The Nazi menace has been put to rest, and people across America

cheer and celebrate.

But in the Pacific, there is no end in sight.

Enterprise steams back to Okinawa

where the brutal battle is entering

its eighth relentless week.

It is 5:30 AM, May 14.

For the round-the-clock warriors of the Big E,

the day is just beginning.

We'd come back in about 5:30 and about 6 o'clock or so.

We'd crawl in our bunks and we'd get some sleep.

And here comes the kamikaze.

NARRATOR: At 6:56, a single Zero begins

to tail the Big E. From dead astern,

the Japanese fighter begins its dive.

Enterprise keeps turning, bringing her guns into play.

Then, to the shock of all on board,

the Zero rolls left, turns upside down, and perfect,

elegantly dives straight down into the ship's number

one elevator.

The largest explosion in the ship's storied history

shakes her from bow to stern.

Five decks below, the Zero's 500-pound bomb

goes off with such power that the entire flight elevator

flies straight up into the air.

A photograph taken from the nearby USS Washington

captures the astonishing moment where the explosive power

of a single kamikaze rockets a 15 ton elevator

over 400 feet straight up.

Like a knife to the heart, Enterprise

has been hit as never before.

The ship lists with holes blasted in the hull.

Fires have damaged her planes.

As the wounded giant limps off the battlefield,

the repair crews assess the damage.

It is not good news.

With a missing flight elevator and a buckled deck,

launching and landing planes is impossible.

She's an aircraft carrier who can't launch aircraft.

In nearly four years of war, the Big E

has survived multiple attacks from air, sea,

and beneath the waves.

It took just one pilot with suicidal intent

and brilliant flying skills to do

what the rest of the Japanese Navy

could never do, take Enterprise out of the war.

The wounded Enterprise must return home for repairs,

not just at Pearl Harbor but to the States--

Bremerton, Washington.

PEDRO SANDOVAL: That was the end of the war for us.

We hated to leave because the war was still going on,

but we could not operate, not the condition of the ship.

NARRATOR: Enterprise is still in dry dock in August

when the Japanese surrender.

Lloyd and I went into a bar in Bremerton to have a beer,

and somebody came running in and said the war's over.

The war's over.

And I'll tell you, it was a great feeling.

NARRATOR: In Tokyo, representatives of the emperor

signed the unconditional surrender on the deck

of the battleship Missouri.

On the day of the surrender, kamikaze Admiral Onishi

writes a note of apology to the 4,000

pilots he sent to their deaths.

Then he commits ritual suicide.

The long war is over.

The men of Enterprise breathe a sigh of relief,

as does the rest of America.

The story of USS Enterprise is the story of World War II,

from her actions during the first attack

on Pearl Harbor to the final battle

of the Pacific at Okinawa.

But Enterprise's heroic actions were simply a reflection

of the heroes who sailed her, the last

of a generation who literally saved our nation

by risking everything.

ARTHUR KROPP: I didn't see any glamour in it at all.

All I saw was a lot of destruction,

a lot of bad things.

There's nothing glamorous about war,

but this country's worth fighting for.

That's why we do it.

A lot of people come up to me now

and say thank you for what you did.

Thank you.

ALAN PIETRUSZEWSKI: You know, if it wasn't for those guys,

we wouldn't be here.

We climbed on the backs of their sacrifice.

Their history is my tradition.

And without the sacrifices that they made,

I wouldn't even be here to fight.

NARRATOR: USS Enterprise was one of the greatest weapons

in the arsenal of democracy, a fierce and deadly

machine whose purpose was to win a devastating war.

But to her men, the Big E was less of a weapon than a home.

It was like a big mother hen or something to me.

You know, you'd go out on 300-mile searches

and come back, and here's the little beacon flickering.

And you'd hone in on that beacon and get back aboard.

You know, just our home was taking care of us.

NARRATOR: Enterprise may disappear, and her men may die,

but she is still one of the most decorated, most valiant,

and fightingest ships in US history,

and Enterprise and her band of brothers

will remain as beacons of valor, sacrifice, and grit as long

as her tales are told, as long as there

are Americans who remember.