Oral History Interview with Alfred Schmitz, June 12, 2002 All Tracks

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Alfred Schmitz. He was born on August 28, 1925 in Austin, Texas. He enlisted in the Navy in June 1944 and upon graduation from basic training and Fireman "A" School, he was assigned to the USS La Prade (DE-409) and sailed to Pearl Harbor. He next sailed in September 1944 with a hunter-killer task group during the Palau Islands invasion. He recalls the ship being involved in a joint attack on a Japanese midget submarine in the entrance to Kossol Roads Harbor, where the sub was destroyed with depth charges. In addition, he describes the ship's participation in the invasion of Okinawa servings as part of a submarine screen between the battleships and the beach and on rotating picket ship duty with other smaller vessels. After Okinawa he recalls that the ship joined the Japan occupation forces at Sasebo on September 23, 1945. During this period he recalls being sent to Nagasaki immediately after the atomic bomb was dropped to pick up Navy Seabees. He recalls that the ship returned to San Diego where he was part of the decommissioning crew until May 1946.

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