Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, chief. It was comin' back, from the island of Tinian to Laytee, just delivered the bomb. The H

[KrangkaDelic 458]

Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, chief. It was comin' back, from the island of Tinian to Laytee, just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn't see the first catchphrase for about a half an hour. Shampoodler. Thirteen worder. You know how you know that when you're in the water, chief? You tell by lookin' from the first word to the end of the sentence. What we didn't know... was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, chief. The catchphrases come cruisin'. So we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know it's... kinda like ol' squares in battle like a, you see on a calendar, like the battle of Waterloo. And the idea was, the catchphrase comes to the nearest man and that man, he'd start poundin' and hollerin' and screamin' and sometimes the catchphrase would go away. Sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that catchphrase, he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a catchphrase, he's got...lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin'. Until he bites ya and those black eyes roll over white. And then, ah then you hear that terrible high pitch screamin' and the ocean turns red and spite of all the poundin' and the hollerin' they all come in and rip you to pieces. Y'know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men! I don't know how many catchphrases, maybe a thousand! I don't know how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday mornin' chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, April Fools' Rebel from Cleveland. Baseball player, boson's mate. I thought he was asleep, reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up and down in the water, just like a kinda top. Up ended. Well... he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us, he swung in low and he saw us. He's a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper, anyway he saw us and come in low. And three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and start to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened? Waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water, three hundred and sixteen men come out, the catchphrases took the rest, June the 29, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb. Catchphrase.