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Served on the USS Champion
Coffman's wife received a letter from the Navy Department
telling of a Japanese suicide plane's attack on the Champion, and she notes that
"Clyde and his buddy were on a 20mm gun that hit the plane. He said the plane was headed straight for the
middle of the ship. He was strapped into the
gun and was trying desperately to hit the plane. Just
as it came close enough for him to see the pilot, he hit the plane and it veered, taking
the end of the ship with it. He and his buddy
were slightly injured with pieces of flying shrapnel."
The piece she received from the Navy Department reads as
follows:
"Clearing San Diego 7 December 1943, Champion arrived at
Pearl Harbor 13 December. Between 8 January
and 4 March 1944, she was assigned the task of guarding vital shipping between Pearl
Harbor and San Francisco. More direct support
to frontline operations came from 18 March to 10 April, when she escorted two re-supply
convoys to Tarawa, after which she screened a convoy to Kwajalein from 19 April to 7 May
in support of the Marshalls operation.
"After a short overhaul, she sailed to Saipan for
minesweeping operations and local escort duty in late June, then returned to Pearl Harbor
for more extensive overhaul. From 13 September
to 17 November she guarded convoys from Pearl Harbor to Eniwetok and Saipan before
training for the Iwo Jima operation".
"Champion arrived off Iwo Jima 16 February 1945, as the
preliminary three-day bombardment of the island began.
Except for the period 21 February to 4 March, when she sailed escorting
unloaded assault shipping to Saipan, from which she returned with re-supply echelons,
Champion remained off Iwo Jima until 7 March. After
provisioning and refueling at Ulithi, she sailed for Kerama Retto and Okinawa. In these dangerous waters she conducted
minesweeping operations and served in screens from 24 March to 19 June, aside from a
convoy escort voyage to Saipan from 25 April to 19 May."
"On 16 April, a suicide plane crashed close aboard
Champion, spraying debris which slightly damaged her and wounded four of her men. She returned to Seattle 20 July for an overhaul
which lasted through the end of the war.
"Champion received three battle stars for service in
World War II."
THE DAILY JOURNAL, St. Francois Co., Wednesday, April 26, 1995
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