Remembering an uncle’s harrowing World War II experiences

Doug Canady of Hillsboro submitted photos of his grandfather, Roy Richter, who was married and the father of four small children when he was drafted into the U.S. Navy during World War II.

“He was assigned to the USS Leray Wilson, a destroyer escort in the Pacific,” Canady says. “On Jan. 10, 1945, while on antisubmarine patrol near the western entrance to Lingayen Gulf, the ship underwent a Japanese kamikaze attack.”

The plane flew in low, barely 25 feet above the surface of the water, and was shot down by the ship’s gunners. It struck the ship, killing six gunners, seriously wounding seven more, including Richter, and causing extensive damage.

“He spoke of the horror of the loud explosions and fire and dead and wounded friends,” Canady said. “The crew were all given a small piece of the plane's fabric covering. It looks and feels like duct tape.”

That wasn’t the end of Richter’s dramatic adventures.

“He told me that his most terrifying experience of the war was when Task Force 38 was in the middle of Typhoon Cobra in December 1944,” Canady says. “He said there were times when the ship was lying on its side as the men held on, trying to stay in their bunks where they had been ordered to remain. Three nearby destroyers capsized and sank, with 790 lives lost.”

Richter was among the first of the U.S. occupiers of a defeated Japan, stationed at Tokyo. He was discharged in 1946 and died in 2000.

“Everyone who knew him said he was never the same after he came home from service,” Canady says. “He was a much more serious and solemn person.”