Evening star., 1943-08-22
Back From the Wars
Blast Ends His Lucky Night
And Sends Seaman Subin Home
Mother Hopes He
Will Not Return
To Active Service

Until the explosion suddenly lifted
the stern Of the vessel it has beer
the Washington sailors lucky night
Outside, the Mediterranean ap-
reared to be working itself up, into
one of those quick storms which veS
the African coast, though the noon
was bright. But below decks on the
landing craft the light over the
card table in the crews quarters aft
was even brighter.
Seated at the table behind the
carefully screened portfolios were
the ships cook, two Seabees, fire.
man (sea-going variety and Sea-
man Second Class John Edward
Sahin, 10, of 1880 Massachusetts,
avenue S. E. Seaman Sabin's Navy
enlistment october 16, 1942, had
marked the successful elimination
of four-month campaign to OBJ
tain his fathers consent to contin-
uing., under Navy auspices, the
education he had begun at Holy
Comforter and Eastern High
Schools.
Blast Ends Game.
And now it was Seaman Sebin's
night--for once. The cards were
running his way and, already SIS
ahead, he was sitting out a hand
there was blast just below the
crews quarters where the card game
was progressing. 1t was blast which
ended a good deal more than Sea-
man Sabin's winning streak. But
compared to some of the other play
ers in the game, his luck held good,
even when the stakes were human
lives.
Invalided home with an injured
back, Seaman Sabin yesterday told
the story of his grim experience. Of
the players in that friendly game,
one, Seabee, was dead-the second
Seabee escaped without a scratch;
the cooks jaw was broken; the fire.
mans legs were fractured and as the
deck heaved violently upward with
the force of the explosion, Season
Sabin was blown full deck up
ward, finding himself lying in the
galley amid scene of indescribable
confusion when the dust had settled.
THE Seabees had been working
on the pontoons alongside during
the day." he said, "and it was lucky
they were there, for they kept us
from sinking"
Out of the crew, Seaman Sabin
said. one-third was killed and
large number were wounded. De-
spite the force of the blow, he did
not lose consciousness and was able
to watch the rescue operations un-
til, clad only in shorts and socks
(all his other clothes were lost)
he fell asleep aboard one of the
escorts, which finally put him
ashore.
Taken to Base Hospital.
Some of the escorts took up the
salvage job, others lined up the
dead and wounded on their decks.
When Seaman Sabin woke up the
escort which had rescued him was
docked, and in a short time he was
en- route to base hospital.
From this point on the Navy
invalided the injured Washingto-
nian home with celebrity which
exceeded that with which they had
prepared him for foreign duty.
Following his enlistment in the
fall of 1912 he had gone from boot
training on the Great Lakes to radio
school at Northwestern U. and, in
turn, to an advanced amphibious
corps, finding himself at an ad-
vanced base in Africa early this
spring at the time when Rommel's
sands in Tunisia were fast running
out
But Seaman Sabin's return trip
was even quicker. First there were
a couple Of weeks spent in a cast in
the base hospital. Then came
fortnight at Palm Beach," a rest
camp established for convalescents
some 10 miles from the city. Next
was a period on a receiving ship,
and finally came the order to trans
fer to a cargo ship-homeward
bound.
Misses Brother on Trip.
1t was not until after he was safe
IN Portsmouth hospital after
landing that Seaman Sabin learned
that his transatlantic voyage had
been something of family affair.
His brother, Third Glass Radioman
Joseph Charles Sabin, jr., who had
enlisted right after Pearl Harbor,
had been member of the crew of
one of the escorting destroyers.
But they were not to meet. Radio
man Sabin's destroyer had left
when the convoy was split and he
appeared at the Sabin home the
same day that Mr.. and Mrs. Sabin.
who had been trying frantically to
ascertain the extent of their sons
injuries following receipt of an
ambiguous Navy telegram. had re-
ceived the second of two equally
ambiguous letters from their in
jured son.
The first, written in Algiers, had
arrived four days after the official
Navy telegram. Unaware that his
parents had been informed of his
injury, Seaman Sabin blissfully in