A couple of years ago when the term AI was being used I was intrigued and a bit trepidatious about what it really meant. Everything from being replaced as a creative, no matter what medium, to having killer robots hunt you down in a post-apocalyptic world. Then again there is the upside, a tool to use to make better use of your time or aid in your own creative process.
I had an idea I really wanted to explore. My dad was in the Pacific in WW2. He was on a ship that helped clear mines to create an open path for Marines in landing on enemy occupied islands. As I was growing up I was aware he had been in the service but he really didn’t talk about it. It wasn’t until much later that he spoke of his experiences. Time, age, and the fact that many veterans of that era were passing as well as books, movies and retrospectives of the conflict honored the heroic exploits and the sometimes futility and horror of war gave him a reason to relive that time.
A lot of us have been lucky not to have participated in such conflicts but there are those who have given a lot of themselves to protect us. And as in most wars it’s the younger generation that is asked to step forward. My father turns 99 today, the 5th of July and I was able to show him my efforts in depicting the event that is seared in his mind from that April morning in 1945, he was 19 years old.
The ship was USS PGM-18, a motor gunboat that originally served as a submarine chaser. It was later configured to protect minesweepers and destroy the mines as they were cut and floated to the surface.
That morning they were working in tandem with YMS-103 clearing and destroying mines in Okinawa’s Nakagusuku Bay.
That morning Zero’s were coming out of the sun and there were a lot of things happening at once. I don’t know that much about removing mines but in the heat of battle a mine was missed and the PGM struck one still submerged.
The explosion was dramatic, devastating and fatal to many of the crew. The ship began to take on water and the survivors jumped for their lives, including my father.
There was initial hesitation but then he jumped, with 2 things. A life jacket and a homemade knife in his pocket, one that he had fashioned from a scrap of metal he picked up at Pearl Harbor. When he hit the water he gave his life jacket to one of the guys who couldn’t swim.
They were pulled aboard the life boat and realized along with everyone else that the life boat was still tethered to a sinking ship.
No one could get the rope untied and no one had a knife to cut them free. Except……… he passed it to the guy closest to the bow and he cut them free……..and in the chaos let the knife slip from his hands.
The minesweeper hit mines attempting to come to the rescue, sank and both ships lost at least half their crews. A lot of sailors were lucky that day but many were not. My dad misses his buddies and of course the knife, but that knife saved everyone on that life boat.
I showed these to my dad and his reaction was that they captured the event that has stuck with him for almost 80 years. This is as close to understanding what he went through as I ever have.
© 2026 David Luttrell
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