Routine sweeping. It is still raining, off and on all day. At least it is cool, and we’re able to sleep at nights without sweating too much. Right after daylight, the air raids started. Three bogies were headed right for us. We saw them far enough away, that we were ready for them. Just before they got to us, one peeled off, and suicided on a PCS, but missed by a hair. The other two circled around us, getting closer and closer. We all figured this was the end, and was going to go down fighting. They dipped and turned several times, as though in a dive. We have very little firepower or ammunition to waste, so we held our fire until they would be right on us. Believe me there wasn’t a man who wasn’t thinking of a prayer of some sort. Just about the time you feel you can’t hold your nerves or fire any longer, they passed over us, and went for bigger ships. We have seen one plane, many of times get through a barrage of two hundred or more ships, and successfully hit something. Planes all around, diving on any size or shape of vessel, and us alone from any help, and no firepower is enough to freeze a man in his tracks. Death does not seem so terrible to watch others die and be blown to bits. It does not make you nervous or pray for safety. Only when it is a matter of seconds away from yourself, do you think of yourself, and how you want to live, and not die. Many pictures flash before your eyes, your school days, your folks and home, your sweetheart, the future, and all it has to offer you. You think of God and his teachings—what you have done, right and wrong. So many things happen at once, it is like a dream. When it is all over you forget about the beauty of life, and what it has to offer you. Things are normal again, and you go on living as before. Along about noon, a merchant ship nearly took our fantail off. We had our sweep gear out and couldn’t back down, nor neither could she, because of her size and weight. We all but touched them. Just another narrow escape, with good luck in our favor again. Tonight we are on patrol-duty off some island, for suicide-boats and anything else that may come along.