Bruce McKenzie
U.S. Navy July 16, 1942 – June 1952
Farigut, Idaho Boot Camp
West Coast Sound School, San Diego, California
Shipped out from San Francisco to Noumea, New Calidonia Fleet Receiving Center.
July 1944 went aboard the Destroyer Tender U.S.S. Whitney A.D. 4. Went from Noumea to Sydney, Australia for dry dock fumigation and repair. For 10 days we lived ashore while the Australians did ship repair.
We then boarded the Whitney and headed north. We stopped at Guadalcanal,Espereto Sancton and New Brittan on the way to New Guinea and from there to Manus Island in the Admiral Islands.
There we worked on destroyers and other ships preparing for the Philippine invasion. One of the first destroyers to be sunk by a Japanese Kamikaze plane was one I worked on a week before. We worked on ships from the Third, Fifth and Seventh Fleets plus some Australian, French and Dutch ships. There was a bomber base on Manus Island where planes were coming and going 24 hours a day.
When the ships returned to Manus we were busy repairing battle damage. It was at this time I was told I was to be shipped back to school in San Diego. After 30 days leave ,
I reported to Sonar School for 16 weeks of technical training.
From there I reported to the Destroyer Base to board my new ship the Destroyer Escort
U.S.S. Fredrick Moore DE 240 to take part in the invasion of Japan. We headed for
Pearl Harbor and while anchored in Pearl we were informed that the war was ended. !