Traveling with the Navy

World War II was raging and Dad was drafted into the military. While in the Navy, Dad was stationed on a ship. Dad’s ship sailed to the Hawaiian Islands before Hawaii was a state. He traveled to the Philippines, Guam and Japan. Those places were a long way from Alameda, California. Here is his story about the time the Navy ship he was on cruised to Guam and Japan, just before the war ended.

The ship I was on had Marines on board. The plan was to invade Japan. We sailed to Guam where we met a lot of other ships of all kinds. We were all going to go together for the invasion. The ships all anchored in the bay at Guam. At night, the Japanese would fly over and drop bombs trying to hit our ships. Each ship would put their small boats over the side and light smoke bombs. The whole bay was so full of smoke that the Japanese couldn’t see our ships to know where to drop the bombs. Not one ship was hit.
Great news! Before the invasion happened, we got word that the war was over. Japan surrendered. Our mission was changed. We were to take the marines to Japan and let them off, to secure things after the war. We did that, and then started back to the states. On the way back, we stopped at one of the islands to pick up more war casualties before heading to San Francisco where I got off the ship. By that time Judy was born. Everyone that had three children or more, were the first to be discharged from the Navy. So, thanks to Ronald, Keith, and Judy, my military service was soon over.

I really enjoyed everyone’s travel stories. I would really like to read about some of Keith’s adventures when he jumped out of airplanes while he was in the Army.
Judy