The kamikaze strike on the Caine

The kamikaze strike on the USS Caine transforms a routine passage off Okinawa into an immediate fight to control damage and protect the ship. The plane hits amidships while Tom Keefer has the conn; Willie Keith, serving on the bridge, moves quickly to organize the response. For Willie, the prospect of death also brings an unexpected personal recognition: he regrets having left May Wynn and fears that he will never see her again.

Approach and First Response

The USS Caine was rounding the southern end of Okinawa on its way to Nakagusuku Wan to collect mail for the mine fleet. It was ten o’clock on a cloudy morning, and there had been no air-raid warning. Willie Keith was in the chartroom marking bearings along the course line when Urban called out that a plane was approaching. Keefer ordered the guns to fire, but the ship’s 20-millimeter guns began firing spontaneously rather than in response to his command.

Willie dropped his plotting tools and went through the wheelhouse to the starboard wing. The approaching plane was about a thousand feet up and well ahead of the bow, descending toward the ship despite the gunfire. Keefer and Urban threw themselves onto the deck as it came close. Willie saw the pilot before he, too, took cover. The brief interval before impact becomes important not only as a pause in the action but as the moment in which Willie confronts the possibility that his life is ending.

Impact and Damage Control

The plane struck the ship, and an explosion followed. Willie rose and saw smoke coming from behind the galley deckhouse. He told Keefer he would call general quarters and go aft to assess the damage. Keefer agreed, and Willie went to the wheelhouse to broadcast that the USS Caine had taken a kamikaze hit amidships. He ordered the ship to general quarters, called for firefighting and damage-control parties, and directed them to report damage to the bridge.

Willie also instructed the crew to use foam, sprinklers, and carbon dioxide as needed, and to stand by the magazine flood valves without flooding the magazines until ordered. He pulled the general-quarters handle and went back out onto the bridge wing. There he encountered smoke and heat from flames behind the galley deckhouse. Keefer questioned why Willie was not already going aft; Willie acknowledged the order and continued toward the damaged area.

On the main deck, sailors were moving through the smoke and carrying hoses or life jackets. The hole in the deck above the after fireroom exposed the damage below, while the gig was burning and firefighting parties worked to connect equipment. Blackened sailors were emerging from the air-lock hatch. The scene presented Willie with a practical task amid confusion: move through the passageways, reach the main deck, and assess what the strike had done rather than remain on the bridge.

Escalation and Command

The danger grew as the response continued. A sudden explosion on the galley deckhouse sent flame and ammunition outward, and sailors sought cover. Smoke rose from the stacks, the main engines stopped, and the ship slowed. Keefer reported that water had entered the fuel lines and that suction had been lost. These developments turned the initial impact into a worsening emergency: the ship was not only burning but losing propulsion.

Three-inch shells then began exploding in a ready box on the deckhouse. Keefer was struck in the arm and fell; Willie crouched beside him as sailors began jumping overboard. Keefer, injured and visibly distressed, proposed passing the order to abandon ship. The account here ends as that proposal is made, before it establishes what ultimately happens to the crew or whether the order is carried out.

Keefer’s behavior during the strike contrasts with the account of his earlier, infrequent turns at the conn. He had been nervous, impatient, and harsh in those circumstances, and had damaged oilers and tenders while handling the ship. It was said that this was why he let Willie do most of the conning. Yet Keefer has the conn when the plane hits. He issues the initial firing order, but as the emergency worsens he becomes dazed and frightened, while Willie takes on the work of broadcasting orders and moving toward the damage.

Personal Recognition and Significance

Before impact, Willie had largely succeeded in pushing thoughts of May Wynn from his mind after leaving her. When the plane seemed about to hit, however, he felt intense regret that he had not married her. He had previously treated the returning thoughts as weakness, especially when tired or upset; the fear of death makes this longing feel to him like a truth he can no longer dismiss. The strike therefore changes the meaning of the scene for him even before its physical consequences are known: a danger to his life reveals the emotional attachment he had tried to suppress.

The episode also places Willie’s earlier habit of handling the conn beside his urgent actions after impact. Faced with an emergency, he gives specific damage-control instructions, calls the ship to general quarters, and leaves the bridge to reach the scene. The narration does not resolve the ship’s fate in this passage, but it establishes both the immediate crisis aboard the USS Caine and the personal realization the crisis forces on Willie.