January 12, 1945 - Morning - GQ - We got a report of 10 or 12 Jap planes in the area, but only 3 or 4 came over the gulf in our area. We fired at one but he was out of range. One Jap plane made a suicide dive high altitude out of range of the anti-aircraft guns straight down through the flak and hit a destroyer. It was so far off that we couldn’t see how much damage was done. The ships on the beach where we were got a lot of firing as the Jap planes came right by them. Just after we got a flash white, a Jap plane came over. It had got by without the radar picking it up. We fired at it with a lot of other ships but it got away. 1600 - Getting underway for Leyte.