We spotted a Japanese mine on the surface on July 29 and sank it with rifles. We fires 52 rounds at it and when it exploded shrapnel rained down on the ship like hail. Some of the pieces picked up were as big as baseballs.
We went out on the 40 mile picket on July 30 and remained there until late that afternoon. During the morning we were within 30 miles of the coast of Tokyo. We had two alerts during the day but nothing developed and we did not fire a shot.
We started south to refuel from tankers late that afternoon and about 2100 we saw large searchlights only a few miles away. A destroyer was rescuing a crew from a PBM Mariner who had run out of gas. The plane had gone north and picked up pilots who had crashed in the ocean after their planes had been damaged during the raids. The destroyer picked the crew of the plane and the 3 pilots and they had rescued then sank the plane by gunfire.
We remained in the fueling area for 5 days doing nothing but passing mail and shooting sleeves than at the enemy. After 18 months of this duty drills seem like a lot of hooey!
The chow out here had really become terrible. Our flour is full of bugs which we still eat. We haven’t had any fresh provisions for the last weeks, we have run out of coffee and damn near everything else. It’s hard enough to fight with good food but take that away and believe me a crew’s morale reaches that all time low. The crew is screaming but to no avail. As long as the officers get their chow they are not concerned about the welfare of the crew.
We started steaming north again on August 4 and once more headed for Tokyo. We sank a mine on August 5 and resumed our place in the formation. This brings our total up to 8 mines since we have been operating off the homeland.
We did not launch strikes either the 6th or 7th because of bad weather. On the 7th we were out on watch dog station and nothing of interest happened. We learned about the new atomic bomb and everyone was really cheered up over it. We sent strikes on the 8th all day. We remained with the carriers and late in the afternoon we sank another mine. We only fired 29 rounds of 30 cal. Rifle ammunition at this one and when we hit it, it really went up with a bang!
On August 9th we went out on watch dog station with three other cans. We were called to general quarters several times during the day but nothing happened. We went to general quarters at 1530 and remained there. At 1810 we picked up a bogie coming in. The plane came in at 13,000 yards and everyone opened up on it. It was a Judy, a new type of Japanese dive bomber. All the destroyers were opening up with everything they had when the plane came in range. The pilot executed all kinds of maneuvers and then when there was a slight lull in firing he started a 65 degree dive on our number one stack. We had resumed fire and now the 40MM and 20MM light machine guns gave out with their characteristic roars. The whole side of the ship seemed to belch flame and gun smoke. The suicide pilot came into with in 900 yards and our fire was so intense that we drove him away. We were really burning powder and all the men topside were getting a big eyeful as well as a good scare. There were plenty men who were damn glad to see us drive the plane away including myself. We fired 235 rounds of 5 inch , 600 rounds of 40MM and 1140 rounds of 20MM. All the ships were putting the rounds out for the first time in quite awhile. Shrapnel fell over the deck and we picked up several large pieces. We remained on watch dog station until after dark. We had started in to pick up a British pilot who had ‘chuted in the water 15 miles off the mainland. We were close to the mainland when the suicide pilot took a fancy to our No. 1 stack, however he decided against it when he saw the aces we had in the hole.