Dennis faced his ‘final mustering out’ on September 12, 2004. Dennis, ‘Dog Willie” Wilson, as his old navy buddies on the USS Brazos called him was only sixteen years old when he joined the navy in the year l942. He went to Balboa Park in San Diego, California. It took three days to get there on a milk train. From there he went to San Pedro, California. They put him in charge of ten men to go to Hawaii and picked up 12 Y.M.S.S. and a net tender. Y.M. S.S. are yard minesweepers, small wooden boats. The net tender was to keep submarines away. We were Mother ship to the Y.M.S.S. and the tender. We then went to Pango Pango Samoria. There was about 30 men on the little Y.M. S.S. We had six mine sweepers on each side of us and a net tender in the back of our ship. An enemy submarine surfaced in front of the Y.M. S.S. He opened fire on the submarine with a 3-inch gun. They hit the submarine and it went down. It was a Japanese submarine.
We then went to Dutch Harbor, Alaska. An aircraft carrier had made a raid there and bombed it. From there we went to Kodiak, Alaska, the first island in the ‘chain of ‘islands. Ernest Camp, a sailor from the USS Brazos, was running back and forth on a 40 ft. motor launch, when a P-38 plane, a US plane shot at him. This was one of our own planes. Camp was not hit.
We then came back to the Todd shipyard in Seattle, Washington. They took 5 inch. 51’s bag guns off the ship and put 51 inch 38’s guns anti-air craft guns on our ship. They also put 40 millimeters and 20 millimeters guns on our ship. I was on a 20-millimeter gun as a gun captain. While at the shipyard they also removed all asbestos insulation out of our ship and replaced it with fiberglass. All the rooms were white with asbestos powder. We were in Seattle, Washington for about a month. While in Washington, I met my brother Dave Wilson after he was put on the USS West Virginia. His own ship, the USS Astoria, a heavy cruiser, was sunk in the Corral Sea. The USS West Virginia was one of the ‘Big Five” The USS West Virginia was also sunk at Pearl Harbor. They raised and refitted it and put it back in use and Dave Wilson was put back on it.
After we hauled out we went to the last chain of islands, Attue, Alaska. We refueled the USS Annapolis and the St. Louis Navy cruisers. The heavy cruisers would tow us and we towed the light cruisers. We could refuel anything, including submarines. We were at Kreametta, Japan when I had been hoisted up in a boatswain chair to spice cable for the radio antenna. The Cyamia, a big tanker, was shooting at a Japanese suicide plan and shot the cable line into our ship, the USS Brazos. Kremmetta, Japan was where our ship, the USS Brazos, was hit by a mortar shell and I was hit in my chest with a piece of the shell. It did not bleed as it cauterized the wound from the hot shell. I was taken to the hospital ship, the HOPE, where I spent 3 days, then went back on active duty. I carried the piece of mortar shell close to my heart for the rest of my life.
Myself and 3 other sailors were the only ones injured. We all received the Purple Heart on our ship by our Captain. A very large piece of the mortar shell hit the boat boom close to my head. If that had hit me, I would not be telling you this true story today.
The same Japanese suicide plane hit the mess deck on another ship and killed two hundred and fifty men. Kremettia, Japan was about 5 hundred miles from where the first Atomic Bomb was dropped. The battle of Okinawa was the bloodiest battle that was ever fought on the Japanese Island. The USS West Virginia was hit at Okinawa, Japan. My brother Dave Wilson was on the ship as a gunner. He got in on the action. He shot his 16-inch gun and hit a heavy Japanese cruiser and it sunk. An army general was killed there. The “New Houston’ an anti aircraft cruiser took a fish in the starboard side (torpedo) I could see the big hole in its side next to the screws. The first Atomic Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and the second Atomic Bomb as dropped on Nikiski. My ship, the USS Brazos, was on the outskirts of Japan when the Japanese surrendered.

My true experience in the US Navy in World War II . Dennis Andrew Wilson (Dog Willie)