Log of the USS BLESSMAN 19 February 1945

As she steamed away to join her group, tragedy struck quickly. A low flying Jap bomber appeared out of the black night and dropped two bombs on the speeding ship. One dropped harmlessly over her side, but the other turned her into a flaming holocaust. Ironically, it exploded on the mess hall, where her tired men were crowded writing letters home
In that instant, the 40 men stopped writing, never to write again. Twenty-one men of the BLESSMAN’s crew and 19 men of the UDP Number 15 were killed. Twenty-three were wounded, one seriously.

For 100 endless minutes, the stricken ship lay dead in the water. Flames poured fiercely from the gaping hole in her superstructure. Water poured into her riddled hull. All power was lost. Emergency pumps had been destroyed. Only bucket brigades were able to be thrown into the battle against the flames, obviously a losing fight. Ammunition began to explode as the fire raced towards the magazines. With enemy planes in the vicinity this look like the end of the BLESSMAN.

Just as destruction had come out of the night before, help appeared just as suddenly. Fighting hearts on the BLESSMAN were relieved to see the USS Gilmer (APD) come along side, without regard for her own safety, and provide firefighting men and equipment. After a two-hour battle by the men of both ships, the BLESSMAN was saved to fight again.

MY COMMENTS

When the bomb hit, I was off duty sitting on my bunk writing a letter. The entire ship shook and all hands headed for top side where we could see the flames from the area over the aft engine room. All power had been knocked out so we lay helpless in the water. A bucket brigade was formed to try to put out the fire but did little to help. It wasn't until the USS GILMAN pulled along side, tied up to us and fed water hoses to our waiting crew that we had any chance of keeping our ship afloat. After an hour of frantic work, the flames were hot and we were able to assess the damage.

At daylight the dead were prepared for burial at sea. As each body was dropped into the water the proper words were said . The American flag that draped the body was not dropped with the body but was used over and over again.

We were towed into Saipan by a sea-going tug boat. With no power we did the best we could by cooking our meals on the fantail. My refrigerated rooms had to be kept closed as much as possible to keep the food from spoiling.

Earlier I had requested a transfer to another ship. This was before we were bombed . Transfers were not given out easily so when the BLESSMAN returned to Mare island , I was still a member of the crew. At Pearl Harbor I received my transfer and was assigned to a cargo ship. My new ship was an older type direct steam drive propulsion system. I was unfamiliar with this and had to learn fast. The third class Machinist mates aboard knew more about keeping steam up than I did. I survived and was in charge of the engine room when we rode out a typhoon off the island of Okinawa.

The war was over so it wasn't long after that I transferred to a transfer camp and put aboard a Liberty transport ship for return to Great Lakes training station for my discharge from the service.