My Military Service
You may wonder what the significants of the three animated icons stands for. The cross, of course, stands for my God. The flag stands for my country, and all those who have sacrificed their lives, so that you and I may live in peace. The plane stands for the peace that comes through strength. I am a veteran of World War Two. I served in the United States Navy. I joined the Navy when I was seventeen years old, with my parents signature. I left home to report for duty on my eighteenth birthday. I went to Little Rock for my induction ceremony. Out of approximately one hundred inductees there that day,I met five other people who were about my age, and it was there that they needed six inductees to go to Farragut, Idaho instead of San Diego, California. We six volunteered on the spur of the moment. It was different because most of us had been to San Diego, and all of us had never been to Idaho. There was a lot of learning and training on how to be a defender of our country there in boot camp.
After boot camp training, and a short leave back home, we reported to San Pedro, California, and boarded a brand new ship just completed in the San Pedro shipyard.
It was an Auxilary Personnel Attack ship which took on troops of 800 men, and landed them on shores where the enemy occupied the land. Mostly, these were islands in the South Pacific. The insignia below signifies the amphibious forces in World War-2 in which the USS Fergus APA-82 was a part of those forces.
All in all, we travelled over 100,000 miles during our sojourn in the South Pacific. The last landing was at the island of Okinawa. The war was winding down and we were in the backdoor of the enemy. It was here that the Japanese high command knew they were defeated, but as a last battle thrust, they began to send their Kamikaze fighter planes to destroy as much of the US fleet as was possible. The Kamikaze pilots would sacrifice their lives for the Emporer by flying their planes into the ships of the US fleet. We were in the harbor which was the closest to the oncoming Kamikaze attack, and we could hear as they zoomed overhead, going over us and into the fleet of Carriers and Battleships in the harbor just over the mountain from us. They always came over at dawn and dusk, because they were harder to see at those times. My battle station aboard ship, was first loader on one of the twin 40 MM guns on the port side of the bow. (That is the front and left side of the ship).
When the attack took place every day, General Quarters would sound over the speaker system and all the crew ran to man their battle stations. The attack would last for about ten minutes each time twice each day, and it was over. We were very fortunate not to have taken a hit from one of the Kimakaze planes, but they were probably going for the big ships. In a couple of weeks, word came to us about the atomic bombs being dropped on Hiroshimi and Nagasaki. Then came word again, that the Japanese forces had unconditionally surrendered. The reason I'm showing the animated flag so much, is to remind us of those thousands and thousands of military personnel who never made it back, but gave their lives, that we may live free. So when you are at an event such as a sports contest, and the National Athem is sung, and as you view Old Glory, think of those in all the wars the United States has been involved in, who gave their all, that our freedoms might be preserved.
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