IN RETROSPECT

A Personal Autobiography of a Young man gone to War
by I.D. 'Inny' Cerbini, F2c, USNR - Retired

My Navy Career Begins

I went into the Navy. From boot camp to fireman school in Philadelphia and on to the USS Hancock CV-19, a brand-new Aircraft Carrier. I was amazed at her size. I said to myself, "Nothing could hurt this ship."  We had the firepower to knock out of the air, anything, that came at us. Boy was I young and stupid then. Our gunners were excellent and hit what they aimed at. They shot down their share of planes. But as the saying goes, "It only takes one." We had constant drills to prepare us for war. Into Harms Way Entering the South Pacific we were ready. We had now moved into harms way. I remember the first time general quarters was sounded. This was not a drill. This was for real. I was one scared kid. The ship was so huge that it took me almost a month to find the shortest distances between two points. Battle after battle seasoned me. We would make bets on when our gunners would shoot down the plane that had the guts to attack us. Danger at Sea - Our Baptism of Fire Things that standout in your mind: Who can forget the Halsey Powell? A destroyer that was alongside us as we topped off her tanks on an unrep. While we were refueling her, an enemy plane attacked us. We shot it down just before it hit us. Some parts of the plane landed on our deck. The main part and the bomb landed on the fantail of the Powell and destroyed her steering. She sheered to port and there she was right in front of us crossing our bow. The skill of our helmsman, Quartermaster and crew and our prayers kept us from cutting the Powell in two. This was a time when seconds felt like hours. We waited for the sound of a collision and thank God it never came. We missed her by inches. God was looking down on her that day as she would have lost most of her crew. Prayers went a long way in those days, which proved to be days of valor! I remember the time when we landed a TBM. It taxied forward and opened her bomb bay doors for inspection. Only one problem. She was carrying a 500lb. bomb. Her bomb bay doors opened and the bomb dropped out and exploded. It killed all personnel around the plane including the three man crew in it. It was an accident that killed many fine young men and wounded many others. After a while you got to expect people dying in accidents. The Danger continues... I remember another time that a bomb was dropped on us. A Jap plane hit us with a 540lb, bomb. God was with us as it penetrated the steel plate of a 20 mm gun station. The bomb went through the plate and into the water. Leaving a round hole in the plate. It did not explode. God saved our crew once again. The expressions on the faces of the men manning those guns tells it all. I remember covering the USS Franklin with our guns as she lay dead in the water off the coast of Japan. I remember our gunners trying to shoot down the plane as it dove at us. The plane chose the Franklin instead. One bomb landed on her. She burned and burned as her hatches were open. Water and burning gasoline poured into her guts. Ships pulled alongside of her and started taking crewmen off as they abandoned ship. Ships turning their hoses on her to help fight the fires. She was saved but only with the heroic actions of the other ships around her. Many more young men died fighting for our country that day. This incident was the closest the enemy came to sinking an Essex class carrier. I want history to remember that not one Essex class carrier was ever sunk. They were the best we had. In battle we destroyed the Japanese fleets. They could hurt us with their insane Kamikaze attacks, but our will to win and live was much greater than their will to die. We always gave a hundred times more that we received. The Refiners Fire - The Battle for Okinawa We came to Okinawa to take it from the Japanese. It was strategically located in the Island chains making it possible to strike at Japan itself without having to worry that our planes would run out a fuel. We also would have protection for our bombers as they flew over Japan. Our fighter planes could escort the bombers and take care of any planes that would attack them. In a bloody battle we hit the beaches and stormed ashore. Our planes kept the skies clear of enemy planes and supported the ground troops. The cream of American youth bled on those beaches and many of them died. April 7th 1945 seemed like a day like any other during invasion. I was standing smoke watch. The smoke watch station was just about even with the top of the smoke stack. You had to climb up a ladder on the mast to get to it. The station was a small triangular plate with hand rails. You use it to also put on the stack cover when you were in port and were getting power from shore. The boilers were secured and the cover was put on. The stack itself had a hand rail and a small cat walk around it. You would loop your belt around the hand rail as a safety measure. This was just in case you slipped on the little walk while covering or uncovering the stack. Facing aft and the stack, there was a small locker on your right. In it was an inflatable rubber life belt and other small items. Your function on smoke watch was to make sure that the only thing it showed was heat vapors coming out of the stack. Smoke was always a dead giveaway of your position over the horizon. You were connected to the boiler rooms by sound power phones. The stack was sectioned off so that you knew what each boiler was doing at all times. If white smoke appeared from boiler room No. 4 you would call them and tell them white smoke and they would immediately cut back on the air going into that boiler. If black smoke appeared you would notify them and they would have to increase the air supply to that specific boiler. It was a constant thing that went on during your watch. With the sound power phones you had to wear a larger than normal helmet so the phones would fit under it. Death and Destruction makes a close call on Hanna Then the impossible happened, we were under attack! I squatted down, facing aft, looking over my right shoulder at the Plane that was attacking us. He came through a wall of exploding steel as the 20mm and 40mm kept shooting at it. He dropped his bomb and I was knocked to the plate under me. The plane went down the flight deck and plowed into our planes that were sitting on the aft section. The ensuing fires were very bad. Black smoke covered us completely. Because my watch was on top of the stack I always wore my Kapok life jacket. The smoke was so bad that I thought of jumping into water. It was about a 90 foot jump. There were two 40 mm gun Quad's below on the side of the ship. So I said to myself, "make sure that you clear them." I sure didn't want to land on steel plates. I had lost my helmet and sound power phones. Then I thought I should put on the rubber life belt as I might need it if I were in the water for an extended period of time. In order to put it on I had to open my vest. As I did so it came apart in my hands as the back of it was torn off by shrapnel and concussion. I looked at the two pieces in my hands and all thoughts of jumping were gone. I climbed down the ladder to the flight deck. We had started making high-speed turns in order to dump our burning planes and gasoline over the side. Dead and wounded were scattered about the deck. I will never forget Father Doyle. With tears in his eyes he tried to give Last Rites to the dying. He could not get to them all. He was not the only one crying at that time. All of us had tears in our eyes and our hearts were broken. So many men lost. So many friends gone. The bomb blew a lot of the forward port side gunners into the sea and they were in the water as we made our high-speed turns. They were eventually listed as missing in action. With great effort the fires were under control and put out in about one-hours time. This was the way I lived my life until the end of the war. The rest of my Navy Life Story is listed in on the Oral Histories Site. Please visit it. Life goes on I met and married my wife on December 18th 1955 . For me she was the only Brazilian bombshell I wanted. She was born in Rio de Janeiro Brazil. We had five great children. We now have six beautiful grandchildren. They have become the largest part of our lives. If grandparents cannot spoil them then who can? Epilog To sum all of this up, I want to say that America is still the greatest country in the world. This is, despite what our stupid leaders in Washington do to destroy it. We are on the brink of World War 3. This is something that the idiots in Washington just might want. They may be under the assumption that they can stay in office if they start the Third World war. This country is still worth fighting for and will always be so. But we need leaders who know what we HAVE to fight for. It sure is not to stop a Civil War in a foreign country that has been going on for a thousand years. Nor is it to be peacekeepers in some island nation. We cannot be the police force of the world. I understand that we have troops scattered about the world in about a hundred thirty nations. This has got to stop. Our ships are undermanned and their crews overworked and under great stress. The Army is, as I said, scattered around the world. If this sexual expert that we have in the White House could only define the needs of the country a hell of a lot better than he defines sexual intercourse it would be a different story. His evasion of the draft and his refusal to serve our country was his first strike. His second strike was protesting the Vietnam War. His right to protest cannot be denied but it should be done here in the United States. You do not go to foreign nations like Norway and Russia to protest our involvement. This is giving aid and comfort to our enemy. American soldiers were dying and he was giving our opponents a great reason to continue fighting. This to me is treason but no one dare call it treason. His third strike was in lying under oath and committing perjury. We're not speaking of a Mafia gangster here we're speaking of the highest office in the LAND. We have become a laughing stock to all other nations in the world and the way that they deal with us proves this point. I'm sure that if his name were Hitler he would act no differently. In the game of life, as in baseball, three strikes and you're out. I can only pray that the good Lord gives the American people enough sense to vote that entire group of drunken drivers out of office. Thank you for taking time to read this. I tried to keep this as factual as possible. My greatest fears are that my children, but more so, my grandchildren, will be fighting a war against our own technology. May God protect the United States of America and all the brave men and women who serve in the military. Once again thank you. I.D. 'Inny' Cerbini, F2c, USNR - Retired (c) June 22, 1999 - All Rights Reserved None of the proceeding maybe copied, printed or used in anyway without the express permission of the author. Please send Me E-Mail