Kamikaze Nightmare

BOOK REVIEW BY: Tin Can Sailors - The National Association of Destroyer Veterans

Reviewer: Bernie Ditter

Overall Rating: Four Stars: Highly recommended. An excelllent book.

Ron Burt writes a compelling story about his older brother's heroism and injuries received at the hands of Kamikaze direct hits on two ships, about his brother's recovery from those injuries and about his own efforts to gather the information necessary to support the process to have his brother awarded the Navy Cross and Silver Star.

His brother, Pete Burt, was on the USS OMMANEY BAY (CVE-79) when it was sunk by a Kamikaze attack. While he was in the water following the order to abandon ship he gathered ten non-swimmers and kept them together until rescued. The officer on the whaleboat told Pete that he planned to recommend him for the medals.

Following his rescue he was transferred to the USS COLUMBIA (CL-56) where two days later it too was struck by a Kamikaze attack resulting in the injuries sustained by Pete Burt. He was to survive fifty surgeries and twenty-two and one half months in hospitals and nearly a lifetime of post traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD).

During much of this time his brother Ron, a four year Navy veteran of the Korean Conflict and a tin can sailor (USS SHELTON (DD-790), spent years of research and writing his account of his efforts to locate veterans who could corroborate Pete's heroism. He contacted the Navy, veteran's organizations, his congressman, placed ads in veterans magazines and contacted numerous veterans by phone, mail and in person. He went to the reunion of the survivors of the OMMANY attack in 1990 and spoke to the nearly 120 veterans and their families who were there.

The result is a book that is unique in that it puts a face to the Kamikaze pilots who committed these atrocities, provides vivid first person accounts of the experience (as painful as they are) and gives us a hero that we can all identify with, one who was there and who lived through it with grace.

This is a book that will make you think about war in all of its ugliness.

Availability: Amazon.com

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This book (with 28 photographs) is about my brother, Pete Burt, a survivor of four Japanese kamikaze crashes while on board the USS Ommaney Bay (CVE-79) and the USS Columbia (CL-56). These two ships encountered countless attacks from the kamikazes. The Ommaney Bay was sunk while the Columbia sustained three hits, seriously injuring Pete. He was pronounced dead twice, unconscious for 7 days and hospitalized for 22 1/2 months, undergoing 50 operations during that period. He suffered from PTSD for 32 years. For 44 years, he contended that the kamikaze pilot was a woman. Research uncovers a unique aspect of the kamikaze that has remained dormant for years.

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The Dept. of The Navy has deposited "Kamikaze Nightmare" in their Operational Archives Branch to allow for its preservation and availability to researchers. The book is a fine addition to the Center's World War II Collections and is especially valuable because it adds a personal dimension that is lacking from the official records. Ltr. Aug 1995.

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Ron Burt holds a Bachelor of Science in Commerce degree from Texas Christian University. A Korean War Veteran, he served on board two vessels, a patrol frigate, the USS Burlington (PF-51) and a destroyer, the USS Shelton (DD-790), from December 1950 to May 1954. He made four cruises to the Far East during that period and earned five combat stars while in Korea. He was on board the Shelton on February 22, 1952, while that ship was defending the island of Yang Do, near Songin, North Korea, from further invasion attempts by the North Korean Communists. The Shelton suffered four direct hits and fifty near hits from five mobile shore battery guns resulting in twelve casualties.