Here is a tragic photograph that brings home to me the price that Americans paid for victory in World War II. From the artistic perspective, this is a simple, yet stunning, image. It tells a perfect story. But the story behind the picture is one of love and sacrifice. Love of country. The bond between a brother and sister serving in uniform. And the love of a simple and courageous man of God. So let’s start near the beginning.
Myrtle Onsrud and her younger brother Edward were from La Crosse, Wisc. To their family and friends, they were known by the nicknames Myrt and Eddie. To her Army buddies, Myrtle was known as Onnie. After nursing school and work experience in her hometown, Onnie joined the US Army Nurse Corps in July 1941. Eddie enlisted into the Marine Corps in August 1942.
Already a veteran nurse, Onnie joined the 205th Hospital Ship Complement, which formed at Camp Stoneman, Calif., in 1943. After completing recruit training in October 1942, Eddie shipped out to the war, joining Company K, 3rd Battalion, 9th Marines, Third Marine Division. He served with King Company until dying on 27 July 1944 from wounds received in combat on Guam.
The Soldiers of the 205th were assigned to USS Comfort (AH-6), where they formed the Army half of a joint crew with the US Navy. Their mission was to transport wounded service members from the forward combat zone to definitive care facilities.
The Navy crewed the ship with 270 enlisted Sailors and 23 officers. As a fully functioning 700-bed evacuation hospital, Comfort was staffed by the Army with nine physicians, 37 nurses, one dietician, two dentists, and 154 enlisted medics. Two chaplains also served in the complement, as did two Red Cross staff aides. 1 Comfort was one of three hospital ships in World War II that carried such joint Army-Navy crews.
In late 1944 and early 1945, Comfort and her crew served during the campaign for Leyte in the Philippines. On 24 October 1944, a Japanese aircraft attacked her at about 0200 as she ran fully lit. The enemy aircraft dropped three bombs, two of which straddled the ship close-in. This incident served as the ship and crew’s baptism of fire.
For Operation Iceberg, the invasion of Okinawa, Comfort was tasked with transporting the wounded from the invasion front to Army and Navy hospitals in the Mariana Islands. On 2 April 1945, L-Day + 1, she joined the battle fleet off Okinawa, and began taking on casualties the next day. Although a clearly marked hospital ship, Comfort and her crew were again not immune to danger in the front lines.
On 6 April at about 1615, antiaircraft gunners on nearby combat ship shot down a kamikaze that crashed only 50 yards from Comfort. It appeared in the final moments that the attacker was trying to hit the hospital ship before his fiery death. One Army medic was wounded by fragments during the attack, Comfort’s first casualty. He was treated and returned to duty. 2 Sailing from Okinawa with a full load of casualties on the afternoon of 9 April, Comfort arrived at Guam five days later.