Excerpt
Simultaneous Assault on Makin At the same time as the Tarawa fighting, soldiers of the Army's Twenty-seventh Infantry New York Division were hitting Makin, also in the Gilberts.
One of the Navy ships supporting the assault on Makin was the carrier Liscome Bay, which was hit by an enemy torpedo. Chaplain Robert Carley, former all-Southern California basketball player while at Occidental College, tried to help the wounded to life boats, but in less than thirty minutes the baby flattop sank with 646 men trapped inside. Among those who perished was Dorrie Miller, a heavyweight boxer, who, during the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, had rushed to a deck gun on board the West Virginia and blasted the enemy planes despite bombs and torpedoes exploding all around him.
Also at Makin was University of Michigan varsity football player and 1935 college all-star Gerald Ford, on board the light carrier Monterey. As the flattop's athletic director, Ford kept the crew physically fit and ready for combat. (Ford later received offers from both the Packers and Lions but chose law school and would eventually enter the political arena . . . something many would consider more perilous than any football game or naval battle.)
Planes from the Monty were launched to intercept Japanese naval and air forces attempting to prevent the invasion of Makin. The Monterey also saw action across the Pacific, including the Gilberts, Tinian, Saipan, the Philippines, and Okinawa.