SILVER LAKE - The U.S.S. Terror was the flagship of the mining fleet, the only ship built for mine laying, with missions in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Glenn Borders, who moved to Silver Lake two years ago with his wife, Mildred, served aboard the cruiser during World War II.

"All I wanted was to get out of there," he said of his three-year-and-14-day enlistment in the U.S. Navy. When he wasn't avoiding German submarines, he was ducking suicidal Japanese pilots.

The Terror set course for Casablanca, Morocco's chief port city, Nov. 2, 1942, arriving 12 days later. The ocean was full of German submarines. The convoy zigzagged across the Atlantic to evade the underwater threat.

"That kept us young fellows scared to death all the time," Borders, a Rushville native, said of the crossing.

The Allies had recently liberated Casablanca. The Terror was there long enough to set mines and refuel.

"On the way over to Casablanca I was the sight-setter. I sighted the guns, where they were to shoot. Later, they put me in the magazine where the ammunition was stored and I handed the ammo up to the guys above. They practiced shooting those guns every day, which made the ship rock."

The African harbor was clogged with sunken ships and floating bodies. "All we heard were horns blowing. We laid out at sea until the harbor was secured."

The Terror's mines were circular and spiked with chains attached to an anchor that settled on the bottom. They were pushed out the back of the ship into deep water. The mines were loaded onto escort ships so their crews could lay them closer to shore. When the work was done, a protected channel for Allied ships was established.

"On the way back from Casablanca. I was asked to work at the soda fountain. They trained me for a week. I enjoyed serving and making ice cream. I wanted to get out of the guns and out of standing watches."

Ice cream sundaes were called "gedunks."

"I wish I'd stayed with it. I could be running one of the Dairy Queens around here now."

The Terror tied up at Yorktown, Va., and was used as a training ship. Many sailors came aboard for instruction during Mine Warfare Training School.

"We were stationed there for eight months, so naturally I sent for Mildred (whom he had married in the fall of 1942), and we got an apartment. We would be out firing all week in the Chesapeake Bay, staying with our wives on weekends. I bought a 1935 Ford coupe. On weekends we went out to Gloucester, where we could go out on ferry boats and sightsee."

The Terror left Norfolk, Va.. Oct. 2, 1943, heading to the Panama Canal and the Pacific Ocean.

"Panama was pretty. The ship took up the whole canal. They pulled us through very slowly. We were so close to the trees we could touch them."

The cruiser docked in San Francisco Bay to resupply. On Oct. 20, she made for Hawaii.

The Terror lent her firing power off the east coast of Iwo Jima in February 1944, offering five-inch cover fire to small boats. She also served as an evacuation vessel when damaged minesweepers and other craft limped to her side.

"We shelled the beach and picked up surviving Japanese men. It was rough," Borders said.

The Japanese would swim out to the Allied ships and and climb up the big anchor chains to attach explosives to the sides of ships.

"At general quarters I was a telephone talker. We would get orders from the bridge telling me what to say, 'Cease fire!' or 'Fire!' I was supposed to tell them where the 'boogies' (enemy aircraft) were."

Casualties and prisoners were transported to Saipan.

The ship then acted as flagship, providing water, oil and ammunition and other supplies required by boats off Kerama Retto, adjacent to Okinawa.

"By April, we were in the deep water of the atolls where submarines couldn't get to us. All the smaller ships were patrolling. Suicide planes would ram into them and tear them up. The Japanese blew up all the smaller ships and we were ordered to patrol.

"You could see the planes come in and watch ships sink."

Japanese planes pounded the Kerama Retto harbor for hours and the Terror gunners fought back. During April, Terror's personnel went to general quarters 93 times, sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for half a day.

Tokyo Rose (the Japanese radio "news" broadcaster) advised the Terror to turn tail. "We're out to get the Terror tonight if you don't head for home," she said April 30.

"When they sounded general quarters, we all ran and grabbed life jackets. We slept in our clothes, knowing we were going to wake up in the middle of the night."

Around 4 a.m. May 1, 1945, a kamikaze flew into the Terror's starboard quarter, crashing into the ship's communication platform. One of its bombs exploded. Another bomb penetrated the main deck before it, too, exploded.

Aircraft parts ripped though the ship's bulkheads.

"The planes fired at us as they circled the ship," Borders said. "I was behind the back smokestack when they flew into us. I squatted down by the back stack. The whole ship shook.

"Guys all around me were being killed. The blast blew me down and I went to the second deck down. I went through the lifelines and down to the first deck.

"It was so dark there. And no one was there. Everything was on fire. I didn't know what to do or where to go to be safe."

The Terror, while still seaworthy, had 171 casualties: 41 dead, seven missing and 123 wounded. A hunk of shrapnel hit one of Borders' legs.

"C.J. Williams lay on the back hatch. He had worked with me at the soda fountain. He yelled at me and said, 'I'm not sure I'm going to make it.' He asked me to help him write a note to his wife. I kept that note with me for a long time. Much later I saw him and his wife in Honolulu." C.J. had made it through the war.

Upon further inspection, Borders found the galley a wreck and the soda fountain destroyed. Ice cream money floated on the flooded deck.

"We got the ship patched up and headed for Hawaii. Along the way we picked up a lot of Japanese prisoners. They were even younger than we were and I was 23 then.

"We headed up to Mire Island, just up from San Francisco to make more repairs to the Terror.

"I was given a 30-day leave and flew to Indianapolis. I called home and my sister, Mary, brought Mildred to meet me at the bus station. They had a limousine waiting for me at the airport.

"After the wonderful 30-day leave, Mildred and I came back and lived in a Quonset hut in Vallejo, Calif. They transferred me off ship to Oakland. The Terror headed back to the war.

"From Oakland I went to Treasure Island. As soon as we set our bags down, we heard the war was over."

Borders was sent to guard German prisoners of war in Clearfield, Utah. He would guard 15 to 20 at a time, marching them to work at businesses in town and marching back to the compound at night.

"The prisoners were happy and laughing all the time, because they had it made there. The prisoners wouldn't hurt anyone. They loved it here."

"I had found out I had enough points to get out of the Navy, and left in August 1945. My brother, Harold, and Mildred drove out to pick me up."

Borders, now 83, went on to work in a refrigerator factory in Connersville. He and Mildred have six children.

"After the war, I didn't care what I did as long as I was not on a ship in the middle of the ocean getting shot at." [[In-content Ad]]