The Watcher
New Member
Nice epic story!
BATTLE OF LEYTE GULF
WWII vet recalls an epic naval combat
World War II vet, wowed by Navy's new technology, remembers surviving history's last major naval engagement, the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
MELBOURNE - So many things have changed since Tom Stevenson left the Navy after the Korean War, he can barely comprehend it.
When the World War II veteran attended a reunion in San Diego several years ago aboard the LSD-52 USS Pearl Harbor, for instance, he was astonished to learn that its crew of 1,000 included some 400 women. 'I asked the captain, `Do you have any problems?' and he said, 'You name it, I've got it.' ''
Now 82 and long since retired to his winter home in Brevard County, Stevenson is a survivor of history's last great naval battle, when opposing ships drew within visual range and pounded each other with deck guns. Well chronicled in military archives as the death knell of the Japanese navy, the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944 was regarded as an epic even before the cannons cooled.
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BATTLE OF LEYTE GULF
WWII vet recalls an epic naval combat
World War II vet, wowed by Navy's new technology, remembers surviving history's last major naval engagement, the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
MELBOURNE - So many things have changed since Tom Stevenson left the Navy after the Korean War, he can barely comprehend it.
When the World War II veteran attended a reunion in San Diego several years ago aboard the LSD-52 USS Pearl Harbor, for instance, he was astonished to learn that its crew of 1,000 included some 400 women. 'I asked the captain, `Do you have any problems?' and he said, 'You name it, I've got it.' ''
Now 82 and long since retired to his winter home in Brevard County, Stevenson is a survivor of history's last great naval battle, when opposing ships drew within visual range and pounded each other with deck guns. Well chronicled in military archives as the death knell of the Japanese navy, the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944 was regarded as an epic even before the cannons cooled.
Read the Full Piece
