Comments by Ari Phoutrides
This appears to be a general message announcing the first air strikes by
TF 58 on Japan and the the pre-invasion bombardment of Iwo Jima.
There's an interesting story associated with this task force. At one point in time, we were closer than 100 miles to Japan during the air strikes. The Laffey took on fuel from a carrier and received a small packet of mail. One of the letters was for me and it was written from one of my best high school friends who happened to be Japanese. To make matters even more interesting, he had written this letter while serving as a combat infantryman in Italy!
