In October 1943, Puget Sound ferries are used as "targets" for U.S. Navy torpedo bombers of Air Group Ten from Sand Point Naval Air Station. The bombers practice low level, night attacks on shipping using radar.
On February 17, 1944, these crews participated in two day and one night attack on the Japanese at Truk Lagoon in the Central Pacific Ocean. They used the techniques developed on Puget Sound to sink 37 enemy ships.
Today (2000) Truk, or Chuuk as it is now called, is one of the premier dive spots in the world because of these wrecks.
Sources:
Naval Station Puget Sound at Sand Point (Seattle: U.S. Navy, 1993), 58; John Costello, The Pacific War (New York: Quill, 1982), 451; Dan van der Vat, The Pacific Campaign: World War II, the U.S. - Japanese Naval War, 1941-1945 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), 306-307; David Wilma, telephone interview with Wayne Colley, veteran of VB-10, April 6, 2000, Seattle.
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