My Recon of Orange Beach

March 25, 1945

This morning I went in and it was almost a picnic. Not a shot fired at us. Couldn't have been easier. Ward got cramps in his legs and Johnny and I got him, Good thing too. His buddy was about 200 yards away. The air support was better than Iwo. They were above all the time we were in there. Had swimmer's grease on but still got pretty cold. Nice sandy bottom with a few finger's of reef jutting out from the beach. Darn good place to land.

I think a 5'er fell short and hit the peak at the entrance to our cove and sprayed us with shrapnel. Caught a piece before it hit bottom. Good souvenir. Don't know why but I was more scared here than at Iwo before I left the "PR". Imagination I guess.

Came out and took two shell-shocked boys from one of our gunboats over to our "DD" (supporting). We had two LCIG's and a "Can" for support and they did a damn good job. It's really good too know that they're right in there with you.

Listened to Radio Tokyo all afternoon and got a few laughs. Heard that Congress has passed a bill to sterilize all the Japanese internees in the States and all American undesirables. They also said that three "BB's"were sunk and a couple of "CV's". Time to hit the sack.