![]() ![]() In conclusion, Becton said: “We’re going to outmaneuver and outshoot them. They were now going to make the Japanese wish they had never heard of USS Laffey. ![]() They had tangled with the enemy before and won. He told them that he expected to see plenty of Japanese but that he had confidence in the crew’s ability. He pressed the microphone button, and throughout the ship boomed the familiar words, “This is the captain speaking.” Becton warned his crew not to expect the same kind of luck Ditter had had. William Ditter (DM 31), whose skipper informed Becton by radio that during his time on station no kamikazes had entered the area, nor had any been detected by radar.īecton hoped his ship would be as lucky, but at the same time, he felt he should speak to his crew about the battle that was bound to come. Laffey relieved the destroyer-minelayer J. On April 14, Laffey, accompanied by LCS 51 (landing craft, support) and LCS 116, arrived on station 51 miles north of Point Bolo on south-central Okinawa, which was used as a reference point in aligning the 16 picket sectors. But in the end, there’ll be this one bastard with your name on his ticket.” After all the horrific stories, the crew had heard while in the anchorage, they were almost relieved when Laffey steamed north toward its assigned area, radar picket station No. You’ll knock a lot of them down, and you’ll think you’re doing fine. He told the Laffey crewmen: “You guys have a fighting chance, but they’ll keep on coming till they get you. Purdy had been struck by a kamikaze on April 12, killing 13 and wounding 270. Steam as fast as you can and shoot as fast as you can.”Ī gun captain from the destroyer Purdy, which was anchored nearby, also offered his thoughts about picket duty. As Laffey prepared to depart, the skipper of Cassin Young offered some advice to Becton: “Keep moving and keep shooting. Three hundred rounds of 5-inch ammunition were also loaded aboard so that Laffey would sail with full magazines of all calibers. Roosevelt had died the day before.Īs soon as Laffey tied up alongside Cassin Young, the fighter-director team of two officers and three enlisted men reported aboard, carrying with them special electronic gear. Morale was low, and it only got worse when they received news that President Franklin D. The crewmen began to imagine what might happen to them when they went out to their assigned picket station. ![]() ![]() Although Laffey‘s crew had encountered suicide bombers at Leyte, Mindoro, Luzon and Iwo Jima, they had never before seen so many damaged ships in one place. Many of the ships anchored there had been battered by kamikazes while on radar picket duty. Shortly after dawn on April 13, Becton brought his ship into the crowded harbor at Kerama Retto. That could mean only one thing: Laffey had drawn duty on the radar picket line-the most dangerous, deadly and unwanted assignment in the Okinawa campaign as far as Navy personnel were concerned. The message told Commander Becton to detach his ship from the screening force and proceed at once to the huge naval anchorage at Kerama Retto, where he was to go alongside the destroyer Cassin Young and take aboard its fighter-director team. destroyer to bear the name Laffey the first ship had been lost off Guadalcanal in 1942. Sumner-class destroyer, had been screening the heavy fleet units that were bombarding Okinawa in close support of the ground forces ashore. How USS Laffey Survived a Vicious Kamikaze Attack off Okinawa CloseĬommander Frederick Julian Becton, captain of the destroyer USS Laffey (DD 724), took the radio message his communications officer handed him on April 12, 1945, but the concerned look on the young officer’s face made Becton suspect that it was not good news. ![]()
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