floating mines while screening the carriers against air attacks. Slashing through CAP and antiaircraft fire, some kamikazes managed to crash into their targets and give their lives for the Emperor. Antiaircraft fire from Trathen'''s group accounted for five of the winged marauders, but one hit Intrepid (CV-11) on 18 March. Nine days later, Trathen, in company with battle cruisers Guam (CB-2) and Alaska (CB-1), cruisers Flint (CL-97) and San Diego (CL-53) and four other destroyers left the carriers to bombard Minamidaitōjima. All ships shelled the target area with impunity. The battlecruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers rejoined the carriers on 28 March and resumed their screening duties. In the months that followed, American forces—aided by the small British Far East Fleet—continued hammering at the Japanese homeland with air strikes and bombardments by surface ships. On 11 April, still attached to TF 58, Trathen hammered away at attacking Japanese planes with her antiaircraft batteries. During the third raid that day, a 5-inch shell from a "friendly" ship hit the destroyer near her number five 5-inch mount handling room. It killed three men, wounded 21, and rendered the after mount inoperative. Tender availability soon made good the damage, and Trathen returned to the Fleet. Departing Ulithi on 3 May, she rejoined TF 58 on the 5th near Okinawa. Six days later, Bunker Hill (CV-17), flagship of TF 58, was hit by a kamikaze. Another Japanese pilot, with similar intentions for Trathen, dived toward the destroyer. While the ship's guns hammered at the suicide plane, help came from the air. A "friendly" fighter, braving the antiaircraft fire from his own ships, also attacked the kamikaze which crashed into the sea off Trathens port bow. Anchoring in Ulithi lagoon for a needed rest, Trathen got underway again 10 days later and sortied with TG 58.4 to screen the carrier. On 4 June, air operations were cancelled as the barometer began to plummet. The storm center of a typhoon passed some 70 miles to the southeast, and the ships in company with Trathen emerged unscathed from the fringes of the storm. On 6 June, while carrying out plane-guard duties, the destroyer rescued the two-man crew of a downed SB2C Helldiver. She recovered both men, but the pilot was dead when he was brought on board. These operations proved to be Trathens last of World War II, for she soon departed Leyte to begin the long voyage