Navy vet helped move bombs, broken leg or no

U.S. Navy veteran Fielder Nordstrom was an ammunitions officer on the SS Carroll Victory, a merchant marine vessel that transported live bombs, shells and other ammo around the South Pacific during World War II.

Nordstrom, a graduate of the University of Minnesota, class of 1943, joined the Navy in March 1944.

After graduating from officer's candidate school in September 1944, Nordstom's superiors pegged him for a job in explosives.

A year later, after completing Naval training, he was sent to a new ammunition depot just south of Seattle.

“They said, ‘We're going to put you in charge of ammo (going) to the South Pacific,'” Nordstrom said.

Nordstrom journeyed across the Pacific in the SS Carroll Victory, bound for a small island where the Navy was staging for its next invasion.

His ship carried 12,500 tons of high explosives.

“A whole bunch of American ships were getting ready for the attack on Okinawa,” he said.

Nordstrom's crew was responsible for providing ammunition, including 500-pound bombs for the aircraft carrier USS Essex.

Nordstrom was supervising the loading of bombs onto the carrier when a cry from below jolted the officer into action.

“One of the crewmen yelled, ‘One of the bombs is coming loose!,'” Nordstrom said. “They said, ‘Jump,' and I jumped.”

The crewman noticed a bomb was dangling from a line above Nordstrom and the officer instinctively reacted to the warning.

“I didn't even hesitate,” he said.

Nordstrom's left leg hit a metal cleat — a device used to tie down mast lines — when he landed.

“All of a sudden I'm lying on the deck with a broken leg,” he said.

The dangling bomb was refastened.

The USS Essex had an onboard hospital and Nordstrom was sent over to the ship.

He was transported on the same wire system that moved bombs and ammunition around the ship.

“They reset my leg and put it in a cast,” he said.

The aircraft carrier was leaving the area at midnight. He asked to stay aboard, but was told he'd have to go back to the SS Carroll Victory via a rope ladder hanging off the side of the carrier.

“It's 100 feet down and I have one leg in a cast and I'm supposed to go hand-over-hand- over-hand,” down the side, Fielder said.

He asked to have a rope tied around his upper body in case he fell off and the carrier crew obliged.

A small boat came over to the side of the carrier to give Fielder a lift back to his ship.

The boat was bouncing up and down on the sea and Nordstrom, trying to time his jump, landed half-in and half-out of the small craft.

After a while, his foot started turning purple and he was put on a hospital ship in Leyte for five days.

“They removed the cast and put a new cast on,” he said. “I lived with it for a long time.”

Not long after, the war ended.

The remainder of his time overseas was spent collecting ammunition dispersed around the South Pacific. Nordstrom said the ammunition was either destroyed or taken back to the States.