"I was completely unconscious in the water with all my clothes on." Disoriented, the cold water brought him around. He swam to a raft about 30 feet away. Taking account of his shape, he saw that he was badly bruised and his nose was almost cut off. A PT boat threw him a line and towed his raft and a couple other survivors. He pulled Nick Vasiliou and another soldier out of the water.
After recuperation and shore duty in England, he was assigned to a rocket equipped landing craft and sent to the Pacific, headed for Japan and the final invasion. His ship was five days out of Pearl Harbor when the atom bomb was dropped and then came Japan's surrender soon after that.
Glen McClain is now 89 and twice widowed. He has a 13th larger cross in his memorial, this one for his son Bob who died in a car accident in 1978.
--GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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