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John Pineau speaking at
USS Morrison Memorial
Service
on May 4, 2007
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2007 USS Morrison (DD-560) Reunion
by Bill Gordon
In the early morning of May 4, 1945, four kamikaze planes
crashed into the destroyer USS Morrison (DD-560) at Radar Picket Station
No. 1 just north of Okinawa. The ship sank so quickly that many men stationed
below deck lost their lives. A landing craft (LCS(L)-21), often referred to as a
"pallbearer," picked up the last of 187 survivors about three hours
after Morrison went down, but 155 men lost their lives due to the
kamikaze plane strikes and the ship's sinking. From April 30 to May 5, 2007, 10 survivors and
30 other family members and friends met together in Reno, Nevada,
to remember the destroyer's crewmen who died in battle 62 years ago and others who have
passed away since then. The Reno reunion marks the 20th year that these
survivors have met together since the first reunion in 1988 attended by about 85
former Morrison crewmen, including men who had served aboard the
destroyer prior to the sinking.
Memorial Service
On Friday, May 4, the reunion group held a memorial service
at the convent of Carmel of Our Lady of the Mountains in a modern chapel with
one entire side made of glass providing a spectacular view of Reno and the
surrounding mountains. After beginning with the Pledge of Allegiance and a local
high school color guard at the front of the chapel, John and Joan Pineau gave a
history of the destroyer USS Morrison. John said the ship had a fun crew
with nicknames for each other (his was Tubby), and he related some humorous
incidents aboard ship. His wife Joan then read the destroyer's history,
including the ship's distinguished battle accomplishments. She introduced the kamikaze
attack by 25 to 40 Japanese planes on May 4, 1945, with the following words:
American destroyers were singled out to stand between the
Japanese mainland and the U.S. invading fleet. They alone were given the task
of intercepting the massive Japanese suicidal air-sea attacks.… Few suffered a
more devastating attack, in such a short period, as did the Morrison.
Art Perryman, who managed to escape the sinking ship despite
working below deck when the kamikaze planes hit, read the first half of the
names of his shipmates who gave their lives on May 4, 1945. Howie Snell, the
reunion group's chaplain who survived not only Morrison's sinking but
also Pearl Harbor and Midway, read the second half of the names of Morrison
crewmembers who died in the kamikaze attack. Four other people in the reunion
group then read the names of crewmen who had passed away since May 4, 1945.
Next, there was a recording of "Taps" as played by Sid
Bick, who was one of the last live bugle players from WWII until he passed away
a couple of years ago. During his retirement he played Taps at hundreds
of funerals for WWII veterans. His nephew, Howard Buchler, now lives in Reno,
so he and his wife Beth graciously opened their home to the entire reunion group for a
barbeque dinner on Tuesday night.
Morrison Survivors at 2007 Reunion
Front row (left to right): John Ryan, John Pineau, Elbert Hudson,
Jack Simpson, Ed Lewis
Back row (left to right): Bill Schurmeier, Art Perryman, Dave Beckett
Reunion attendees not shown in photo: Howie Snell, Art Turnbull
The memorial service concluded with the songs "God Bless
America" and "Anchors Aweigh," a poem entitled "Sailor's Grave," and a final prayer
by John Pineau, whose voice cracked with emotion. John also encouraged Morrison
survivors to give a signed certificate of crew membership to any family member
who wanted to join. The certificate has the following words:
Certificate of Proclamation
U.S.S. Morrison
United States Navy Destroyer
Serving in World War II
(December 18, 1943 - May 4, 1945)
We hereby grant any living
relative of the sailors who served on the U.S.S. Morrison full-fledged
crewmember status to carry on the remembrance of this great ship.
This proclamation granting said
privilege shall be confirmed and sealed by a salute from any surviving sailor.
Signed by Crew Member
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Bill Schurmeier (left), founder of
USS Morrison Reunion Association, and
Jack Simpson (right), Morrison's
Executive Officer at time of sinking
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Founding of Reunion Association
Bill Schurmeier, whose general quarters station was on Morrison's
starboard forward gun mount, trained his gun on the kamikaze planes headed
toward the ship in the early morning of May 4, 1945. The explosions of one or
both of the first two kamikaze planes, which hit the ship seconds apart, blasted
the right side of Bill's body. He did not see the last two kamikaze planes hit
the ship, but he realized soon after that he had to get off and swim like mad to
get away from the sinking ship. He remembers a crewman hanging onto the ship's
bow sticking up that soon slipped under the water.
Japanese planes came in strafing men swimming in the water, so Bill and
Chief Engineer Jesse Franklin, swimming next to him, slipped off their life
jackets to dive under the water to avoid bullets. About an hour later,
landing craft LCS(L)-21 stopped next to the two men in the water and let down cargo nets. Crewmen on the ship helped them onto the deck, and Bill soon went
into shock. He was transferred to the hospital ship Mercy, and he went to
a Guam hospital for three weeks to recover from his wounds. The many
pieces of shrapnel, estimated to total about 100, in the right side of his body
from head to feet did not bother him except for one piece of metal in a
finger on his right hand. Although a Navy doctor said none of the shrapnel,
including the fragment in his finger driving painfully into his bone, needed to
be removed, Bill decided to perform his own operation without the doctor's
knowledge. He took out his pocket knife and cut out the metal fragment in his
finger.
After the war, Bill suffered from combat fatigue syndrome and had some dreams
where he was captain of the ship that never did sink. In 1987, 42 years after Morrison
sank off Okinawa, he decided to find out whether an organization existed for men
who had served aboard the destroyer. He found none, so he ran ads in some
veterans' magazines to see whether he could find some former crewmembers. He
located 10 or 11 guys this way, so he embarked on a more wide-ranging
search. Bill contacted the National Archives to get the destroyer's complete
muster rolls, which were prepared every three months for enlisted men and every
month for officers. Through the assistance of a US senator from his home state
of Minnesota, he obtained current addresses from the Veterans Administration
(VA), but he had to fight some VA attorneys who had concerns he was trying to
profit from this activity. He managed to get in
touch with about 110 to 115 former crewmen who were still living.
Bill organized the first Morrison reunion in 1988, and about 85 former
crewmen attended in Baton Rouge, home of the USS Kidd (DD-661), which
also got hit during the Battle of Okinawa by a kamikaze plane that killed 38
men. He almost single-handedly put together annual reunions across the U.S. for
the next 15 years. He commissioned a painting of Morrison battling
kamikaze planes ten minutes before she sank, and he distributed a photo of the
painting to each
surviving crewman. On May 4, 1994, the USS Morrison
Reunion Association dedicated a memorial plaque, which includes a photo of the
painting, at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas.
Bill and his wife Joy still attend every reunion, but in recent years he has
left the planning and organization to a member of the younger generation. Mike
Ryan has devoted much time and energy to organize recent reunions for survivors
of Morrison's sinking and their family members. His father John, who also
attended the 2007 Reno reunion, served as fighter control director aboard Morrison
when the ship was sunk by kamikaze planes.
History of USS Morrison
The destroyer USS Morrison (DD-560) achieved a distinguished record
during WWII when the ship earned two Navy Unit Commendations and eight battle
stars. After her commissioning on December 18, 1943, and her shakedown cruise,
she participated in screening operations for air strikes against the Caroline
Islands and then returned to Pearl Harbor on May 9, 1944. In June, Morrison
supported the invasion of Saipan where she performed escort duties, provided
gunfire support for landings, and shot down three enemy planes. In September
1944, after battle action off the coast of Mindanao, Morrison became the
first US warship to enter a Philippine harbor since the Japanese occupation in
1942.
Morrison's crew earned their first Navy Unit Commendation on October
24, 1944, during salvage operations of the light aircraft carrier USS Princeton,
which had been critically damaged by a bomb dropped by a lone Japanese dive
bomber. Morrison came alongside the stricken carrier to help fight the
fires and to take personnel off the ship, but the destroyer's mast and forward
stack became locked for about an hour in Princeton's uptakes. The
destroyer finally managed to break free with about 400 men from Princeton
aboard, but about ten minutes later the light carrier's magazines exploded,
dooming the ship to be sunk by friendly torpedoes a little more than two hours
later. Over 100 men from Princeton lost their lives that day, and 85 men
died from the cruiser Birmingham, which was alongside at the time of the
explosion. The heavily damaged Morrison returned for repairs to San
Francisco via Ulithi and Pearl Harbor.
On March 25, 1945, Morrison left Ulithi to join the American fleet
amassed for the invasion of Okinawa. On March 31, the day before the American landings on
Okinawa, the destroyers Morrison and Stockton (DD-646) attacked
and sank the Japanese submarine I-8 with depth charges and gunfire. A small boat
from Morrison rescued a single survivor. The same submarine sunk by Morrison and Stockton
had in March 1944
torpedoed the Dutch freighter Tjisalak in the Indian Ocean, and several
former I-8 crewmen were sentenced in Tokyo in 1946 for war crimes for torturing
and killing survivors from the freighter that they took aboard the submarine.
Only five men from the freighter Tjisalak survived the Japanese
atrocities. During the month of April 1945, Morrison served on three
different picket stations, which protected the main fleet by using radar to
detect enemy planes and by directing Combat Air Patrol (CAP) fighters to meet incoming Japanese planes.
USS Morrison (DD-560)
On April 30, 1945, Morrison moved to Radar Picket Station No. 1 about
50 miles north of Okinawa and in the flight path of many kamikaze planes from
air bases in southern Kyūshū. The destroyer Ingraham (DD-694) and four
smaller landing craft were at this same picket station when about 25 enemy
planes were sighted on radar at 7:15 a.m. on May 4. Although American CAP
fighters downed many planes, several Japanese planes got through to Picket
Station No. 1. One plane hit Morrison at 8:32, and another hit at 8:33 [1].
Two floatplanes then hit the destroyer in quick succession at 8:35 [2], and the ship
started to sink and went under by 8:40 [3]. The four kamikaze planes hit so rapidly
and the ship sank so quickly that most men below deck were lost. LCS(L)-21 (Landing
Craft, Support (Large) 21) began to pick up Morrison survivors at 9:40
after first picking up 49 survivors [4] from LSM(R)-194 (Landing Ship, Medium
(Rocket) 194), which had sunk after being hit by a kamikaze plane. At 11:20, LCS(L)-21 finished picking up 187 survivors from Morrison
[5], but 155 men from
the destroyer lost their lives [6].
The Secretary of Navy awarded Morrison a second Naval Unit
Commendation for her heroism during the kamikaze attacks on May 4, 1945:
For outstanding heroism in action as a Fighter Direction Ship on Radar Picket
duty at Okinawa, May 4, 1945. Promptly opening fire on a group of more than
forty Japanese planes which penetrated our aircraft screen to attack the ships
of the radar picket station, the U.S.S. MORRISON skillfully fought off the
determined attackers for over an hour and, with her own gunfire, shot down five
aircraft before they could complete suicide dives. Maintaining a steady barrage
against the overwhelming force, she gallantly continued in action despite severe
damage from four suicide planes which struck her in rapid succession, fighting
resolutely until she went down shortly after the last hit. Her sturdy and
valiant service under a prolonged suicide-bombing attack contributed to the
effective defense of our ships and reflects the highest credit upon the
MORRISON, her courageous officers and men and the United States Naval Service.
Tony Teal, whose father served aboard the destroyer Ingraham in the
early 1960s, attended the 2007 Reno conference and presented his tentative
conclusions about what happened at Radar Picket Station No. 1 on May 4, 1945, based on extensive research of
American and Japanese sources. Ingraham lost 15 men when hit by a
kamikaze plane, which forced the heavily damaged ship out of the rest of the war for
repairs. Tony first became interested in events of May
4, 1945, when he attended an Ingraham reunion in 2005. Since then, he has
gathered firsthand accounts of the kamikaze attack and analyzed often
conflicting information. He has reached some tentative conclusions that
contradict official Navy accounts regarding certain details of the kamikaze
plane attacks. For example, the USS Morrison Action Report states that the first two kamikaze
planes to hit the ship were Zekes (Zero fighters) [7]. However,
Japanese records indicate that two pilots of Franks (Hayate
Army Type 4 Fighters) from the 60th Shinbu Squadron radioed that they were diving on targets
just before the times that the USS Ingraham Action Report indicates that Morrison
got hit by the first two planes. Tony believes that the first two planes to hit Morrison
must have been these two Franks.
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Dave Beckett (right) with
his wife Fran and his son Keith
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Survival Tales
Dave Beckett did not see any of the four kamikaze planes that hit Morrison,
since he was busy loading the twin 40-mm guns on the port side
in front of the bridge. The explosion from the first kamikaze plane threw
shrapnel into the gun mount captain's back, but Dave escaped the blast. The gun
mount crew continued firing as it went to manual after the explosion cut
off electrical power, but word soon came to abandon ship after more planes
struck and the ship started sinking rapidly.
Dave went quickly into the water with his kapok life jacket, but he spotted
Ted Mooneyham without a life jacket struggling in the water as he could not grab
ahold of the floating gunpowder cans since they were soaked with oil. Ted also
had flash burns in his eyes and a large cut on one arm. Dave let Ted hold on to
his life jacket for the 90 minutes or so that they treaded in the water covered
with oil until a landing craft arrived. By then Dave had no strength to even
crawl up to the deck, so he rested on the ship's "push block" near
water level for about ten minutes before he regained enough strength to climb up
to the deck.
After Dave finished his 30-day survivor's leave at home, he reported back to
the naval station in Philadelphia. He talked with Ted, who received the Purple
Heart in Philadelphia, about what would have happened if they had been in the
water any longer before being rescued. Morrison's deck officer Ensign
Painter wanted to recommend that Dave receive a commendation for lifesaving,
but he refused by saying that he was just doing his job as anyone else would
have done in the same circumstances. Since the first Morrison reunion in
1988, Dave has attended every annual reunion except one. He was surprised and
happy when he first saw his former gun mount captain at a reunion in San Diego,
since he had thought for many years that he did not survive due to the shrapnel
in his back from the first kamikaze plane's explosion. The gun mount captain had
yelled that he needed help to get off the sinking ship, but he did not remember
at the San Diego reunion even how he made it into the water.
John Pineau, in the after steering room when the four kamikaze planes hit Morrison,
was one of the few crewmen below deck who escaped the sinking ship. As he went
into the water with his life jacket, Japanese planes continued to strafe the
area for several minutes. With most of the area covered in two to three inches
of oil, he swam out where the oil had not reached and tried to help some of the
men wipe oil off. He saw eight or ten men floating with life jackets who were already dead. He treaded water for about four hours until rescued by
LCS(L)-21.
Although John physically only had one piece of shrapnel in his chin from the
kamikaze attack, emotionally he had to "put the experience in a capsule and then
go on" in order to make it during the years after the war. When he went to
his first Morrison reunion in 1995, he felt "great relief when
talking" about his experiences with former shipmates. He and his wife Joan
attended a reunion of the National Kamikaze Survivors Association in 2002 near
Seattle along with about 400 others, and he had the opportunity to tell his
story and express his emotions with many other veterans who survived Japan's
kamikaze attacks. Since he and his wife started to attend the Morrison
reunions, they enthusiastically organize and lead each year's memorial service.
Mike Ryan (middle) with his father John (left) and
Jack Simpson (right), Morrison's Executive Officer, who
helped save John's life and the lives of other crewman
Art Perryman, just promoted to Petty Officer 1st Class three days before the
kamikaze attacks on Morrison, was working below deck in the after fire
room when the Japanese planes hit. He had been working until recently in the
after engine room, but luckily for him had recently changed positions with another
crewmember. Except for Art Turnbull, who also attended the 2007 reunion, all men
working below deck in both the forward and after engine rooms were killed on May
4, 1945, during the kamikaze crashes and the ship's sinking. Warren Thiele, who
had worked together with Art Perryman in the after fire room, went into the
water with a broken arm and no life jacket. Art took off his jacket in the water
and shared it with Warren as they treaded water hanging on together with one
hand each on the life jacket. They moved away from the life raft full of men
since they thought this would be the best target for Japanese planes trying to
strafe survivors in the water. The LCS(L)-21 picked up Art and Warren after they
had treaded water for about four hours.
Concluding Thoughts
John Pineau mentioned more than once during the reunion week that the
destroyer Morrison had a fun crew. Art Perryman still had plenty of
humorous remarks for his former crewmen. When the group was discussing who would
go to Lake Tahoe for a two-hour cruise, Art said that he did not plan to go.
When someone asked whether he was afraid to be on the water, he said, "No,
only with this group." At the Thursday morning business meeting, the former
crew voted to have next year's reunion in Indianapolis, but at Thursday's dinner
banquet Bill Schurmeier grumbled to me that he could not even remember who
proposed that location. He stood up in front of the 40 attendees and made a plea
for Norfolk to be next year's location, and all of the compliant former crewmembers in
attendance quickly agreed with the new recommendation. Maybe everyone was
sleeping at the morning meeting!
The 2007 USS Morrison Reunion was the second reunion of kamikaze
survivors that my wife and I had the honor to attend. In the same way as the 2006
USS Drexler Reunion, the family members of former Morrison
crewmembers are actively involved in activities to remember both survivors and
those crewmembers who had died either during the attack or afterward. Mike Ryan,
son of survivor John Ryan, told me that he plans to continue to hold a memorial
ceremony each year on May 4 even after the deaths of all of the men who survived
the kamikaze attacks in 1945. He told me of the pride that he has for the
courageous ship and each member of her crew. He expressed his great gratitude to
Jack Simpson, Morrison's Executive Office, for his role in saving his
father's life:
For about 20 minutes after the ship had sunk, a 19-year-old ensign, my
father, John Ryan, had been struggling without a life jacket in the water. He
was a very good swimmer, but his new, very expensive $5 leather boots were
weighing him down. Every time he bent over to take those boots off, he would
sink like a rock. The ship's Executive Officer (XO) Jack Simpson yelled to
Ensign Ryan off in the distance, "Are you okay sailor?" My dad said,
"No, I am a good swimmer, but I have to get out of these boots or I am
going to drown." The XO, who was wearing a life preserver swam over to
Ensign Ryan and helped him up in his arms while he got out of the new boots,
which were slowly sapping his strength and pulling him under.
Jack Simpson, who attended the 2007 reunion, also helped save many other men
on May 4, 1945, as he ran around the destroyer shouting to abandon ship after
the communication system stopped working. He jumped off into the water just
before the ship went under.
Notes
1. From USS Ingraham (DD-694) Action Report
for period from April 29 through May 4, 1945.
2. Same as Note 1.
3. From USS Morrison (DD-560) Action Report for
May 4, 1945.
4. From USS LCS(L)-21 Action Report for May 4,
1945.
5. Same as Note 5.
6. The number of 155 dead comes from an official
US Navy listing of men killed in the kamikaze attack that Bill Schurmeier
obtained in the late 1980s when trying to get information on former Morrison
crewmen. The USS Morrison (DD-560) Action Report for
May 4, 1945, states the following: "Out of a total complement of three
hundred thirty-one men, only seventy-one uninjured men and one hundred eight
wounded men were picked up by the LCS 21 after these men had been in the water
about two hours." Based on these figures in the Action Report, 152 men died
on May 4, 1945. The number of 152 dead is used in other sources, such as the Dictionary
of American Naval Fighting Ships.
7. Although the USS Morrison (DD-560) Action Report for
May 4, 1945, indicates that the second plane to hit the ship was a Zeke, some
sources (e.g., Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships) indicate that
the second plane to hit Morrison was a floatplane.
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