Lawrence Minson joined the U.S. Navy in Kansas City, Missouri, and was discharged in Norman, Oklahoma. He was assigned to the U.S.S. Zellars DD777 which was a new ship. He was involved in the invasion of Okinawa and about 100 Japanese planes were also. His ship did get several of them, but one Japanese Kamikaze (suicide plane) hit the Zellars starboard side. Many were lost, injured and burned. This was on April 12, 1945. The ship did not sink, and made it back to Kerma Retto, the refuge for all crippled ships. Then on to Long Beach for repair, which took about 60 days. That was where he was when the war ended and he was thankful to get home to Kansas.