WW2 Kamikaze Fallen - Andrew Slivinski, USS Colorado

Coxswain Andrew Slivinski served on the battleship USS Colorado during the Leyte Campaign.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/92499684/andrew-martin-slivinski
http://www.ww2wrecks.com/portfolio/kamikaze-attack-a-tribute-to-robert-e-lee-killed-on-the-uss-colorado-on-november-27-1944/
https://www.thoughtco.com/uss-colorado-bb-45-2361285 

Andrew Martin Slivinski, Jr. never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.

If you have enjoyed reading the stories of the WW2 fallen, Can you help write some stories? It's a big project. The more help, the better.  Announcing "The Stories Behind the Stars", see https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org. This crowd-sourced national project has the goal of compiling stories of all 400,000+ of the US World War 2 fallen in one free-to-access central database.  Anyone visiting a war memorial or gravesite will be able to scan the name of the fallen with a smartphone and his story will appear on the phone.

Andrew was born on April 27, 1920 in Minocqua, Wisconsin. His parents Andrew and Ruth were born in Poland and Michigan, respectively. His maternal grandparents were from England. His father worked as a farmer. Andrew had two older brothers and three older sisters. By 1940 Andrew had completed two years of high school. He was still living at home, working on the family farm.

He enlisted in the US Navy on November 27, 1941. He reached the rank of coxswain on the battleship USS Colorado. He served in the 5th Division. Colorado was not at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked the Pacific Fleet. It was undergoing repairs at Puget Sound. Andrew joined Colorado in time to be part of the crew when it was sent to the South Pacific.

Colorado was part of American attacks at Tarawa, Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Saipan, Guam, Tinian, and Leyte.

Coxswain Slivinski woke on the morning of November 27, 1944 marking his three year anniversary of joining the US Navy. That same day the Japanese sent 60 kamikaze planes to attack the US fleet supporting the Leyte campaign. One of the Japanese planes made it through the defensive fire and struck Colorado on one of its gun emplacements. Another hit the port galley deck. Casualties included 72 injured and 19 dead. One of those was Coxswain Slivinski.

His grave is at Saint Patrick's Cemetery in Woodruff, Wisconsin.

Thank you Coxswain Slivinski for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Andrew.

Last year on this date I profiled Luzon fallen Paul Ferguson, 25th Infantry Division. You can read about Paul here.

On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!

I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.

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WW2 Fallen 100 is supported by

The Greatest GENERATIONS Foundation

“Where Every Day is Memorial Day”

http://www.tggf.org