America in WWII - (Page 72) A GIs ‘Minor Shipping Losses’ Frederick Adams—seen here as a captain—got a rude awakening one night off Luzon. COURTESY OF FREDERICK P. ADAMS F ADAMS GRADUATED from Alabama’s Auburn University in May 1942 as an army 2nd lieutenant and reported for duty with the 1279th Engineer Combat Battalion. In January 1945, he and his fellow engineers found themselves in Lingayen Gulf, supporting the invasion of the Philippine island of Luzon. US newspapers referred to this operation as successful “with only minor shipping losses.” “The losses were certainly not minor in our eyes,” Adams says. The assault forces met no opposition when they stormed the beaches. And although Adams’s troop ship was bothered by occasional air attacks that evening, the REDERICK wee hours of the morning were peaceful and still. That changed around 2 A.M. Adams was jarred awake by explosions, one of them in the compartment next to his. “I quickly swung my legs over the side of my bunk,” he says, only to be straddled by Bill, the engineer in the bunk above him, as he leapt down. After getting untangled, they went to find out what had happened. A torpedo, later determined to be mandriven on a suicide mission, had severely damaged the compartment where most of the Headquarters and Service Company’s enlisted men were billeted. Adams watched anxiously as navy personnel worked to remove bodies and seal off the compartment. Twenty-three men were lost. The transport began to list, and the order was given to abandon ship. At that point Adams noticed his feet hurt. “I found out that, in my haste, I had put my boots on the wrong feet,” he says. Adams ended up in a lifeboat with other men, drifting until daylight, when they finally went ashore. “I don’t believe I was ever so glad to see and touch land,” he says. “Minor shipping loss” indeed! A Submitted by FREDERICK P. ADAMS. He mustered out as a major in January 1946 and lives in Auburn, Alabama. Have a GIs photo and story for us? Mail them with a short service record to: GIs, America in WWII, PO Box 4175, Harrisburg, PA 17111-0175 72 AMERICA IN WWII OCTOBER 2007
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