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Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 05/26/2025 11:40:10 AM PDT by Jacquerie
Where our Sailors Rest.
“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.
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Thank you very much and God bless you.
All in on honor to my squid brothers.
The war was bookmarked by the Arizona and the Indianapolis. May they rest until the day the sea gives up its dead.
20 years later, my father, who was a radio mechanic on Guam helping to get the dirty japs bombed to hell, worked alongside the Japanese he had fought, working with electronic intelligence to keep Khrushchev and Mao out of our back yard. Japan has been our friend as long as I have been alive; Russia and China, not so much.
Yup!
“Arizona and the Indianapolis”
Worth remembering.
The Lord bless them. No greater love hath a man, than he lay down his life for another.
Fair winds n Following Seas Sailors!
That was just Okinawa of all the sea battles in the Pacific. There were many many more Sailors lives lost while island hopping, not to mention Midway.
While the Marines rightfully get most of the credit and glory for their up close encounters with the enemy on land, folks tend to forget the Naval battles and how they contributed and the horrific deaths and pain on those ships.
I never say Happy Memorial Day. To me it is a day of mourning. I simply say, BLESS ALL OF OUR MILITARY BROTHERS...PAST AND PRESENT.
RIP, heroes.
Post of the thread.
<>folks tend to forget the Naval battles and how they contributed and the horrific deaths and pain on those ships<>
While the USMC earned another glorious Battle Flag for their sacrifice at Guadalcanal with some 1,500 KIA, the sea battles in support of Guadalcanal in late 1942, early 1943 cost the USN some 4,500 KIA.
I was going to post that, but you got there first. To make that statement in no way detracts from the sacrifice of those service men who fought ashore.
But it has been my experience that not many people know that statistic about Guadalcanal, and it’s worth mentioning.
O Christ, Whose voice the waters heard And hushed their raging at Thy word, Who walkedst on the foaming deep, And calm amidst its rage didst sleep; O hear us when we cry to Thee, For those in peril on the sea.
Most Holy Spirit, Who didst brood Upon the chaos dark and rude, And bid its angry tumult cease, And give, for wild confusion, peace; O hear us when we cry to Thee, For those in peril on the sea!
O Trinity of love and power, Our brethren shield in danger's hour; From rock and tempest, fire and foe, Protect them wheresoe'er they go; Thus evermore shall rise to Thee Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.
Amen.
My uncle was a merchant marine who died at sea on November 7th, 1942 aboard the SS Roxby... Sunk by U-Boat 613.
The Battle of the Atlantic does not get the remembrance that it deserves.
Your uncle’s death coincided with Operation Torch, the US Army invasion of north Africa.
Significant anti-submarine assets were pulled from the north Atlantic to escort the invasion force.
Your uncle paid the price.
As a Marine, I am well acquainted with the feats of the Corps, at the same time I am well aware and proud of the innumerable valorous acts of my brother squids in the same actions as well as their earned honor in battles by themselves in crushing the wickedness of our common enemy in the Pacific theater. Will never forget their courage and sacrifice. BTW, that is squids with a capital S.
And it is so true, spoken by our Lord himself!also
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