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My wife, daughter and I were at a restaurant in Greenville last week. An older couple came in and I noticed the man was wearing a WWII Veteran ball cap. I told the waitress when their check came out, bring it to me. She asked if I wanted to tell him anything. I said yes, don't identify me but tell him thanks for his service and thanks for being there to help save the world.
Checks came, we paid and left. As we were walking along the sidewalk, the waitress ran up and said that the veteran and his wife wanted to meet us. Embarrassed, we walked back in. The man was a Navy vet and didn't speak well, was blind in one eye and deaf in one ear - all due to injuries received while in the Navy. Said he'd been aboard a ship hit by a kamikaze, in a landing craft that was inbound on Iwo Jima when it was hit by a Jap artillery round and killed every man on board but him, after the war was on a carrier and was run over by a tow tractor, had been pronounced dead and put in a body bag and flown to San Diego. For whatever reason a nurse walked by and saw the body bag move. Turns out he wasn't dead at all.
The man's wife told me that the Greenville newspaper had done a story on her husband. I looked it up and thought I'd post it here for July 4th.
This is from newspaper editor Daniel Walker's blog:
Minister Recalls Sharks Bombs Kamikazes During WWII
I have interviewed numerous veterans over the years and taped those conversations; over the next few months I’ll be posting some excerpts from those tapes. The first one is a story of faith and survival.
JD Linsteadt has survived Kamikaze attack, bombs, ship wreck, car wreck; he swam through a shark frenzy, been run over, blinded, paralyzed and even left for dead in a body bag. Through it all he credits his faith in God with bringing him through alive.
He lives in rural Hunt County in northeast Texas near Commerce.
“I guess God wasn’t through with me. I have to credit having parents that prayed for me every day.”
Linsteadt, an ordained minister of the United Pentecostal Church, enlisted in the U.S. Navy at the age of 17 in early 1944 during the height of World War II. “I didn’t wait to be drafted: I wanted to do my part. In August 1944 I went on board the (USS) Nevada at Long Beach.”
The Nevada, with Linsteadt on board, sailed to Hawaii, the Philippines, the Gilbert Islands and then to the Marshall Islands as part of America’s naval campaign to liberate Japanese captured territory.
“I was a lookout on the bridge and in the crow’s nest. I watched for planes, ships and subs. In the Philippines we sailed cities along the coast of Luzon and Mindanao,” Linsteadt recalled. “After that we went to the Marianas to an island called Mog Mog to be refitted for the invasion of Iwo Jima. We restocked food, supplies and ammo.”
The Nevada arrived at Iwo Jima on February 16, 1945. “For 19 days we bombarded them, preparing for invasion,” Linsteadt said. “They transferred me to a troop ship since I was trained in amphibious assault. I was to go in on the third wave, blue beach.”
Linsteadt was designated as a gate operator for an amphibious assault craft. Unarmed, and without a life vest, he said he was unprepared for what happened next.
“We were going in. We were about a thousand yards from the shore when 8-inch Japanese shells opened up on us.” Linsteadt’s craft was hit.
“The shell came straight down and exploded inside the craft,” he said. “As far as I know, of the 32 men aboard, I was the only survivor.”
“The next thing I remember was I was in the water. There were body parts everywhere and the water was blood red,” Linsteadt says with his eyes closed while moving his arms in front of himself: mimicking pushing something out of his way. “ I had to swim through bodies. And through the sharks: they were having a feeding frenzy from the blood. I swam through bodies, arms, torsos… and the sharks, all the way to the beach. Though the sharks didn’t really bother me, they were busy with the dead.”
Linsteadt didn’t come through unscathed. “Thinking about it, I guess that’s when my ears started ringing the first time.” More than 65 years later, Linsteadt says, “I still hear the bells, whistles and crickets in my ears every day.”
His wife Emma Jean interrupts to add the physical effects are not all he still endures. “He has nightmares. He starts kicking like he’s trying to get away from something: and I’ll have to wake him up, “You’re running again.”
Linsteadt reached shore in the midst of the battle, unarmed and without food or water. “It was real bad on the beach. There were dead bodies everywhere and the corpsmen were really working hard. I found a tank that had been knocked out and dug under it. The beach was knee-deep sand so it was easy to dig in, but it was a bad place to be. You’d hear ‘em scream; they’d cry, holler for the corpsmen, ‘medic!’ ‘Water!’ ‘Mother!’ Through it all, I feel like the Lord really helped me,” he recalled.
Linsteadt still has his invasion map of Iwo Jima that he was issued before going into battle. He spreads it out on his kitchen table — it’s yellowed with age and tattered on the edges but still shows the invasion route. “The government wants it, but I earned it and it’s going to stay with my family,” he says.
He points on the map t where he dug in on the beach — then his finger traces a path to where Japanese gunners were holed up on Mount Suribachi. “I’d lay under that tractor and look up at Mount Suribachi and see the shells. I was under that tank when they raised that famous flag — though it really didn’t mean much to me —they were till fighting. I was under there for three days and nights when finally a landing craft came in, I saw my opportunity. I ran out on the beach and got in it and went back to the Nevada.”
The Nevada sailed to the island of ulithi where the sailors were granted shore leave as the ship was refitted for the invasion of Okinawa.
“We go shore leave. They gave us three warm beers; since I didn’t drink, I got on a stump and auctioned mine off. With the money I went and bought my first wristwatch,” he said.
“We got our orders to go to Okinawa. We begin to shell on March 26: I’m at the bridge.
“We had field glasses, looking at everything. Lots of times they’d drive iron pilings in the water to keep you from the beach. That lasted 89 days — we shelled it around the east coast. Naha was the capitol — and we destroyed it.
“We were hit four times by shore batteries. They (the hits) were all above the water line, but the whole ship shook when one hit. It would rock back and forth.”
Linsteadt was again moved to the amphibious assault force and was assigned to land the 7th Infantry at Hagushi. “We landed the army on the beach; there were no casualties.”
The Army and Marines advanced to the north end of the island with small conflicts. Then the troops hit the “Shuri” line. That was when, Linsteadt said, the battle got hot.
“They began to send Kamikazes (suicide planes) at us: 300 of them came in one wave. I’m on the bridge when ‘general quarters’ sounded: My general quarters station is turret 3,” Linsteadt explained. “What happened was a Japanese plane, carrying a 500-pound bomb was coming at us. I left the bridge (heading for turret 3). As I went down the ladder, the ship went into a hard port turn. The plane missed the bridge and hit the starboard afterdeck. It blew me 10 feet, up against the smoke stack — from that I’m rated deaf in my right ear and blind in my left eye. It took me a few moments to figure out what happened and where I was at. Shrapnel had penetrated my clothes and I bloody spots all over my body. There were 11 killed and 41 wounded. I went on to turret 3. When I got down here, the lieutenant asked a corpsman to look at me and he said I was able to help so they asked me to help with the wounded. I still feel the pain in my body from that everyday.”
Continued in 2nd post...
Checks came, we paid and left. As we were walking along the sidewalk, the waitress ran up and said that the veteran and his wife wanted to meet us. Embarrassed, we walked back in. The man was a Navy vet and didn't speak well, was blind in one eye and deaf in one ear - all due to injuries received while in the Navy. Said he'd been aboard a ship hit by a kamikaze, in a landing craft that was inbound on Iwo Jima when it was hit by a Jap artillery round and killed every man on board but him, after the war was on a carrier and was run over by a tow tractor, had been pronounced dead and put in a body bag and flown to San Diego. For whatever reason a nurse walked by and saw the body bag move. Turns out he wasn't dead at all.
The man's wife told me that the Greenville newspaper had done a story on her husband. I looked it up and thought I'd post it here for July 4th.
This is from newspaper editor Daniel Walker's blog:
Minister Recalls Sharks Bombs Kamikazes During WWII
I have interviewed numerous veterans over the years and taped those conversations; over the next few months I’ll be posting some excerpts from those tapes. The first one is a story of faith and survival.
JD Linsteadt has survived Kamikaze attack, bombs, ship wreck, car wreck; he swam through a shark frenzy, been run over, blinded, paralyzed and even left for dead in a body bag. Through it all he credits his faith in God with bringing him through alive.
He lives in rural Hunt County in northeast Texas near Commerce.
“I guess God wasn’t through with me. I have to credit having parents that prayed for me every day.”
Linsteadt, an ordained minister of the United Pentecostal Church, enlisted in the U.S. Navy at the age of 17 in early 1944 during the height of World War II. “I didn’t wait to be drafted: I wanted to do my part. In August 1944 I went on board the (USS) Nevada at Long Beach.”
The Nevada, with Linsteadt on board, sailed to Hawaii, the Philippines, the Gilbert Islands and then to the Marshall Islands as part of America’s naval campaign to liberate Japanese captured territory.
“I was a lookout on the bridge and in the crow’s nest. I watched for planes, ships and subs. In the Philippines we sailed cities along the coast of Luzon and Mindanao,” Linsteadt recalled. “After that we went to the Marianas to an island called Mog Mog to be refitted for the invasion of Iwo Jima. We restocked food, supplies and ammo.”
The Nevada arrived at Iwo Jima on February 16, 1945. “For 19 days we bombarded them, preparing for invasion,” Linsteadt said. “They transferred me to a troop ship since I was trained in amphibious assault. I was to go in on the third wave, blue beach.”
Linsteadt was designated as a gate operator for an amphibious assault craft. Unarmed, and without a life vest, he said he was unprepared for what happened next.
“We were going in. We were about a thousand yards from the shore when 8-inch Japanese shells opened up on us.” Linsteadt’s craft was hit.
“The shell came straight down and exploded inside the craft,” he said. “As far as I know, of the 32 men aboard, I was the only survivor.”
“The next thing I remember was I was in the water. There were body parts everywhere and the water was blood red,” Linsteadt says with his eyes closed while moving his arms in front of himself: mimicking pushing something out of his way. “ I had to swim through bodies. And through the sharks: they were having a feeding frenzy from the blood. I swam through bodies, arms, torsos… and the sharks, all the way to the beach. Though the sharks didn’t really bother me, they were busy with the dead.”
Linsteadt didn’t come through unscathed. “Thinking about it, I guess that’s when my ears started ringing the first time.” More than 65 years later, Linsteadt says, “I still hear the bells, whistles and crickets in my ears every day.”
His wife Emma Jean interrupts to add the physical effects are not all he still endures. “He has nightmares. He starts kicking like he’s trying to get away from something: and I’ll have to wake him up, “You’re running again.”
Linsteadt reached shore in the midst of the battle, unarmed and without food or water. “It was real bad on the beach. There were dead bodies everywhere and the corpsmen were really working hard. I found a tank that had been knocked out and dug under it. The beach was knee-deep sand so it was easy to dig in, but it was a bad place to be. You’d hear ‘em scream; they’d cry, holler for the corpsmen, ‘medic!’ ‘Water!’ ‘Mother!’ Through it all, I feel like the Lord really helped me,” he recalled.
Linsteadt still has his invasion map of Iwo Jima that he was issued before going into battle. He spreads it out on his kitchen table — it’s yellowed with age and tattered on the edges but still shows the invasion route. “The government wants it, but I earned it and it’s going to stay with my family,” he says.
He points on the map t where he dug in on the beach — then his finger traces a path to where Japanese gunners were holed up on Mount Suribachi. “I’d lay under that tractor and look up at Mount Suribachi and see the shells. I was under that tank when they raised that famous flag — though it really didn’t mean much to me —they were till fighting. I was under there for three days and nights when finally a landing craft came in, I saw my opportunity. I ran out on the beach and got in it and went back to the Nevada.”
The Nevada sailed to the island of ulithi where the sailors were granted shore leave as the ship was refitted for the invasion of Okinawa.
“We go shore leave. They gave us three warm beers; since I didn’t drink, I got on a stump and auctioned mine off. With the money I went and bought my first wristwatch,” he said.
“We got our orders to go to Okinawa. We begin to shell on March 26: I’m at the bridge.
“We had field glasses, looking at everything. Lots of times they’d drive iron pilings in the water to keep you from the beach. That lasted 89 days — we shelled it around the east coast. Naha was the capitol — and we destroyed it.
“We were hit four times by shore batteries. They (the hits) were all above the water line, but the whole ship shook when one hit. It would rock back and forth.”
Linsteadt was again moved to the amphibious assault force and was assigned to land the 7th Infantry at Hagushi. “We landed the army on the beach; there were no casualties.”
The Army and Marines advanced to the north end of the island with small conflicts. Then the troops hit the “Shuri” line. That was when, Linsteadt said, the battle got hot.
“They began to send Kamikazes (suicide planes) at us: 300 of them came in one wave. I’m on the bridge when ‘general quarters’ sounded: My general quarters station is turret 3,” Linsteadt explained. “What happened was a Japanese plane, carrying a 500-pound bomb was coming at us. I left the bridge (heading for turret 3). As I went down the ladder, the ship went into a hard port turn. The plane missed the bridge and hit the starboard afterdeck. It blew me 10 feet, up against the smoke stack — from that I’m rated deaf in my right ear and blind in my left eye. It took me a few moments to figure out what happened and where I was at. Shrapnel had penetrated my clothes and I bloody spots all over my body. There were 11 killed and 41 wounded. I went on to turret 3. When I got down here, the lieutenant asked a corpsman to look at me and he said I was able to help so they asked me to help with the wounded. I still feel the pain in my body from that everyday.”
Continued in 2nd post...
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