Page 143 - Anthology

U.S.S. Scribner (APD122)
Launching at the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Company shipyard,
Quincy, Massachusetts
1 August 1944

AWARDS, CITATIONS AND CAMPAIGN RIBBONS

Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row - China Service Medal (extended)
Bottom Row - American Campaign Medal - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (1)
World War II Victory Medal

There were several islands in and around Okinawa that we hit before hitting the main island of Okinawa.
I was in the boat crew. We’d load Marines with rubber rafts and get them as close to shore as possible.
The Marines used attack dogs when they landed. The Japanese didn’t like the dogs and would try to kill
as many as possible. As I recall, each ship had seven dog houses for seven dogs.

I have a story I can tell. We had let these Marines off one night, pretty close to shore. They had their
dogs with them. The Japanese killed one Marine and wounded seven. We had to go in and get them
back to the boat and the ship hospital. I have a little diary that I kept day by day of the islands we went to.
My wife has it and we can use it to show where I served. We were on the move a lot. I think I might
have seen action on thirty or forty islands. I tell you what happened to us; one night a big cruiser hit us
right in the side. We had to return to the states for repairs. We stopped in Hawaii for supplies and then
returned to Long Beach, California. This was right at the end of the war.
There were so many ships that we couldn’t get into Long Beach. We just sat off shore about half a mile
out to sea. One night all of a sudden, we saw fireworks and could hear yelling from other ships. They
told us onboard that the war was over. After repairs were completed, we were sent back to the Pacific.
The Marines continued to occupy islands after the war was over.