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Show Porpoises were always tirelessly playing their games nearby, and I often wondered if they ever took time out to eat and rest. I cannot find words to explain the beauty of seeing a large, orange ball slowly dropping into the ocean on a clear evening. The other side of all of this beauty and tranquility was the fact that this was war time and all of us were running scared much of the time because we knew that anything could happen at any time. Since I was on a troop transportcarrying many troops and supplies we were a much sought after target. Submarine and kamikaze alerts were not uncommon and all the ships in the convoy were frequently changing direction as well as using the zigzag pattern in an effort to avoid being hit. A beautiful bright day might soon be spotted with the black of tracer bullets when all of the ships' guns were firing at an attacking kamikaze. I saw one Japanese plane crash and explode right in the middle of a carrier escort named the USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56). I understand these planes did a lot of damage to the fleet in an earlier part of the war, but later on they ran short of pilots and planes. I remember vividly when one of these crazy pilots flew so low over our ship that I could almost see the color of his eyes. He was shot down a few seconds later. He had time to dive into us but didn't. Perhaps our demise at that time was not in the plans! One of our five invasions was in the Gulf of Leyte, in the Philippines. On this day (as was typical during an invasion) the troops would kneel and pray. I never saw one soldier who didn't. Then they would climb down the net and into the small Higgins landing boats that were waiting to take them ashore. I decided right then that there were really no atheists when it came right down to the wire. On this particular invasion, an officer came up to me and told me to take my semaphore flags and get into one of the boats. This I did; and when all of the troops were taken to the island, we went back and I climbed up the nets and boarded the ship. I really wondered why I was given this assignment. What was I supposed to do: throw my flags at the enemy? Maybe I was supposed to send them a message and tell them that they were being invaded and would they please get off the island. I never knew why I was given this unusual, uninformative assignment, but I was very glad to be able to go back to the ship and not hit the beach like the others. When some of my shipmates found out about it, I looked at the odd expression on their faces; and I knew that I had been instrumental in lightening their load on that day! That was 'Battle Number Five!' When our troops hit Saipan, we were met with extreme counter shells. After the landing we had to hurry and get out of the battle area or our ship might be hit and lost. In order to lighten our load so we could move faster, we dumped as much equipment overboard as we could. It was sad to see such expensive equipmenteven big trucksgo over the side into the sea. That was, for me, 'Battle Number Six.' I remember well the day that President Roosevelt died, because it was on that day that my brother Bernell, who was also a sailor on another ship, was able to board my ship for a short visit. This very pleasant and unusual experience came about because I was a signalman, and he was in charge of his captain's gigue. When we were anchored near an island, we frequently got permission to send messages to signalman aboard some of the other ships that were anchored in the harbor. I saw that my brother's ship was also anchored in this harbor and immediately sent a message to the signalman on duty on his ship to tell my brother 'hello.' A few minutes later I received a message that my brother would come aboard my ship in a few minutes. It seems that since he was the captain's boatswain he had gotten permission to use it for a while. A sad day to lose our President, but a happy day for Bernell and me! As I said before, being in the war was by no means an easy life, but I (probably like many other servicemen) have a tendency to remember only the pleasant thi ngs that happened. I know that the hardships that I experienced are miniscule by comparison to the hardships that many other servicemen experienced, particularly those who served in the infantry. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to serve my country, and am extremely thankful for all those service men and women who gave their lives for the preservation of freedom, justice, and equality of all people. Glayden Russell Glayden served with both the Marines and Navy during World War II, enlisting into the Navy immediately after his discharge from the U.S. Marine Corps. He served as an ensign in the Navy Supply Corps and was the supply and disbursing officer in the Pacific on destroyer escort ships - the USS Rinehart and the USS Robert E. Peary which went to Hawaii, Marshall Islands, and Wake Island. He also served on patrol for a month sending weather information to Hawaii for the Navy for the ships at sea. During this time on patrol, a huge wave broke over his ship and sprung a leak in the ship, allowing sea water into the food storage area. This meant they had to eat rations for about three weeks as all their food was ruined. 174 After being honorably discharged in 1946 he joined the Naval Reserve and was advanced to lieutenant junior grade. Darwin L. Salisbury Darwin Salisbury served in the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946. He was trained as a radiation technology at MIT and shipped out to Guam for a four-month tour of duty, operating high powered Navy transmitters on Mount Barrigada transmitter base for the services' Joint Communications Activity. He returned to the States in May on the aircraft carrier USS Siboney CVE-112 and received his honorable discharge June 1, 1946. While Darwin was in training at MIT, he met Weber College graduate Lorna Grix, who was doing an internship in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After the war he returned to Utah, and they were married shortly thereafter. Darwin and Lorna spent most of his professional life in California but returned to Ogden where he worked briefly as an instructor in the vocational education department. Richard Frank Sanders USS South Dakota Richard Frank Sanders, a seaman first class in the Navy, served aboard the Battleship South Dakota and BB-57 in the Pacific. He also served aboard the minesweeper YMS-359. Lawrence David Saunders Lawrence David Saunders received a World War II Victory Medal for his service in the Navy. He rose to the rank of specialist X (01) third class. Dell E. Saxton From the Idaho State lournal, a Pocatello, Idaho, newspaper, March 1944. SOMEWHERE IN THE PACIFICDell E. Saxton, yeoman, second class. U.S.N.R., of 1114 South Fifth, Pocatello, is a crew member of the USS Tangier, a seaplane tender, which has long served as one of the Navy's most important floating airbases. Veteran of Pearl Harbor, where she was one of the first American ships to open fire on Jap carrier aircraft, the tender has returned to the United States only 175 |