I would like to point out that military personal during WWII were in general expendable. I had a relative that was aboard an ammunition ship on its way to Africa, it was torpedoed and disappeared in a flash of light killing all aboard. My father spent some time on an aviation gas tanker in the Pacific, before he was transferred to the USS Washington, which was a much safer accommodation. The father of a childhood friend was aboard a WWI era submarine when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He spent the entire war on subs, a branch of the Navy that lost 25% of their crews to the depths.