Natoma Bay was sponsored by Lady Halifax (née Lady Dorothy Onslow), wife of Lord Halifax (earlier Edward Wood), United Kingdom's ambassador to the United States of America. In this 1922 portrait she appears as Dorothy Wood, since her husband had not yet inherited the title Viscount Halifax from his father.

During the Battle of Okinawa, at 0635 hours on 7 June 1945, a Japanese Zeke piloted by a Kamikaze crashed through the flight deck and caused explosions and fire. The Damage Control Party sprang into action and extinguished the flames quickly, then immediately set about the task of repairing the flight deck. Flight operations were uninterrupted, as planes were launched as repairs were underway.

(NS0306211) Japanese Kamikaze impacts and explodes on USS Natoma Bay (CVE-62). Photo taken from USS Sargent Bay (CVE-83).

(NS0306211a) The resulting smoke from the blaze rises into the air. Photo taken from USS Sargent Bay (CVE-83).

(NS0306211b) The hole in the flight deck from the crashed Kamikaze.

(NS0306211c) A view from the hangar deck, looking up at the hole in the flight deck, showing the Damage Control Party hurriedly repairing the damage.

(NS0306211d) Flight operations continue, even as the ship is undergoing repair. A TBM-3E Avenger torpedo-bomber of VC-9 catapults by the damage scene.

Official US Navy photographs.

USS Natoma Bay (CVE-62) plaque and Roster of Lost. The Natoma Bay configuration in a cross is the way the Chaplain configured the name of the ship for all religious services. All but Eddie Barron were Christian, Eddie was Jewish.

LT Robert Thomas Williamson. Chaplain Williamson was born in 1915 in Oak Park, Illinois. He was the middle child of three, having an older and younger sister. He attended and graduated from Oak Park High School, Wheaton College then Princeton Seminary prior to WWII. He enlisted in the Navy in 1943 and attended the Navy's Chaplain Training Program at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. He joined USS Natoma Bay in late summer of 1944 and remained with her until December 1945. He married Sarah Jane Simmons of Rome, Georgia, in March 1944 and they had three sons and one daughter. After the war, he served as a minister to Presbyterian churches in Detroit; Easton, PA and Philadelphia, taking time off between Detroit and Easton to get his PhD in ecclesiastical history from Edinburgh University in Scotland on the GI Bill. He suffered from cancer from 1966–1970 and eventually died in March 1970. His tour of duty on USS Natoma Bay was one of the most important times in his life. He had very fond memories of his shipmates and enjoyed sharing them with his family. In fact, one of the family pets (a pure bred Miniature Schnauzer nicknamed "Gretchen") was officially named "Leyte Natoma of Merionhoff" (kennel) as she was born on October 25th the anniversary of the Battle of Leyte Gulf.