Father's Day 2022

This week’s one hour radio broadcast with host Dale Throneberry is a collection of personal stories about our fathers who have served in the military.

My Dad, William Clifton Throneberry, enlisted in the Coast Guard in 1943 at the age of 38.  He didn’t want to be drafted because they had raised the draft age to 40. He was a Chief Petty Officer E-7.

He was assigned to LST (Landing Ship Tank) 884 and sailed it from New Orleans through the Panama Canal to Hawaii and then on to Iwo Jima, in February 1945, where his LST unloaded troops and supplies shortly after the invasion.

From Iwo Jima they went to Okinawa to participate in that landing when their ship was hit by a Kamakazi on April 8, 1945 and had to abandon ship when it caught fire. He and a number of other crew return to the ship to fight the fire and try to save the lives of the Marines trapped in the hull. They were unsuccessful and it haunted him the rest of his life. That was the end of the war for him.  LST884 was towed back to Pearl Harbor and by the time it was repaired WW II was over.

This was just one of many stories shared this week on Veterans Radio