Winds, strange clouds, rain squalls, flags flapping, metal screeching and grinding was enough to warn us of danger. Soon, we heard the announcement on the loud speaker : “Before nightfall! Typhoon ahead.” (Only later were we given the name: Typhoon Louise.)

Our ship was part of a convoy of fourteen ships.

To the east, we heard that the island of Okinawa was being decimated by the storm. We learned of ships sinking in the area all around us. In years following we learned more and more about this destructive event. Hundreds of ships and other vessels were sunk or damaged beyond repair. Many thousands of persons died, both Okinawans and Marines.

My ship was in the lead of the convoy. We watched the others wallow in our wake. This added to the already too active movements of ships in danger. The prow of our ship went from digging deep into the swells ahead with propellers totally exposed out of the water, to the ship climbing a wall of water with the stern buried in the wake behind us. And it never stopped for fourteen days.

Suddenly, the winds changed to the North. Now, they were coming from the Siberian ice. Men, fresh from the hot weather of the South Pacific, scrounged for winter clothes.

The sea changed from massive waves to narrow-profile walls of water. I was on deck early in the morning watching as the ship passed over this sight. I swear it actually balanced on two tall waves. I looked in amazement as I saw the morning beams of sun come between the waves from under the ship.