D-Days in the Pacific

twenty-year-old centerfold-posed gunner's mate is none other than my father V.L.Henderson, known as [Deacon}, fresh off the crippled S.S.Ingraham,a class D destroyer,after three Kamikazi planes were shot down,a forth hit forward portside at the water line exploding a six foot whole into the CIC and flooding officer's quarters,the mess hall.The number2 magizine took the brunt,Deacon was only five feet away.Fire broke out,some were dead,some were trapped. My father was one of the volunteers that pried the casualties from the walls. The S.S Ingraham was towed in stern first, with her bow less than a foot aboard-draft.Leon Henderson and the S.S.Ingraham were also in the Liberation of the Phillipians,and battled in the Leyte Gulf,and Luzon (The Ship once out-ran a typhoon in the Mariana trench,as four destroyers capsized in waves over one hundred feet high.) After the "Mighty I" was hit it was decommissioned and eventually sold to Greece. It's sister ship the S.S.Morrisson was attacked by kamikazies,and sunk in a couple of minutes,just prior to the attack on the Ingraham. Others my dad recongnizes in the same photo are: on the post on left hand side is Papi Krammer gunner in mount two standing in rear fifth from left is Scotty a gunner in mount-one Happy Note: while these brave young men awaited orders for a new ship, the war ended,Great Job, Thanks Sailors!!!! A Great job by Donald L. Miller, Thank You for keeping these rich histories alive! Maureen Montes