On the 6th of August, 1945, Ensign Hartung reported to me
that he had heard a news broadcast over the wardroom short wave radio saying
that a new powerful bomb had been exploded over the Japanese city of Hiroshima
and that President Truman had issued an ultimatum to the Japanese to surrender
or experience “a rain of destruction such as the world has never known.” Ensign Hartung literally lived by the
wardroom radio during the next few days and kept me advised of the bombing of
Nagasaki and the Japanese surrender. On the day of the surrender I ordered that two cans of beer
per man be served in the mess hall and opened a bottle of medicinal whiskey in
the wardroom to drink a toast to victory.
Normally the beer was kept under lock and key and taken ashore for
picnics on atolls. Drinking on board
ship was forbidden by Navy regulations, but I felt that the occasion warranted
bending the rules.
Then a personal note regarding my Father and his best fried:
From the crew perspective the end was a bit more
enthusiastically received. Carlson recalls:“THE WAR WAS OVER! Terry McGarty, a fire control man and myself were sitting
together on deck when we heard the news and both of us cried like babies. So
what, we, before long, would be with our loved ones. We had been planning to
invade the islands of the Japanese because we had now became a part of the 12th
Fleet.
More than likely the second bomb saved his and many other lives. One always looks back in history and tries to understand how best to handle the slaughter of the innocents in today's world.
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