No atheists on deck

I was on the battleship Texas, BB35, when we hit Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Toward the end of the war, we were headed for Japan and we were just a few days out when they dropped the A-bomb. We might not be here if it wasn't for that.
At Iwo Jima, there were so many dead that they were cremating bodies. We were a mile or two off shore, and we could smell it clear out there.
I remember two boys, maybe 19 or 20 years old, on our ship and I asked them if they were going to church services that day. "Oh, no, we're atheists," they said. During the battle, a kamikaze plane was headed for our ship and I saw those boys on their knees asking God to save them.
A U.S. plane from a carrier came through the fire that was coming from our ship and took the Japanese plane down.
After VJ Day we made a couple of trips bringing Marines and soldiers home to California. On the first trip there were other ships waiting to greet us and everybody was taking pictures. It was quite a tribute.
CLARENCE L. WRAY
Brookfield