Pacific LST

Book excerpt: There were 231,000 men and 10,000 women who served in the Coast Guard during World War II. – and 1,918 of them did not return home. At its height, the Coast Guard manned 802 ocean going cutters, 351 naval vessels, 288 Army watercraft, smaller vessels assigned to escort and port security, and 165 aircraft. Stephen C. Stripe, an amateur historian whose father, Max E. Stripe, served in the Coast Guard during World War II, tells the fascinating story of LST 791 and her Coast Guard crew, from commissioning to the end of the war in this book. The book focuses on Okinawa, which was the site of the largest amphibious invasion during the war in the Pacific. LST 791 delivered Marines and supplies to the invasion beaches. Its crew manned weapons during a kamikaze assault to protect a nearby hospital ship. When the war ended, the crew shifted from preparing to invade Japan to transporting occupation troops to the string of islands. The book includes the memoirs of Skipper Lt. Cmdr. A. Duncan to provide firsthand observations and details on the important role that LST 791 played.