Pacifica Military History Free Sample Chapters.pmd

334 Pacifica Military History
starboard side of the ship. One of San Francisco’s 8-inch rounds
detonated nearby as Dodd opened the hatch. Its blast jarred the steel
ladder running through the compartment from the bulkhead. The heavy
ladder fell on the fearful mess attendant, crushing his helmet and his
skull.
*
RM3 Ray Duke, a member of a repair party stationed topside in a
passageway just forward of the radio transmission room, was in the act
of cutting loose a fire extinguisher from an outside bulkhead when he
was struck by shrapnel in the right knee. The force of the impact, which
shattered the knee, threw Duke and the heavy TBS transceiver he was
backpacking headfirst down an 11-foot ladder. Duke landed on his head
and shoulders but was saved by his steel helmet, which took most of the
impact when he landed. The nearby 1.1-inch ammunition handling room
was on fire, and the area was filled with smoke. Slightly dazed and in
need of fresh air, RM3 Duke staggered into the open on the unengaged
starboard side and breathed deeply to regain his composure. His ordeal
had only just begun.
His lungs filled with fresh air, Duke hobbled into the burning and
smoking 1.1-inch handling room to see if he could help there. He
immediately found a friend who was lying in the middle of the ruin with
his right leg shot off at the knee. Duke offered to fetch the other man
some morphine and staggered down to the next deck to find a boatswain’s
mate he knew was authorized to carry the nar-cotic. However, as soon
as Duke asked for morphine, the boat-swain’s mate jabbed him with a
full syrette and made him lie down on the deck. Duke tried to protest,
but he was groggy from shock and smoke inhalation and never quite got
the words out. No sooner was Duke on the deck than the adjacent pay
office took a direct hit. The beam from the large flashlight he still carried
revealed a hole in the bulkhead about half the size of a basketball.
Shrapnel from the blast went right between Duke’s legs, ripping off a
large chunk of flesh from his left thigh right above the knee and severing
the femoral artery. Blood was pulsing from the wound in spurts that
appeared as thick as his wrist. Another piece of shrapnel slid be-tween
Duke and the steel deck and sliced open the back of his right thigh from