‍Kamikaze attacks USS Comfort hospital ship

‍“Kamaretta red, smoke boat make smoke"

‍

‍Casualties

‍

‍The US suffered 12,520 KIA or MIA in the Battle of Okinawa, and 36,321 wounded. Hospital ships cared for about one-third of those with air evacuations, handling another third.

‍

‍The Japanese lost about 110,000 KIA. Estimates are that 100,000 to 150,000 civilians on Okinawa were killed.

‍

‍The US Park Service has said that 350,000 American women joined the US Armed Forces during WWII and performed more than 200 different jobs. Four hundred and thirty-two servicewomen died. Eighty-eight were taken prisoner. Over 70,000 served as nurses in all the services. Only 7,000 nurses were on active duty when the war started.

‍

‍Overall, some 9,000 women from Wisconsin served in all branches of the military during WWII. To my knowledge, only one died in action, a nurse.

‍

‍Second Lt. Ellen Ainsworth, ANC, from Glenwood City, was an Army nurse serving in Europe, near the Anzio, Italy beachhead. She died on February 16, 1944, from wounds sustained when a hospital unit was hit by artillery during the Battle of Anzio. She moved patients to safety by flashlight but was struck in the chest by shrapnel. Despite her injury, she and other nurses worked to evacuate forty-two patients to safety. She succumbed several days later due to her wounds. Lt. Ainsworth was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart posthumously. She was among the first four women in our military history to receive the Silver Star, the military’s third-highest medal for valor in combat.

‍

‍The Report of Dead and Wounded Personnel issued on May 2, 1945, by the 206th Hospital Ship Complement, reflects the following killed aboard the Comfort as a result of the kamikaze attack:

‍

‍Major Edwin Eckerson, USA, Mt. Vernon, NY, surgeon

‍Captain Charles D. Clark, USA, Massillon, OH, surgeon

‍Captain Ernest Foss, Jr., USA, Newburyport, MA, psychiatrist assisting in surgery

‍Captain William A. MacPherson, USA, Leroy, NY, surgeon

‍Lt. John F. O’Brien, USA, Meriden, CT, surgeon

‍LCdr Wallace Chesboro, USN, Springfield, MA, surgeon

‍1st Lt. Florence Grewer, US Army Nurse Corps (ANC), Rochester, NY

‍2nd Lt. Dorothy Stanke, ANC, Colfax, Washington

‍2nd Lt. Margaret Billings, ANC, Everett, Washington 

‍2nd Lt. Francis Olive Chesley, ANC, Fort Fairfield, Maine

‍2nd Lt. Evelyn Catherine Eckert, ANC, Pittsburgh, PA 

‍2nd Lt. Ida Greenwood, ANC, Terry, Montana

‍Technician 4th Grade Howard H. Salisbury, USA, Rensselaer, NY

‍Technician 5th Grade Robert O. Isenberg, USA, Manchester, MA

‍Technician 5th Grade John R. Krause, USA

‍Private First Class Cecil H. Dammerman, USA, Effingham, IL

‍Private First Class Clovis E. Smith, USA, Warren County, GA

‍Private First Class Samuel D. Sutker, USA, Savannah, GA

‍Private First Class Duane M. Walters, USA, Pittsburgh, PA

‍Private First Class Clayton R. Woodworth, USA, Hastings, NE

‍Private First Class Richard J. Edwards, USA, San  Diego, CA, originally listed as Missing in Action but presumed KIA

‍Father LTJG Fidelis Wieland, USN, priest, San Francisco, CA

‍Ship’s Cook 2nd Class Willard McClard, USN, Troy, MO.

‍

‍There is a consensus that seven patients were killed in the attack. I have not been able to identify them. 

‍

‍This brings the total killed in action as a result of the kamikaze attack on the USS Comfort to 30.

‍

‍Four Army nurses were badly injured:

‍

‍Lt. Helen Koomjan, ANC, Fresno, California, lacerations on the right buttocks and scalp, fracture of the skull, 1st and 2nd degree burns on the face, neck, both arms, and both legs

‍Lt. Valerie Goodman, ANC, fractured right femur, blast injury to the right ear

‍Lt. Myrtle Onsrud, Lacerations forehead and left eyelid

‍Lt. Trestrail - Burns 1st and 2nd degree face, right arm, and body, fracture left wrist and hand

‍

‍There is an 11-foot-tall marble statue that adorns the Nurses Section at Arlington National Cemetery, designed by artist Frances Rich.

‍

‍Return to Introduction