This was my father's ship during the second world war.

He couldn't believe a quick web search turned it up. It didn't even have a name, just a number - LCS-89. Looks like a real scow, but he spent a lot of time on it. Had a close call with a kamikaze that got so close he could see the smile on the pilot's face as he thought, "I've got you," just before a nearby destroyer scored a direct hit and blew the plane to little pieces.

He was lucky. As corpsman, he had no set battle station so he could move to whatever side of the ship wasn't toward the action. :) Big events included the members of the crew breaking into his medicine locker and making off with the alcohol, and the cook with a bed-wetting problem ("Please don't tell anyone...").