the American War effort
for three solid years. From Pearl Harbor to the
climactic battle of Leyte Gulf, her string of victories has
earned the ship the nickname Lucky E. But this
war is not over. Japan has unleashed a terrifying
new weapon, suicide planes. Kamikaze attacks will bring
Enterprise the highest casualties of the entire war,
and the ship's fabled luck may be about to run out. USS Enterprise, a
fighting city of steel. She is the most revered
and decorated ship in World War II, on this 360 degree
battlefield where threats loom on the seas, in the skies,
and the ocean depths. The Enterprise's enemies could
be anywhere and everywhere. There's nowhere to run when
the battle's all around you. Battle 360, USS Enterprise,
the empire's last stand. January 10, 1945,
3:00 AM, a squadron of bombers and
fighters launch off the deck of the USS Enterprise. Commander Bill Martin asks
the flyers of Enterprise to take on one of the
most dangerous operations of the war. No one turns him down. TOM WATTS: He's
a common officer, then he says tonight we're
going to fly into hell and back, and you'd go right with him. NARRATOR: For three solid
years, USS Enterprise has been leading America's
war in the Pacific. No other ship has
seen so much combat. No other vessel has
won so many victories. MARTIN MORGAN: This ship saw all
of the high points of the war against Japan. EDWARD SUTO: She defeated
Japan not single handed, but she was out in
a precarious times when nobody else was out there. ARNOLD OLSON: She may
have missed a few battles, but she didn't miss many. NARRATOR: Now three
years after Pearl Harbor, Enterprise unleashes
a new strategy against the Japanese
empire, night air attacks. 300 miles away from Enterprise,
15 ships of a Japanese convoy run supplies to the imperial
fleet under cover of darkness. They hug the coast of
what is now Vietnam. The 21 Enterprise night birds
spot the fat target near dawn and go to work. Lieutenant Russ Kippen leads the
attack and his torpedo bomber. He's already a hero, an
experienced night fighter who led the daring attack
on Truck Lagoon in 1944. Now, he sets his sights on
a Japanese light cruiser. Soaring in at only 500
feet above sea level, Kippen dropped
both of his bombs. They bracket the cruiser,
forcing her to veer off. Another bomber begins his run
and hits a destroyer mid ship. At the same time,
Hellcat fighters tear up the decks of the
ships with machine gun fire. The Hellcats have a new weapon
in their arsenal, high velocity rockets. Each fighter can fire off
six rockets so powerful they gain the
nickname Holy Moses. They travel at over
1,300 feet per second with a range of over 6,000
feet, an explosive warhead that can penetrate armor. The Rockets ripped from
beneath the Hellcats wings, punching holes in one
of the merchant ships. When the Enterprise bombers
break off the attack near dawn, three ships are sunk, two
more are damaged and heading for shore, and another two
ships are dead in the water. It's been a good night. This is the new face of
warfare, a trail being blazed by Enterprise and her men as
they lay claim to the night. Two weeks before, Enterprise
steamed out of Pearl Harbor on Christmas Eve. She had undergone some
major renovations including new landing lights and
new planes, each equipped with the newest
radar technology. Radar already allows ships
to see incoming threats, but more importantly,
the aircraft mounted radar gives
the Allied forces a new tactical advantage,
flying at night. In addition to new technology,
now Enterprise also has a new designation. She was once CV-6. Now she has CV(N)-6. The N stood for
night operations, so she becomes the first and
only night operating carrier. NARRATOR: Commander Bill Martin
is the mastermind behind night fighting. But night operations has its
detractors in the navy brass. WILLIAM BODETTE: It
was very controversial. They thought why are we
doing this new thing. Why we doing night operations. We're already winning the war. NARRATOR: Bill Martin has
his own personal mission-- to prove that night operations
are not only viable, they are necessary. ALAN PIETRUSZEWSKI:
There's clearly a huge strategic advantage
to be under attack at night. If you can't find me,
you can't shoot me. What are the disadvantages? Well, now your pilots have
to fly a night mission, which is high stress physiologically,
and then come back and land on a carrier at night. That's not easy. NARRATOR: Radio man Tom
Watts has been training with the pilots of Enterprise in
the art of flying in the dark. TOM WATTS: Planes
are all blacked out. The exhaust on each side of
the engines were covered. If you flew in formation,
the guy next to you could look out and see his wing
almost in your window there. NARRATOR: But if flying
in the dark is difficult, landing is worse. Pilots must guide themselves
through the dark to their home target using only
radar then try to land on the bucking deck of the
carrier with few visual cues. TOM WATTS: All they
had for a night landing was a little string of lights up
the center of the flight deck. It's a tough job at daytime,
but at nighttime, it's really rough. NARRATOR: But Enterprise must
also operate during the day, flying combat air patrol
during enemy attacks and keeping her flight deck open
to receive planes that are too damaged to make it back
to their home carriers. Around the clock combat
schedules go into effect. War is now a 24-hour affair. January 5, 1945, five
days before combat begins, Enterprise meets
up with its task force. There are six full-size
carriers, six light carriers, battleships, destroyers,
and support craft, 116 ships and all, the most
powerful Naval strike force the world has ever seen. The task force makes its
way to the South China Sea. It is the first time
that Allied forces have entered the
Japanese controlled sea since the war began. The night attack on
the Japanese convoy is only the first strike. Over the next three days, Bill
Martin's night group bombs Japanese held Saigon, Hong Kong,
and Canton, the first strikes on these vital mainland ports. In less than two weeks, the
pilots of the Big E flight 4,000 miles, sink
200,000 tons of shipping, and strike at the mainland
outposts of Japan's empire. The night fighters are
already proving their worth. Two weeks later, Enterprise
gets its biggest challenge. Target, Kiirun Harbor, Formosa. Objective, destroy enemy
shipping and supply bases. Strategy, night
attack with bombers. January 22nd, 2:00 AM, seven TBM
avengers launch into the night. Each carries two 500-pound
bombs, six 5-inch rockets, one pilot, one electronics
officer, and one radar operator. It's not an easy position. TOM WATTS: We had
to navigate where we want to go plus years
radar, plus drop bombs, plus drop flares. NARRATOR: Bill Martin
personally leads three planes in the Formosa strike. The other section is led
once again by Lieutenant Russ Kippen. They fly due west
for 212 miles then Northwest for another
100 miles until they reach the island of Formosa. The radar man picks up the
pattern of Kiirun Harbor on the radar scopes at 4:30 AM. The attack begins. The TMB's targets are the
outer and inner harbors fat with supply ships. Land based targets are vital oil
tanks and a small arms factory. But those who fly by
radar can die by radar. Japanese radar picks up
the incoming attackers, and anti-aircraft fills the sky. Bill Martin has a simple plan
based on his intimate knowledge of radar operations. He climbs to 8,000 feet and
flies toward the inner harbor guided by radar. Japanese anti-aircraft
point toward it. What the enemy doesn't know
is that Russ Kippen is flying 8,000 feet directly below him
so that both planes show up as a single blip on
the Japanese radar. As the anti-aircraft
targets the high planes, Kippen's avengers
soar in undetected. The flight group makes three
runs using the same technique, dropping their bombs on
tankers and warehouses. One Avenger
unleashes its rockets on a small arms factory. [explosion] It makes a satisfying
fireworks display. But ask the flight
group veers back home, three planes are
unaccounted for. TOM WATTS: Last. I heard of Kippen, he says that
searchlights were bothering him. Then I didn't hear
anything more about him. Commander Martin
tried to call Kippen. There isn't no answer,
and so eventually he had to come back by himself. They've lost three
planes, so that was a big blow to our squadron. Despite their losses, the
night bombers of Enterprise keep up the pressure on the
enemy with midnight attacks on the Japanese home islands
and even on Tokyo itself. And now that the Japanese
know they could be hit, they become more ferocious
in their defenses and more desperate
in their attacks. MARTIN MORGAN: So
for the Japanese, they're turning
up the intensity. They're fighting more savagely. They're resisting with
more and more stubbornness. NARRATOR: Nowhere is Japan's
desperate newfound ferocity more evident than at the tiny
strip of Pacific Land called Iwo Jima. It's a small island, but
America needs it as an air base to launch B 29 bombers to
strike the Japanese mainland, and the Japanese have no
intention of giving it up. On February 19th, the US
invasion of Iwo Jima begins. While Marines storm the
beaches and fight inch by inch, Enterprise fighters will
keep an average of 50 flights over the island every 24 hours
nonstop for seven full days, a feat unequaled in the war. But the results of
this punishing drill speak for themselves on sea,
on land, and in the air. ARNOLD OLSON: There was
not one successful enemy air attack on the
Marines or the beachhead all the time we were providing
combat air patrol at Iwo Jima from the 21st of February
until the 10th of March. NARRATOR: The iconic
flag raising actually signals the beginning of the
Iwo invasion, not the end. But it's a signal that the
Enterprise and her pilots can leave the battle area
for a much needed rest. It will not be a long one. March 18th, 5:17 AM,
Enterprise floats near Iwo Jima as the first
flights return from their night bombing raids. Enterprise radar spots
a formation of aircraft 75 miles away and closing fast. But they can't tell if the
planes are friend or foe. At 7:30 AM, the
men of Enterprise see the formation themselves. It looks like an
American squadron. A single plane breaks away from
the group 500 feet above sea level and begins a shallow
glide toward Enterprise. RICHARD HARTE: We
watched it coming, and she looked just like a TVF. Nobody fired at it. All we could see was
the front, and she kept coming and coming and coming. NARRATOR: But at 200 feet away,
the horrifying truth hits. JACK MARONEY: And
suddenly we realize this wasn't a friendly
airplane, and he literally was flying just a few feet
above our flight deck. NARRATOR: It's a
Judy dive bomber. The Big E's 20 millimeter guns
rattle out their response, but it is too late. Only a few feet above
the flight deck, the Judy opens her belly door
and drops a 550 pound. RICHARD HARTE: I thought, oh,
God, that's the end of us. I got blown up in here,
came down on my rear end. And I heard this voice
saying, sir, can we abandon the battery. The bomb is down here. And there was this
big, ugly bomb right beside one of our batteries. NARRATOR: The bomb miraculously
has crashed through the flight deck, bounces back up, and
skitters across the deck without going off. All these Marines
with their white faces, big, big eyes staring at it. NARRATOR: All eyes are
on the terrifying object until young sailor Pedro
Sandoval can't stand it any longer. I look around trying to see
which way to get rid of it. So some of my friends help
me roll the bomb on the way to the fan tail and drop it off
the flight deck into the water. We didn't know nothing about
whether the bomb was armed or not. We just went out there
to get rid of it. NARRATOR: It is a direct
hit at point blank range, and it turns out to be a dud. Lucky Enterprise once
again earns her nickname. But incredibly, the war is
about to get even closer to Enterprise. The day after the
dud bomb strike, Enterprise floats in formation. At the far side
of the task crew, carrier USS Franklin
launches fighter strikes against the Japanese
harbor of Kobe. At 7:00 AM, an enemy dive
bomber plunges from the sky. It hits Franklin with
two 550-pound bombs both fore and aft. Franklin is not as lucky as the
Enterprise was the day before. The bombs are devastating,
causing gas planes to explode, sending fires throughout the
ship, blowing men overboard. 20-year-old Edward Suto has
seen action on Enterprise for over a year, but he has
never seen anything like this. EDWARD SUTO: We were
there when she got hit. She had over 40 explosions. Scared you. NARRATOR: From over 10 miles
away, the men of Enterprise can literally feel a series of
thudding blasts as their bombs and torpedoes
self-detonate in the fire. It's reminiscent of the damage
the Big E took on in Santa Cruz only this is worse, much worse. And I don't know
how long it went on, but it was just hard to
believe that a boat could go through such agony
and still survive. 724 are killed, and
265 are wounded. Enterprise hurries to the
rescue of the listing carrier. Enterprise patrols fly
close cover around the clock to protect the
wounded giant as she makes her way to the
American base at Ulithi 1,300 miles away. The ship is undertow, but
incredibly Franklin's engines are repaired within 24 hours. No carrier has ever
received such massive damage and survived. She begins to steam
under her own power into the Navy repair port. When a ship comes into
port, they generally go at a quarters, which means
the sailors line the deck and standing at attention. So they looking as
ship shape as possible. But when the Franklin
went in to that port, the Franklin had
this little knot of men it was all that were left
standing rigidly at attention. And that's all it was, but they
were a proud looking bunch. NARRATOR: As the American
fleet gets closer to Japan, the enemy's strikes
are more deadly. The Enterprise crew watches the
gallant survivors of Franklin, and they know this
could have been them. The next day, it will
be Enterprise's turn. March 20th, Enterprise returns
to her base of operations off Okinawa. They expect an attack from the
same flyers who hit Franklin. They are not disappointed. The initial wave of
Japanese dive bombers appears at 4:00 PM. The first assault comes
from a diving Judy. 2,000 feet above
Enterprise, the bomber drops its 500-pound payload. The bomb travels the entire
length of the Big E's deck before it hits the
sea less than 50 feet from the starbird bough. It explodes in the ocean,
sending jets of water over the flight deck. At 4:24, another
Judy begins its dive. The ship's guns open up, taking
her out just 500 feet away. But the Big E's fabled luck
may be starting to run out. As the Judy dives, Enterprise
is hit by two 5-inch exploding shells from one
of her own ships. We got a lot of damage from
our own antiaircraft fire, and you can't really help that. It's the ship in line on the
other side-- well, that's tough luck. NARRATOR: The American
shells hit the Big E's 40-millimeter gun tub killing
seven men and wounding 30. The explosion sets fire
to a nearby Hellcat. It's ammo ignites. At the same moment, another
Judy dives heading straight for the deck. At 500 feet, she
drops her package. The bomb explodes
on the port deck. Enterprise is on fire. RICHARD HARTE: The
whole island structure had flames going through it, and
our platform that we worked off of was just like a griddle
with a fire underneath it. NARRATOR: Damage control leaps
into action, spraying fire foam across the flaming deck. Enterprise carries a damage
control crew of 300, spread out in small groups
throughout the ship. The Big E's damage
control chief John Monroe had been wise enough
to secretly requisition several times his quota of
fire foam while back in Pearl. Now it's paying off. Within 30 minutes, the
fires raging on deck are under control. 15 minutes after that,
all fires are out. Enterprise guns continue
to hammer at the sky. They shoot down the
last bomber at 5:10 PM. The skies are clear once again. With the flames smothered, it's
clear that the bomb damage is surprisingly minor,
and Enterprise is left with a strange
souvenir of the attack. The fuselage of a
Japanese dive bomber is lodged in the
hole of the ship. JACK MARONEY: We looked
down and the engine is stuck in the
side of the ship, and, of course, the wave action
of our ship going 20, 25 knots, that plane torn up a little
bit more all the time. NARRATOR: The
Enterprise has been hit, but she is still going strong. Her luck has held so far. , the Japanese are now creating a
far more deadly fighting force, one that yearns only
for death, called kamikaze, the divine wind. They are a potent threat. The first suicide
attacks back in 1942 may have been ad hoc decisions
by wounded fighter pilots, but by late 1944, they have
become Japanese policy. Vice Admiral Takijiro
Onishi is the mastermind of the kamikaze squadrons. Onishi realizes that his poorly
trained, under equipped air corps may have one final force
multiplier, suicide strikes. Now in April,
Allied intelligence reports that Onishi has
assembled an entire force of 400 aircraft of
every type and age, each packed with as much
explosives as possible. It is Japan's final
defense of its homeland. Sometimes the kamikazes
are portrayed as desperate, as fanatical. And I don't necessarily think
that they should be construed in such a way. Of course, yes,
the Japanese were at that point in a
desperate situation, but it has to be
construed as the Japanese using a serious weapon, a
serious and deadly weapon. NARRATOR: To the
crewmen of Enterprise, the kamikaze are confusing,
inexplicable, terrifying. It made your
skin kind of crawl. You didn't know what was
going on in their minds. You didn't know if they
were going to do that again. JACK MARONEY: It changed the
whole complexion of the war. You can't rationalize. We're not coming
from the same place. It doesn't make any sense. It's pretty scary. NARRATOR: The Japanese
are willing to sacrifice their best, and the
tactics are working. In March, America launches an
assault on the islands closest to Japan. It is the final act of
the long Pacific war. And like any great stage
drama, the last act is the most spectacular
and the deadliest. Target Okinawa,
objective, take and hold the islands as a staging ground
for the final invasion of Japan itself. Strategy, support the
army and marine invasion and fly protection missions
over the half million allied fighting men
attacking the island. The invasion begins April 1st. It will last 92 days. Enterprise has a crucial role
as part of an Allied fleet of 1,300 ships. It is the largest battle of
the Pacific war, an invasion bigger than Normandy. In light of kamikaze
fears, Enterprise increases her combat air
patrol from 15 to 24 planes. April 11, 1945 at 1:30 PM, the
first of the dreaded kamikaze force makes its long
awaited appearance. Radar reports incoming
bogies 80 miles out. Enterprise begins her
standard evasive pattern, its outlying ships tightening
their protective circle, speed increased to 25 knots,
all eyes on the horizon. At 2:05, the first
zero dives out of the sky aiming for
the nearby carrier Essex. Suddenly, it changes
its target and plummets straight toward the Big E. They're diving at a
pretty fast rate of speed. They always look like
they're heading right for the bridge of your nose. NARRATOR: All guns open fire. The day's first kamikaze smashes
into the sea only 500 yards to starbird. But seconds later, a
kamikaze dive bomber drops out of the
sky dead astern. It is the worst
possible position for the Enterprise preventing
her side guns from taking aim. Enterprise swings around
to provide firepower. Sailors manning her port
40 millimeters open up. The kamikaze keeps coming as
the 40s keep up their onslaught. It is a deadly
duel to the finish. WILLIAM BODETTE: I can honestly
say what it must have been going through his head as a
kamikaze pilot's coming at him shooting at him at the same
time that he knows that he's got to take that bird out of the
air before it gets to his ship, you got to stand your ground. You focus on the task at hand
and take him out to protect you and your buddies. NARRATOR: The duel ends
when the bomber hits the hull at full speed. The kamikaze attack
ruptures eight fuel tanks and floods the torpedo blister. Surprisingly, there
are no casualties. And as damage control gets to
work, the attacks continue. At 3:00 PM, another
dive bomber is shot down only 25 feet off the bough. But as she hits
the water, her bomb goes off, sending
flaming fragments onto the deck of Enterprise. A Hellcat still in the
catapult bursts into flames. Damage control moves quickly and
catapults the flaming fighter into the sea. Another kamikaze begins
its run and is shot down. Then another and another. By nightfall, six kamikaze
assaults have been foiled. Enterprise has been hit. Five men have been wounded. But the ship's
famous luck has held. Enterprise heads to the
navy base at Ulithi Island to repair the bomb damage. When she returns to the
battleground off Okinawa, the war has changed. On May 8, 1945, the
war in Europe is over. The Nazi menace has been put to
rest, and people across America cheer and celebrate. But in the Pacific,
there is no end in sight. Enterprise steams
back to Okinawa where a brutal
battle is entering its eighth relentless week. bers take off into the dark from
the Big E's flight deck. Bill Martin intends to put
the night bomber experiment to the ultimate test. Target, the airfields in
Kyushu, Sasebo, and Nagasaki. Objective, stop the
kamikaze attacks. Strategy, suppression bombing. The night birds intend to hammer
the airfields all night long, preventing the Japanese
from even stepping outside to prepare the morning's
kamikaze flights. 350 miles away on
the island of Kyushu, Japanese radar controlled
searchlights pick out the attackers as they come in. The avengers dodge and weave
through anti-aircraft, buzzing the airfields, strafing parked
aircraft, bombing hangars, rocketing power plants,
and forcing the Japanese off their own airfields. The avengers keep
up the pressure for three-hour
periods, then they are relieved by another group
for the next three hours. The Japanese crews
cannot even step outside. As the first light of dawn
breaks on the horizon, the avengers peel off to be
replaced by the morning fighter patrol. Night bombers have
a disadvantage. In the dark, they cannot
determine the actual damage they have inflicted. But above the American
fleet anchored off the coast of Okinawa, the
results are clear by midday. Not a single Japanese
plane is seen in the sky, not a single
attack on any American ship and the task force
for the entire day. And that proved why our night
operations were so valuable. Throughout the night,
we scraped and hammered the Japanese airfields. So the very next
day, there was not one single Japanese airplane
that even got into flight and attacked one of our ships. NARRATOR: Bill Martin has
proven the deadly effectiveness of radar guided
night operations. Martin's night operations
experiment has worked. Two days later,
the exhausted night patrols land aboard Enterprise
after another successful raid on the home islands. It is 5:30 AM, May 14th. For the around the clock
warriors of the Big E, the day is just beginning. We'd come back in about
5:30 and about 6:00 so. We'd crawl in our bunks,
and we'd get some sleep. But here comes a kamikaze. The 5-incher open up. That'd wake us up. So then we'd sit
up in her bunks. And when it was quiet, then
we'd crawl back in her bunk, try to go back to sleep. NARRATOR: At 6:10 AM,
a new set of bogies are detected by radar, 12
groups several miles out. The Enterprise crew
members prepare for another kamikaze
assault. Within minutes, the first suicide plane begins
its run, headed directly for the center of
the Big E's deck. Enterprise's guns open up. To the crew's
surprise, the kamikaze takes no defensive action
and is quickly shot down. The kamikaze pilots
are barely trained, raw recruits, easy prey for
Enterprise's seasoned gunners. Within a half hour, five
kamikazes are shot in the sky. But at 6:50 AM, a
single zero begins to tail the Big E staying out
of range, darting in and out of fat white cumulus clouds. At 6:56, as Enterprise swings
around in evasive action, the zero sees its opportunity. From dead astern, the Japanese
fighter begins its dive. Enterprise keeps turning,
bringing her guns into play. We had whirled around. One of the fighters
single plane, boy, everybody unloaded on him. NARRATOR: The zero is taking
lots of lead, wobbling in its advance,
yet still it comes. Now the 20s are firing directly
across Enterprise's decks, and it looks like the
ship's luck will hold. RICHARD HARTE: He flew
down our port side up about 200 feet I'd say. Now then you know he's
going to overshoot. Thank God he missed us. NARRATOR: Then to the shock
of all on board, the zero rolls left, turns upside down,
and perfect, elegant dive straight down into the
ship's number one elevator. The largest explosion in
the ship's storied history shakes her from bough to stern. Five decks below, the
zero's 500-pound bomb goes off with such power that
the entire flight elevator flies straight up into the air. A photograph taken from
the nearby USS Washington captures the astonishing moment
where the explosive power of a single kamikaze rockets a
15-ton elevator over 400 feet straight up. Start to get up. All this stuff started coming
back down, pieces of flight deck and beams and I don't
know what all had been blown up in here. Seemed like forever that it
was coming down on top of us. NARRATOR: Like a
knife to the heart, Enterprise has been
hit as never before. Fire fills the elevator
shaft and hangars. The flight deck is
blasted and buckled. The forward guns are gone. The gasoline system
is destroyed. Men are blown overboard,
and 2,000 tons of water begins to pour in through
the wounded ship's hull. The mighty Enterprise lists
7 feet, a sitting duck for the next kamikazes. Damage control
goes into high gear with practiced expertise
from 1,000 drills, putting out fires, rescuing
wounded men, trying to save the ship. The surviving gunners
look to the sky to fend off the next attacks. Thirteen men are
killed, 68 wounded, and eight are thrown overboard. When the dust settles
so to speak and called off the numbers and
Walter Keil's missing. NARRATOR: 19-year-old marine
Walter Keil has manned a gun on Enterprise for over a year. There is no sign of him
amid the destruction. And his gun was pretty much
closest to the explosion. The bough was bent and so on. We feared he must have
gone over the side. NARRATOR: Keil had survived the
explosion by jumping overboard. WALTER KEIL: When I hit the
water and then when I got up, I started swimming
the short distance. I saw this huge wreckage,
and I went toward it. NARRATOR: Keil climbed
to safety on the floating remains of the ruined
flight deck elevator. He finds two other
soaked sailors. He is eventually
rescued by a destroyer and returned to the Big E. When Keil returns, he finds
the once mighty carrier is now a smoking wreck. Damage control
has done its best, but there is a gaping hole
where the elevator once stood. The ship lists with holes
blasted in the hull. Fires have damaged her planes. As the wounded giant
limps off the battlefield, the repair crews
assess the damage. It is not good news. With a missing flight
elevator and a buckled deck, launching and landing
planes is impossible. She's an aircraft carrier
who can launch aircraft. In nearly four years
of war, the Big E has survived multiple
attacks from air, sea, and beneath the waves. It took just one pilot
with suicidal intent and brilliant
flying skills to do what the rest of the Japanese
navy could never do-- take Enterprise out of the war. The wounded Enterprise must
return home for repairs, not just to Pearl Harbor but
to the States, Bremerton, Washington. PEDRO SANDOVAL: That was
the end of the war for us. We hated to leave because
the war was still going on, but we could not operate, not
the condition of the ship. NARRATOR: June 6, 1945, one year
to the day since the Normandy invasion, USS Enterprise
steams into her home port for major repairs. For the next three months,
the crew of Enterprise remains landlocked, some taking shore
leave, some visiting home, some continuing the daily tasks
necessary to maintain this 32,000-ton steel city. Enterprise is still
in dry dock in August when the Japanese surrender. Lloyd and I went into a bar
in Bremerton to have a beer, and somebody came running in
and said the war was over. The war is over. And I'll tell you, it
was a great feeling. NARRATOR: In Tokyo,
representatives of the emperor signed the
unconditional surrender on the deck of the
battleship Missouri. On the day of the surrender,
kamikaze admiral Onishi writes a note of apology
to the 4,000 pilots he sent to their deaths, then
he commits ritual suicide. The long war is over. The men of Enterprise
breathe a sigh of relief as does the rest of America. [applause] Most of the tired heroes just
want to go home and start normal life again. Sailor Edward Suto is
caught on newsreel film. There's a picture
of our victory at sea. You see them all
coming off, and they were all firemen and seamen. It showed Helen
coming up on the right and then I come from
the left and we meet and we grabbed each other
and we hugged and we kissed. Then we walk off
into the sunset. NARRATOR: The war is over,
but the carrier Enterprise is about to face her
biggest challenge, and it may ultimately
destroy her. In October 1945, the Big
E is back in the water, powering into New York Harbor
for a national celebration for the victorious US
Navy with Enterprise as the guest of honor. ARNOLD OLSON: Yeah, that
was a great celebration. She welcomed over
200,000 visitors to the ship for a week, and
then they had the big parade down Avenue of the Americas. And the Enterprise Navy Band was
selected to lead that parade. NARRATOR: Thousands
of curious onlookers come aboard the legendary
ship there to read her posted the scorecard, 20 service stars,
one for every major battle, 911 aircraft destroyed, 71
ships sunk, the most successful and the most decorated
ship up to that point in the history of the US Navy. In May 1946, a year
after the war is over, Enterprise is back in
dry dock and in limbo. The US Navy looks to the
future, and the future is jets. In fact, some of the first
experimental jet fighters flew combat missions
in World War II. Yet the Big E's
decks and structure are not large enough or strong
enough to support jet warfare. She is an honored warrior
whose wars are behind her. The question remains
what to do with her. The US secretary of the navy
suggests that Enterprise become a floating museum, calling
her the one vessel that best symbolizes the navy in the war. Admiral Bull Halsey
leads an effort to raise money for an Enterprise
museum, but it is not to be. The Big E, greatest
warrior of the Pacific, is finally sold for scrap. They could have save it. To sold for scrap, that hurt. I cried. NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER: Underway
for the last time, the USS Enterprise moves from
Brooklyn navy yard to Kearny, New Jersey, and the wreckers. Thus is marked the
failure of Admiral Bull Halsey's campaign to
have the Big E preserved as a national shrine. Obsolete in the jet and atomic
age, the one vessel that most dearly symbolized the role
of the navy in the Pacific war heads meekly for the scrapheap. NARRATOR: Enterprise
veteran Edward Suto watches the progress of the
destruction over many months as he goes to work every day at
the Ford factory in New Jersey. EDWARD SUTO: I was watching
dismantling, piecemeal. And I was watching clear
down to the hull where they had everything cut away
except just the bottom part of the ship. It was heart aching. NARRATOR: To some
veterans of Enterprise, the process is a crime. To others, it is a
sad inevitability. ALVIN KERNAN: I've seen what
goes on on these sideshow ships, and I don't like it. Kids running about and
screaming, selling off candy and ice cream,
and so on, and it all seems to me just degrading. I always felt that the
Enterprise was something truly noble, a great ship, and I
didn't want to see her tied up. NARRATOR: And some say the
scrapping of the Enterprise is a testimony to
her own success. MARTIN MORGAN: At the
end of World War II, this country got down to the
business of being in peace. That we literally beat
our swords into plowshares at the end of the
Second World War, that really says a
lot about our history. So we may not have the
USS Enterprise today that we can go visit
as a floating museum, but I think even
that in and of itself illustrates the transition
that occurred in this country. NARRATOR: Enterprise may be
gone, but her memories live on. WILLARD NORBERG: I still
love USS Enterprise CV-6. I think the Enterprise still
has a personality today. It's 'course, gone to the
scrap heap many years ago, but it's still living on
in the hearts and minds of so many of us folks that
are still living today. NARRATOR: Some of
her valiant warriors carry a piece of
Enterprise in their hearts. Some carry a piece of
Enterprise elsewhere. I still got a bag full of
small pieces of shrapnel. Yeah, that's my part
of the Enterprise I'll carry all the rest of my life. Every day I get a chest
X-ray, it lights up. NARRATOR: Many of
the men of Enterprise remained in the military. Norman "Dusty" Cleiss, one
of the heroes of Midway, went on to a long navy
career, retiring as captain. Fighter pilot Donald
"Flash" Gordon attained the rank of captain. James "Jig Dog" Ramage
served in Korea and Vietnam and retired as a rear admiral. And Vincent de Pois of Fighting
Squadron 6th attained the rank of rear admiral and in 1961
became the first captain of the new Enterprise, America's
first nuclear powered aircraft carrier. And even now more
than 60 years later, stories of valor
from the Enterprise are still coming to light. At a reunion of Enterprise
veterans in 2001, Walter Keil finally
revealed the true story of what happened on the
Enterprise's last day of action, a tale he had
kept secret for six decades. We were sitting around talking
about things that happen, instances and so forth. I or somebody said, Walter,
boy, you were lucky, and Walter for the
first time started talking about this thing. NARRATOR: May 14, 1945,
Walter Keil scrambles onto floating wreckage after
Enterprise has been hit where he finds two soaked sailors. One on the said there's
another guy, third guy. I said bring him over. They said can't. And I 'course says why. They guy he said it's hurt. NARRATOR: Keil swims to the
rescue of the wounded man, Bob Reisland, while the floating
wreckage drifts away. WALTER KEIL: So the
guy said I'm wounded. I'm going to die anyway so
just go ahead and get back onto the elevator
and leave me drown. And he wouldn't do that. NARRATOR: Keil refuses to
leave the wounded sailor, staying with him for hours
until they are finally rescued by a destroyer. Keil returns to Enterprise
the next day more interested in a hot shower
and hot meal than a medal. The wounded sailor recovers
in Enterprise's sick bay, and Keil tells no one
about his own heroism. He never said anything
about the sailor. He just said he'd
been gone overboard, and that's all he said. We sat there
enthralled and astonished to learn what had transpired. We said, Walter, we
never heard that story. NARRATOR: Keil's shipmates
soon had a surprise in store. RICHARD HARTE: We went
to the Marine Corps, and I think I was the only
officer left at that time. So I applied for a medal. NARRATOR: On May 15,
2004, Walter Keil was called down to the field
during a game at Miller Stadium in Milwaukee and receives
the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his heroic
self-sacrifice six decades earlier. No one was more surprised
than Walter Keil. WALTER KEIL: I thought
that it was done and it's over with in his
history because you remember, this was all-- 50, 59 years had passed. And it never occurred to
me that to do anything. NARRATOR: Enterprise's
spirit lives on. The story of USS
Enterprise is the story of World War II from our
actions during the first attack on Pearl Harbor-- To the final battle of
the Pacific at Okinawa-- This ship was
there for everything. NARRATOR: But Enterprise's
heroic actions were simply a reflection of the
heroes who sailed her, the last of a generation who
literally saved our nation by risking everything. ARTHUR KROPP: I didn't seen
in glamour in her at all. All I saw was a
lot of destruction, a lot of bad things. There's nothing
glamorous about war. But this country's
worth fighting for. That's why we do it. A lot of people
come up to me now and say thank you
for what you done. Thank you. ALAN PIETRUSZEWSKI: You know,
if it wasn't for those guys. We wouldn't be here. We climbed on the backs
of their sacrifice. Their history is my tradition,
and without the sacrifices that they made, I wouldn't
even be here to fight. NARRATOR: USS Enterprise was
one of the greatest weapons in the arsenal of democracy, a
fierce and deadly machine whose purpose was to win
a devastating war. But to her men, the Big E was
less of a weapon than a home. It was like a big mother
hen or something to me. He'd go on 300-mile
searches and come back and here's a little
beacon flickering, and it'd home in on that
beacon and get back aboard. You know, it just our home. It was taking care of us. NARRATOR: Enterprise may
disappear and her men may die, but she is still one
of the most decorated, most valued, and fightingest
ships in US history. And Enterprise and
her band of brothers will remain as beacons of valor,
sacrifice, and grit as long as her tales are told as long
as there are Americans who remember.
