Belleau Wood (CVL 24) - Naval Cruise Book

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. I gs . -1 is 121 ,I I 4 fi 1 E fi: I. if 'R 'i I 1 I I I I 1 I Iii ,I EI III ,E II ff I I 1 I fl Il f I S! I: I: ,I Q I I ,I Ig? Ji II' ff' I r I , I QEI I+ IIII I:I 'I fl, we III IJ IEII FII QI ,, tiff wi QEII z., ., In II1I IEW ISI' .I I' ,M I I za. ,Ei if Ist if ,. :IQ H2 If Z to the main fire to remove injured personnel. Other corpsmen worked with volunteer crew members removing the dead to a clearedarea forward on the flight deck and began the difficult job of identification. From 1430, the time disaster struck, until 2100, all medics labored ceasef lessly to make the patients as comfortable as sedatives would allow. Special liquid diets were administered through special tubes to those burned about the face and hands. Even after the major fire was under control, small flames continued to break out here and there. Shipfitters, carpenters, and damage control parties were up all night extinguishing these flickering fires and pumping out water from compartments below the damaged area. This was overflow salt water which had drained down through the ruptured decks and bulkheads from the fire hoses above. Destroyed in the fire were the eleven F6F's spotted aft. But what hurt most was the loss of our shipmates, over 100 of whom were either dead or missing when the pref --.................,.,s.....-... . . ......Y,.YV Y,V,,,,.,v W ,,,,,,..-.--....m.,,- liminary countwas made. That night there was a full moon. We will never for' get the sight of the rows of lifeless bodies aligned on the flight deck and the twisted, foamfcoated wreckage lying in the moonlight. John Giardini, WT1c, confesses. I didn't sleep much that night, others around me seemed to be restless too.I knew their thoughts, like mine, were of buddies who had been killed or were missing. After fueling next day came our disheartening job of investigation and cleaning up the carnage. As the wreckf age over mount 9 was removed it revealed the mount still turned around with barrels pointing over the flight deck. The crew had stuck by their gun, Bring to the end. One cheerful aspect of the day was the return from the def stroyer, U.S.S. PATTERSON, of fifteen shipmates who had been lost over the side. The return of these men left us with 92 shipmates dead and missing. Of a total of 245 casualties, 97 were still in sick bay, 54 severely burned. 60 - ,,,Y. ,.. .... V Y:

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