Belleau Wood (CVL 24) - Naval Cruise Book

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:J- rv O v-1 D .... 5 UQ O P-4-' f, ff '-tw W4 27 ff w if or . P6 - A, 'N .Ly f ... 5 . O O H cv CL sv FY 'U rv as v-1 ,... is , + X , Harbor ready for entering drydock. Showing the scars of a year's sea duty, her entire structure needed a new paint job as well as several repairs. Meanwhile, the crew returned to Waikiki Beach and Honolulu. Special periods at rest camps were given to all the men-camps where the cares of the ship were forgotten. No reveille, no turn to , no quarters, watches, or swabbing of decks- just a few peaceful days devoted to dayfdreaming and recreation. Air Group 24 received its orders during this period and after 14 months aboard fone of the longest tours of duty for any air groupj disembarked for home, leaving behind a record of high achievement. To replace Lt. Cdr. E. M. Link and his men came Air Group 21 com' manded by Commander Vincent Casey with Lt. Cdr. R. A. Kennard directing the torpedo squadron. ln Hawaii we soon found that the climate is always the same and that means it's always good. lt's hot down in the harbor tied up at a Ford Island pier, but the liberty is just like the magazine ads except for the hula girls. Now we had no com' plaint to make about the girls in Hawaii except that the ratio of male to female was about ZOO to 1. . In order to finagle a date you have to know a guy who knows a guy who had his leg broken on a surffboard and therefore can't make the date he arranged last month . . . then you talk or buy your way past the other three guys in between you and the character with the broken leg. They say it was better after the WAVES arrived . . . but we saw little improvement in January of '45, just more sailors trying to knock each other off the Leapin' Tuna on the way to the Ford Island ferry. While on the subject of transportation in Hawaii . . . take this as a warning never to ride down the Old Pali Road with one of those wildfeyed bus drivers. Some of the boys tried it going over to the recreation beaches near Kaneohe . . . for days they walked around holding tight to all stanchions and lifelines and refused to go down steep ladders without a lifefbelt. On the iirst visit there Captain Pride arranged aroundfthe' island tours for groups of us. Everybody was amazed at the vivid green of the fields and exotic plants and trees . . and all hands sampled the papayas and various melonsg familiar bananas looked just like those in the States . . and tasted as good. isa? Mxwis-as wa.. -A ....,'.,sx-s-. X as.svxxeHQXa3qysc

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......-,A -..,.-Q-. Hundreds of planes nearly out of gas were returning in the dark of night. Many were crippled and damaged. Landing lights on the ships were turned on to land the planes, and the waters for miles around blossomed with flares-red, green and white-turning the ocean into a weird arena probed by eerie shafts of stabbing searchf lights. Lost planes droned overhead in all directions, but as orderly as possible they landed, landing anywhere, for any carrier looked like home. Here and there lights bobbed up and down on the choppy sea where a pilot had to ditch. In the midst of all this a plane popped up in our landf ing circle, and despite the tricky depth perception of lights at night, Harpo Harper, our landing signal oihcer, brought her in for a beautiful landing. It was a VF and as it came to a stop we dashed up to see whether the pilot was one of our boys or a lost visitor from anf other carrier. It was quiet, softfspoken Al Hillner, who staggered out of that plane and fell on the deck to kiss it in thankfulness for his safe return. We all had 3 lump in our throats as we helped Al to his feet and down to the ready room. Oveland, always a 'Lcool cucumberw, came in a short while later with Harpo doing another marvelous job. He was as glad to get back as Hillner. Both had been through a terrific ordeal. In this historic battle Task Force 58 planes shot 360 Japs out of the air. BELLEAU WOOD planes received credit for destroying 13 definite and 5 probable airborne planes, definitely sinking one carrier, and damaging two others. Very few carriers, including the Essex class with air groups three times as large as those on CVL's, have ref ceived full credit for sinking a major enemy warship. The BELLEAU WQQD had paid for itself by single' handedly annihilating a larger enemyi carrier. This sucf cessful attack on the Hayataka fills one of the most brilf liant pages of heroics in BELLEAU WOOD's record. Pictured at the left are the VT crews who attacked the Hayatakag fabsent is I. F. Siwicki who was injured in the frayl. The pilots who scored hits-Brown, Tate, and Omark-received the Navy Cross, the highest award a Navy man can receive save for the Congressional Medal of Honor. Distinguished Flying Crosses were awarded Luton and the crewmen of the four Avengers. At the right are the Hellcat pilots who escorted the Avengers. TOP ROW: gaxeli Omark, Lt. Ben Tate, Ens. D. Luton, Lt. Cjgl TOP RUW: Ens. Marcellus Barr, Lt. Walter Rogers. F ti , o 1. Y . P , , BOTTOM ROW : Lt. Cjvj Alvin Hillner, Ll. fjgj Rodne ' Tablet F - MIDDLE ROW: R0b0 f RHIIGS, James Dobbs, Philip Whiting, Ellis Babcock. Lt, Collin 6iv,,1m,,1, Lt, fjgj W,,1,1,.,,,a,. Ch,.i3u.n,,,m, ,- BOTTOM ROW: John Prince, G00l'gf2 Platz, James Brookbank. ' The remainder of june was spent in covering' the oc' Cupation of Saipan and Tinian. Our group returned to the Bonins for additional strikes against Iwo Jima, Haha lima, and Chichi Jima on June 23 and 24. Un the 24th of june alone, Task Group 58.1, of which we were Still 3 Part, deStf0Yed 116 enemy aircraft at the target be' sides damaging the airfields and installations. During the strenuous fighting of the preceding two weeks, Task Force 58 had cleared the Marianas skies of ,l21p21116Se air power, had dealt the Imperial Fleet a erushf ing blow, and had paved the way for invasion forces which now had a sure foothold in the Marianas. On june 25 the BFLLEAU VJOOD received orders to proceed to Pearl Harbor for an overhaul, her first since departing from the States one year previous. 42 van-small

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