Vice Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner was Commander of Amphibious Forces Pacific and was to be in charge of operations until the beachhead was established.

The southern half of the six-mile-wide invasion beach was assigned to Task Force 55, commanded by Rear Admiral John Leslie Hall, Jr.

The action at the picket stations proved that the courage and punishment endured by US Navy personnel was unrelated to the size of the ship.

Shortly before dusk, the destroyer USS Aaron Ward was hit by a series of six kamikazes, suffering 45 killed or missing and 49 wounded.

USS LSM(R)-195 was also on Picket Station 10 and while rushing to the aid of the Aaron Ward and the Little was likewise crashed by a kamikaze.

The crash started her rockets exploding and knocked out the fire main and auxiliary pumps.

Not long after sunrise the anticipated kamikazes arrived and were met by American combat air patrol.

On 11 May 1945 LSM(R)-193 (Lt. Donald E. Boynton, USNR) responded to the Kamikaze attack on the USS Hugh W. Hadley (DD-774).

CO USS Hugh V. Hadley comments: The LSM 193 and the LCS 83 were responsible for recovering all personnel in the water.

These two ships did a remarkable job in caring for the wounded, expediting the fighting of the fire, and later towing.

Their job was to sound the alarm and vector fighters to intercept before the Japanese could attack the fleet anchored off Okinawa and the Allied forces and supply dumps ashore.

In general, it is believed that assigning them to picket duty should be avoided since it means risking the operation of a limited number of specialized ships which could be performed by any number of other landing craft whose primary function is more closely coincident with screening operations."