by Ted Sherman

Created on: June 28, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

My most unforgettable 4th of July celebration happened 63 yrs ago, when I was a 19-year-old crewman aboard a Navy attack transport. Our ship had been sent to the Subic Bay Navy base on the coast of Luzon in the Philippines after participating in the landings on Iwo Jima and Okinawa several months earlier. We were to be part of the huge fleet assembling for World War II's final assault on Japan, scheduled for September or October.

The gathering armada was to be composed of many capital ships along with the troop transports, including aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers and destroyers. As July 4th dawned, every sailor knew there would be formal celebrations with everyone in their dress whites later that day, and not only because of the traditional holiday.

General MacArthur had just announced that the recapture of the Philippines was officially completed, and all major Japanese resistance throughout the islands had ceased. Unfortunately, he failed to tell the 50,000 well-armed Japanese troops who were still holding out near Manila on the main island of Luzon, and enemy naval ships and submarines still operating in the Philippine Sea.

Just before dawn on the 4th, as if by pre-arranged signal, hundreds of anti-aircraft guns on the American capital ships began firing, lighting up the sky over the sea with thousands of incendiaries, star shells and whatever they could add to the brilliantly-lighted and spectacular celebration.

Most of us on the smaller ships, except for the usual dog watch guards, were blissfully asleep in our bunks, and had no warning before the ear-shattering noises knocked us to the deck. It wasn't only that we were surprised; we were absolutely terrified. Our ship had landed Marines on the beaches of Iwo Jima and Okinawa just a few months before. That was the time of the kamikaze suicide attacks, and the Navy lost many ships and over 5,000 sailors, more than previously killed in all other battles of WWII combined. Our initial fear when hearing the blasts was that we were once more under air attack.

After the first shock passed, and we crawled out from beneath our bunks, we went up on deck to watch the beautiful 4th of July display surrounding us all over the bay. Soon our chief gunners called their crews together, and they raced over to their gun tubs and joined in with, compared with the barrages put up by the battlewagons and cruisers, our peashooters.

It was a wonderful way to celebrate our nation's birthday, knowing we were finally on the

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