ROCK HILL SAILOR SMILED AT DEATH
                           IN GUADALCANAL STRUGGLE


Home recently after seeing important naval action in the Pacific, Fire Controlman Arvid B. Smith told his mother, Mrs. J. L. Smith, of Jones Avenue, his part in the Guadalcanal struggle; mentioning battleships and cruisers, Japs, and United States Marines, and sinking as calmly as though he were discussing everyday affairs.

Stationed on the USS Preston somewhere in the Pacific, he related how they skirmished with the Japs days before the real battle started. Playing a game of hide-and-seek the American force got three Jap ships for everyone they lost. "Then late one evening two United States battleships, the Washington and South Dakota, joined us," Smith said. "Up to this time we had consisted only of destroyers and cruisers, and boy, were we glad to see those big boys with their 16 inch guns!” Smith exclaimed. Now they were ready for action.

                                                                 Prepare For Fight

That same evening word went about the ship that the Japs, too, were bringing up battleships, preparing for a big attack. "They were coming in an attempt to take the Island of Quadalcanal away from our Marines," Smith continued. "At this time, the marines had almost beaten the Jap soldiers on the island and the Japs were trying to land more troops."

"It was up to us," Smith said, "to see that they didn't land a single soldier.”

Smith said the Jap force that came down consisted of about half the navy they have left: 3 battleships, 10 destroyers, 6 cruisers, and the 12 troop transports with 30,000 soldiers aboard them. In comparison, our force consisted of only four destroyers and the two new battleships, Smith stated, the rest of it having gone back to base for supplies, fuel, repairs, and to bury the dead.

"Roughly outnumbered from four to one," Smith went on, "we knew that a lot of us weren't coming out in one piece, but we don't figure on things like that. in the Navy" Worrying takes your mind off your job, says this sailor, and once begin worrying you have lost 50 percent of your value to the outfit.

The American plan was to sneak ahead of the Japs and wait for them. "But,” he smiled, ''as you probably read in the paper, they got there first and set a trap for us."

                                                                             Open Fire

When the United Ships arrived, the Japs opened fire from both sides. Momentarily stunned, the American fleet rallied and began fighting back. The USS Preston within short order sank three Jap transports. "I had the telescope sight on the director," he recalled. "Every time I would sight a ship we would let go and she would go up in flames." Then came the hit. The Preston had just damaged a cruiser which was attacking the Washington, when an enemy battleship aiming for the Washington sent four 15 inch shells into its hull. "We sank quickly," Smith continued, "and many of my. buddies went down, too, trapped below decks."

Smith was able to abandon ship safely. Over the side and down into the water, the 24 year old sailor escaped. Attributing his. Life to the prayers of his mother and wife, Donna; he said that only 90 were saved. That night Smith spent in the water, and the following day was picked up and carried to shore. Though exhausted, he w~ without injury of any kind.

Source: This story was told by Arvid Burman Smith and printed in the Herald, Rock Hill, SC - Tuesday, August 24, 1943.

Burman served 20 years in the US Navy, served 16 years in a civil service - 9 years with ICBM missile quality control in California and Polaris submarine missile quality control in Charleston, and then for seven years for NASA developing the moon rover and subsequent successful lunar launch at Cape Kennedy, FL.