| USS DREXLER (May 28, 1945)
While on a radar picket station 60 miles south-west of Okinawa, the destroyer, launched on September 3, 1944, was attacked by two Japanese suicide planes. One crashed into the 3,000 ton Drexler starting large petrol fires. Another three planes then attacked but were shot down. A few minutes later another Kamikaze crashed in flames into the Drexler's superstructure. In less than a minute the ship rolled over on her side and sank stern first. As there was little time for the crew to jump ship, she took 158 sailors to the bottom of the ocean, leaving 52 wounded men to be rescued.
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On weald of Kent I watched once more
Again I heard that grumbling roar
Of fighter planes; yet none were near
And all around the sky was clear
Borne on the wind a whisper came
'Though men grow old, they stay the same'
And then I knew, unseen to eye
The ageless Few were sweeping by
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