SOURCE: “The World War II Memorial,” Author: Douglas Brinkley; Published: 2004:
A ROCKET BOAT
Right before the war, in 1943, I was playing for the Norfolk Yankee Farm Club. Well, I got drafted—eighteen years old, you know. They were nice enough to let me finish the season because my birthday was in May. I wanted to go in the Navy because they said I might play ball there in Norfolk. But it never happened that way. I went to boot camp in Bainbridge, Maryland. When I finished boot camp there, I went to Little Creek, Virginia. They came up with this rocket boat, LCSS, and I volunteered for it. Because they were brand new we couldn’t even write home to our parents about what we were doing. It was a 36-footer with six men and an officer. I used to love the rough water. I really did. I thought it was fun. Hit them waves. You hit a wave, you bounce back about 20 feet. That rocket ship took me to Normandy and Southern France.
Being a kid of 18, I thought Normandy was the 4th of July, I really did. My officer said to me as I was just standing up on board to look at all the pretty colors, “You better get your head down here or it’ll be shot off.” So I listened to him. I came down. We went into Omaha Beach—we didn’t go into the beach, we only went about 300 yards off shore. We were the first ones there before the Army went in. We had a lot of bombers. I’ve never seen so many planes in my life come over us! We had the NEVADA on one side of us. We fired rockets into ‘em. We spread out in a V-shape, about 50 yards apart. Then the Army went in. When they ran into machine gun nests we would fire the rockets in there. I never went on the beach because our officers said, “Don’t go on the beach, whatever you do.” Even when the beach was secured we didn’t go on it.
I spent 10 days on the water. I was so tired. We lived on this little rocket boat for 10 days. You did the best you could on it. They gave us K-rations to eat and that was it. They used us as a messenger boat. I was very fortunate there because we were on the water a lot. I saw men that drowned. That was a bad sight. We were close to the enemy but it seems like we didn’t lose that many rocket boats. We finally got to go aboard ship and rest, and no sooner had I gotten in my bunk than GQ rings. I said, “I don’t care if we get hit or not. I’m not leaving.” I was so tired. I got wounded in Southern France. The second invasion. We were only there that on day. We ran into a machine gun nest in a hotel on the beach. They were shooting at us and one of the bullets just grazed me but we fired our rockets and knocked the hotel down.
When the war was over I was happy to get out and go play ball again! I was lucky to get back. I never talked about the war very much. I really didn’t. I never talked about being over there. I went to Newark—the Newark Bears—and actually joined them on my birthday in May.
/s/ Lawrence “Yogi” Berra, Hall of Fame Catcher
NOTE: After his return to civilian life Yogi Berrais became a Major League Baseball catcher, manager and coach. He played almost his entire 19-year baseball career (1946–65) for the New York Yankees. He is widely regarded as one of the best catchers in baseball history and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972. Berra was an All-Star for 15 seasons. He is one of only four players to be named the Most Valuable Player of the American League three times and is one of seven managers to lead both American and National League teams to the World Weries. As a player, coach, or manager, Berra appeared in 21 World Series including 13 World Series championships. He was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in a voting of fans in 1999. Berra, who quit school after the eighth grade, is known for his pithy and paradoxical quotes, such as "It ain't over 'til it's over", while speaking to reporters. Simultaneously denying and confirming his reputation, Berra once stated, "I really didn't say everything I said.”
Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)
