American Valor Quarterly Issue 8 - Winter 2010/2011 | Page 7

we rolled over into the bulkhead wall. This went on
hour after hour. At one point, the storm was so violent
that had we rolled one more degree, we would have
broached. But we had a fine ship and our captain,
Robert W. Copeland, was a fine seaman who knew
how to handle that ship. Still, it is mind boggling that
with 600 ships all together in the middle of a violent
storm there was no collision. A lot of planes were
ripped off their decks because of the winds, but not
one ship was sunk. It was amazing.
After waiting out the typhoon, we pressed on to the
Philippines. We did not know this, but we were divided
into three task forces, with ours code named Task Force
Unit 77.4.3, nicknamed “Taffy 3” for short. There was
also a Taffy 1 and a Taffy 2. Each of the Taffy groups
included six small carriers, four destroyer escorts, and
three heavy destroyers. Our job was to keep t