A First Hand view of Lapon's torpedos hitting Raton in WWII

Since 12-15-04

From: Subvet223@aol.com
To: bdecker@shentel.net
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 12:43 AM


Bill,

Disney designed the logo and Joe Sabol incorporated it into our battle flag. I was on watch in the radio shack when the Lapon's fish hit just forward on the port side (I'd have been in too many pieces to swim if it had gone off). It bounced off and hit very softly a second time. We crashed dived.

We were around the islands...floating logs, etc. so as I headed for the conning tower I asked the Old Man who was coming down: Cap'n...we hit a log. Log, hell, he replied. Some sonofabitch torpedoed us.

The actual logs of both subs are delineated in "Submarine...Operations in World War II" by Theodore Roscoe, and published by the United States Naval Institute. 1949.

Best regards,
John Chestara

Raton 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th patrols and to Mare Island.