[FlyVet]

One of my Uncles, now gone, spent the war on USS Enterprise CV6, most decorated ship of WWII. Grandma had to sign a waiver for him, he was only 17. Survived it. Gawd, imagine the adrenaline rush as the Nipponese bored in on them. Imagine knowing, as a wet-eared teenager, an entire superpower is chasing after you, because you're the only seaworthy US carrier on the water, at times?

A most famous pic, The Kamikaze hit they took 14 May 1945.

That "thing" hundreds of feet in the air, with a smoke plume behind it, is the rear aircraft elevator that brought the planes up from below deck. It weighed tens of tons. Damn. Damn. Damn. How did they stay upright?

Uncle wrote that "we survived because our Skipper was "Trigger Happy", in reference to the USS Vincennes Incident.

[DWar]

My dad also served on the Big ‘E’. Transfered to her from the Lexington before Pearl. Had he stayed on the Lex he’d have gone down with his 3 best friends when she was sunk. As it was he became priviledged to fight in more battles than any other WWII fighting ship. He served in the most dangerous job, on the flight deck flagging aircraft. Was part of the fire crew that fought that elevator blaze you mentioned. God bless my dad, JVW, gone since 1994.

[dirtboy]

My grandfather was on the Bunker Hill when it was kamikazied on May 11th. Any liberal pinhead who questions Hiroshima and Nagasaki lives in ignorance of the carnage at Okinawa. The A-bomb saved my grandfather from having to go back for the planned Home Island invasion.