Page 31 - Lubbock Senior Link Magazine Fall 2019- Online Magazine

world war ii

Navy

the typhoon. Another ship, a light destroyer, “ran Parham’s fears were certainly justified about Okinawa.
aground on a coral reef and was cut in half and “We sat at Okinawa for 67 days and endured 110 air
turned upside down. We could hear the trapped raids of ten planes or more. During one raid, I spotted
sailors in the hull. We dropped anchor and got a a Jap bomber. I opened fire with my 5”/38 caliber anti-
cutting torch ready, but a big wave hit and sank that aircraft gun. The bomber went through a cloud, and I hit
half of the ship. We never got the chance to save any it coming out the other side. There was a big explosion.
of them. I also saw a P-40 take off from one of the I know I hit a couple of other planes during those raids,
airstrips along the Aleutians, and they did a nose too. I remember the Kamikaze attacks. One sank a boat
dive right into the ocean.” only two behind us.” Okinawa would be the last and
biggest amphibious assault of the Pacific war, and one
Sam recalled stopping at Guam: “There was no of the bloodiest. Over 100,000 Japanese were killed;
one left alive on that island. The bodies had been more than 12,000 Americans were killed and over 36,000
dumped into the ocean. You could walk to shore wounded. 36 American ships and over 800 aircraft were
about 1/4 of a mile out and never touch water. It was also destroyed. It was feared that a full-scale attack on
solid bodies. They were using dump trucks, and the Japanese mainland would be next.
they would jerk the dog tags off of a man and load
him in the dump truck. People don’t believe that,
but it’s true. I saw it with my own eyes. Then they
would go up to the top of a hill and dump them
out in the water. Since the island was secure, we
were given permission to go ashore. We picked up
Japanese rifles, swords, bayonets and other stuff.
We saw three Japs on a hill and started shooting our
.45s at them and ran back to shore. Aboard ship, an
officer kept everything we brought back. He kept all
of it; I was mad about it.”

After loading empty brass power cans at Ulithi in
the Carolines and Eniwetok, the Vega made port at
San Francisco. Sam remembered that “the captain
gave us all leave, but he said not to be even one hour
late back on the ship. I saw that the crates being
loaded on the ship were all marked ‘Okinawa’. I
didn’t want to go to Okinawa. I’d seen too much
death already, so I hitched a ride on a C-47 to
Palm Springs and then on a new B-17 to Amarillo.
I hitched rides to Lubbock, then Idalou, and from
there, a truck driver took me right to my house. I
was three days over my allotted leave. When I got
back to San Francisco, the captain wanted to know
why I didn’t make it on time. I asked for a transfer,
but was denied. I really thought I’d die if I went to
Okinawa.”

Lubbock Senior Link 31