was necessary to save our own lives. I spend much time wondering how we could have avoided it, but I still feel the same, regardless of how much it bothers me even now on September, 1979. In our confusion to get away, we again became lost and ended up on the south side of the island within sight of the Japanese fortifications. From behind a palm tree retaining wall, we stopped one group of Japanese soldiers. I believe they felt we were a much larger force and diverted their troops to cover the whole island. Our being lost and showing up in a number of different locations further confused them. We set some time explosives packs on the shore fortifications to give us time to get into the water. We swam a spread formation to deep water, discarded our weapons and started a long swim for pickup. At first light, boats came and picked us up. We were afraid at first that they may be Japanese because they were so early. Incidentally, the island was shelled and bombed until it was of little use. I do not know when it was captured. We had another experience going into Majuro. Here we found only the sick and wounded that the Japanese had left behind. Even in their condition, they had to be subdued because they were fanatics and were armed. When one American advance moved closer to Japan, many islands still held by the Japanese were bypassed because they were not strategic. These men had been left there by the Japanese to starve to death. This was their choice; however, they preferred starvation to surrender. On one of these islands I nearly lost my life. I still have bad dreams about these two experiences. They are so unreal at this time. Interesting enough my team never lost a man due to enemy action. Our greatest enemy was the timers put together carelessly in defense plants back in the U.S.A. We had many premature explosions that caused injuries including some to myself. If I had not been a competitive long distance swimmer, I would have surely died a couple of times. My men, U.D.T. 5 and 7 were all great. I had some very good friends. One time I became completely disoriented underwater. An enemy explosive had gone off, almost knocking me unconscious. The force of the blast spun me around until I didn't know which way to swim to the surface. I said a quick prayer then and looked to the left and saw light. I swam toward it and found the surface. It has been estimated that more then one million people would have died if we had landed on Japan without the atom bombs. I feel they were justified and know my chances of surviving an attack on the Japanese mainland would have been small. The atom bomb saved millions of lives including my own. Therefore, I have no regrets in this respect. This was really the best for both the Japanese and Americans. I was invited (ordered) to attend the surrender ceremonies aboard the Missouri on September 2, 1945. I must admit that there were some hard feelings among some that this ship was chosen. Other ships had distinguished themselves in battle. The Missouri, I think, was chosen just to honor President Truman. But at least I was there to represent the Amsterdam and others I had been aboard. We were told to wear dress blues. I finally got mine ironed after it had been in a sea bag for months. Then near the last minute, we were told to wear dress grays instead. I didn't have dress grays so I used my work grays with boards. (These, I had kept under my mattress in a semi-pressed condition.) It was a hot, stuffy, wet day that I will always remember. Everything seemed well organized, but mad confusion broke out when the enemy representatives arrived. I left two hours after the ceremony aboard a P.B.Y. They flew to Majuro, Johnstown, and then Hawaii. I flew with General Wainwright and some prisoners of war. In Honolulu, I was grounded because the wounded had a greater priority. It took a couple of days to fly to San Francisco, where I was discharged and returned to Ogden. Submitted by Meridee Leavitt Coates, daughter Owen George Manning Owen Manning attended the Naval Academy and served as a naval corpsman (medic). He went through the Pacific Islands as well as the invasion of the Marianas Islands. 168 Edgar Vaughn Manscill Vaughn enlisted into the Navy on February 14, 1944, in Ogden, Utah, at the age of 17. He attended boot camp at Farragut Boot Camp in Farragut, Idaho. After boot camp, he had a short leave and then reported to the amphibious training base in Solomons, Maryland. Vaughn started out as a mess cook and did that job for about six weeks. He later attended motor machine and gunnery school. He served as a gunner on a 20-millimeter, a third helmsman and a quartermaster, ending his Navy career as a 3rd class boatswain mate. They commissioned an LCI 650 (Landing Craft Infantry) ship in New Jersey. The ship was 150 ft. long and had 60 men and four officers aboard. From New Jersey, they sailed down the east coast, through the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, up to San Diego, then up to San Francisco. While in San Francisco, they decided to make the ship into a rocket ship, so they sent the men on leave for a few days while they reconditioned the ship and added six rockets (two on the bow, two in the middle, and two on the stern). Now the ship was a Landing Craft Infantry Rocket (LCIR). When the men got back from leave, they took the ship out to an island just off of San Francisco and practiced landing on shore and unloading the troops. They sailed to Hawaii and stayed there for about two weeks, and the ship was conditioned for the war zone. They left Hawaii and went to Guam for a short time and then off to the Philippines where they participated in a night invasion. They left the Philippines along with several other ships, ships as far as you could see, going to a destination that was unknown to most of the men aboard the ship - Okinawa. It took about three days to get there. When they got there, they saw battle wagons already there shelling the island to 'soften it up'. They were ordered to shoot out the railroad tracks on that side of the island so the Japanese couldn't use it to send down their troops. Then about a dozen LCI's started the first wave of the invasion. When they had secured that side of the island, they were ordered to go over to the other side and secure it. While on the other side, they were ordered to run their smoke generators to create a smoke cover for the ships. One of Vaughn's jobs was to shoot down the suicide planes. These Japanese suicide pilots would have their funerals before they left for their suicide missions and were wrapped in the Japanese flag as they preformed their missions. On one occasion, Vaughn and the other gunners on his ship saw a plane flying low and coming toward them. They all thought that it was one of their own planes so they didn't worry too much about it. But when it got right next to them, Vaughn saw that it was a Japanese plane. He saw the pilot wrapped in his flag, and the pilot gave him the 'thumbs up' as he flew past their ship and toward a destroyer. The plane was shot down in the harbor by another ship before he could do any damage. Vaughn and his other gunners shot down two and a half suicide planes. One of their jobs was to pick up survivors from other ships that had been sunk. They had to pull them out of the water amongst the debris and the burning fuel, etc. Quite often they were unable to save some men and had to watch as they were sucked back into the burning wreckage. When the USS TXIG (a destroyer) was on fire, Vaughn's ship was going toward it. There were men jumping off the ship into the water and trying to swim toward Vaughn's ship. Vaughn's ship picked up 25 survivors, the second most survivors picked up by any of the ships. As they were still pulling in men, Vaughn's ship started to reverse; and as they moved away from the USS TXIG, it exploded. One of Vaughn's shipmates pushed him down as the burning, hot debris from the ship came flying over to where they were standing on their ship. Vaughn then crawled under the rocket launcher to protect himself from getting burned. Vaughn served in the Naval Company 1215. Vaughn spent 18 months in the South Pacific and three months of that was in Okinawa. He was in Okinawa when the war ended. They had gone through two typhoons during this time. After being released from the Navy, Vaughn joined the National Guard and served with them in the 222nd Field Artillery Group Headquarters Battery. 169