The Iowa Sisters #1 Pacific Fire

Chapter 26

OKINAWA APRIL 1945 "ENTERPRISE"

I felt as high as the clouds themselves as all around me, the battleships let loose with their main guns. North Carolina and South Dakota took turns testing each other's accuracy.

"Bet you can't hit that tree!" South Dakota growled. "Bet I can." North Carolina replied. She proved it by letting loose with a full broadside and watched with satisfaction as the tree went up in flames. "Try and hit that manhole." She instructed to South Dakota. It went back and forth like that throughout the battle.

I rolled my eyes. Glancing to my left, I saw Missouri and Wisconsin engaging in a friendly rivalry with the age old game of battleship.

Battleship was quite simple and could be played by anyone. The targets didn't have to be other ships, they could be anything as long as it was within a defined grid. The two sisters pointed their guns at their selected targets, yelling out which grid sector they were firing on and if they made a hit, they got a point. They did this with their eyes closed so they couldn't cheat and see where their targets were.

They took turns so one ship could tell if it was a hit or a miss. If it was either, she'd say so. Wisconsin kept on yelling out "hit" as Missouri never seemed to miss a shot. Missouri yelled out both when her sister fired.

While Wisconsin was dead accurate with the targets in front of her, she seemed to be having trouble hitting the ones at an angle. Her aim was ok, but her firing was clumsy and she would often roll to one side.

Missouri laughed. "I should've known you'd get slow on me." She teased. "Oh ha, ha." Wisconsin muttered.

A few months earlier, the two sisters had made a bet to see who would arrive here first. Since Missouri had been beat by Wisconsin, she had to pay the bounty which was four gallons, or one months' worth, of ice cream. This practically insured that in addition to her own monthly allowance, Wisconsin could have a double helping of vanilla ice cream.

Human food was not the best thing for ships but the ice cream was considered a real delicacy by most of the fleet. Pennsylvania thought our addiction to it was ridiculous but even she couldn't deny its good taste.

Like any other kind of human food we might consume, its effect on us was much more pronounced. If a food had chocolate in it, it was like a double espresso shot and was an excellent source of caffeine. Or if it was fatty and full of calories, we'd have a heck of a time burning it off.

The vanilla ice cream we were being given was made from whole milk, which is 3% fat. One helping was more than enough, but two would easily make us gain quite a few pounds. With her double allowance, Wisconsin's monthly four gallons often overlapped creating an endless opportunity to eat more than she should. She took full advantage of this and it was beginning to show.

"When we get back to Ulithi, remind me to put you on the scale." Missouri muttered. Wisconsin frowned at her. "It's not that bad." She growled. Missouri rolled her eyes. Before she could say more, whole squadrons of Japanese aircraft raced overhead.

"Ok, now this is just getting old." Missouri muttered. I agreed with her whole-heartedly on that. "These kamikazes just won't give up." I muttered as I began to fire my antiaircraft guns.

Instead of setting his target sights on me, one pilot decided to have a go at Missouri. He dived at the battleship, his plane on a collision course with her bridge tower. "Let's see you fly through this." She snarled and turned the sky around her black with exploding flak. (Yes Tennessee I know black and flak rhyme now SHUT UP!)

The plane just kept on coming and although it was nearly torn to pieces, it hit on her starboard side, just below the main deck level. Smoke from the plane shrouded Missouri from my sight. "MISSOURI!" I yowled, afraid that she'd been seriously hurt, if not killed.

But when the smoke cleared, Missouri looked fine, as though nothing had happened. She had a few scratches on her side where the plane had scraped her and the few small fires that had broken out were quickly brought under control by the damage crews.

"You ok, Mo?" I called. "Yeah, I'm okay Enterprise." She replied. I moved closer to inspect her, just to be sure. A few deep scratches were oozing blood but other than that she was fine. She just looked very, very angry. "That is it! The Zeke's are going down." She snarled and continued firing her antiaircraft guns and her five inchers.

Nearby, William D. Porter was taking on a low flying kamikaze of her own. "So you think you can take on a Fletcher eh?" She hissed. She let loose with her 20 and 40 mm antiaircraft weapons. Her aim was dead on and the plane went up in a ball of flame before crashing into the water just astern of her.

"Nice shooting sis." Fletcher called. "Thanks." Porter replied. What neither destroyer knew was that the plane continued on course under water and blew up directly under Porter's keel. The destroyer yelped and was tossed forward.

"Not good!" She groaned. She had a large hole in her bottom and was taking on water fast. She quickly began to list to starboard and sink by the stern. Fletcher and several LCS landing craft raced forward to assist.

"It's just my luck to be sunk by a kamikaze that was already dead." Porter growled. "I thought I told you to be more careful." Fletcher scolded her. "And yet again, my clumsiness prevents me from doing what you say." Porter snapped.

Fletcher sighed. "Ok, you win. You are clumsy." She admitted. "Ha, I knew I was right." Porter growled. "You may be clumsy, but you are as smart, you are as good, you are as important as any one of us." Fletcher said.

Porter smiled at her sister. For once, she didn't argue. Fletcher nuzzled her. "It's been an honor." Porter whispered. "I am, so proud of you." Fletcher whispered back. Porter sighed and closed her eyes for the last time.

Fletcher gulped and pulled her dead sister close to her. I nudged her. "There's nothing you can do." I whispered. "I can't just leave her here." She moaned. "She's dead Fletcher, there isn't anything you can do for her now." I replied, struggling to keep my voice even.

"I don't even think she knows how much I cared for her. She was always picked on." Fletcher groaned. "You're her sister Fletcher, you were always there for her. I think she knew, in fact I know she did." I replied. I nudged her back from the sinking Porter and led her away.

Missouri moved forward. "I'll take it from here." She said. I nodded as she took my spot beside Fletcher, murmuring soothing words in the destroyer's ear. Fletcher seemed not to hear her. She just rocked back and forth on the water, her hazel eyes fixed on nothing.

Remembering Yorktown and Hornet, I knew what she was going through. She may've had many other siblings but destroyer families were different from carrier families. While I was very good friends with both my sisters, Fletcher was beyond just a sister to hers.

Destroyers had larger families and Fletcher was no exception. She had almost 200 siblings but was equally close to all of them. The larger family allowed the sisters to interact more and become much closer than I could ever be to Yorktown and Hornet. The bigger the family, the closer the ships were to each other, it was that simple.

Sighing, I led my task force back to Ulithi.