Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
1:54 | It was a brand new ship and on its shakedown cruise when word came that the war was over. Grover McMichael was able to return home and help support his family, even though he wanted to stay in the Navy.
Grover McMichael joined the Navy in 1942 just ahead of getting drafted and was assigned to the USS Emmons, a destroyer. After a short time patrolling the North Atlantic, the ship was reassigned to duty in the Mediterranean, where the convoy sunk a submarine. In May 1944, the order came to head for England to take part in an unnamed assault.
H-hour was 6 AM but the small group of destroyers were in place just off the beach by 3 AM and fired the first shots in the Normandy invasion. The gunners on the USS Emmons fired every round of ammunition they had, says Grover McMichael, who manned a 20 mm gun. When the ship was at sea, he manned the sonar station.
Grover McMichael describes the sonar operation aboard the USS Emmons, complete with sound effects. As the European theater was winding down, the ship was sent to the Pacific and he was sent to the sonar school in Key West to train others. While he was there, he got word that the Emmons had been sunk.
