Denied Supplies During WWII

To the Editor:
On Oct. 1, 1944, our ship, a wooden-hulled minesweeper, was engaged with two other ships in sweeping a section of Ulithi Atoll for a fleet anchorage. The Atoll had been taken from Japanese forces several days before. We had cut several mines and, by chance, our sweep gear became hung upon an underwater obstacle. We left the formation to free our gear and the other ships continued on.
After a short time, we heard and saw a terrific explosion when one of the sweeps hit one or two moored mines. Quickly, we tied the end of the sweep gear to a buoy we launched and headed for the debris area as it had looked like a bomb hitting a lumberyard.
We rescued a number of men floating in life vests and lay to as you could see moored mines set shallow in the clear water.
A man was observed entangled in the ship’s minesweep cable that was still attached to the floating stern section. The debris was pulling him underwater from the swells entering the passage nearby. Three of our crew, who were good swimmers, swam through the shark-infested minefield and managed to free him and returned to our ship with him in tow.
The remaining ship continued to pick up survivors as we left for Task Force 58 that had anchored in the lagoon. We contacted the battleship USS Washington and found out weeks later that he had undergone a lengthy operation and had survived.
What if we had not fouled our gear?
The rescuers were awarded the Navy and Marine Corps medal for heroism.
Later, when we ordered supplies from a cargo ship, we were denied on some items as we were told they were for combat ships and we weren’t considered a combat ship.
Tell that to survivors of the 34 minesweeps lost during World War II.