Listening to a veteran share about Okinawa is hard....they want us to understand what they went thru..but you can see their countenence fall as they share.
Off Okinawan waters there were many dispostions..such as radar picket...ping line...inner transport screen.
Tin cans -DD's and smallboys- DE's would form up in the early evening and screen transports and fleet big boys as they headed out to sea away from Okinawa on night retirement.
One got little sleep if any..constant snoopers...."Bettys" dropping mines just out of 5" range.
Inside a destroyer,men not assigned to duty station would sit and listen to what unfolded..they could hear the 5" mounts going off..then the 40mm tubs would light up...when the 20mm guns opened up,the crews would become agitated as that meant the attacker was inside 2000 yards.
In the morning..DD's and DE's would seperate to callfire missions or to relieve other U.S. ships on station.
Have a photo of USS Isherwood taken on April 16th from USS Mt Mckinnely....DD-520 is headed toward the sinking of Destroyer USS Pringle some 75 miles away on Radar Picket.
By the time she arrives Pringle has broke in 2 and dissapeared....USS Laffey passes by a smashed hulk on her way to Kerrama Retto.[The TBS call sign for Kerrama Retto was "Wisemans cove"...but with all the trashed ships anchored their the cold comment from crews was "Wisemans Junkyard" ]
After looking for survivors from USS Pringle...DD-520 assumed USS Laffeys radar picket station
They were relieved 4 days later...some of the crew I met said that no one could sleep while they were out there.
On April 22nd USS Isherwood was jumped by 3 vals...one crashed her aft..the depthcharges on the starboard side errupted killing many who were fighting the fires...tore up pretty bad...she limped into "Wisemans Junkyard".