Gunboat Navigator Felt 10 Feet Tall and "Bullet-proof"
John Hart • Le Mars, Iowa • Quartermaster 3rd Class, U.S. Navy. John holds the Flag that flew on U.S.S. LCS (L) (3) 92 from 1944 to 1946.
Don Doll, S.J. photo • Story by Tim Gallagher
John Hart barely made the grade at old Central High in Le Mars, Iowa. "I was a poor student," says the 1943 graduate. "The Navy dragged it out of me."
John almost didn't join the Navy. The Marines offered the quickest route to combat in World War II. He wanted to battle the Japanese - and now!
"But the day I went to enlist, the Marine recruiting office was closed," says John, 83. "I went across the hall and enlisted in the Navy."
It was 1944; John was 19. In a year he would find himself navigating a ship under heavy enemy fire as war raged in the Pacific.
After training in Idaho, John took a 16-week navigational course. He was then sent to Virginia for additional training and eventually back to Portland, Oregon, to get his ship, which was built in 34 days. The U.S.S. LCS (L) (3) 92, one of 130 ships labeled "Landing Craft, Support," left the U.S. on March 3, 1945, bound for Pearl Harbor. The gunboat measured 153 feet by 21 feet and carried 71 soldiers, including six officers.
"Half the time we slept in the con, which is the top of the ship," says John.
These boats, called "Mighty Midgets," offered support to the giants of the sea, like the USS Missouri and the USS Iowa. John remembers "laying smoke" for the big battleships, shielding them from Japanese kamikazes, allowing them to bomb their targets from miles offshore. "We carried guns, not troops," says John who plotted the ship's route. "We had lots of rockets. We also fought fires on the big ships and went to the beaches to provide cover for troops as they landed."
The Naval instructors may have seen something in John his teachers at Le Mars didn't. He followed up his crash course in military navigation with a near perfect plot in going from the Philippines to Japan.
"The first time I did it we landed within eight minutes of my ETA," says John of the trek that took two days.
On May 10, 1945, John and thousands of sailors came under heavy fire near Japan. "There was a helluva lot of stuff going on as the Iowa and Missouri fired over us onto the island to soften them up," he recalls.
Thankfully, his ship was never hit.
"I cannot explain it," he says. "I didn't talk much about it for years. I felt guilty for not getting shot."
His duty aboard the "Mighty Midget" gave him a front row seat to history. His ship was next to the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese surrender was signed on September 2, 1945.
"I was the first man from Le Mars to set foot in Japan."
John returned to the United States in January 1946, ending a full year of duty at sea and having survived three typhoons, months of enemy attack and a battle with dysentery in the Philippines that saw him drop from 200 pounds to 121.
What did he miss about home?
"The food and the freedom. My God, 71 guys on a ship that size? You couldn't turn around without hitting someone."
To this day, he's never stepped aboard a ship. He has attended several reunions of his shipmates. He and his wife Gwen have hosted two reunions. The men range in age from 90 to 81. They've become an extended family.
"I really, really enjoy those reunions," says John. These men from New Hampshire, Maine, North Carolina, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Colorado, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Georgia and Alabama talk about their health, their children and grandchildren. They also reminisce about the year they spent at sea six decades ago.
"I wouldn't want to do it again," says John of his duty. "What person in their right mind would?"
Then he looks at the picture of the fresh-faced 19-year-old smiling from ear to ear.
"I just didn't live in fear back then," he concludes. "I was 10-feet tall and bullet-proof."