I had closed my eyes and it kind of bounced off us. That knocked us out of business.

I saw one destroyer go down and not come up. I saw several go down and never imagined that they would come up but they were well-buttoned up.

It was very somber, cool treatment.

In the six months at sea we never saw a tree or land.

We were on the starboard side in formation. When we broke ranks I tried to find a good spot and I jumped up on an ammunition box with a couple of other guys. We were not more than 35 feet from the table where we were.

He always left a nice drink for me. He was just like a father to me, although he never spoke my name and I'm sure he didn't know my name.