From the April 12, 2012, Vindy.com "Easter Sunday to remember."
Michael J. Lacivita was there at the Okinawa D-Day invasion on April 1, 1945, Easter Sunday. It was the second largest invasion of the war, after, of course, the Normandy, France, D-Day. This one had the code name I-Day, or Operation Iceberg.
At dawn, he was on LST-582 along with 450 men from the First Marine Division.
The USS West Virginia was to their port side and the USS Idaho and USS Tennessee on their starboard. To some that might make you feel safe to have three battleships surrounding you, but not so at this battle as battleships were major Japanese bomber and kamikaze targets.
One Japanese plane dropped bombs between the LST and the West Virginia. Another aimed at the Idaho and missed just off its stern. Within less than a half hour, 4 of 4 kamikazes were shot down.
They stayed in Okinawa for two weeks, then left for Guam on April 14th.
--GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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