Bataan (CVL 29) - Naval Cruise Book

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20 Aug. l45- The Marines shove off for Tokyo. After spending numerous months fighting to keep a separate identity from the sailors on board, the ship's detachment of 41 men and 2 officers got their greatest experience. Landing two days before V-J Day with the Marine Detachments of other ships of the 3rd Fleet, our Sixth Division spent eight days in the Yokosuka Naval Base Area, clearing Japs from underground factories, hospitals and h-angarsl discovering caves of primed explosives, hidden power plants and communication centers: standing guard over Baka bombs, experimental flying wings and chemical stores concealed in caves behind Shinto temples. Climbing up the gangway after 18 days of being back in the Corps -again, the men sc-arcely resembled the sharp, spit and polish Marines they had formerly been. Back again to shining shoes and running patches through their rifles. Exchanging the machine gun carts improvised from aircraft engine supports and torpedo plane tail wheels for their old twenty and forty millimeters. Surveying grimey, flea infested dung-arees for clean pressed khakis. Breaking out bayonets for inspection at Quarters instead of for opening C rations in some Japanese field or abandoned factory building. Back once more to standing Captain's Orderly, Brig Sentry, Corporal of the Guard and gun watches-quite different from roving patrols through i'Heathen Haven, reconnoitering through damp, dark machine-packed caves. From standing a mid-watch outside some small-arms warehouse, in a drenching rain, smelling fish chips and empty Sake bottles Page One Hundred Seventy-four left behind by retreating Japs to standing stiffly at attention in starched uniform at the gangway, saluting BATAAN officers going ashore. From rummaging around some dusty ruins looking for a souvenir Jap flag to stand- ing at present arms for morning and evening colors. And back also to the bull sessions where gums are beaten, ears are banged and teeth are chipped-recalling the long days at Ci. and the day the twenties got credit for burning a Kamikaze-bent Judy-and the compartment thick with the mixed aromas of linseed oil, saddle soap, sperm oil, shaving lotion and shoe polish. Recalling the five-hundred pounder that just missed 7 but didn't go off, the hundred pounder that did, The four five inchers that just -about landed in the twenties tub, and the half dozen I-lellcats that did. Memories... playing Acey-Ducey in the gun tubs during a lull in the war, trying to squeeze in a letter to the home front between close order drill on the flight deck and a working party below in the ice box, sweating out a bogey at 20 miles on the port beam, sweating out that last card to fill an inside straight, sweating out that next stripe-and just plain sweating. Then back to another bull session while paint- ing the head, remembering the big times at the beach-the truck that was driven over the 90 foot cliff in Diego, pushing the non-coms in the drink at Leyte, almost missing the ship at Frisco, cleaning out the dump in Panama, the Geisha girls in Yokosuka. Brother, that's the Marine Corps.

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