HR0321 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0321 LRB101 12140 ALS 59732 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives wish to commend Nick Korompilas on his bravery when his ship, the USS Mannert L. Abele, was attacked and sunk off the island of Okinawa 74 years ago; and

WHEREAS, In the spring of 1945, Nick Korompilas, a native of Lincolnwood, was part of an armada of ships supporting the Allied invasion of Okinawa, the last of the battles of World War II; most days, he worked in the sick bay, tending to the sailor's cuts and scrapes and handing out aspirin; and

WHEREAS, On the afternoon of April 12, 1945, Nick Korompilas waited in a makeshift sick bay as the USS Mannert L. Abele came under attack near Okinawa by Japanese aircraft, including kamikazes; a moment later, a Japanese suicide fighter slammed into the starboard side of the ship, just above the water line, engulfing it in flames; behind it came a rocket-propelled bomb with a pilot squeezed into a tiny cockpit; the blast tossed him 20 feet into the air; and

WHEREAS, Nick Korompilas got to his feet and prepared to abandon the ship, but then he remembered his friend, the chief commissary steward; he found the man lying on the floor of the galley, drenched in scalding soup; he grabbed him by the life jacked, carried him out of the sick bay, shoved him into the water, and jumped in after him; within a minute, the entire ship sank, leaving the survivors stranded in a sea of black engine oil; and

WHEREAS, Nick Korompilas spent the next few hours treading water and hauling the injured and dying to another American naval ship; and

WHEREAS, Nick Korompilas received a naval heroism medal and was given 30 days survivor leave in the United States; he spent the remainder of the war working at a naval hospital in Philadelphia; he married, had a son, and spent the rest of his working life as a commercial real estate agent; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we commend Nick Korompilas on his heroic actions on the day his ship, the USS Mannert L. Abele, was attacked and sunk by a double kamikaze attack off the island of Okinawa; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Nick Korompilas as an expression of our esteem and respect.