When Bob & Carol recently took Dan and me, and others, to visit the World War ll Memorials in Washington D.C., many old forgotten incidents surfaced and are still coming back. For example, today marks the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.
On August 6th, 1945, I was stationed on a weather ship between Guam and Japan gathering weather information for the B-29s to carry out the Manhattan project, or the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima.It was the most boring duty imaginable. We went to a certain spot, sometimes as near as 90 miles off the cost of Japan, and cut our engines and drifted. We were not told why we were there until the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, and Japan surrendered. Then we got the story.
News bulletins were coming in fast and furious. It was reported that the areas where the a-bombs fell would be contaminated for a hundred years; no life would exist there; that nothing would grow there; the rivers and streams would be polluted forever.
We had 100 men and 10 officers aboard our ship. Each person was happy to see the bombs fall. Even though many were killed, we felt it shortened the war and saved many lives.
WWII Links
RIDING OUT A TYPHOON Aboard the USS PCE 884
Copyright © 2005 Jim Thompson. All rights reserved.
Tags: World War ll, world war 2, bombing of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, weather ships, B-29s, Manhattan project
3 comments:
I enjoyed reading about your experience. I was a crew member on PCE884 in 1946. I was a S1C/Radioman. I don't remember too many of the fellow. I sure remember going out on those long stations. One time our water got salt water in it and we drank soft drinks a few days. I was dischardged in August 1946.
John Kilman
jskilman@moment.net
Hi, my name is erika. I was serching on the internet for information about my greatgrandpa.I believe that my grandpa served at the same time as your father on the same boat. I dont know if you will even see this, but its worth a try. My great grandpa's name is Leonard A. Buys.
My father, Raymond Eisenhardt Jr., served on the PCE 899 at Guam, Apra Harbor in late 1945 - the 899 launched weather balloons for weather tracking and may have been close aboard the 884 in those days. The orders for the invasion of Japan involved the 899, among others, running in-shore and hoisting a starboard-or-port light on the main mast for the landing craft to go "between" on their run in, which would really be running between one of two BURNING WRECKS since that would be what the 899 became after every shore battery in the world opened up on it. As a result, he had no qualms at all about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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