VETERANS DAY | 75 years later, WWII vet remembers war's end

World War II veteran Jesse Linam.
World War II veteran Jesse Linam.

TEXARKANA, Texas - With this year marking the Diamond Anniversary of World War II's ending, local resident Jesse Linam is now just one of about 299,000 U.S. war veterans still living who experienced that war.

He was a U.S. Navy (gun) fire control mate, second class, serving aboard four separate U.S. Navy cruisers in the Pacific during the war.

Turning 100 years old this past summer, Linam remembered helping get his warship's bombardment guns ready to aim at Japan's mainland itself.

"We were actually getting ready to bombard a shore area near the Yokosuka Naval Base, just about the time that the Japanese city of Nagasaki was about to get hit by the world's second atomic bomb," he said. "We were going to attempt to fire shells in an area where there was thought to be an American Prisoner of War camp nearby. But right then, according to scuttlebutt, there was talk of a cease fire and that the war might be over."

While the war didn't exactly end at that point on Aug. 9, 1945, the war did end a few weeks later.

"That day (Sept. 2, 1945) the captain announced that the war was over and there was no more fighting, so we were all able to go to shore at Yokosuka Naval Station that next day (Sept. 3)" Linam said. "There was plenty cheering and jumping and shouting of joy that day. We were glad beyond belief that the war was finally over."

While going ashore at Yokosuka to be part of a goodwill mission following the surrender, Linam's group headed further ashore to meet and shake hands with Japanese city officials.

They suddenly came upon a startling sight.

"We saw a Japanese military officer, in uniform, approaching us directly and we weren't sure why, but as he got to within eight or nine feet of us, he suddenly stepped to one side and bowed down to us before going on his way. We were all relieved."

About three months later, Linam arrived back home, docking in San Diego aboard the cruiser USS Mobile.

"I went home as a passenger, but when I got back to the states, this cruiser needed a (gun) fire control officer, so they made me a chief fire control man and I stayed with the Mobile until August of 1946."

Born in Crenshaw, Mississippi, in 1920, Linam and his family moved to Texarkana in 1925. He grew up in the Rose Hill neighborhood on the Texas side of town.

Not long after graduating from Texas High School class of 1940, Linam joined the U.S. Navy by signing up at the Navy recruiting office on Aug. 7, 1940. The office was housed at the time in the city's downtown federal courthouse.

Having been able to come back home and reflect on the war for the past 75 years, Linam said his experience not only enabled him to learn how to take orders, but it helped him commit his life and his future family's life to God.

Linam's promise to God came during the Battle of Rennell Island, in the Solomon Island chain, in late January 1943.

At the time, his cruiser, the USS Chicago, sailed out to help escort U.S. supply transports to the heavily contested Guadalcanal Island. During a nighttime enemy air attack, the Chicago took two air-launched torpedo hits, which caused tremendous flooding and a power loss.

This forced the cruiser to have to be towed. By afternoon of the next day, another enemy air attack put four more torpedoes into the Chicago, forcing its crew, including Linam, to abandon ship.

As Linam struggled to swim and stay above the ocean water, he began to look up skyward.

"At that time, I thought for sure my life would be over," said Linam, who at the time was suffering from a serious shrapnel wound in his left ankle. "At one point, I looked up toward Heaven and I told God I needed help - and I told Him that if he let me live, I would marry, have a family and dedicate their lives to Christ."

Linam's prayer got an answer as sailors from the U.S. Navy tugboat Navajo soon pulled him out of the sea.

"At that time, I can remember it being the most dangerous moment and the best moment of my life," he said.

As it turned out Linam and his wife Irene went on to have two sons - and even though one of his sons, Charles, only lived to be 13 years old and died of Hodgkin's Disease, his other son, Larry went on to be Baptist Church pastor in Lonoke, Arkansas.

"God does answer prayers," Linam said.

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