I was stationed on a mine sweeper, AMS 235, SS Fixity, ridding the shores of Okinawa, Japan's Yellow Sea of mines. After the war our ship was ordered to Tokyo harbor to pick up 4 Japanese Naval Officers to have them show us on charts where the mines were located. Imagine, a few days earlier, we were fighting against these same individuals as our enemy, now they were assisting us. Another time of interest was when our ship was on duty off of Okinawa and the battle for this island was waging. Suddenly, there was a Japanese plane headed for out ship on a Kamikaze mission. I was on station as a lookout at mid-ship, and the plane was so close, I had direct eye contact with the pilot before he crashed into the sea. I had two brothers, one (James) served aboard the heavy cruiser USS San Francisco and the other was on the USS Bunker Hill (a carrier) that sunk during the war. Both of my brothers survived. Lastly I came very close to being stationed on the light cruiser USS Juneau. This was the ship that the 5 Sullivan brothers were lost as a result of a Japanese submarine.