That time a World War II vet asked for birthday cards for his 96th birthday
SUMMARY
A World War II veteran who served in the Navy and earned the Purple Heart after suffering wounds when a kamikaze attack hit his destroyer in December, 1944, told his daughter that he wasn't interested in celebrating his 96th birthday on December 30, 2019 because he didn't have anyone to celebrate it with.
So, his family asked for birthday cards to help cheer him up.
(U.S. Navy)
Doug Sherman lives in California and served on the USS Lamson, a destroyer that was sometimes called the "Lucky Lamson." Lamson was launched in 1936 and participated in the search for Amelia Earhart before World War II.
The ship made it through most of the war with little damage, but then suffered a devastating attack on December 7, 1944, when a three-plane kamikaze attack landed a massive hit on the ship just below the bridge.
Accounts from the attack differ, but one of the planes hit the ship, and 25 sailors died as a result. Another 50-85 sailors were wounded. The damage was so extensive that the squadron commander had written the ship off until another destroyer, the USS Flusser, was able to bring the fires under control.
The ship was saved and the crew got her back to Leyte Gulf for repairs. After World War II ended, the Lamson was eventually decommissioned and used in a nuclear test near Bikini Atoll. Over 70 years after the attack, Sherman and other survivors of the attack are part of a dying breed.
The then 95-year-old veteran was content to sit out his birthday, taking place just a few weeks after the anniversary of the kamikaze attack, but his daughter Sue Morse turned to strangers to help fill his mailbox with birthday wishes to raise his spirits.
