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For Alfred Austin, a Matter of Survival By Joe Austin
SECOND OF TWO PARTS
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n Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, Warrenton native Alfred Austin was witness to the landings on Okinawa and seeing the overwhelming number of ships between the horizon and shoreline. His own ship was one of many carrying several Army divisions that were initially being held in reserve. It wasn’t long before the Higgins boats Alfred Austin, a Warrenton sailor took the men ashore. The next day, the squadron had retired to their usual night positions away from the invasion beaches when they were attacked by eight Japanese suicide planes, “Betty” bombers, coming at them from two different directions. The action report from the log of the Chilton presents this account: “One twin engine bomber was hit with our machine gun fire as well as fire from one of our own pursuing fighter planes,” it read. “A bomb, which fell harmlessly 200 to 300 yards off our starboard beam, was misdirected prematurely probably because the Japanese pilot had already been hit by our own Navy pilot friend. “This bomber then hit our signal halyards, radio antenna, stack and commission pennant before diving into the sea on the port side. Gasoline, sheet metal, plastic, and even a machine gun wound up on the CHILTON’S decks.” The Chilton’s guns were able to splash another of the kamikazes and the rest were downed by gun crews from other ships. But many ships were not so lucky, the worse being a sister armored transport. Alfred’s ship suffered no causalities and the damage did not impair her operability. Japanese propagandist Tokyo Rose later claimed that the Chilton had been sunk. Good fortune carried them through the days that followed with no further damage during repeated kamikaze attacks. As a transport squadron, after loading men and supplies ashore, the ships took aboard many casualties that were returning from the fighting. The Chilton was able to care for 156 wounded soldiers and marines during her time in the war zone.
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After Okinawa, the crew prepared for an invasion of Japan, but it was called off after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing Japan to surrender. Considering the high casualties expected on both sides, it was highly likely that Alfred, as well my own father, would not have come home. Instead, Alfred returned to his family in Warrenton and moved to the Fauquier Freestate where they lived for several years until he was recalled for the Korean War. Moving back to Norfolk and re-assigned to the Chilton, he was stationed on the east coast and in the Mediterranean, away from the war zone. At the end of the Korean War, he was posted ashore with the Navy Bureau of Naval Personnel in Washington, DC. As an example of the ironic crossing of family ties, as Officer of the Day he signed the discharge papers of his brother, Wick, who had been helping to build new bases in Korea as a Navy Seabee.
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