Thanks for the ping SAM.
Posted on 08/27/2003 6:30:48 PM PDT by Mean Daddy
On May 27, 1945, Lt. j.g. Arthur Strohbehn with the Merchant Marines had his own day that lives in infamy.
"I'll never forget that day," Strohbehn said. "I'll always remember."
From the time he entered the Merchant Marines in March 1943 until he was released in December of 1945, Strohbehn spent the majority of his time aboard a cargo ship, usually laden with ammunition, in the Pacific Theatre.
Most of the time, his ship was well-protected in a convoy. "Convoys are actually a pretty safe place to be," he said. "We always had plenty of protection from minesweepers and destroyers."
But the moment his ship pulled into Okinawa, it became a sitting duck. Strohbehn remembered one occasion when the ship barely had time to drop their anchor before they were attacked by Japanese kamikaze, or suicide, planes.
During the war, Japanese fighter pilots considered it a tremendous honor to die by crashing their plane, usually heavily laden with bombs, into an enemy vessel, if ordered to do so. For a pilot not to comply resulted in dishonor, which could only be atoned for by taking his own life.
When they pulled into Okinawa Harbor, they barely dropped their anchor when they were attacked by a kamikaze.
"That was sort of an indication (to us) of how they wasted their air power."
The Japanese military would usually wait until U.S. supply ships would dock before they attacked, and would cut off supplies for Allied troops.
U.S. Marine and Navy pilots would usually circle the area and take out Japanese pilots flying in their Zeros, known as "Zekes" to Allied forces.
Should a Zeke get through, Strohbehn said, U.S. troops would signal "flash red, control yellow, make smoke" to other troops, who would ignite smoke pots.
The wind would carry the smoke, and cover the ships so enemy Zeros couldn't spot them and crash into them.
On May 27, Strohbehn said there was no wind to carry the smoke once the signal was sent out. That's when he saw the first kamikaze plane headed toward his ship, the SS Josiah Snelling, about 20 feet off the water.
Strohbehn jumped in one of eight large metal "tubs" that house many of the ship's 20-millimeter anti-aircraft guns.
He opened fired at the first plane, then fired at another one circling overhead before his gun ran out of ammunition. When his gun was reloaded, he looked up and was momentarily stunned.
"He was so close," Strohbehn said of a third Zero headed his direction. "There, for a brief moment, I had my own private moment with that (kamikaze)."
Strohbehn shot down the Zero, which was headed for the ship's midship house, and crashed instead into the forward deck.
After things calmed down, Strohbehn's captain told him to go below deck. "We can't have that (kamikaze) on here. I want you to go down and get him out from down there."
Strohbehn and another shipmate obeyed and began searching through the twisted steel of the ship and the airplane. The two men eventually recovered parts of the dead pilot's body, including his scalp, ear, and his boots - but the feet were nowhere to be found.
Both men went topside, where Strohbehn tossed the body parts overboard. What they didn't discover was a 200-kilogram bomb that should have torn the ship in two.
As a matter of fact, the bomb wasn't discovered until two days after Strohbehn's vessel docked back in San Francisco.
"That's the first we knew we had it," he said.
The bomb was armed the entire time, and Strohbehn is still puzzled how it didn't detonate.
"When we were looking for the (kamikaze's) body, we were tossing around wreckage, which should've set it off," he said. There was any number of ways it should've gone off, but it didn't."
For his bravery aboard the SS Josiah Snelling, Strohbehn was given a citation for bravery by the War Shipping Administration.
It's not the citation that Strohbehn has displayed on his wall at his veterinary clinic, however. It's a crumpled piece of red metal, and a few words and a date, barely legible, are scrawled on it.
But there is one word, scratched in capital letters, that is a reminder and trophy of what he did May 27 - "ZEKE."
Thanks for the ping SAM.
Our local newspaper, the Modesto Bee, daily presents a member of the Armed Forces from the area who is currently on active duty.
Whoa!
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