Known But to G-d
from Dave Does History Hosted by Dave Bowman
On February 21, 1945, the newly upgraded aircraft carrier USS Saratoga was supporting the landings on Iwo Jima. The night before she was detached with a small escort to bomb Japanese forces on Chichi Jima. The next day is overcast with very low cloud cover. Out of the low clouds screamed six Japanese planes, who manage to hit the Sara’s forward end, causing heavy damage and killing one hundred and twenty-three of her sailors. Another one hundred and ninety-two are injured. Sara will survive the attack, but she will never serve in combat again. She is converted into a training Carrier, and then into a transport for operation Magic Carpet at the end of the war. She was then determined to be obsolete and surplus. On 25 July, 1946 she was sunk during Test Baker of Operation crossroads, the first large scale test of the atomic bombs effects against naval vessels. Of those one-hundred and twenty three men killed on February 21, 1945, sixty-four could not be recovered and were sealed in the ship as she traveled back to Bremerton for repairs. There, they are removed, but cannot be identified. They are interred in one of the saddest and yet most honored places in the Pacific Northwest, Ivy Green Cemetery.
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