By Carroll R. Bierbower
I joined the Navy on May 20 1943 just before I was to be 18 years old. I was sent to the US Navy boot camp in San Diego California. From there I went to Electricians school also in San Diego. In December I was then assigned to the not yet finished USS Comfort AH6 as communications electrician. I became one of the communication electricians and movie operator.
Construction on the ship was completed, and on May 5, 1944 the USS Comfort was commissioned. After a short shake down cruse we left San Pedro California for Brisbane Australia. This was a 21-day voyage. Three days out of Brisbane we hit a typhoon, this was some experience, the ocean waves looked like mountains. The ship appeared to be no more than a cork bobbling in the ocean.
From Brisbane we were sent to Hollandia, New Guinea where the ship operated this area for a brief time.
Then we went back to Brisbane and picked up a load of battle ready soldiers and took them to New Guinea. Then we were sent to a secret rendezvous to support the Philippine invasion. When arrived to this point an unidentified aircraft dropped three bombs but they all missed. We then steamed to another rendezvous escorted by a destroyer. We then sailed to the Island of Leyte shortly after the invasion, and loaded patients and took them to Hollandia. We disembarked these patients and loaded with more patients, sailed to San Pedro California.
We then went back to Layte, and then to Hollandia and from there we sailed to Subic Bay and on to the Lingayen Gulf. Here we found ourselves in one of the most furious battles that I ever witnessed. One man on board received an antiaircraft bullet in his leg. No one else on the ship was wounded. From this point we sailed to Ulithi, the staging area for the invasion of Okinawa.
We arrived at Okinawa on April 2, 1945, the following day after the invasion. We waited for six days for enough wounded to make up a load. While we were still loading patients, one of our own planes from the carrier USS Enterprise dropped three bombs near us but no damage was done. When loaded, we set sail for Guan in the late afternoon just before dusk. We were in our regular routine that evening and I went to the telephone room for privacy to write a letter to my girl friend.
I was there for a short time when I received a call from the electric shop saying they needed me to make up enough for a poker game. I was reluctant to go but they persuaded me and I joined them in the game. I had been there but about 15 minutes when we heard a big boom that really shook the ship. We were three decks down and below the water line, so we knew we should go up to the main deck.
When we came to the door to the main deck it was jammed and the ship started to list to the starboard. We really thought the ship was sinking and we thought we were goners. We only got the door open with help from someone outside. When we got out and to the main deck we found out that we were hit with a Japanese suicide plane.
I saw people severely burned and maimed crying out, “Give me some morphine I’m dying.” The plane hit at mid ship where the surgery room was and through the telephone room, which was on the deck below. This telephone room, from which I had been called, was completely demolished. Had I still been there I would have been killed instantly. This may sound odd, but I thank God for that poker game.
One man was on the operating table and anesthetized for surgery when the plane hit. He was blown through the window and out on the main deck. When he revived he asked, “Where am I and what happened?” He was not seriously injured. I was called to cut the electrical wires that were sparking to make it safe for the medical personal to remove the dead and wounded and to remove the scattered human body parts.
The ship’s remote steering system from the bridge was knocked out so it had to be steered manually from the stern. The plane went through 3 decks and made a large bulge in the deck only inches from the main steam line that fed the turbines. The main steam line being in tack, the ship could still go under its own power. ‘Tokyo Rose’ announced on the radio that the Comfort had been hit, and they yet intended to sink the ship. We were given a destroyer escort to Guam where temporary repairs were made and we disembarked the patients and proceeded on to San Pedro California for major repairs. Incidentally while the ship was being repaired is when I married my girlfriend. That was July 5, 1945. This coming July, we plan to celebrate our 58th anniversary. I was also blessed in that my home was in Downey only about 25 miles from San Pedro, so I could go home every time we returned to our homeport.
Carroll R. Bierbower EM2/c then, and now an ordained minister with a DD and a PhD.
Published U.S. Legacies May 2003
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