And now a follow-up to last week's heart-wrenching story about US forces
liberating the Philippines from
Japanese occupation in 1944.
A loyal reader of this newsletter wrote to tell me about her personnel connection to the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
The four-day battle transpired when the Imperial Japanese Navy moved in to disrupt the US landing on Leyte Island, Philippines. The US Navy prevailed in what some call the largest naval battle of WWII.
Cathy says:
"My father was serving on the Maryland- US battle ship- in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. [He manned] one of the ship’s guns, trying to down the kamikaze planes before they hit the ship. One did hit his gun station, though not much damage to the ship and they scrambled away just before it crashed on them, so they weren’t hit, but Dad said it was horrible-“we could smell the pilot’s burning flesh”. I’ll never forget
his stories."
After the war Cathy's father entered training to become a navy pilot. He became good friends with another young would-be pilot, Alan Shephard. And that's the rest of the story!
Unless you are too young to remember Apollo 14, Alan Shepard was the commander of the 1971 mission, and one of the few human beings to walk on the moon.
