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Jack McBrayer

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While patrolling off Okinawa, the crew of the USS Chase did not encounter any submarines. The problem there was kamikazes. Jack McBreyer recalls an incident in which the ship had a near miss from one. (4:13)

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It was a miraculous sight. The kamikaze was making a suicide run on the ship and Jack McBrayer watched the gun crew on the big five inch gun line up the barrel on the plane, which was coming head on. A streak of light from the tracer shell lit up a straight path to the oncoming menace. (2:19)

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Jack McBrayer could see the face of the kamikaze pilot in his cockpit as he bore down on the ship. Every gun was firing and the plane was brought down, but it crashed thirty feet away and the blast from the bombs strapped under the wings damaged the ship. It began to list and was taking on water. (5:52)

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After being damaged by a kamikaze near Okinawa, the USS Chase was put in a floating dry dock where the hull was repaired. Jack McBrayer and the rest of the crew were there when the war ended. Now it was time for some local sightseeing. (5:20)

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On the way home, finally. Jack McBrayer had survived multiple kamikaze attacks, but it was the hitchhiking trip across the country that came close to doing him in. He still had some time in the service, so he served on a ship out of Norfolk performing a curious task. (7:21)

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Jack McBrayer was pretty good in a fight, with a wicked right. He settled his differences aboard ship this way, but that wasn't where he discovered that talent. Before the war, there was this friend and his girlfriend, who took a liking to Jack. (4:56)

Jack Myers

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He almost enlisted after Pearl Harbor, but he waited for the draft to make sure no one stole his girlfriend. After taking care of that, he became a gunner in a tank destroyer battalion. He trained on three inch guns that were both towed and self-propelled and he was a little annoyed with the discipline, but it paid off later. (5:55)

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It was a huge convoy to England and almost everyone on the troop ship was seasick. Jack Myers did not get sick but he had gone up on deck as the ship sailed from New York harbor in the middle of the night and that made him a little apprehensive. His first big battle was at Antwerp, where he had to intervene when his squad leader went a little crazy. (4:35)

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It wasn't easy at the Siegfried Line, says Jack Myers. There were tough pillboxes and bunkers, but he was a gunner on a tank destroyer and he could put a three inch shell right through the gun portals. The Germans had much better tanks, but the American armor was endless, a massive force that could not be stopped. Especially once they got the new 90 mm gun. Mr. Meyers also describes a Christmas Eve incident that shows the human side of war. (4:08)

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They were pinned down by German artillery when the platoon leader told Jack Myers to put a shell into a church steeple where he thought a spotter might be. It worked and they moved on. It was the kind of thing he did all the time but it had resonance after the war. (4:01)