too. Very good. Ghost Ship (about the crew of the Houston), The Fleet at High Tide, The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors.... all great.
LOL.
If you ever want to drive another Studebaker . . .
If you ever want to drink another beer . . .
I suspect you’ve never been laid.
Young men frequently have their prriorities screwed up, and tend to grossly overvalue certain things and make huge mistakes because of nothing other than raging hormomes.
Just cut with the shaming, its all you have and its pathetic.
Hey, spur of the moment and under great stress. He did the best he could.
True, true. I would have just went with more high value things.
Yes. I really think he was the most pre-eminent historian of Naval Warfare alive before he passed.
I have read all of those too.
A gifted man.
<>Just cut with the shaming,<>
Hey, leader of nothing, cut with the ignorant barbs against men infinitely better than you.
So you admit you were wrong as to what subject a quick inspirational statement from the Captain would motivate young men?
Again guilt shaming does not work. Just give it up. Its all you know how to do, but its really old and worn out.
Have you stopped beating your wife?
Very thoughtful and timely post. Thank you.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.