October 2, 2008-Henry Forbis Bonner and The U.S.S. Gambier Bay-Part Two

The words of Henry Bonner about his experience on The U.S.S. Gambier Bay continued:

We lost all our supplies that were on the raft except a small 5" shell casing that had a little gauze, one bottle of malt tablets, and two cerites of morphine. They gave me one of the morphine and put me in the bottom of the raft. We finally ended up with this one raft, and a couple of floater nets, and a total of 67 men. I was really very lucky as of the 67 men, I was the only one who was badly wounded. So I had some good guys watching after me. Until my leg stopped bleeding, we had some shark problems, but we were in good hands and God watched over us and we had no damage or deaths from sharks the first day. I forgot to mention that the ship sunk after I had been on the raft about thirty minutes. They were still firing on the ship after I reached the raft, and after we had been on it a few minutes one of the marker shells that they were firing hit about ten feet from our raft. I had no idea what it was. I thought that it had hit us and what I was seeing in the air was blood (it was red), then I thought it might be gas. At any rate, most of the others and myself went off the raft and under the water to escape the "red". Just before I felt like I was going to drown, I came up and it had cleared. Then after a length of time, the Jap task force that sunk us came right back by us steaming back to where they had come from. I figured they would see and kill us all, so under the water we went again. I know they saw us as they were that close, but they just kept going.

The rest of the first day was spent organizing, knowing we would be picked up soon, watching the dog fights between our planes and Jap planes. Then it started to get dark. The men on the outside of the raft would take turns and change from raft to nets and nets to raft, etc.

The first night was miserable. We had burned up during the day, but at night being wet I got very cold. My teeth chattered so long and hard that the ends of my teeth were sore. No sleep. Just whispers. The second day finally came. Sure was hungry, but more thirsty. We knew we would be picked up today. No more sharks. Some men said they could see ships, but none were there. I couldn't see anything, as I was lying in the bottom of the raft. A First Class Signalman was holding my head out of the water (I'm sorry I cannot recall his name). The Corpsman checked my leg but couldn't do anything else for it, so he gave me the other morphine. The first day we could see other rafts, but today we couldn't see any of them.

The second day drug on and some of the shipmates and myself were doing some funny things and seeing things that weren't there. I was becoming delirious from fever as I had infection in my leg - and had some weird dreams and would pass out from time to time later in the second day. One dream was that I could see an island and on it was a big water tank truck like they wash city streets with. I could see the water coming out of the sprinklers on the truck and he was settling the dust on the island with the water. I knew we would get some when we got there. Another dream was the I broke away from the raft and swam to the island and picked up some beer and swam back to the raft, and in my dream I was trying to get the men on the raft to take some beer - some of the men said I was really handing them something (empty hand of course) and they couldn't figure out what I was doing. So I decided to keep it and drink it all myself. Every time I would come to my senses from one of these dreams, I would tell the man holding my head that when I pass out I'm not dead so don't throw me overboard, and he would assure me he wouldn't.

The Chief held on to our only food until later the second day. He felt it would lift our morale if he gave us a malt tablet, or a piece of one. I couldn't chew mine because my teeth were still sore from chattering the night before, but I managed to get it down. No water.

Well, here comes the second night. We had fired what few flares we had the first night because we just knew they were looking for us. I think it was finally decided later that we were answering another raft's flares. So we didn't have flares to give us hope the second night.

I wasn't looking forward to more chattering teeth and pain from my leg (no more morphine). After the night drug on, a few dreams and passing out a couple of times, we spotted the search lights from a ship. You hever heard the shouting and waving and carrying on we all did. Finally what seemed like hours, and it was a long time, the ship (a patrol craft smaller than a D.E.) had his spots right on the raft.

There had been numerous ships sunk in the area the last several days so shouted out and challenged us with "who won the world series". The Signalman who was holding my head signaled back the correct answer. Then the Skipper of this ship informed us that he was overloaded and couldn't take us aboard but that he would radio our position, and he left. You have never heard the hollering, swearing, and waving of arms, including mine. But, nevertheless, he left. It seemed to all of us that he could have given us a cask of water and medical supplies, fruit cocktail, or something to eat. But he didn't. It was (I was told later) about five hours before another ship (same class) arrived. He came along side and threw over a cargo net and all but two went up the net first. The two were the 1st Class Signalman, who was helping me, and myself. Some of their crew members came down and got me up the net and we were saved.

One other thing happened going to Leyte. Our little ship was attached by Jap aircraft. When the ship's crew started firing at the planes, I figured back in the water, but they chased them off.

Late the third day, I was finally put aboard an L.S.T. that was rigged for operating on wounded. A young Dr. Hershey looked at my leg and said "Son, I don't know what I can do but I'll do my best". Several hours later I awoke and saw five toes on my left leg, was very drowsy but happy.

The doctor talked to me the next day and said we had a new miracle drug - penicillin - so he left my leg on to see if he could kill the infection and get the wound to granulate for skin grafts.

I was later put on the hospital ship "Hope" I think and taken to New Guinea for about three weeks, then put on the luxury liner "Lurline" and eventually dropped off at the Oak Knol Naval Hospital in Oakland, California - then sent to the Naval Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana, which was the nearest hospital to my home that had a skin graft specialist. I spent the next eleven months in New Orleans where they fixed my leg up best they could and gave me a Medical Discharge on January 6, 1946. I still get a 40% disability compensation from the V.A.


Yours truly,

Henry F. ("Hank") Bonner













Henry Forbis Bonner
1925-1991