Henry "Hank" Thompson: CM 2/c

The day we left for picket duty north of Okinawa was beautiful, and it seemed peaceful out there until the action started.

I was in the forward repair party, tightening pipes and valves which were shaken when the five-inch guns went off. While coming through the gun mount, I saw Miele laying there, hit and dead. I had to get aft for some equipment when I saw Burgess standing with his leg off. The leg looked like it was hit by a generator from a Jap plane when the plane had exploded and all the stuff was coming down like rain. This was the last I was to see of the aft damage control parties.

As I returned forward along the inside passageway, we were strafed and the bullets were coming through the aluminum like flies. I do not know how I managed to get forward. In fact, I was in the bow when a plane approached dead on. I dove right through the round hatch and down a ladder front-first. This plane, I think, dropped a bomb on the starboard side forward. It destroyed a 20-mm gun mount and started a fire by the fire control. We put it out. It was then that a Val knocked off our radar. Then a Marine plane clipped off our yardarm. A bomb also hit aft right down into the carpenter shack storage room. My locker was split open, and I lost everything.

About now, the rudder was jammed and a large hole was in the compartment port side aft. When we opened it, it was half filled with water. The hole was at the water line. I went into it to patch it. Every time the shipped pitched, I went under water. I finally succeeded in stopping the leak with a patch we had made up for damage control.