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August 10, 2025 • 28 mins
Pamela completes the stories on the USS Drexler.
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:42):
Welcome to the New High Show and Education. This is
your host, Pamela Clark, and this is an episode of
American servicemen and women tell their stories of survival. So
let's get right into those stories. Next is from Jean Brick,
remembers vividly that a short time prior to May twenty

(01:06):
eight he was transferred from Mount number three to Mount
number two, and consequently he is with us today. If
it were not through his efforts, we probably would not
be meeting again. So he was the one that created

(01:27):
the memorial for the USS Strexler ad some forty one.
The group I mean of survivors and their families that
have come together to remember it every year. Now everyone
that survived it has went home to Heavenly Father, but

(01:52):
their words and their memories have helped a lot of
us with healing and hope the future. So special call
out to his memory as well. Next story, Gerald McBain
remembers I was on the wheel and broke Wise Muller's record.

(02:16):
When I got over the side, the concussion from the
second plane knocked my helmet off and split my dungarese
up the middle. My wallet was in the dungarees when
I kicked them off into the water. That is why
I can't supply a date for crossing the equator. When

(02:38):
we were on Elsie S's Bob mc beckwith Bob beckw
q M two C found four singles in his shirt pocket.
He gave me two dollars, which I still owe him.
I held onto a piece of shoring until I was

(03:00):
picked up. I still can't think of the name of
the sonar man who hung on with me and helped
paddle our way to the LCS. Besides the captain, Lieutenant
Wallace was on the bridge, and I'm sure there was

(03:21):
another officer, Duben Scots Dubin Scots was on the engine
order telephone and message messengers or the guys. Sorry my vision.

(03:43):
Like I said before question, I'm going to just reread
the whole things. I don't want to not say it
in a good way, So I don't remember the messengers
or the guys on the phones. As for the other
quartermaster's chief Agne and Beck with where with Bidwell at

(04:04):
secondary and Pappy Dog or Dag was then after steering,
I think that all of McIntyre's signalmen were on the bridge.
Next story, John M. Eastman remembers. At the time of

(04:27):
the first hit, I was on watch and after firerooms.
The first plane hit at the bulkhead of after fireroom
and forward engine rooms. There was one big ball of flame.
Everything went dead. Steam pressure dropped to zero, and we

(04:48):
just stood there, unbelieving. There was no word as to
what was happening or any abandoned ship orders. I told
my men to get out before the steam gets us,
which is six hundred pressure and nine hundred degrees. I

(05:12):
always figured that if we were hit, the steam would
get us all before we could get out. Somehow all
of us made it to the top side. What happened
to them afterwards, I do not know. Only Bruce Wetzel
and myself are left from the watch. They lost Lebo,

(05:34):
the Dustefano, and Clark. I walked toward the forecastle. The
second hit lifted me off my feet and then ran
to the bow and walked off the side by the
anchor alf into the water. Fantel and aft section were

(06:00):
already underwater. I swam a few yards before discovering that
I had no life belt. I left it in the fireroom.
I turned to look at the ship and then bow
from another from from anchor chains was all that was

(06:20):
still above water. Panics set in afraid of the undertow.
I swam hard and fast away and became very tired.
Oil slick caught up to me, and I got oil
in my mouth and nose and started to choke and cough.
I went under once and thought my number had come up.

(06:44):
At this point a shipmate caught me. He had a
life belt, and he had me hang on until I
stopped gagging on the oil. He spotted an oil soaked
pillow and got it for me. It under my chin
to keep my head above water. He stayed with me

(07:05):
as a few minutes longer and assured me that I
would be fine until picked up. He left me to
help someone else. To this day, I do not know
who this man was, but I know who he is

(07:26):
so that I might thank him personally. If re read that,
I would love to know who he is so that
I might thank him personally. If someone relates giving a
pillow to a struggling sailor, please let me know. I
owe him my life. Next story, Donald Lockhart remembers I

(08:00):
was on the bridge with the first when the first
plane hit and we went dead in the water. I
can remember admiring the courage of the pilot in a
Corsier who was following the Jap plane in despite of
the fact that both of us and the lowry were
shooting at it and he was right in the line

(08:24):
of fire. I remember seeing the other plane that hit
us go directly over the ship on his first pass,
and we thought he was done for. But he made
a tight turn and came back and hit us close
to the same spot as the first one had. I

(08:46):
then realized that the ship was sinking. I took off
the binoculars I was wearing, stepped up on the bridge
railing and jumped into the water. It was only a
short jump, for the ship was listing badly to starboard,

(09:11):
which is the side I was on. I began to swim.
I began to swim away from the mast, which was
almost in the water by then. I can remember the
flag hallyards being very close to me. The next time

(09:34):
I looked up, the ship was on her stern and
almost gone. I had a foul weather jacket on with
a CO two cartridge life belt over it. It was quiet.
It was a I'm sorry. It was quite a struggle
to get the jacket in my shoes off. The next

(09:55):
problem was the cartridges didn't work, so I had you
inflate the belt by blowing air into it. I didn't
do too good of a job on that. I was
lucky enough to find a floating piece of debris. I
lashed onto it or I lashed onto and which increased

(10:17):
my survival chances quite a bit. There was a bad
fire burning on the water, but it was quite a
distance from me and didn't cause me any problem. I
was able to make my way to an APD and
climb aboard. Several of the crew were already there. When

(10:40):
I went below to clean up, I was quite surprised
to see that I was covered with oil and was
black all over. Next story, Nicholas Pappus remembers I was

(11:00):
in charge of repair party number one. After the first hit,
I saw the starboard deck was ruptured and there was
an airplane engine on the deck which was on fire.
There also was fire on the twenty millimeter deck. I
knew then that all the drills we had paid off.

(11:24):
Because our crew had handy billy operating and water was
at the nozzle. We put out the fires. At this point,
the ship was dead in the water. The first hit
knocked out all of our power, and another plane, a
twin engine bomber, flew low over midships seemed to be smoking.

(11:50):
I thought we had hit it, but he came up
and made a three hundred and sixty degree turn hit
us after midships, the rear off the ship of the
ship off, blowing the rear of the ship off. Okay.
Prior to this, I went through the midships to the

(12:14):
port side and found one of our mates lying on
the deck with a shattered leg. I got a morphine
sworret and was giving him a shot when the second
plane hit. I think if I had been standing, it
would have been the end now, I think now. The

(12:37):
passage forward was jammed and the ship made a list
to starboard. I walked off the side of the ship.
After I was in the water. There were two mates
who needed some help. One I think was Tony Fabreezy.
We were in a lot of oil, but we did Okay.

(13:03):
Can I have another account here? I wanted to share.
This is titled Once upon a Time. On the twenty
eighth day of May nineteen forty five, the Suiciders Suiciders

(13:24):
delivered another all out slaughter on the picket line during
all four weeks of the month. The only the only
let up in the kamikaze offensive had come when rain
grounded the planes Destroyers kuts In Heaven's U W Hadley,

(13:45):
Bog Douglas, h Fox Storms, Brain with a knee and
Anthony and Destroyers Suiciders during this period. It was just
that the divine wind blew a little harder on the

(14:07):
twenty eighth and Destroyer Drexler was the lost was lost
in the tempest. Skippered by Commander R. L. Wilson. The
Drexler was standing Okinawa radar picket duty on station. With
her was the Lowry and two picket support crafts. Drexler

(14:32):
had totaled fifteen days as an Okinawa radar picket and
which time she had become only two we acquainted with
all or nothing kick It's in parentheses, but it's kick

(14:53):
goosey or k I k us Ui program. On May
twenty eight, the Kamakazis flew over the picket line and
swarms and some were Some fifteen were reported splashed that day.

(15:15):
Influence animish immum, sorry ammunition, double banking and cap cover
every extreme exterminating more and more of the aerial suiciders,

(15:37):
but not enough for the saving of the USX Drexler.
During the latter part of the morning watch, six Kamakazis
broke through the screen shielding the Drexler and Lowry group.
The suicide quad made a coordinated attack on the Drexer.
Riddled by Drexler's fire, two of the planes plunged into

(15:59):
the sea and two fell to strike the ship, but
the remaining two power diving rammed the destroyer full gun.
The blaze of the second strike opened Drexler's deck to
the sky and threw her over on her beam. She

(16:21):
returned to and even kill tons of water sliced into
her torn hill, swamping her lower compartments deeper and deeper.
Her beam went under until she was lying on her
side in the sea. Just forty nine seconds after the

(16:46):
final suicide strike, the ship rolled over and with a
great splash, win went down. Nearly all hands below decks
were imprisoned in the vessel. These are those top side
were either flung or managed to jump from the ship

(17:07):
as it capsized. The pallbearers stood in too rescue. About
one hundred and seventy officers and men were picked up.
Fifty one of their number was wounded. One hundred and
fifty eight crewmen and eight officers died with the ship.

(17:30):
Captain C. A. Buckingham Colm Desron sixty three wrote of
the Drexler, the squadron commander feels that the Drexler's combat record,
though short, is one of which she can be can
well be proud. As of May twenty eighth, nineteen forty five,

(17:51):
she had performed radar picket duty off Okinawa during a
busy period for a total of fifteen days. During this period,
she shot down two suicide planes, possibly destroyed one or
more during the night attacks, assisted in the destruction of
three more, and finally took two down with her pull

(18:17):
Agin Bush Callahan manor l abel uh uh Pringle little
loose Morrison over under Longshaw W. Drexler. The Navy's destroyment

(18:38):
were taking it in operations Iceberg and for more d
d s's were to go down before the Okinawa campaign
was over. The system United States destroyer destroyer operations in
World War Two. We're going to take a quick break

(19:01):
and we're going to be right back. Stay tuned. Are
you enjoying the New Heights Show? On education. If you
love our show, please consider liking and following us on
your favorite podcast player. To learn more, visit radio dot

(19:24):
New Heights Education dot org or email us at info
at New Heights Education dot org. Listen in on Wednesdays
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Workforce with host Manya Shukla at seven pm. And don't

(19:44):
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New Heights Education dot org. Welcome back to American American

(20:12):
Servicemen and Women tell the Stories of Survival. We're just
finishing up the stories from the USS. Drexler. I do
have some more things to share with you, and I'm
trying to see the date on this one. Hmm, not

(20:42):
seeing it just a moment. Look, Okay, so there wasn't
a date on this document, but I know that my
great grandparents received a message from Western Union. It wasn't

(21:03):
you know people come into your door like you see
in the movies. But originally they said he was missing
in action, and then this one said, I deeply regret
to inform you that a careful review of facts available
relating to the disappearance disappearance of your son Kenneth del Gruber,

(21:28):
Fireman first Class USR previously reported missing, leads to the
conclusion that there is no hope for his survivor survival
and that he lost his life as a result of
enemy action on May twenty eight, nineteen forty five, while

(21:50):
in service of his country. If further details are received,
they will be forwarded to you promptly. Sincere sympathy, the
two h h extend extend to you are I'm sorry,
extend you and your great loss. Admiral Admiral rand Randall Jacobs,

(22:18):
the Chief Navy Personnel. There's multiple by multiple letters personal
letters that you wrote home with.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
I'm trying to see if there's any dates on any
of this, and they had a file to it.

Speaker 1 (22:53):
I know that there's a memorial in Michigan, and then
there is a memorial for him and by he Honolulu
by tablets of missing Honolulu Memorial. It says missing in action,

(23:16):
are buried at sea and has service number, but it
was sunk. Obviously, I would love to go see it someday,
but checking overlease or anything different to share with you. Okay, So,

(23:44):
and I do want to I do want to take
a ninety second pause us to remember the USX Drexler.

(24:05):
I asked that you think about these men that gave
their life and what war really costs, because it's always
way too high of a price. So what I want
to do is I'm going to set a timer on

(24:28):
my phone and then for the next ninety seconds, we're
going to be quiet and just wait for that alarm.
I want you to imagine that day in your mind.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
Stuts there.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
It is so of all the stories I have read
over the last maybe seven weeks, it took a lot
of time to read those, but in reality it wasn't
much time at all. Ninety seconds. So to move forward,

(26:51):
I'm going to go and I'm going to be sharing
information about World War One, my family's relationship to that, which,
ironically enough, is my great grandfather, the father of my
grandfather that gave his life in World War Two, that

(27:14):
his father who survived World War One and had a
purple heart. There's a story there too, And I hope,
I really hope that if you're a veteran or you
know a veteran, I really want to get them on
the shows. I want them to tell their stories and
really be listened to and what triggers them that other

(27:38):
peoples don't, you know, think about. So again, I'm gonna
do World War One next time, so we'll go from
from here. And I know it's heavy. I know it's
hard to listen to these. It's hard for me to

(27:59):
share these with you because of my personal connection, but
I've always wanted to do something with these, and I
thank you for listening and for being supportive. Until next time,
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