On May 28, 1945, kamikaze pilots on suicide missions crashed their planes into the USS Drexler during the Battle of Okinawa, killing 158 American sailors.

One of them was Frank Kantner Humes of Delano, Schuylkill County.

The nonprofit Stories Behind the Stars recently wrote a tribute containing memorials to all 15 Pennsylvania sailors who died in the attack.

Humes was the second of three sons born to Frank Sr. and Elizabeth (Kemery) Humes. The elder Humes supported his family as a coal miner for Delano Anthracite Park.

Frank Humes attended Mahanoy Township High School and worked as a truck driver at the local mine. He married the former Anna Yext, with whom he had a daughter in 1942.

Humes enlisted in the Navy Reserves in 1944 and following training, was assigned to the USS Drexler with the rank of Seaman First Class.

The USS Drexler was one of 58 Sumner-class destroyers built by the US during World War II. It escorted the aircraft carrier Bon Homme Richard to Trinidad and from there, the destroyer sailed to Pearl Harbor for anti-aircraft and shore bombardment exercises. The USS Drexler eventually set sail for the War Zone off Okinawa. It had its first action in the Battle of Okinawa on May 4, 1945, defending the destroyer USS Wadsworth from attacking Japanese aircraft.

On May 28, the first Japanese Toryu fighter-bomber plane was sighted bearing down from a range of seven miles. Two planes slammed into the Drexler, with the first cutting off all power, starting large gasoline fires and inflicting heavy casualties. Within three minutes of the attack, another plane hit the ship with such force and speed that the destroyer rolled to its beam ends and sank in less than 50 seconds.

Out of the USS Drexler’s complement of 357 sailors, the casualties numbered 158 dead and 52 wounded. Survivors were rescued by the USS Lowry and Landing Craft Support vessels.

During the Battle of Okinawa, 30 naval ships and craft were sunk and 368 were damaged by the relentless Japanese Kamikaze attacks.

Close to 5,000 sailors lost their lives and an equal number were wounded.

Humes posthumously received the Purple Heart and is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu, Hawaii Memorial in Oahu, HI.

More accounts are available at http://www.storiesbehindthestars.org.