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  Crew 1946

  Officers Jan./46

 

 

THE DROWNINGS AT ULITHI

 

Received from Joseph Leo Nagle  MM 1/C A DIV

THE TRAGEDY AT ULITHI ON MARCH 22, 1945  ! !   (APA SUMTER 52

 

This is my (Joseph Leo Nagle's) story of the tragedy on March 22, 1945, at Ulithi.  We lost four fine ship mates due to drowning.  This happened because of the cross current and the undertow at the beach party.  What a sad day.

We started off from the ship about noon for a beer party at one of the islands of the Ulithi chain.  We had a full landing barge, and the usual amount of beer. (never enough).  We went to this remote island, but could not get on the beach.  We all jumped in carrying the beer on our shoulders and on our heads.  Yes, I did volunteer to carry a case of beer, because of a great thirst.  We were not on the island, for more than fifteen minutes, when Rocco Aducci, and Norb Kabacki, and myself, took a quick trip around this graveyard, and saw nothing but, old Jap munitions, and hand grenades, and old sun baked life jackets crusted from the weather.  After the consumption of less than a can of beer, one of our shipmates came running over to us in a state of extreme panic.  He blurted to us to com help, because 4 shipmates went into the water then disappeared.

Namely,

John Durham MoMM2C came aboard   7/28/44

George St. Claire                         10/8/43

Russel Di Marchi P4M 3C             1/11/44

Henry Howe P4M 3C                    4/19/44

 

They were swimming on the east end of the island and never surfaced, in less than a minute. As we turned the corner, people were still in the water in a state of panic.  Another group did not know just what to do, so we yelled to them to form a life chain.  We had 15 people ready to go as some were starting to drown.  I said what the hell are we waiting for, let's go.  I was leading the chain and we were in neck deep water.  I grabbed one mate and we passed him down the line to safety.  Then one more, mate was going under in a panic.  It was first class Baker Murphy, who lived a few miles from me in the Boston, Mass. area.  He was ready to disappear, and I grabbed him, and he put a hold on me.  We were lucky to maneuver him to pass him down the line to safety.  The other four mates just disappeared and never surfaced.  In the meantime, I found an old Jap life jacket, put it on and went searching for the bodies, to at least give a decent burial.  My life jacket was extremely rough, because it had been out in the sun for months.  I was in the water, searching for bodies, and did not know that the ensign, gave the word, "no one allowed in the water because of the undertow."  I was a fast and powerful swimmer, but could not get ashore.  Nobody wanted to help, because of the order from the officer.  I tried for 5 minutes, and kept going out with every stroke.  It did me no good, so I resigned myself to go with the tide, knowing the landing barge from the ship would be back in 3 to 4 hours. I believe I was out of sight in less than an hour and had a few nervoud times, as the life jacket was cutting into me, and I started to bleed on my upper body, with action of the bobbing up and down in the water.  I know that blood attracts fish, and I had several big bumps from fish bouncing off my legs.  My only other fear, was that it gets dark, early in March, but I had complete confidence that I would be picked up before dark.  After another hour or so, I could see the landing barge in the distance heading my way, knowing all should be well.  The crew pulled me in and we headed back to the island for the rest of our shipmates, then back to the ship with the very sad news.  The attitude of the captain and several officers was really bad, and to this day, I have not heard whether they ever had a memorial service or any other bereavement exercises for our lost shipmates.  It was a very sad attitude and situation for all aboard.  I am still wondering how it was handled with the families, even at this late date.  I intend to look into the family situation eventually, sometime soon.  This is my story after all these years. 

                                                                                Sincerely,   Joseph Leo Nagle MM 1/C A DIV