DATE: Friday, May 16, 1997                  TAG: 9705150196

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 04   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   69 lines

SURVIVORS MEET AT BEACH TO RECALL '45 SINKING OF DESTROYER DREXLER

May was the cruelest month for the nearly new destroyer Drexler 52 years ago off Okinawa. The Drexler, known officially as DD 741, set a grisly record of sorts by rolling over and sinking in just 49 seconds after being hit by two Japanese Kamikaze planes on May 28, 1945.

One hundred and fifty-five sailors died that day aboard the Drexler, and 51 were wounded, out of a crew of 357.

Among U.S. Navy vessels, only an exploding World War II munition ship at Noumea, New Caledonia, may have sunk faster.

The Drexler dead are being remembered this week by shipmates, friends, and family gathered in Virginia Beach. At least 40 Drexler survivors will attend the ship's reunion in the Norfolk Airport Hilton. It began Wednesday and continues through Sunday.

``We also expect more than a hundred family members, as well as widows, children and relatives of departed shipmates,'' said Robert B. McIntyre, 73, who joined the Navy at 17 before Pearl Harbor and ended up as a signalman first class on the signal bridge of the Drexler.

As an honored old hand from the Drexler, McIntyre, now a retired master chief who lives in Virginia Beach, is helping to make the reunion happen.

On May 28, 1945, nobody had a better ringside seat for a Kamikaze attack than McIntyre.

The Kamikazes were a desperation weapon conceived by Japanese warlords, who knew if they lost Okinawa, the main Japanese islands to the north were doomed.

Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, commanding the Pacific fleet and the landing forces, was prepared to pay a terrible price for Okinawa.

When the Marines first went ashore on Okinawa on April 1, the destroyers spread a steel screen of U.S. guns and radars between the southernmost Japanese island of Kyushu to prevent reinforcements from reaching Okinawa.

The Japanese high command countered with the Kamakaze attacks, ``the Divine Wind'' that, according to Japanese tradition, was a mighty typhoon that once saved the home islands by destroying a fleet of invaders. There was no lack of volunteer pilots to fly the suicide planes that were stuffed with bombs and other explosives rigged to go off on impact.

It didn't take the Japanese long to realize the U.S. destroyer radar screen around Okinawa was tipping off U.S. Marine and Navy fighter planes in plenty of time to shoot down the approaching planes.

So the Japanese attacks were switched to the destroyers.

In the first 25 days of May, the Drexler remained almost constantly at general quarters on what was called ``radar picket'' duty north of Okinawa. Drexler operated with a sister ship, the Lowry, and two small landing support vessels.

During that time, 10 U.S. destroyers were sunk or badly damaged by the Divine Wind pilots. Dozens of smaller ships - anything with a working radar - joined the U.S. destroyers, and the Kamikaze planes were soon diving on landing craft of all varieties, along with destroyer escorts and harbor craft that had joined the destroyers.

On May 28 the Japanese concentrated on the Drexler group, and before the terrible day was over 115 Kamikaze planes has been ``splashed'' - shot down.

It wasn't quite enough.

``I was on the signal bridge, on the port side,'' said Chief McIntyre. ``We were attacked by six twin-engine bombers coming in over the bow. Marine fighter planes got two of them; two others missed the ship and plunged into the sea.

``But the remaining two dove and rammed the Drexler.

``The blast from the second plane opened the Drexler's deck to the sky. A tremendous explosion violently rocked the ship, and tons of water poured into the lower compartments. Soon the Drexler was lying on her side.

``Just 49 seconds after the second suicide strike, the Drexler rolled over and, in a great fountain of splashing water, she disappeared.''

The two small support craft operating with the Drexel picked up the survivors. Less than three months later the war was over.

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