Bataan (CVL 29) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 76 text:

l E'K-Fv?f5ih . T, PXGSVBIEF5' e l I3 March '45- The Communication Department today broke out the operation plan for the Okinawa campaign. The Communication Department might well be called the voice and ears of the ship. It receives orders for transfers, battle reports, the news read at break- fast, weather reports and even announcements of blessed events. But mainly it prides itself on the fact that it is first with the hot dope as today when it disseminated information on the impending opera- tion. lt is an all-over-the-ship organization. The radio gang slaves away in Radio Central six decks below the flight deck. Radio technicians, between raising and lowering the radio antennas and running up and down ladders in perpetual motion repairing one piece of gear after another, come back to headquarters in Radio 2. The signal gang, those outdoor muscle men. alternately Work in the flag bag and on the signal bridge. Radio Central has been known alternately as Tor- pedo Junction and, simply. the Radio Shack. Dur- ing Ci. it's an easy place to get to if you don't mind climbing through a particularly tortuous escape hatch with a series of trick scuttles that go up when you want them to go down and vice versa. Many's the konked noggin and the barked shin that has resulted. During an air attack the Radio Shack is no place for the sufferer from claustrophobia. On the grim days when the meat balls were attacking our for- mation at their peak force. the general alarm and public address system were effective instruments of torture. For realistic comparison. put yourself in a small isolated compartment as crowded as a sub- marine and with the same general atmosphere. lm- agine a voice from miles up ftopsideil announcing: I-le's coming down! I-Ie's diving straight downff He's heading in!! He's burning!! I-le's still coming in -burning like hellffl l-Ie's in the drink. he's in the drink, he's in the drinkfffn By that time the boys in radio could use a little drink themselves. This is only a sample of many instances of listen- ing but not seeing: of wondering if they would hit us or not: and still taking Morse code at 30 words a minute. The BATAAN'S signal gang had what might be called a double commissioning job. During the early days of the war the great BB XVISCONSIN was shorthanded and needed some signalmen to put her into commission. So. about the same time the mighty B got her wings, our signal boys also commissioned the big dreadnaught. Page Seventy- two The signal force, along with the radio technicians, suffered battle casualties and they comprised the group that saw all, knew all and heard all about every operation. During the toughest days there were dis- agreements as to which was the more rugged on the nerves-seeing it or hearing about it. The signal- men have no 'argument on that score. It's pretty obvious how they feel about that question. Flag hoists, semaphore, blinker, wig-Wag-doing with the eye what radio does with the ear--keeps Signals, as they are called on the bridge, busy. Quick as a flash giving the true bearing of a plane that hits the drink to show the cans were to pick up the pilot and crew: hoists on the double report- ing sighted mines to expedite their quick destruction: the rapid dissemination through the formation of all kinds of emergency signals. Vsfhen the going was tough and when tactical trafiic was pouring in to the bridge, the signal force could send and receive semaphore at a rate of 25 words a minute. That's a job to m-ake a man muscle bound but doesn't faze a good signalman. On the blinker l5 words a minute to the average uninitiated man would look like so much hash, but not to the boys on the after portion of the BATAAN bridge: to them. it's duck soup. Our printers have many times been dragged from their sacks in the middle of the night to knock out a HBATAAN TIMES extra and then put in a full day's work on routine printing. Their spirit of cooperation extends also to the ship's post oflice where a few males get out millions of airmails to thousands of females. The entire ship turns out to help them when the announcement is made, l4 bags of Uncle Sugar mail have just come aboard. The yeomen. who contribute so much to so many, and who. incidentally. take so much from so many if even a comma is missing. must be about as well informed as any group aboard ship. They write up the news received in radio. They're the boys to thank when your orders taking you back stateside are neatly typed and ready. They're the patient recorders of voice radio by shorthand or by longhand as the case may be. And they are the first to know when many commands from the flag concerning the ship are received. lt might be mentioned that they areialso the lads who type Quarters for Muster on the Plan of the Day-day after day after day. The reader is advised to take any action regarding this last mat- ter that he sees fit.

Page 75 text:

jffxw' . '.-- .- ..' . ' . ,, . -, sf' r'g '.'.- .a ,' - - .rr x , ' 1- I -N 0' 2:-,N ' ' ' ' ' wx a,.r ,VWH-, . V' 'Y I ' nn x f . X 4' a x I Q 4 X , .H 1 5 1 ,. 1, -L , 'rm 1' ' + Mr V, 1 j . 1 X A ,. 9 X 5 I ' ...x f - I A -aub- ,afw M 2, pfv-- vi -7- F E I 2 'Vai ' ,, , Y f 5 X Q.. 1 Pace gflilllflf om 4 i Al! F . ' -1 1 'W L 1 39 T 1 fl, I, Y I 4 .A A ' , '!. I ' U x -1 . 5 m . j X I N . ,H M G, , N Q I . XF. l l

Page 77 text:

qnq '4-. I Q Y I jf f' CQMMUNICATIQ A' ,V -ajy Lfq. 5 1 3 l W 712' . .. Q ray ,',v1f: , '1 5 1 It fp ' 64 ,, .: J Ni., ' ffl?