Aaron Ward (DM 34) - Naval Cruise Book

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-..YHA ,,,,.v Wi, .Rev 1. 43 m, f- 4----' -- -N-F. Nf.,.- ,,..k .f - ' -,L,,,,-,, ,V as they approach. ln their isolated positions these picket vessels are easy marks for the ene-my, and at Okinawa hundreds of Kamikazes met death trying to crash the picket vessels. Many attacks were by single planes or small groups, against the Aaron Ward the dozen or more attacking planes were co-ordinated and timed with accuracy, and one of the Kamikazes circled out of range acting as a suicide director . l-le was a traffic cop of death with wings, in the words of an Aaron Ward officer. 4 The Ward was steaming on picket station with a destroyer, the U.S.S. Little, and four landing craft as supporting vessels the late afternoon of May 3. ' The weather, overcast earlier, had cleared. The wind was light. The sea was calm. Enemy air attack was more or less expected, the battle report says, due to the decided improvement in the weather. lt came. At 5522 PM., or l822 ships time, 45 minutes before sunset, the Aaron Ward sounded the general alarm when planes were detected about 25 miles distant. ln a few minutes the Bogies .came within visual range, and six planes were sighted, four of them friendlies of the Wards combat air patrol. The laps managed to evade attack by the American planes and at l829, seven minutes after GQ had sounded, the attack began. From then on it went something like this: l829 Val sho-t down, landing l00 yards from Ward. Engine propellor and wing section hit Wardg no clam-age. ' l830 Second Val shot down, l,200 yards from ship. l83'l. Third Jap, a Zeke, taken under fire at 5,000 yards, hit repeatedly, but continued Kamikaze attack from port quarter. Plane released bomb which pen.etrated portside to after engine room, and in split second plane its-elf crashed ship on superstructure deck amidship, just below after quad gun- mount. This plane and bomb caused fire topside, put after engines out of commission, and jammed rudder left, causing ship to circle. A l83l to Planes circled at distance, were taken under fire but made no attack runs. Three planes attacked l859 Little, which sank in short time. LSMKRJ l95 attacked and sunk. LCSCLD 2.5 attacked and damaged. l359 Val made attack, destroyed at 2,000 yards. Ship still circling and speed reduced to give partial manual contr-ol of rudder. - l904 Betty circling at l0,000 yards taken under fire and destroyed Cthis believed to be the suicide plane directorl. l908 U Val made steep attacking dive, swerved because of heavy fire and crashed into water after left wing clipped forward stack and carried away radio antennae. Damage to Ward slight. l9'l3 Few seconds after above entry Val crashed be-low bridge. l9l6 Zeke approached through smoke, crashed on superstructure deck amidship. Belly gasoline tank exploded, spraying burning gasoline over the deck. Ship now dead in water, fires raging, casualties strewn about the decks. i , l9Zl Unidentified plane crashedat base of Numbered 2 stack, bomb exploding. Stack, gunmount and searchlight blown into air and crashed on deck. This was the las-t attack, but no one aboard the Aaron Ward knew it. All that the men of the Aaron Ward knew was that their ship was a desperate case and that their job was to save it. H y Even with guns blazing and planes crashing the ship, the first lieutenant's men had been fighting fires, and insuring the watertight integrity of unflooded spaces below. Working amid flames and exploding ammunition, these men continued their job. A Gunnery men and sailors from the black gang whose stations were no longer tenable helped out, and the work of handling the wounded. Only a few of the guns could still shoot, and these were manned. Gas fumes were so thick insid-e the five-inch mounts that gr.imy sailorsstaggered -out and vomited on the deck. Then, gulping a little fresh air, they returned to their posts. Everybody pitched in, said Captain Sanders, 'Those whose guns had been put out of acti-on were taking the wounded to the fantail or to the wardroom, or helping the doctor, or helping the damage control parties. H During the entire time, he reported, men constantly braved exploding ammunition and the blazing inferno to res-cue and render aid to their injured shipmates. Acts of heroism above and beyond the call of duty were common occurrences rather than the exception. -U41-A

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space and fire room, the ship steamed all theiway .t-o the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, on one propeller and one engine, for refitting. She is now undergoing repairs in the yard. But the beginning goes back many months to building, launching and commissioning at the Bethle- hem Steel Corporation yards at Terminal lsland, San Pedro, California, last year. Orginally Destroyer No. 773, the 2200-ton Aaron Ward is the third can to bear the name of ia Spanish-American war hero. The first Aaron Ward, a World War l ufour-piper , was transferred to the Royal Navy in l94l. The second, a Federal vessel built at Kearny, N. I., was sunk off Guadalcanal in 'l943. The third 'Aaron Ward, the unsinkable bearer of that name, was not completed as a destroyer, but was converted to a destroyer minelayer. ln the late summer of 1944 the crew began gathering, some three- quarters green hands, mostly youngsters just out of bootcamp, with a leaven of experienced chiefs and petty officers. Of the score or so of officers, few were battle-wis-e. The skipper was an old destroyer sailor who had had two commands in the Atlantic earlier in the war. A native of San Diego, where he now resides at 3421 Herbert Street with his wife and young son and daughter, -Commander Sanders entered the Naval Academy back in 1926 the hard way, from the ranks, when he couldn't clinch an Academy appointment as a civilian. Fifteen years as a naval officer have given him a sun-bronzed skin and graying hair and in-tensified and unruffled manner which he probably has had since youth. l-le's the best liked skipper in the Navy, his junior officers say. He's never feazed. He's the coolest guy you've ever seen. He never gets excited under any circumstances. ' Of his junior officers the gunnery officer, youthful Lt. Comdr. Cthen Lieutenantj David Rubel, U.S.N., a l94l Academy graduate, a fellow San Diegan and the assistant gunnery officer, Lt. Lefteris Lavrakas, U.S.N., Naval Academy, class l943, of Old Sudbury Road, South Lincoln, Mass., were combat veterans. So was the executive officer, Lt. Comdr. Karl F. Neupert, U.S.N.R., of 6115 Southeast 34th Ave., Portland, Oregon. Most of the other officers, like the enlisted men, were young and green. But willing and eager. From the start we had a fine spirit aboard, said Captain Sanders. Usually when a ship puts to sea headed for the combat zone, there's a man or two who goes AWOL. But not on the Aaron Ward. That morning when we were to leave San Pedro last February to report for action every man was aboard and ready. The Aaron Ward was like that from the first, its officers say with pride. l-ler marksmanship in training was exceptional. And as soon as she went int-o action the Aaron Ward was singled out for special commendation. Almost the first time she was under attack she splashed three lap planes and rated a congratulatory message from Admiral 'Richmond Kelly Turner. From the day she reported for the Okinawa operation, her first, the Aaron Ward was in the thick of things. Bef-ore love day she provided fire support for minesweepers, operating under lap guns which didnt fire, in accordance with the defense plan of waiting until after the landings. After love day she operated with bombardment vessels, and almost every night was under plane attack. Aaron Ward sailors saw some lU s-uicide crashes. They saw an ammunition ship blow up after she was suicided, they were near witnesses when the Pinckney was hit. During this time the Aaron Ward had several close calls. One plane dropped a bomb only 50 feet away. Other bombs dropped nearby. But no suicide planes came in successfully. lt is relatively simple with one plane coming at y1ou, said Commander Sanders. We frequently took single planes under fire, and drove them away. We were plenty cocky, said Lt. Lavrakas, the exuberant young assistant gunnery officer. We knew we could shoot and the kids all were lo-oking for more planes to shoot at. We were just hoping we d get attacks so we could splash some more Nips. A We had had plenty of training-that's the Navy policy-We had more shooting in training than ships used to get in a lifetime. We were achin' for Iaps even after we had seen what Kamikazes had done to other ships. . The kids got all the planes they had dreamed of the afternoon of May 3. The Aaron Ward was on radar picket station that aft-ern-oon some 80 miles westward of Okinawa.. Radar pickets are vessels stationed on the outskirts of an area of formation to pick up enemy planes in the distance .4131-

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Looking down from the bridge on the fires, the captain, by the light of the fires, watched the struggle against fire and death. I knew there was a good chance of sinking and considered the possibility of transferring the crew to a vessel which was coming to our aid, he said, but it never became necessary. Thank God the sea was unusually calm that night. In a heavy seaway we could never have made it. The captain did decide, however, to transfer some of the more seriously wounded on recornmendae tion of Doctor Barbieri.. Within I5 minutes of the last attack an LCI came alongside to lend help in fighting fires, nine casualties were transferred to this ship and -another LCI which soon joined the operation. Earlier this vessel had picked up half a dozen sailors blown overboard from the Ward. By 8:30 PSM., an hour after the last plane hit, the fires were out. An hour after that the Aaron Ward had been taken under tow of a destroyer and was moving toward Kerama Betto at 5 knots. The captain's report records: Throughout the balance of the night a constant battle was maintained by the damage control parties to keep the Aaron Ward afloat and to bring her to safety. Enemy aircraft were reported as close as seven miles several times and caused considerable concern to the crew which had undergone almost unbearable strain. Anti-aircraft fire was frequently sighted in the area. There was no sleeping aboard the Ward that night. A few of the men ate oranges and other fruit. The captain doesn't remember whether he ate at all. All hands remember, though, that there was no fresh water, and warm Coca-cola was the only thing anyone had to drink. On -the bridge the captain watched his listing ship slip slowly through the water and under his breath he cursed the moon that made the Ward a clear target. I wanted to get that ship back, and I was afraid something might happen any minute. The ship was in a very unstable condition and there were bogies all around. Our chances weren't too good, he said. But we made it. That the Aaron Ward made it, the captain said in his report, was evidence of the finest exhibition of fighting spirit 'and team work I have ever seen. The commanding officer, he wrote, is extremely proud ofall the personnel of the Aaron Ward for their magnificent display of courage during the fifty minutes of battle and their calm, coordinated effort of saving the ship after the last attack. That's the way the captain sums up the epic of the Aaron Ward. Certain officers and men were particularly toutstanding, but the success of all, and the careful training that had drilled them all for just such an emergency. 4 The Captain has been rightly commended by his superiors for his conduct during the action. I-le him- self singled out as outstanding several officers and men. Lt. Comdr. Bubel, the gunnery -officer, and his officers and men were particularly deserving of com- mendation, said the skipper, because of the intrepid manner in which they fought the ship throughout the action. lt was only their deadly defensive fire, said the captain, that enabled the vessel to survive. The damage control department, under Lt. B. I. Biesmeyer, U.S.N.R., of 629 East Court Avenue, Chare- ton, Iowa, showed great courage and tenacity by all hands in constantly combatting the 'tremendous damage in the 'face of seemingly unsurmountable dangers and attacks. The men of the engineering department did a magnificent job under the direction of the engineer- ing officer, Lt. D. A. Young, U.S.N.B., of 675 East Zlst Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. In the face of heavy casualties and power failure caused by the crashing plane they fought to provide such auxiliary power as was available and aided in handling the wounded. The ship's black gang also repaired the flooded forward fire room and machinery s-o that the Ward could return to the States under its own power. They all did a great job, said the proud commanding officer. Throughout the action the captain had 'few orders for his officers. They knew their jobs, and I think that one fault that develops in such a circumstance is having too many orders issued, After the first hit my principal jolb was to try to regain steering control of the ship. The gunnery officer, who was particularly outstanding, kept the guns firing under extremely advers-e and hazardous circumstances. Every other department did the job it was supposed to do. The Taps were really out to get us that afternoon. When that first plane crashed aboard I knew this was a new type of co-ordinated attacks on pickets. When I saw the Little get hit. by three of em and sink within I5 minutes I thought maybe we're in for something like that. But they didnt sm-k the Aaron Ward. We had a guardian angel holding up the stern that day. -I 15 1.-