Personal Stories
Sometimes its difficult to talk about
Told by Andrew J. Makara,
Son of Andrew Makara
My father like many of his generation did not speak too much of the war.
It was
only after I attended (drove my father) to the reunion in Norfolk in "83 did I get a
glimpse into his life aboard the Terror. My father said his experience as a coal miner
helped him survive the Kamikaze attack. He had been in one or two mine explosions and knew
if you got down real low the explosion might blow over you. That's exactly what happened
when the plane hit...the steel bulkheads were twisted and blown apart, but, he came away
with singed hair because he flattened low. He told me Nelms and Dragovich came looking for
him and couldn't believe he had survived.
