David Thomason was born in October 1925. He had four brothers and grew up on a farm outside of Fountain Inn [Annotator's Note: Fountain Inn, South Carolina]. One brother went in the Army and in one in the Navy when the war started. He turned 18 and joined the Navy. They grew cotton as their money crop and grew their own food. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Thomason if he remembers the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] Thomason was getting ready to go to church. They heard the news over their radio. President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] declared the nation at war the next day [Annotator's Note: Infamy Speech; President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a Joint Session of the United States Congress, 8 December 1941]. He remembers it well. Back in those days, they did not go anywhere. He did not see the ocean until he joined [Annotator's Note: until he joined the Navy]. His brother flew a dive bomber from the USS Yorktown (CV-5). His other brother was sending him information from the Army and Thomason could not see crawling on his stomach all day. He enlisted on his 18th birthday and went to Fort Jackson, South Carolina for physical exams. He was excited. He went on his first train ride to Bainbridge, Maryland [Annotator's Note: US Naval Training Center, Bainbridge, Port Deposit, Maryland] for basic training [Annotator's Note: November 1943].

David Thomason loved it [Annotator's Note: Navy boot camp] and worked hard. He went home on leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] in his Navy uniform. He was proud and excited. He transferred to Norfolk, Virginia for training for battle. He got on a train to Boston, Massachusetts and Boston Harbor. He was excited to see the brand-new ship he was going aboard, the USS Mannert L. Abele (DD-733). That ship became his home that day. He had never seen the ocean until then. They went on their shakedown cruise [Annotator's Note: a cruise to evaluate the performance of a naval vessel and its crew] for two or three weeks. They went down to Norfolk to work on the guns. He was on the number two gun mount, a five inch gun mount with two guns operated by two men. Drone planes were used for target practice. Sometimes they were not told where they were going. They went to Balboa, Panama to the Panama Canal. It was one of the most exciting days for him and he turned 19 years old that day [Annotator's Note: 17 October 1944]. He went into Panama City [Annotator's Note: Panama City, Panama] only to find out they did not speak English there. They went up the coast to San Diego, California and took on supplies. They had good food and plenty of it. They then went to Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii] and he saw the devastation there. They got new radar while there. Thomason and his friend Raymond Walker went to Honolulu [Annotator's Note: Honolulu, Hawaii] and Waikiki Beach and stayed at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. He was only 19 and tried to learn how to do the hula dance. In a few days, the ship was ready to go [Annotator's Note: 27 January 1945].

[Annotator's Note: David Thomason served in the Navy aboard the destroyer USS Mannert L Abele (DD-733).] They went across the Pacific. They had a big map in the chow hall that was used to map their course. They went to Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands] and had their first encounter with the Japanese. Then they went down to Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands]. It had been secured. They resupplied there. He knew it was getting dangerous, but he was excited. They headed to Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan]. He could not understand what the Japanese wanted with that rock pile. They bombarded the island for three days and nights. They did not know the Japanese were in the caves. He could see big cement doors on Mount Suribachi. The Marines started landing [Annotator's Note: on 19 February 1945] and he saw them going by. So many lost their lives. The Japanese had no mercy on the troops. They restarted the bombardment before landing more troops. They got closer to the island and he could see the Japanese shooting back at them. He will never forget seeing the Marines plant the American flag [Annotator's Note: atop Mount Suribachi on 23 February 1945]. He felt they had won the battle then and then realized they had really just started the battle. At night, his ship would fire a star shell every three minutes over the island to help the Marines fight at night. He loved it. Weeks went by of just waiting until it ended. It was a sad day when they found out how many lives had been lost for that rocky island, but 22,000 Japanese had lost their lives at the hands of the Americans.

[Annotator's Note: David Thomason served in the Navy aboard the USS Mannert L Abele (DD-733) and took part in the Battle of Iwo Jima, Japan.] After the battle ended, they left for Leyte Gulf, Philippines. Before getting close, the largest armada of American ships appeared on the horizon. They won the battle and General MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] went back to the Philippines. They then went to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan]. They arrived and went close to the shore. It was a beautiful island, and it was calm and peaceful. When the Marines landed [Annotator's Note: on 1 April 1945], nothing happened the first day. The action started the second and third day. The Japanese had no more navy but hundreds of airplanes. The Japanese decided to start using Kamikaze suicide planes. This was the toughest battle. The destroyers were stationed in the East China Sea to try and shoot down all of the planes coming to Okinawa. They were 400 miles from China. One day there were hundreds coming towards them. One hit them midships [Annotator's Note: 12 April 1945]. They lost all power and became a sitting duck. They could not fire their weapons. This became the most difficult day of Thomason's life. A Baka bomb [Annotator's Note: Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka, human-guided kamikaze attack aircraft; Allied name "Baka"] came in right at their waterline. It split the ship in half. The ship sank in three minutes. The men below deck had no chance of survival. He and his men got in the water in the hurry. They had been taught to swim away from the ship in a hurry. He watched the ship sink. A couple of the suicide planes dropped bombs on them and strafed them. Thomason survived unhurt as men were killed around him for three or four hours. A ship arrived and rescued them. He fell back to rest on the deck covered in oily, wet clothes. Later that afternoon the captain told them to take their clothes off and throw them overboard. Thomason thought 300 naked men on deck was funny. The other men gave them some of their clothes. They went to Okinawa and boarded a merchant ship to return home. He was sad to be out of the fight.

They [Annotator's Note: David Thomason and the other survivors of the USS Mannert L Abele (DD-733) which had been sunk by Kamikazes off Okinawa, Japan on 12 April 1945] were getting close to the International Date Line and the engines quit. They drifted for three days. They arrived in Hawaii and got on a nicer ship. He stepped out on deck one morning and saw the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California]. He was so proud for what he had done to keep the nation free. He got a 30 day leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. He took a train to South Carolina to see his parents. He got orders to Charleston, South Carolina. After a couple of weeks, he then was put on a train to Oakland, California and then to Berkeley, California. He served his last eight to ten months there repairing damaged ships. It was a beautiful place to be stationed. The bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] dropped and the war was over. He remembers hearing the news over a loudspeaker about the bombs and then later, the war was over. He decided to go back to South Carolina. He went to Shoemaker, California and was discharged. He took a train home. He met a schoolteacher who encouraged him to be a teacher. He later married her. He got a degree in elementary education and taught for nine years. He decided to be a school principal and did that for 21 years. He retired and has enjoyed life so much in a great country. Being able to have been a part of World War 2 is the greatest privilege he ever had.

When David Thomason was at Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, 1 April to 22 June 1945, Okinawa, Japan], his ship [Annotator's Note: USS Mannert L Abele (DD-733)] was hit by a Kamikaze [Annotator's Note: 12 April 1945]. He could not see much from his spot at the gun mount. When the second one hit, the explosion was something, he can still feel it. He does not know how they managed to get out in a hurry. He remembers swimming to survive. He has difficulty accepting the Japanese bombing and strafing them while they were in the water. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Thomason what went through his mind when the ship exploded.] Survival time. This was a bad day. He did what he was taught which was to get away from the ship so you are not sucked under. None of it will ever leave his mind. It is still vivid to this day. While Thomason was in the water, he prayed for the strength to keep moving and wondered if he could last long enough. The ship sank so fast, they could not get anything. When the rescue ship pulled up, they had to use what strength they had left to climb the rope ladder. His fighting days were ended. He did not get to invade Japan.

David Thomason used the G.I. Bill in 1950 after having just gotten married. He went back to farming several acres of cotton. He paid two years of college that way. They were tough years. He has been married 60 years and is 90 years old. He appreciates it all. He talked about the war very little when he first got home. His parents had a rough time. They had seen that his ship had been sunk. There was no communication back in those days. They did not know he was alive until he was in California and called them. Thomason did not have any real nightmares about his experience. It is over. If you go on with your life and try not to live in the past. He does remember it but does not think about it much today. He is thankful he can still recall it when most men his age cannot. [Annotator's Note: Thomason speaks of some men who are with him.] He has great friends. He tells how much he appreciates the interviewer, and the organization is doing with these interviews. He appreciates the public today who come up to him and talk. They do so more now more than ever. He is very grateful for all of it.