When self checked out this book from her local library, she knew exactly what she was getting. On this rather dull Tuesday afternoon, self reads:
- Now that I have a fighting ship, I will never retreat from an enemy force.
These words were spoken by the “first and only Captain” of the USS Johnston, Commander Ernest E. Evans, a man who had been present involved in the disastrous February 1942 Battle of the Java Sea, “in which a Japanese heavy cruiser force made short work of an Allied fleet . . . he never expunged from his mind the sting of having to flee from the Japanese.” He was Cherokee.
In February 1944, the Johnston‘s duty was to “support Marines advancing against stiff enemy opposition on the islands of Kwajalein and Eniwetok.” The Johnston then participated in “the Marianas campaign” and “the bombardment of Guam.” In the year since her commissioning, the Johnston participated in six invasions.
There were seventy men in the Johnston‘s gunnery department, “only seven” of whom “had ever been to sea before coming aboard the Johnston.” Training such “a green deck force” was no mean feat, but it was accomplished “by rote and repetition” and by “ruthless, repetitive drill.”
These green troops had a first-class boatswain who was twenty-four, and he commanded teen-agers.
These were the men who were going to win the Battle of Leyte? Now, this self would like to see!
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Kanlaon 