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Ed Metzler: Mr. Pickard: Ed Metzler: Mr. Pickard: Ed Metzler: Mr. Pickard: Ed Metzler: Mr. Pickard: Ed Metzler: Mr. Pickard: Ed Metzler:
Mr. Pickard: Ed Metzler: Mr. Pickard: Ed Metzler: Mr. Pickard: Ed Metzler:
Really?! And they said, the guys on deck say that three kamikazes started out after us. But on the other side of the island, on the east side of the island is where the fleet hung out. So, they figured ... the guys ... the kamikazes pulled off, pulled out and took off for the other side of the island thinking that they're going to hit something bigger. Uh hum. Well, the fleet had left. And there was a ship just like ours anchored over there, and they ... the crew was in the galley part of it, uh, mess hall watching a movie; they weren't at general quarters, and the planes took them. (Phew sounds). They put one bomb right down through the ward room and down below and it blew up and ... and two of the planes hit and one missed, I think it ... there was of the kamikazes. But that always made you stop and think it was a ship exactly like ours, but we were at general quarters, they weren't. And ... but also right after the war ended, they ... when we were still on the west side, they issued us gas masks because they thought that it was a chance that the Japanese ... the ... the die-hards that didn't want to quit would ... would use gas. Do something crazy. Yeah. Uhm! But anyhow ... But this was right at the tail-end of the war; that must have been some of the last of the kamikaze.
Yeah. It was right after they had surrendered. Really?! I mean, not written it but said they weren't going to fight anymore. Right. The kamikaze still came. Really?!
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Don Pickard. Pickard was in high school when the war started and recalls a few anecdotes from childhood before joining the Navy in mid-1944. Once in the Navy, Pickard was assigned to the Amphibious Force. He served as a signalman aboard USS Bergen (APA-150). On his first voyage, they delivered ammunition to Ulithi. Pickard also went to Okinawa and describes typhoons. After the war ended, his ship carried parts of the First Marine Division to China. Upon returning to the US, Pickard received his discharge in mid-1946.
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