"The Elsie Item" - USS Landing Craft Infantry National Association

and made LCI 23 seaworthy again. I was assigned to work withthe SeaBees on this job.Also, Rendova, contrary to the photo caption, lies in the Solomonchain of islands about 100 miles NW ofGuadalcanal and not inNew Guinea.Despite having had his "Gyro Compass: knocked out, our Skipperfound his way back to Tulagi after dark without incident.Respectfully submittedw. C. Stark, SrPalmyra WIRuss Hayden, Venice, FL, wants to make sure he 50 listed on theright ship - and that we keep him in the Navy instead ofshiftinghim over to the Coast Guard ..... It appears that the December issue of Elsie Item has made atypo error and placed me on the 83, a Coast Guard LCI. I wouldvery much appreciate it if a correction could be made in yournext issue so that I can possibly get in touch with some old shipmatesfrom the LCI (G) 82.Russ Hayden, SMlc, USS LCI(G) 82And, finally, John L. Dobreff, LCI 493, of Westland MI, telephonedto make a correction on the caption under the photo,page 8, Issue 39 (December, 2001) showing the presentation ofthe model to the Calvert Marine Museum, Solomons, MD. Theship was incorrectly identified as the 493 and should have beenthe 497."Now it Can be Told" ­LCI (R) 765 Takes on a Jap Destroyer This is truly one of the most intriguing stories of LCIs I haveever come across. We are indebted again to Hank Henderson,LCI(R) 765for this story which,for obvious reasons, never foundits way into the official records.There is quite a personal story on this clipping. When I wasgrowing up, Billy was one of my mentors - one of my favorites.He was one ofthe oldest boys in my Dad's Boy Scout troop. Allthe way through Billy was an outstanding person and like anolder brother to me.When I received the letter from my Dad with that clipping in it, Iwas the PhM on the USS LCI(R) 765. We were working out ofOkinawa. At the time we were hauling supplies to the Destroyersand Destroyer Escorts on the picket line just south of Japan.They were the most exposed people in the world - trying to keepthe Japanese Navy and Air Force off our backs or at least let usknow when they were coming. Those boys really took a beating.We picked up a full load ofgroceries, ammo and mail and headednorth from Kerama Rhetto. We had also received a bag of mailfor our crew. We had been underway for quite some time - almostoff the southern end of Japan - when we finally got time todistribute the mail to our crew. The first letter I opened was theone from Dad with the news of Billy's death over the "Hump".He was flying a C-47 - the old Goonie Bird work horse - fromIndia to China over the Himalayan Mountains. That is one ofthe worst flight paths in the world - or at least it was for the oldlow and slow Goonies. Today, at 35,000 feet in ajet at 600 mph,no problem. Billy's wing man followed him down and therewere no parachutes! No one knows why they rode her downinstead ofjumping. Either way, there was little hope of rescuewhen you went down in that part of the world.I read that and sort of blew my stack, I guess. I had lost manyfriends during the war, but this was too close to home. With theletter in my hand I went storming up to the bridge, faced theCaptain, and demanded to be transferred immediately to a forwardarea. Right then I would have taken on the whole Japanesenation bare handed.Anyway, the Captain looked at me with a stunned expression onhis face.Finally he said,"A forward area? You want I should drop you off at the Emperor'spalace? We have nothing more "forward" than we are right now!There is nothing between us and Japan except the Japanese Navy- or what is left ofit! You surely don't want to transfer to the JapNavy!"Going through one ofmy albums, I came across an original newspaper clipping reporting the death of W. E. "Billy" Carroll inMarch of 1945.He noticed the letter in my hand. He took the letter, read it,handed it back to me and said,"I understand, Doc. We are there, so just hang tight."12