Admiral W L Capps (AP 121) - Naval Cruise Book

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rv- Sage The Flying Circus holds class on Zhe fanlizil the hook and let it stay for 21 days. I should say that we let it stay the second time we' dropped it. The hrst time we dropped it so close in front of a fleet tanker that her anchor buoy was floating by our gangway. Ulithi, being slightly closer to the equator than Eniwetok, was just as hot, but it had a better recreational island to provide relief and relaxation. Mog-Mog was the name of this little piece of coral. Even the troops were allowed to go ashore there. lt was once thought wise to have them stay over night - and' bring their laundry with them. Sleeping out on the island wasnlt any differ- ent than sleeping out on deck except that the island would be softer. Ulithi was the setting for the CAPPS' Hot Air Theater and its one day stand of two performances. Its success can be measured by the remark of Corporal for was it Ist Sergeantj Harrington Cof the garbage detailj when asked what he thought of the show - It should be thrown overboard with the rest of the garbage? Ulithi was also the place where the nurses were invited on a picnic by an officer with enough rank to get them to go along and then Cafter they got ashorej were charged 35c each for the drinks. During our stay at Ulithi there were five Flash Red alerts but the Iaps never came in close enough for us to see them let alone lm A production in progress in the H ot Air Theatre shoot atthem. Three rf the five alerts wzre the re- sult of our own planes anproaching the atoli with their recognit on appara- tus out of order. The oth probabl r ese ori Yap lsia about tw, and born r,- whzle Ulithi, that this some pl r two were of Iapanf in because sid was only miles away 1 e y h a d d G u a m e were at Cindicating J still had nes.j 5 Pin tlly, fifty-fn e da CAPPS joined a cons ox o was an 1.5 knot convoy gf 2 Iii y. The disembarkii comme iced immediately. 5 ical Co ps came aboard to passengirs were off early the days, in which the crew vcor Ours wis the largest auxiiiag to that time, and it was gr Kamik tze Corps spotted area ju t before we arrived i

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A . i A it . -,,... one 'fe-1. t Q .g at 1 N 'U We - ' ws and aceummo- A , 9-'wi -:H lodging from f ...I f wi ,wg was not going ,L s if is fksf Jffwll 0fUI'lif5 is ,Hs '-1A -pxfratc from ihf Q Q, tagewh. gn! thi! fhf Q-Hg: more n-mer the day ,......i 'het ...rea-are nf the Nabil and me z1lixfiYf'?'2ftg in tht sun yt P .sf ii 3 ta, if E Troops enjoy the sun on Eniwetolq enjoying a liberty,' or two on Perry Island, a fleet recreation CPD center. Perry Island was one of the Eniwetok group which was given the worksn by naval bombardment when we took that atoll. As a result there were no trees left and nothing else to give shade. The beach was very nice, though, and as long as one didn't have to stay there too long, he could enjoy himself. The ADMIRAL CAPPS had carried women passengers be- fore but never women passengers like it had this time. There were 50 Army nurses and two Red Cross girls who were a never ending source of pride and trouble. The Marines had to chase them off the superstructure deck after taps at night, and later, when their hours were extended to 2300 and the O. D. would sing out a soft, melodious, lt's twenty-three hundred , on the public address sys- tem, the marines would still have to chase them below. They went ashore to the Officers' club on Eniwetok Island, the senior officers, club, that is, and got acquainted with officers from other ships. Then the ofiicers from the other ships started coming around to visit every night. Their boats would be tied up at the boat boom three deep. One of the nurses even rated a salute from a division of destroyer escorts when they pulled out. Six ships steamed by with crews at division parades in dress whites. Each ship saluted as it passed. Someone thought up a new name - U. S. O. AD- MIRAL CAPPS. From Eniwetok we went to Ulithi Atoll in the western Caro- lines, arriving there on 8 Iune and expecting to join a convoy almost immediately to go to Okinawa. But instead, we dropped .eff The nurses exhihit their acting ability

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rv! that r 8 H he Q-.l.in,j wlnlld ht xiii' lf' Aff lhcwt sl' F S t m '+V alml . .A Q. .,,,.N,mj lf'l.1'ft,'tgj,,HiUf l A rlwv Q Hlr ' 'veil on .1 'Mtg and lit drinks. l Ratt Alerts -r 1' alone QF :ht fda. fs, Heart -ft shoot at them. Three of the tive alerts were the re- sult of our own planes approaching the atoll with their recognition appara- tus out of order. The other two were K probably of lapan- ese origin because Yap Island was only about 60 miles away and they had b 0 m b e d G u a m while we were at Ulithi, Cindicating that they still had some planesj Balcony seats az the Hot Air Theatre Finally, hfty-five days after leaving Seattle, the ADMIRAL CAPPS joined a convoy on 28 Iune and sailed for Okinawa. This was an 11.5 knot convoy and didn't arrive there until the afternoon of 2 Iuly. The disembarking of troops and unloading of cargo commenced immediately. QA brigadier general of the Army Med- ical Corps came aboard to take the nurses ashore.j All of the passengers were off early the next morning but the cargo took four days, in which the crew worked day and night operating Winches. Uurs was the largest auxiliary vessel to enter the Okinawa area up to that time, and it was greatly desired to get us out before the Kamikaze Corps spotted us. There had been suicide attacks in the area just before we arrived and there were some just after we left, but while we were there, only one enemy plane entered fbut did not leavej the area. There were three Flash Red alerts in the six days but no action resulted for the ADMIRAL CAPPS. We loaded about 3000 Marines on the 7th of Iuly and sailed in convoy on the 8th for Saipan. This convoy made I5 knots and we ar- rived there in the morning of the 12th. It was in en- tering Saipan har- bor that the AD- MIRAL CAPPS had her closest ap- proach to tragedy. We stopped to pick up the pilot in the channel with the wind blowing on our starboard beam. Un our port side were anchored a number of destroy- ers and destroyer es- Tfze skipper gives Mag-Mog ez brief tour corts in a line parallel with the channel. While the pilot was coming aboard, we began to drift down on a destroyer escort and in order to avoid it we had to come ahead quickly with left rudder while the DE veered her anchor chain. This maneuver brought us directly between the destroyer escort we had just missed and the destroyer next in the line - with quite a bit of headway on and