"Under clear skies and with temperatures in the 60s, at 1:15 p.m. on April 14 Laffey left Kerama Retto for Picket Station No. 1, where she would relieve the destroyer minelayer, USS J. William Ditter (DM-31). The USS Purdy, damaged by a kamikaze on April 12 while on Picket Station No. 1, had been moored next to Laffey. Shortly before Laffey left harbor, a sailor from Purdy cautioned his comrades about the kamikazes they would surely encounter at the same station. 'You'll knock a lot of them down, and you'll think you're doing fine. But in the end there'll be this one bastard with your name on his ticket.'"
- Hell From the Heavens: The Epic Story of the USS Laffey and World War II's Greatest Kamikaze Attack by John Wukovits












