During a research trip to D.C.a curator brought me a color photo of DD-520 off the Island of IE Shima.
The photo was taken from Sector communications ship MT Mckinley...Isherwood is on her way to Radar Picket 12.
At the moment of the photo...Radar picket Destroyers USS Pringle and USS Laffey are in a fight for their lives.
USS Pringle is lost...USS Laffey towed away a charred wreck.
DD-520 would stand in for Laffey for the next 5 days.
On the 22nd of April...they were suicided.
The vet who gave me his diary was aboard Hospital ship USS Pinkney...his body burned by av-gas.
Pickney painted in white with red cross's was suicided while the inured from Isherwood were in surgery.
The Kamikaze plowed deep into the hospital ship destroying several operating theatres...some of DD-520's crew perished.
Evil shows no quarter...
My friend underwent 2 years of skin grafting,pain and morphine....I wince at the thought..as I myself had surgery..and was placed in a burn unit wing[shortage of beds]...whatever pain I was experiencing..was nothing in comparrison to their ordeal.
Have met many from the ships crew,
have had many moments in their presence when their countinence shifted..the war came back like a flood.
I have to give a plug here for veterans wives...they are the unknown hero's too in the story..many have had enormous hardship loving a man with war scars.
Have many reflections now..seeing them laugh and joke.
yet..a prayer is in my heart for them,
That they can find rest for their souls.
Many don't think that not only the veteran has to deal with the wounds and scars of war, so do their wives, parents, childern and relatives. God Bless them all.