Gunners Mate Mike Stata of Venice Isles mobile home park in Venice, Fla. is pictured when he graduated from boot camp at 19 in 1943. Photo provided
Mike Stata was a “hot shell man” on a 5-inch gun aboard the destroyer USS Harding 1500 yards off Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944 during the Normandy Invasion. He also served aboard the Harding off Okinawa on April 16, 1945 when his ship was hit by a kamikaze and 22 sailors aboard the destroyer were killed.
