W8KAY/KB6 1945 Wake Island

The operator was Radioman Arthur Nelson "Art" Paradis, U. S. Coast Guard, Silent Key (1918 - 2014).

Wishing to serve his country as a radio operator, Art enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserves, stationed at USCG Cleveland. He was activated shortly thereafter and sent to Lake Superior to outfit civilian yachts with radios to listen for Germans infiltrating the Great Lakes.

Dravo Shipyard, Pittsburgh was his next assignment: outfitting LST-782. Upon completion they sailed down the Monongahela, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers then through the Panama Canal and out to the Pacific. Art was the Radioman in charge of all communications. LST-782 stopped at all the major ports of call in the Pacific Theater.

LST-782 saw action at Okinawa and Iwo Jima. On the beach after discharging the Marines and their tanks during the battle for Iwo, LST-782’s ramp would not close. The ship was not seaworthy with the ramp extended and they were under heavy enemy fire. They had to withdraw from the beach or lose the ship and its men. The seamen responsible for operation and repair could not fix it, so RM1 Paradis - the fix-it man - came to the bow. He quickly found the problem (it was electrical), closed the ramp and the ship returned to sea with no fatalities and only a handful of minor injuries. The LST and its medics then set up field hospital, saving even more lives.

QSL from the estate of W6ITA / W6RR
Info courtesy of W5KNE