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Post By Gene Holtmeyer on Memorial Day 2007

Now I remember EXACTLY why I went into the Navy during WWII. I always had a bed (sort of) I always had food and I never had anyone shooting at only me only. At Palau we had to worry about them firing at the ship from shore. At Okinawa it was the Kamakazi pilots diving into our ships. One dove into the ship next to us one night so they came close. I had made up my mind that I was going to die there at age 20 or if not there when we hit Japan in September or October . We had 1,000 ships ships in the harbor for that purpose. Suddenly they found that the Air Craft Carriers, Battleships, Cruisers etc were at the other end of the harbor and went after them as they were the ones that was going.to cause them the big problems as we all would have sat offshore and bombarded them. Many bleeding heart thought it as terrible that we dropped the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima which killed 200,000 a lot of which was women and chi ldren but I say to them Sorry but you are the ones who started the war when you bombed Pearle Harbor on 12/7/1941 when I was 16 years old. So I did not go into the service until 4/10/43 at 18. "Thank GOD for the bomb for the A bomb as not another Japanese or American service men was killed after that." What griped me was that nobody talks about the 200,000 men they lost on Okinawa obviously the men did not matter.We lost 50,000 there alone. I only lost one friend and that was at Iwo Jima a Marine. I thank GOD that my son did not have to go into the service. He turned 18 during a quite time.

It took me about 6 months to get thru my about 6 weeks of boot camp in San Diego. After a month I came down with Spinal Meningitus and was in the hospital 28 days. One beautiful young nurse took a liking to me and she would spend time talking with me and I was the only one she would give rub downs to. I am sure all the other guys hated me but who cares. One day she said "How old are you? I should have realize that was coming but how experieced is an 18 year old.I had to think quickly and I thought about saying 22 as I never had problems for passing for more than 18. I am still kicking myself that I did not say 22 as I would have loved to see where that relationship would have gone. I always had trouble lying however.When I said 18 she said "Oh I thought you were about 24." I never saw her again. I received a 38 day recuperation leave. So that alone accounted for 66 days of boot camp.

Then home on a 38 day leave. Went back and finished boot camp and was sent home on an 11 day leave. (I was schudled to go aborad a cargo ships as a 20mm gunner when I got back). On the last day I came down with Pneumonia and went into Ellington Field Air Force Hospital for 16 days. Word spread over the base that there was a ssick ailor there. So I became a side show exhibit so to speak (which I did not mind at all) and in fact seveal of them brought me boxes of candy. One reason was the the closest Naval base was in New Orleans and we were just outside of Houston. So many had never seen a sailor.

One day Mitse Gaynor who played the lead in the movie South Pacific came there to entiretain the troops. Woundn't you know she stopped at the end of my bed and sang a love song looking right into my eyes. I could feel my fact turning red but I stood it a long time and finally pulled the covers over my head. The doctor said "I am keeping you here at home for another 15 days of recuperation. Many people were saying "What - are you home again?"

I finally went back to San Diego and to Balboa Park, a shipping out place. They have my Pay records so I am getting paid but they could not find my other records ship so they could ship me out until they found them. So I was there for perhaps 6 months and was put incharge of the garbage locker. I did strictly supervisory work and I had two helpers. I went from 165 pounds to 190 as I had access to the food. So now they sent me to Miami where I went throught six weeks of training for small craft school but low and behold now that the have my personel records, they have lost my pay records. I had to write home for money as I was not getting paid. They did not know what to do with me so they sent be through the small craft school again for another 6 weeks. At Miami I was a catcher on the Station soft ball team and I had made the Station basketball team about the time I got shipped out.
They finally found them so it was then that I picked up my ship in New Orleans. If we stop to figure it out I went in on 4/10/43 and I picked up my ship on 1/2/45.

Half of us picked out ship up at New Orleans on 1/2/45 and I kept a diary of every day until I left the ship to go home on 11/23/45 and It is on the Internet but it is pretty boring since we saw very little action until toward the end of the war.

My first two years were a ball and "Yes I had a girl in every port which is expected. " Three of us were walking down the sidewalk in Miami Beach and three girls passed us going the other way. One was gorgeous and I just had to have a date with her. I was bashful but the other two were worse than me. So I said "Come on Guys" and we followed them into the icecream parlor. Turns out she worked for MGM and they were down there making "PT Boat" staring John Wayne. I had six dates with her and got shipped out to New Orleans.

At New Orleans we went down on Bourbon Street and there was drunken sailor giving a girl a hard time on the dance floor. I cut in and she thanked me profusely. We danced together for 2 or 3 hours when I had to be back to the ship by 10. She invited my out to her abode Sunday for a chicken dinner. We got shipped out Saturday on our way back to Maimi. In Miami I found another nice girl, had two dates, got shipped to the South Pacific.

I am currently in touch with two men from my ship who are also still alive and one of them put my diary, which I had typed out, on the Intenet. I am not sure how to reach it but I am sure it is under PGM-31.