Bill Text: IL HR0321 | 2019-2020 | 101st General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Commends Nick Korompilas on his heroic actions on the day his ship, the USS Mannert L. Abele, was attacked and sunk by a double kamikaze attack off the island of Okinawa on April 12, 1945.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)

Status: (Passed) 2019-04-30 - Resolution Adopted [HR0321 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2019-HR0321-Introduced.html

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HR0321 LRB101 12140 ALS 59732 r
HOUSE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
Representatives wish to commend Nick Korompilas on his bravery
when his ship, the USS Mannert L. Abele, was attacked and sunk
off the island of Okinawa 74 years ago; and
WHEREAS, In the spring of 1945, Nick Korompilas, a native
of Lincolnwood, was part of an armada of ships supporting the
Allied invasion of Okinawa, the last of the battles of World
War II; most days, he worked in the sick bay, tending to the
sailor's cuts and scrapes and handing out aspirin; and
WHEREAS, On the afternoon of April 12, 1945, Nick
Korompilas waited in a makeshift sick bay as the USS Mannert L.
Abele came under attack near Okinawa by Japanese aircraft,
including kamikazes; a moment later, a Japanese suicide fighter
slammed into the starboard side of the ship, just above the
water line, engulfing it in flames; behind it came a
rocket-propelled bomb with a pilot squeezed into a tiny
cockpit; the blast tossed him 20 feet into the air; and
WHEREAS, Nick Korompilas got to his feet and prepared to
abandon the ship, but then he remembered his friend, the chief
commissary steward; he found the man lying on the floor of the
galley, drenched in scalding soup; he grabbed him by the life

HR0321 - 2 - LRB101 12140 ALS 59732 r
jacked, carried him out of the sick bay, shoved him into the
water, and jumped in after him; within a minute, the entire
ship sank, leaving the survivors stranded in a sea of black
engine oil; and
WHEREAS, Nick Korompilas spent the next few hours treading
water and hauling the injured and dying to another American
naval ship; and
WHEREAS, Nick Korompilas received a naval heroism medal and
was given 30 days survivor leave in the United States; he spent
the remainder of the war working at a naval hospital in
Philadelphia; he married, had a son, and spent the rest of his
working life as a commercial real estate agent; therefore, be
it
RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
we commend Nick Korompilas on his heroic actions on the day his
ship, the USS Mannert L. Abele, was attacked and sunk by a
double kamikaze attack off the island of Okinawa; and be it
further
RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
presented to Nick Korompilas as an expression of our esteem and
respect.