James De Lesantis

‘The ocean, normally a calm, peaceful scape with bright blue waters expanding out far and wide. Completely separated from all the dramas and tensions on land, giving you a moment of peace as the waves caress your ears. The feeling of alienation creeps into your veins as your mind traces your deepest thoughts. Such a peaceful place is one not to be struck by war and terror. Such a place should not be ruined and turned into a battlefield by ignorance, let alone the entire world reaching the same fate. But this is the result of insolence and aggression. We must play our part in protecting this country and this world, for the sake of the American people, we are to defend this land, and we will succeed in our mission.’

-Douglas Woodroe’

I lay my pencil down on the side railing of the ship. After finishing my small little poem, I look out to the sea, trying to find some source of hope for that ‘peacefulness’ which I wrote about in my piece. It isn’t often we get times like this to ourselves, time to try and forget the chaos and pain. It does feel calm and relaxing though, the warm, summer-like breeze gently brushing along my face as I glue my eyes into the steady waters. Leaning deeper onto the bar, I cast my thoughts back to a time before the war begun. I thought we’d never need another one, I thought we learnt from the first one. But I digress, the day has finally come for us to put our hard work to the test. We’ve been informed that the Japanese are occupying the Mashall and Gabriel islands, utilizing them for air bases and docking points. It is up to us to take that back from them. Or at least supress their advantages by damaging their assets. Loud, thumping footsteps clang on the metallic stairs behind me and I slowly spin myself around, still leaning on the railing, and face the base of the stairs.

“Mornin’ Woodroe, early bird gets the worm ay?”.

Lieutenant Paddock, 1^st division of the Yorktown class in the USS Navy, captain of the USS Enterprise stands before me. His flashy- white naval suit gleams in the sunlight, he looks confident as ever. The kind of confidence that you would want your captain to have, especially if you’re about to go into battle for the first time on a newly developed carrier. But the confidence that he emitted never really reached others, he tried his best, but everyone knew what they had got themselves into. Crossing my arms, I lean back further into the cold and metallic railing as the thoughts of peacefulness begin to escape my mind. 

“Heh. Yeah you could say that, but I don’t know if I want to be the early bird this morning”. I responded.

Lieutenant Paddock is all about confidence and morality. You can see it in his face as his eyes shrink, his brows lower and his forehead wrinkles from every corner. Only the wind separates the tension as our eyes lock together.

“Listen, mac. I know it won’t be easy, but everyone on this god damn ship feels the same. I just want one person, one bloody person who’s with me on this”. 

He’s right. It isn’t easy. It’s not like the guy’s here don’t want to be on this ship, but none of us have been to war before, that’s what we’re afraid of. But nonetheless, this has to be done. Taking in a deep breath, I cast my eyes back to the ‘peaceful’ seas, taking as much of it in as I can before I respond back to Paddock. “Whatever let’s just get this done over. Where are all the other guys?”. Paddock seems much less frustrated now, the air feels cooler too, almost as if he is some powerful god that can control the weather.

“We are all goin’ up to the flight deck for engagement. E.T.A. is ten minutes from now. Get yourself ready, I’ll see you up there”. Paddock turns around in his usual, cold fashion and appearing as dramatic as he can. His icy-white coat flutters as he turns, and the boards under his feet squeal as he rapidly ascends up the stairs. The staple ‘Eagle’ sign on the back of his coat shines in the light as he ascends the stairs to the flight deck. Turning around for what could possibly be the last time, I peer out into the ocean breeze once again. Reaching deep into my pocket, I pull out a packet of cigarettes I received earlier when first arriving on this ship by Paddock. I felt it symbolic to give one a shot. I give a single cigar a quick light and take in the essence of the light puff of smoke that follows through. It tastes terrible. My throat stings and my chest tightens as the smoke enters my lungs, I figured not to ever try this again, and I toss the smouldering cigarette onto the boards and stamp it out, feeling some of the ash creep into the base of my shoes. 

After walking up the stairs briskly, I reach the flight deck of the carrier. It has everything your average city has; people, vehicles, shouting, rushing, pushing and shoving. A reminder of home and the past, a past when people would be pushing and shoving to get to work on time, not to fight for their lives. The air is filled with heavy scents of gasoline and gunpowder, the stinging sensation of these makes your skin crawl. Pilots and their gunmen shout at each other, their voices can be barely heard over the sound of two Wright R-1820 Cyclone engines firing up and cutting the air as the Dauntless Dive Bombers line up on the runway. Commands are shouted from the bridge, and the runway is swiftly cleared of its occupants, giving the aircraft free opportunity to take off. With that, the air gets torn to pieces as the Dauntless aircraft accelerate forward, reaching the edge of the deck in no time and increasing their altitude after clearing the deck. While I keep my eyes glued to the aircraft, I hear another pair of boots behind me. 

“What do you think huh? This’ll catch them by surprise, we’ve even got Yorktown coming too, did’ja hear?”. 

Behind me is one of my friends who happened to be assigned to the same carrier as me. William Bolt, we met way before the war begun. During elementary school, we used to talk a lot about our hobbies and what not. We got together really well, and we still are good friends to this day. I feel him brush up against me as he walks out further into the flight deck with his hands in his pockets. Out of all the people on this ship, even Paddock, I’d say he by far the most confident man we have with us. I scoff a little as I hike my eyebrows towards him. “Oh? Never have I ever seen you up so bright and early, I wonder what’s made that change, Will?”.

A big smile sprawls across his face as he looks up at the sky and back down at me.

“Are you kidding? Why on earth would I miss a day like this! Finally, we get to see some action! Aren’t you excited?”. 

“Eh, debateable. I wouldn’t say I’m particularly ‘excited’ to be blown up, I’d rather be at home at the moment”. I respond with an acidic tone, establishing my distain towards the war as a whole. William doesn’t see this though, he’s the kind of guy that’s always excited about something even if it means he gets himself into trouble. He was good at raising the mood though, always brandishing a big smile on his face and dancing around. 

The deck was lively once more, a hubbub of shouting and commands filling the air. I take a couple steps back to survey the scene ahead of me. All eyes on deck turn up to the bridge as we hear an announcement of incoming enemy attacks. Our eyes dart around the sky looking for any ounce of a sign in which direction we will be attacked from. Soon enough, five Japanese G3M’s are spotted, and are heading our way. The deck disperses once more, but this time with its occupants manning the anti-air guns littered alongside the carrier. My mind comes to a stop on one thing and one thing only: survive. I scamper down the edge of the flight deck and kneel down beside the anti-air gun Will is manning. His face struck with concentration and determination as he follows the enemy aircraft with the barrels of his gun. 

William unleashes a barrage of rounds towards the enemy aircraft, leading the barrel of his gun to match their movements. Each round released creating a thudding in my stomach, I keep my head down and watch as the brass casings rattle across the deck. The steam of the gun wafts through and into my nose from all the AA guns being fired in sync. Our gunners focus their fire on aircraft attempting to attack with a vertical strike rather than horizontal in an attempt to proportionally increase the difficulty for the enemy aircraft to make a successful bombing run. One of the enemy G3M’s denounces William as his target. The aircraft swivels in a wide arch as it rapidly approaches the carrier at an angle fit for strafing. My heart sinks deeper into my chest as I realise the intent of the aircraft. It’s five-hundred-pound bomb nuzzles closely to the belly of the aircraft, ready to be released. The aircraft screeches through the air, ringing my ears as it draws closer and closer. In an endeavour to subdue the oncoming fire, the aircraft unleashes its own belt, first striking the deep ocean water with fifty-calibre rounds. The water hisses and cracks as its pierced by the rounds penetrating through the surface level. The aircraft’s trajectory raises, and its bullets elevate higher and higher. I bring my head down as the deck is plastered with bullets before one final round from Will’s anti-aircraft gun subdues the enemy aircraft once and for all.

The G3M’s craftsmanship is terribly poor, and a single strike to its engine sets half the aircraft into a ball of flames as it tumbles lower and lower. Eventually, the aircraft stalls completely and falls short of the carrier, splashing a huge wave of water all over the deck. With water all over me, I try and regain my strength and lean up. My legs continue to buckle and I’m unable to stabilise myself. The smell of gunpowder burning and the sound of bullets crackling still resonates in the air. Through pain and exhaustion, I manage to hoist my arms over the edge of the railing to see the remains of the aircraft, and behold, floating in the deep sea sits multiple dark green aircraft parts with large Japanese symbols on them, through a surge of excitement, my eyes open wide, and I spin around. 

“Yes! Yes, you did it mate! You shot him to hell and back! You… got him…”. William no longer stands proud at the base of his AA gun, rather, he sits before it and has an expressionless look on his face. Looking further down his body, he clutches his hip tightly with right hand, and a river of blood drips from the gaps between his fingers. My heart beats exponentially as I feel myself tear up immediately. The sounds of gunfire and the smell of smoke is drowned out, all that I can think of is William. I scramble on my knees next to him and bring my hands down on-top of his wound, applying pressure to it. I look back up at his face with teary eyes and redness all over my face. My teeth chatter, and my hands can barely keep still on his wound. But I have to say something. “Y…your ok…! Just… Just stay with me, don’t close your eyes… just stay right here”. He remains expressionless as he turns his pale face towards mine. “It’ll be ok… Just think about it… you’ll be a hero, a goddamn war hero after this… stay with me…”. 

I can feel soft tears begin to slowly run down my face, as I see the light beginning to fade from his eyes. I release my hands off him and look down, they are completely covered in blood. My body aches everywhere due to everything that has occurred. My head spins in circles, I’ve just watched my best friend die… and there was nothing I could have done to save him. Looking up to the sky, I aim to find some form of release, some form of freedom. A gradual whistling sound brings me back to reality, my eyes fixate on a small, oval shaped object rapidly approaching the deck of the carrier. I take one last look at William, a small smile still sits on his face as the whistling comes to a stop.

The deck is engulfed in flames, smoke spreads everywhere across the deck and so follows the sound of one thousand earthquakes happening at once. I can’t feel anything. I can barely see what is happening ahead of me. I no longer feel the hard and wet wooden floorboards underneath my knees. Instead, I’m surrounded by a deep blue hue. But… its peaceful. The gunfire has stopped, the smells are gone, the death and pain is nowhere to be seen. I like the peace; I wish I could simply drown in it. I swish my arms upwards, forcing myself to leave the peace. I scramble across a destroyed segment of the deck which I once stood on. The sound of aircraft is gone, they completed their mission. Taking one last look at the carrier shows it to be split into two halves, and a huge ball of fire emanating from the centre. The air is filled with creeks and groans as the ship tries harder and harder to stay afloat. But she wasn’t so lucky today. As the ship continues to groan in pain, I feel something soft yet moist collide with my elbow, I instinctively turn around. What is presented in-front of me is a bright white coat, heavily damaged with a large gash surrounded by blood on the left side. The back of the coat displays the staple eagle sign. The coat is slightly bent as it drifts further past me. I gain a glimpse of the breast pocket on the coat, a stitched nametag gleams in the orange and yellow hue of fire. Leaning in slowly, I get a look at who this jacket once belonged to…“Paddock.”

Copyright James De Lesantis, October 2024. All rights reserved; this intellectual property belongs solely to James De Lesantis.

About James De Lesantis

My name is James De Lesantis. I am a year 11 student at Parade College, and have recently been studying The Pacific War, which occurred in 1941 to 1945. This piece was inspired by my interest in naval warships and vessels of the time period, and the story aims to give an alternative conclusion to the voyages of USS Enterprise cv-6. The USS Enterprise was an incredibly important part of the US Navy’s survival and eventual triumph against the Japanese. This is my first submission to Stories Connecting Us, although I am planning to submit more pieces, particularly game reviews as that is another interest of mine. You can expect reviews of games that are both globally-recognised and uncovered gems.