Roy M. Pearson
Era: World War II
Military Branch: Navy
Roy M. Pearson of Cook, Minnesota, entered the Navy on July 28, 1944. He was a Water Tender 3rd Class, working in the boiler room of the USS Colbert (APA 145) during the Okinawa campaign.
He says: "There were 40 Jap air raids while we were there. We anchored next to the battleship USS Missouri, which was shelling the beach. We took on survivors of the USS Porter, a destroyer which was sunk near our ships by a Jap suicide plane. The plane was headed for our ship but decided on the Porter instead. On September 17, our ship hit a floating mine during a typhoon and blew a hole 25-feet by 20-feet on the port side and flooded the engine room. Two of my shipmates were killed just after I had talked to them....A total of four guys were killed on our ship.
"As I was looking over the side of the ship without a life jacket, I was thinking our ship was sinking slowly. We were then towed into Okinawa. While anchored there, we got involved in one of the worst typhoons, up to 132 mile-an-hour winds. From there we were towed to Guam to have a patch put over the hole in the side of the ship. We were then towed to San Francisco by a tugboat. The fastest we went was 4 1/2 miles an hour. The trip took almost 4 1/2 weeks."
Mr. Pearson was awarded the: Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Service Medal with a bronze battle star, and the World War II Victory Medal.
He was discharged on June 5, 1946.
Source: Hometown Heroes: The St. Louis County World War II Project. 242.
