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Claud Thomas, Park Hills, served in the U.S. Navy during
World War II, a BT3 aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise in the Pacific Ocean.
"During World War II, I was onboard the U.S.S.
Enterprise. The CV6 was involved in 18 major
sea battles. I was involved in 11 of them.
"The one I remembered was the last one. It was in April of 1945. We had just lost our President. We really didn't have time to mourn for him. For we were under air attack. This time it was under a kamikaze attack. I didn't see much of what was going on because I
was down below. But I knew we were fighting by
the noise of the big guns.
"Well, one of the Japanese plance came through and
crashed on deck. There was such an explosion
that the elevator shaft blew straight forward and high up.
Then it fell right in the same hole in which it came. These were the
elevator shafts that planes were brought up on since the Enterprise was a carrier. The shaft came through three decks and caused a
fire. There was a lot of damage done to our
ship. We lost four engineers.
"I guess war does silly things to some. After the ship's fire was out they noticed the
Japanese pilot was virtually intact. Some
shipmates wanted a souvenir so they virtually cut his jacket, took his scarf, one shipmate
cut his finger off. I thought how silly;
Coming home in one piece should have been enough of a souvenir for us."
Information was submitted by Claudia Thomas Welle of
Park Hills