Radar Picket Station #5 (June 1945)

We have steamed over 200-miles since yesterday, but are still right where we were three days ago - reversing course every thirty minutes - on Radar Picket Station #5 about 40-miles east of Point Bolo. At 0900 on June 16th we made the daily inspection of magazines and smokeless powder samples - conditions normal. They are always normal, but regulations require a check. At 0958 the USS WADSWORTH (DD-516) relieved BRADFORD on this station. Radar Picket Station #5 is now occupied by the FOOTE, WADSWORTH and BOYD. After sunset General Quarters word reaches us that the USS TWIGGS (DD-591) has been hit and is sinking. She was operating as picket for the western fire support group off Okinawa when a single low-flying “Jill” (Torpedo Bomber) was detected less than 1,000-yards on her port beam. The Jap dropped a torpedo and before TWIGGS could swing away, the fish hit in the No. 2 magazine and engulfed most of the ship in flames. The Kamikaze circled and completed its mission in a suicide crash into the ship aft.

A torpedo explosion - magazine explosion - aircraft explosion - the triple blasting tore through the destroyer and sent sheets of fire raging through the superstructure. Damage Control never had a chance.

Thirty minutes after the Kamikaze hit the after magazine blew up. In less than an hour - TWIGGS sank. When she went down - 18 of her 22 officers went with her, including the Captain. A total of 165 men were lost with the ship. Radio reports indicate that the USS PUTMAN (DD-537) has picked up 131 of her crew, many need surgery and hospitalization. The four surviving officers are among the wounded. The TWIGGS disaster is one of the few in which every officer in the ship was either killed or wounded.

A destroyer sailor on picket duty is the antithesis to the Samurai. The Kamikaze is seeking immortality and the destroyer sailor is trying to see that he gets it - but, your own immortality is never very far from the equation.

I don’t know about other ships on Picket Stations, but most of the FOOTE crew appeared to possess a subconscious feeling of personal immortality that mask the reality of war at Okinawa. This conviction makes it possible to eat, sleep and maintain a reasonable relationship with our shipmates.

On June 17th the sun rose clear from behind cumulus clouds that sometime rim the horizon at dawn and dusk. Time passes slow on R.P. Station #5 as the FOOTE, WADSWORTH and BOYD patrol back and forth leaving a wide white wake on a mournful sea.

Between sunrise and sunset there are watches to stand, logs to write, meals to prepare, consume and clean up after; weapons and machinery to be maintained and adjusted, inspections to be made, paint to be chipped, scraped, primed and repainted in the
ceaseless struggle against rust. There are signals by flag hoist, position reports and fuel status reports to be made. There is laundry to be done, hatch knife edges to be sanded
and hatch gaskets to be cleaned. There are charts to be corrected, radio messages to be copied, decoded, logged, distributed and initialed. And, all the while, night and day, whatever else was being done, the primary and eternal effort to keep all hands alert and ready for enemy attack is paramount. The idea is to get them first - before they get too close - if possible. So goes life on a Radar Picket Station destroyer at Okinawa.

At 1626 the USS FULLAM (DD-474) relieved the BOYD on this station. FULLAM now carries the O.C.T. (Officer in Tactical Command) of the Radar Picket Station. We are next up for relief - Oh! Happy Day……

At 0913 on the 18th the FOOTE is relieved by the USS KNAPP (DD-653) and directed to proceed to Kerama Retto (Wiseman’s Cove - in reality, Wiseman’s Junkyard) for logistics. Life in Kerama Retto is far less dangerous than being on a Radar Picket Station, but the General Alarm still clanged at night and everyone rushes to his Battle Station. It is no longer single combat, but we still don’t get much sleep. At the first warning of FLASH RED, LCVPs and LCMs with smoke generators run back and forth upwind until the entire harbor is under a white protective blanket of smoke. All ships are ordered not to fire even if the planes are sighted, so we just sit on our battle stations and breathed in the oily white airborne chemical smoke - visibility zero - and wait while the Japs drone maddeningly back and forth over the anchorage. Often there is only a single plane whose mission, it seemed, was to keep everyone from sleeping.

All that said, we are glad to be here and not on a Radar Picket Station. When we complete fueling we tie-up to another “LITTLE BEAVER” - USS BRAINE (DD-650) in nest with other destroyers. The BRAINE was hit on May 27th by two suicide planes and this is our first chance to see her - up close. You wonder what is holding her together. Her Main Battery Director is where her 5-inch Gun #2 should be - the Bridge is completely burned out - just a gaping hole where she carried the No. 2 Torpedo Tubes - and the mid-ship 40-MM Guns are twisted and bent into nothing that resembled guns. These Fletcher Class Destroyers can definitely take a beating and survive.

Seeing the BRAINE is the bad news - we get mail - that is the glad news. It is a Navy axiom that morale aboard a warship depends on “pay, liberty and chow”. Mail should be added and given equal statue.

With her emergency repairs completed, the BRAINE slipped the nest on June 19th and got underway at 0700 for the States - her destination - Boston.

With all replenishment complete the FOOTE gets underway at 1306 for Hagushi Anchorage and arrives at 1458. We were assigned one of the northern most anchorages to await further orders. No sooner had we dropped the port anchor with 40-fathoms of chain and settled in when FLASH RED was received. No rest for the weary.

(USS FOOTE Deck Log, USS FOOTE War Diary, USS FOOTE General Action Report and Gene Schnaubelt) (Written by: Wilbur V. Rogers)