My great uncle was in the Navy during WWII and served in the Pacific as well. I am unaware of what ship, as all if have on him is about 5 pictures. He died before I was even born.
Re talking: A friend of mine took his Uncle, a WWII vet, on a fishing trip for that purpose- to talk about the war. He would not talk about it any other time. I am telling you, sit them down and give them your undivided attention. Have a nice, formal conversation about it. They won't talk about it on a whim, it's too hard for them. Another thing I have noticed is they seem not to talk about it as much with family. I'm not sure why. I can only speculate, but it may have something to do with protecting their family from the bad they saw. The other reason is they don't want to tell them how close to death they came, but I think this is less likely.
Ask away, I'm sure someone here can help.