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Jack McBrayer

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Jack McBrayer dreamed his whole life of being a sailor. The sight of big battleships plowing through the waves in the movies had him hooked at a young age. He got his chance in the middle of a world war. (5:10)

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Everyone in the convoy was worried about German submarines, but they made it all the way across the Atlantic without running into one. Jack McBrayer describes how it was another menace, torpedo bombers, that wreaked havoc on the ships. (6:08)

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After escorting a convoy to North Africa, Jack McBrayer and the rest of the crew of the USS Chase turned right around and took another convoy to the Caribbean. This time, it was oil tankers and that was good because they had sufficient speed to evade the German submarines. (3:50)

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Late in 1944, the USS Chase docked in Boston Navy Yard and was converted from a destroyer escort to a high speed transport, known as an APD. This type of vessel was intended to carry a company sized unit and take part in Pacific invasions. Jack McBrayer has vivid memories of what transpired when they got to Okinawa. (5:22)

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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)