SPECIAL DISPATCH TO NEW YORK TIMES:
' CUSSED ' LCI SAVES FIFTY FROM DROWNING
BY ROBERT TRUMBULL
( COPYRIGHT BY NEW YORK TIMES )
ABOARD AN LCI, KWAJALEIN SOUTH PACIFIC FEBRUARY 4, 1944 (LCI (G) 450) Navy men on the big sleek warships refer to an LCI ( Landing Craft Infantry ) as " A Barge With A House On It ." These ugly ducklings of the navy are seldom noticed except to be cussed or good naturedly derided, and they do a ticklish job under fire with scant credit.
This one happened to have saved 50 men from drowning in the furious white water that pounded the sharp coral ledge around Ennubirr island, during the marine landings there January 31, 1944. These 157-foot craft are designed to snub against a beach and debark assault troops down a ramp. Sometimes, instead of bringing in troops, they are gunboats who knock out enemy positions on the beach. That's what this one was doing that morning, when a strong current pushed her onto the reef.
A battleship was bombarding the island, the shells whistling above the LCI. In the roar of the gunfire Lt. (jg) Thomas F. Kennedy, Jr., Bryn Mawr, Penn., who has been Captain of this humble ship since she was commissioned at Barber, N.J., couldn't hear the racket of his vessel going aground. The situation was humiliating, Kennedy thought, but he didn't have time to worry about it then, for four Alligators ( troop-carrying amphibious tractors ) were capsizing on the reefs 500 yards astern.
MEN EXHAUSTED
The men struggling in the water were near exhaustion, and some had been struck by the Alligators in the wave behind them. Dr. R. B. Hardy, marine surgeon, once was pinned under an Alligators, but he was a powerful man--a former All American football player at Harvard -- and managed to break free. Lt. D. N. Boydston was near drowning, later he said that as he was battered under the waves, he seemed to see a picture of his wife.
The LCI threw a line to Dr. Hardy, P. S. Layser, J. R. Boltuc and A. J. Tiedway, the four strongest swimmers among the overturned marines--in fact, the only ones who were not too beaten by the waves to swim. The line was hurled from the LCI's fantail, and the four marines fought with it through the surf to a reef buoy, where they tied the end after losing the line several times on the way.
Now it developed that the wash of the ship was strong enough to break the hold of the other castaways on the line, so Kennedy brought out two more stout ropes, which Layser and Tiedway held in their powerful hands so as to form a square around the outside of the viciously tugging current. By this route all of the stranded men were brought aboard, three of them so exhausted that they had to be carried by Boltuc.
INSTALLS HOSPITAL
Meanwhile Hardy remained aboard the LCI and set up a hospital in the radio room, with Pharmacist's Mate 1/c Sydney Baumber of Boston. All of the marines were aboard by 1 P.M. After a continuous two hour battle with the sea, two of them were dead. Kennedy was about to order his lines hauled in for he needed them, when two more Alligators commanded by a Lieutenant Montgomery also capsized on the reef. Three men drowned immediately, and Ensign O. J. Banasik had taken so much salt water aboard that he had to be worked over for three hours before he revived. In all, 50 men were saved.
Hardy and Baumber stripped them all and had them lie on the LCI's broad fantail for examination. Some of them had serious coral cuts of which they were unaware, and the Doctor worked over these. Meanwhile the bombardment of the islands continued.
CREW SHARES
Kennedy put the sickest cases, including Boydston and Banasik on cots in the mess hall. The LCI crew broke out all of the ship's cigarettes and gave their guests dry clothes and ammunition for the weapons they had salvaged. Two days later Kennedy put the 50 men in small boats with a supply of food and landed them on Ennuebing.
Kennedy had time then to talk the matter over with his subordinate officers- Ensign Gerald Conners, of Toledo, Executive Officer ; Lt. (jg) Robert Main, of Middletown, Oh. Engineer ; and Ensign Wallace Brady of Bancroft, Wis. Young Kennedy was not at all impressed by the fact that he had saved 50 men to fight another day. Instead he was extremely downcast because going on the reef had prevented his fulfilling his mission of shooting up Ennubirr beach. " I hope," he said ruefully this morning in his tiny, spotless wardroom, " that we get a chance to redeem ourselves."
(Note from Vaughn Hampton : We were towed back to Pearl because we had chewed up our props and had cut gashes in our keel. We were repaired to fight again.)