Staten Island in World War II
In the Pacific, on March 19th, 1945, John Byrnes, a 20-year old gunner and airman on the USS Alaska, witnessed unparalleled devastation in the Battle of Okinawa. A Kamikaze fighter hit U.S.S. Franklin, killing almost 800 American servicemen. I could hardly bear to listen to his testimony in 2013, 70 years later. “We had to bring some of the bodies aboard our ship,” John said. “You see things you can’t believe are possible. You feel the pain—that’s when all your sense in your body go to work. You smell the fumes from the shells, you see what shrapnel can do. The bodies we brought up from the Franklin….I never saw half a man’s body burnt and disfigured and the other half still in one piece. That’s what you get exposed to at war. You have to learn to accept it.”
WWII Veteran John Byrnes of Staten Island, New York discusses his dramatic and tragic experiences as a U.S. Navy Gunner in the Pacific Theater, notably the horror of the USS Franklin attack in the Battle of Okinawa.
Interview with Lori Weintrob, Wagner College, March 2013 for the Staten Island Holocaust Commemoration and Honoring of WWII Veterans.