Oral History Interview with Al Hiegel, September 18, 2005 Page: 13

                                
historian for the reunion group and I have these boys' names and I've contacted many of
their families and sent them copies of the stories about this and all that stuff.
MR. SMITH: Tell a little bit about the reunion groups, you meet annually?
MR. HIEGEL: Now we meet annually and this next October we will meet in Kansas
City and I think we have about eighty still attend the reunion group.
MR. SMITH: You will meet in Kansas City and about 80 fellows show up.
MR. HIEGEL: Yep, that's right.
MR. SMITH: It gets smaller every year.
MR. HIEGEL: Smaller every year. I think about up to the battle of Okinawa here I came
aboard in Hawaii, of course, and went to Ulithi and joined the fleet there. They have a
large harbor at Ulithi and Task Force 58.3.4.5, I think it was, all gathered there. It was
after the battle of Iwo Jima and we went to the battle of Okinawa then with that fast
carrier fleet.
MR. SMITH: Who was the admiral in charge, do you recall?
MR. HIEGEL: Admiral Halsey. I was lucky enough to be aboard the only carrier that
did not get hit at Okinawa. We got a boy or two killed from friendly fire. The other
ships shooting at the Japanese kamikaze on down and the flack killed a boy on our own
ship. They dove in the water all around us but never did really hit the ship. And, of

course, most of the time I'd be on the radar shed or I was in a firefighting party. You
could hear those 40mms going off and when the 20s started popping you knew it was
time to hide. I'll get into that in a little bit but...
MR. SMITH: Let me ask a question. Did your ship pick some of the survivors of the
ships that were hit by kamikaze?

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