Sincerest gratitude to Mr. Herb Brady,
who read my tribute to my father on the Seabee web site and contacted me. Mr. Brady joined
the 79th Ballalion, Headquarters Company after they returned from the Aleutians and
continued on with the 79th to Saipan and Okinawa. Mr. Brady knew my father and unselfishly
wrote this letter to me on 10 January 1998 of their wartime duty on Saipan:
"Hello Ms. J. Winter,
I will start with our looking at a long finger dock, built in part by the Japanese. They
used it for supplying their troops stationed on Saipan and the small air strip on the
south end of the Island. Fighter aircraft and medium bombers were used against our ships
sailing north from New Guinea to the Phillipines. We called the Fighter aircraft (Zero).
The medium bombers (twin-engine Bettys) Our marines and army troops secured the island in
about four weeks, but there were pockets of fighting taking place when we landed. There
were many Japanese still hiding in the hills, but not organized to do any serious damage.
The area just below the old volcano was where the 79th Seabess were located on the south
west side of the Island. As we built roads and airstrips for our B-29 bombers, we often
came under sniper fire and mortar attacks. In a few hours we would take some P.O.W. and
killed those that resisted. The last air raid happened the day we docked. As the air raid
alarm sounded the aircraft batteries had opened up and the incoming aircraft. As I
remember, there were three medium bombers that were knocked down by the aircraft gunners,
but not before they had bombed the B-29 strip and had dropped some bombs in the harbor
where we were docked. As I remember no ships were hit, but had some close calls.
Your Father was on the LST convoy which landed on Saipan about a week before I did as we
stopped in the Marshall Islands about a week unloading mail and taking on mail for the
troops on Saipan. The group your father was in had most of the area tents set-up for 1,000
men, four men to a tent. The tent I lived in can be seen in the photo taken of the church
service you sent to me. We began training for the work we would be involved in when we
invaded Okinawa.
The Island was littered with military equipment- American and Japanese: trucks, tanks,
cars, aircraft. There were scars from the battles which were fought--cocanut trees were
shreaded, most of them cut off by the shelling from battle ships and heavy cruisers.
Blades of grass torn off from the explosions, large areas where groups of people and gun
emplacements were blackened from naphen bombs. These are large bombs made by mixing high
octain gas with a gel base making a sticky goop, which exploded on impact into a large
fire ball sticking to and burning everything. One bomb could cover an area about 50 feet
wide by 200 or 300 feet long. This bomb would burn away green vegetation and kill all
troops caught in the fire ball.
In the three months of training at Camp Parks, California on the firing range, I became an
expert rifleman. I was assigned to a machine gun group as second gunner. In the picture of
the church service, the mountain to the left in the shadow of this hill I have many
memories. We had our supply depot which I worked in wotj several others. I can remember
who they were Our water purification plant was just above the supply depot at the base of
the lower end of the mountain. You have a snap shot of me in those photographs of your
Dad's. Another guy and myself sitting on a bench just across the road from the supply
depot. I was being trained on field stripping a 30 caliber water-cooled machine gun
blind-folded. This mountain was a volcano many years ago. The white spots you can see
in the photograph, were caused by the shelling by ships. During the invasion, there was a
shelf like a road that runs about half-way up the side of the volcano tube. There were
hundreds of caves in this mountain, some natural many dug by the Japanese. We patrolled
this area with army engineers and two other seabee units. Japanes were still being killed
and those that would surrender taken as P.o.W.s. Six Japanese were killed in a half-hour
fight which we watched from our camp and burried just at the foot of the mountain. I don't
remember if it was one of our patrols, or the army engineers. There is a picture in your
Dad's pictures of them. There were many of these clean-up fights fought by our people of
the 79th. The Seabees were people that fit the slogan by which they were known (CAN DO) We
would strip lumber from the abandoned homes and make windmill washing machines, chairs to
sit on at the movies. Parts of the movie screen was from these materials. Just before we
were to hit Okinawa we were at the movie. There was an air raid alarm. We were told they
were expecting a large raid on thirteen B-29 Bases. That intelligence had information of a
large Japanese paratroop attack was on its way. They did not hit us, but hit the
Phillipines at Leyte in the shadow of this mountain.
Some things happened (mail time). I had no girl friend, like so many of the guys did. Just
enjoyed a letter from Mom. Every few months she sent more small packages of cookies and
hard candy like Christmas Candy. We played softball just below the foot of the mountain.
There was an island south of Saipan where some of our group worked to build an airstrip.
The Island was called Tennian. Several B-29 would practice landings and take offs for
weeks. One of the airplanes was "The Enola Gay" that dropped the atom bomb on
Japan.
My life from Saipan to Okinawa to Japan to Hanford, Washington. I was within 200 airmiles
of the first atomic blast on Japan. The nuclear bomb. I have lived in its shadow most of
my life, beginning with the old volcano tube on Saipan.
Jeanne, I appreciate very much hearing of your family and of your grandchildren.
Hope you had a good Christmas and Happy New Year. There are so many things that happened
each day on Saipan. There were good times, bad times, horrible times and times you just
don't want to remember. All this could happen in one day.
Will write you about the days just before and the invasion of Okinawa in my next letter.
Sincerely,
Herb Brady"