Raymond Thompson; Author, Ex-General

Raymond Thompson, a novelist and retired Air Force brigadier general whose World War II experiences in the Merchant Marine became the subject of several novels and a memoir, died Wednesday from complications of surgery at Fallston, Md., General Hospital. He was 71.

Born and raised in Thornwood, N.Y., he moved to Oregon, where he graduated from high school in Tigard in 1943. At 17, he was too young for the draft so he joined the Merchant Marine.

He served three years as a seaman aboard Liberty ships in the Atlantic and Pacific.

He was aboard the ill-fated Liberty ship Leonidas Merritt that entered San Pedro Bay in Leyte, Philippines, on Oct. 24, 1944, and remained under attack for 34 days by Japanese aircraft.

On Sunday, Nov. 12, 1944, the Leonidas Merritt became the first merchant vessel struck by a kamikaze plane when it was hit by two. The crashes killed 55 of the 82 crewmen.

Despite regulations forbidding the keeping of diaries, Thompson recorded the events on board the ship. His detailed account of the attack was published in 1996 as “34 Days in Hell.”

Remembering the attack, he wrote: “Where the hell can you run to that’s safe on a ship?”

In 1996, after a five-year search for former shipmates, he located 11 of them. He flew them to Baltimore for a reunion on board the Liberty ship John Brown. He presented the ship with a piece of the Japanese plane he had picked up after the attack and had saved for 52 years.

Thompson’s 1993 novel, “The Watery Hell,” was about the men of the Merchant Marine and Navy Armed Guard.

Thompson is survived by his wife of 24 years, the former Nancy Brigerman; three daughters; a brother; a sister; a stepson; and eight grandchildren.