Navy veteran worked on Pacific transport ship

U.S. Navy Storekeeper First Class Carl Hendrick was a member of a crew that transported soldiers, Marines and supplies during invasion landings in the Pacific during World War II.

Hendrick took care of the daily details of providing for the men, including traveling to supply ships in the flotilla.

“After we pushed 'em off and ran back, we brought support and supplies to 'em,” Hendrick said. “I took care of the payroll, insurance, supplies and food,” he said. “All the ship's needs. I was the buyer.”

Hendrick had a simple answer for his decision to join the Navy, instead of waiting to get drafted into the Army.

“Because I didn't want to sleep in foxholes,” he said.

Hendrick first came aboard the LST-745 — a tank-landing ship capable of carrying massive amounts of cargo, landing troops and vehicles — in Pittsburgh, Pa. — where the ship was built.

The LST made its way to the Gulf of Mexico — and out to the battlefields of the Pacific — via the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

“Good raw oysters and beer in New Orleans,” Hendrick recalled.

Hendrick and the men of the LST-745 were involved in invasion landings at Leyte and Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines and Okinawa.

“You're always in danger when you're making invasions,” he said. “We had three invasions. We unloaded (soldiers and Marines), took off to get supplies and support.

“We brought the ship in as close as we could to shore, depending on the depth of the water,” Hendrick said.

The ship and crew had a close call on at least one of its landings.

“We had made it into shore. The Japanese were throwing mortar fire at us and the tide had gone out and we had gone over a reef,” Hendrick said. “We had to cut the anchor and run.”

At one point, the ship was caught in a typhoon when sailing from Tokyo to the Philippines.

“We had to change our course of travel from south to east,” he said, adding the waves were rolling in as high as 17 to 18 feet.

“The LST has a flat bottom; it doesn't cut the water,” he said.

The relentless pounding against the surf shook and rattled the entire ship.

“The aft screw (rear propeller) would be up out of the water,” said Hendrick, demonstrating a movement, with his hands, that looked like a bucking bronco kicking up its back legs.

When the war was finally over, the fleet in the Pacific, including the LST-745, were witness to history.

“We were in Tokyo Bay when (Gen. Douglas) MacArthur signed the treaty with Japan,” Hendrick said. “He flew by helicopter onto the ship (USS Missouri).”