October 1944 - June 23, 1946

Eugene Nay quit school in his sophomore year and joined when he was 17 years old in October 1944. His mother had to sign for him because he was too young to join on his own. He then took seven weeks of basic training in San Diego, California. Then he volunteered for sea duty on a ship in San Francisco. 

The ship he was on was called the USS Harting. It was a minesweeper and a destroyer. It had just been converted to a minesweeper. He went from San Francisco on this ship. There were two stops. They were Laheigh and Pearl Harbor. They then started escorting troop ships. They went to the invasion of Okonoa.. They got there two to three weeks before the invasion had started. After they had cleared the mines they would shoot them so that they would not blow up any ships. 

After the invasion had started they were sent out on the picket line patrolling to intercept planes and submarines from coming in. This was when kamikaze planes had started attacking ships. These planes were loaded with a five hundred pound bomb on a suicide mission. On June 13 they took a near miss off the end of the ship. Because of this they lost their steering. They got it repaired and then ten days later they took a direct hit by a kamikaze right under the bridge into the ammunition that was used in the five inch guns. When that exploded it went out the bottom of the ship. They were at flank speed when they got hit. and they just started going down like a submarine. 

Eugene was a machinist third class at the time and he worked on pumps, turbines and sometimes the throttle board. When they were hit they had water coming through the hatch in the engine room. They had a bell that they would ring from the bridge to the engine room that would tell you what speed to go. The captain gave them a flank astern bell that you were never to answer. The captain told them to answer it. They started to go in reverse. The ship started to finally balance out and if they had not done that they would have just kept going down. After they got it back on top and assessed the damage they figured that 23 men were killed and several were injured. In the engine room they lost all of the air conditioning and it was so hot that you could only stand to be there for a few minutes. After that they waited and patched the ship up and brought it back to San Diego. 

After they got back to San Diego they went through the Panama Canal and on up to North Fort Virginia where they decommissioned the ship. At that time the war was just coming to an end. After that he was sent to another destroyer, the USS Simpson. That ship was what they called a World War I Destroyer. It was a four stacker. They caught that ship in Norfolk and was sent to Cuba. They were sent to take the last big battle wagon. For shooting practice they would send out some radio controlled planes that were called drones and shoot them. he spent six months down on the ship. He had acquired enough points for his discharge and was sent back to New York. He then traveled west and was discharged on June 23, 1946. He was in the service for two full years. 

He then went to school one year . He took junior and senior classes and drove the school bus. He graduated in the Class of 47. He now resides in Gunnison, Utah with his wife Bernetta.