Belleau Wood (CVL 24) - Naval Cruise Book

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HE T Break out the cal0mel and phenol, Doc, this itches like . . . . . Lined up outside of sick bay was a file of itching humanity with acres of heat rash and fungus, burning for relief. In the heat of the tropics a variety of skin irritations-collectively dubbed the creeping crud - gripped with unrelenting tenacity the hides of the tender. And there wasn't much you could do about it either- except hope the war would end soon and you could get back to some cool dry air. For months in the tropics the BELLEAU WOQD was in hot water. H83 Degreesn, hummed the messenger on watch as, deep in the engine rooms, he observed the water injection temperature-the temperature of the water in which the ship was afloat. That temperature fre' quently bounced above 830, many a time it flirted with 860. The Gilberts, Marshalls, Carolines, New Guinea, Philippines-they're all bathed by 800 currents. Not until the last few cruises off Japan did the hull cool off enough to produce a comfortable temperature in the engineers' spaces, passages, and lower berthing compartments. In your rack you awoke from hot naps with that clamf my feeling unique to the tropics. Sweating, sleeping men filled tiers of bunks. Air circulated to the low whir of neverfceasing fans and the constant purr of ventilation blowers. The boiler rooms and engine rooms got so warm that the rails of the ladders were too hot to grasp. To ventilation ducts were rigged dungaree pants, funnels flapping in the draft, conducting every bit of precious air to the dripping snipes on station. Month in and month out, they stood the toughest watch schedule on the ship-usually 1 in S . With no view of the outside, no opportunity to see the fleet in action swatting down at' tacking japs, with extremely meager word of what was going on around us, the engineers lived what was prob' ably the most monotonous existence aboard. For over a year and a half these engineers, the men who are seldom glorified on a carrier, endured the dripping heat and the itching, creeping crud to keep the screws turning. TIMES VVHEN MURDER. as Jus'raFsED i 'Xf' ' NEVER HAD X N4 You N x A BETTER LIFE fx 4 l fnv15ZEi 1 ,Z 'QQQZK3 raclm l Wlmnnmaf ,ai .f rtmpi 4f llill ,A SL'Wi?'ingwMb K T i a U 6 5 WE u T .W 'TR 11' orro swnoi DtR JI frifr Nlff .fffvff WE BEEN HA WN6 Wffffk Hdlfff r 67 f - -5 ,-7,+ V . A - i' Z . Af g +A - ' ' .uf if ll 5 6 -T I W l r V' 1 ri - 5 ' ' X NPN Q fl ', 7 5 1 Q .iisllll -if rl- gtg BW Kf!l gvd- I 'f 5 Y i ' Axxxx ff. K - x- - Q,.Il-fl. , Hxr- -'41 V 1' -v - iff in gf ' I 'W ' x - I .b 3 f , A - -4 K rib f I' , 2 ' lo f'V K1l' I 1 ij CX' l 1 - ,J -H-ws . ' , f 4' f T , 4' if ff' ,,.l.,,, M v ' ' - if-. iaf,..,,.' 1 - ' - . v 'r f. ,Z . '-Q5 , p T N x xx, i f. -fwaf cars fff: r 4 L . .9 A fame si afff . 'er 3 - - .' 5 - -lui x? if - 0 Q x I Nl

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' s i sig 5 as v ' SECURE ALL WATERTIGHT DOORS Lt. Cdr. Tippett had persistently impressed upon the engineering personnel the importance of maintaining watertight integrity dur' ing General Quarters. Once the watertight doors had been but' toned up, none were to be opened. During one G.Q. the Chief Engineer wanted to enter the evaporator room through one of these very doors. To his increasing irritation he noticed when he had undogged all the dogs but two that-zip--the dogs quickly snapped shut. Pat Gleason, MMZC. unconscious of the identity of the inf truder on the other side of the practically soundfproof door, had learned his lesson well. The Chief tried it again, but just as he was reaching for the last two dogs-zip-they all snapped closed again. He tried to be cagey by undogging alternate dogs cattyfcorner from each other, but as soon as he took his hand off a dog it closed quickly. He would undog one quickly-it would snap shut quickly. He would undog one slowly-it would close slowly. Banging on the door with a length of pipe brought only the same response from the other side. Angered by this situation, the Chief rushed to the Log Room and called Gleason by phone. Lemme in the evaporator room. This is the Chief En- gineer! Oh, yeah, this is Admiral Clark, chirped Gleason, not recogf nizing the voice. After hanging up, Gleason began to consider that maybe it was the boss. He allowed the door to be opened. It was. L , f LYAX X I Q ' Gx 4 yi , N we Fil fxm l -rf ll .I WE fly ' . H s af HA TCH -HOPPFQ i 12, 'R' ' fa . 1415 -. f ' 3' f 'C Wir D Q , . - ' f L7 .f . - ' in . f ' i ' ,P ,g ' . N a ' a Q X -o f-.aw ' Ns, N Wg .2 - - V h' f X!-ll ' ' I ' A ' G ,-V W 1 l ' f 0' , ll G JZ? 4 hu 5 U ia' f l U 7 S i X ' x 4 f Pr 1. 5, , Xxx V X ' X i D x f A' . X' lgfxs..-.'i'-: 3, I Jw -5 NN ff iw. JM 'A' ---fr' ffw:-s mff1fAfgfF1-ji5i,: N - J' ,N 35- 77115 I5 af :fer entgme room, :3f7j ' ,, l 'i ..'m '3'.i: gg , - F?2QllZ5Z' PZf777fQ55f0f7 tb fgffyfg bi-kgs 66

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L. S. 0.-LANDING SIGNALS OFFICER By Lt. Frank Green Stand by to land aircraft roars over the bull horn from fly control, and the fox flags are two blocked as tha ship turns into the wind. You can feel the signal platform begin to vibrate under your feet as the ship picks up speed and the first plane breaks off into the landing pattern. The observer hands over the two flags as you take your posif tion for the Hrst plane. A quick look at 'the wind indicator shows that the ship is still too far out of the wind. The first plane breaks off a little too soon and has to be given a wavefoff. At fly control the red flag is still up and you couldn't have taken him anyhow. It's all down, deck clear from the observer as the second plane starts into the cross leg. You pick it up with a Roger fboth arms out horizontallyj but switch to a High when it starts to climb slightly. As he rolls out of the turn into the groove, the pilot takes off too much throttle and settles badly. You wave him off and instinctively crouch down as the plane roars over the signal platform. He settled in the groove , you yell down to the man who makes the proper notation in the book where a record of all landing approaches is kept. The next plane looks good and rides a Roger all the way into the groove with a little slant signal to line him, up before the cut. Your heart skips a beat when the plane bounces on land' ing ,and the hook misses the first few wires. But it finally does catch a wire and rolls to a stop. With a quick sigh of relief you pick up the next plane already starting its approach. You didn't hear General Quarters because of the roar of the engines, but when you notice the gun crews rushingf for their stations you know there must be bogies in the area. However there is not time to worry about that now as you pick up the next plane with a Roger. 1t's a good pass all the way and, as the plane swoops down and catches a wire, you notice that they are firing over in the next group. Simultaneously the telephone talker yells up that our planes have been instructed to circle outside the screen until after the attack and that you are to run for cover. Hey! hand me my mae west. The BELLEAU WOOD's landing record: 1 Landings .................. 13,161 Crashes .................... 121 Per cent crashes ...... .9fZp or 1 out of every 108 The majority of crashes were not serious, few were fatal. For instance any landing plane which even touched the barrier was counted as a crash. The BELLEAU WOOD's landing signals officers were: Lt. A. 'Harp'er, March, 1943-April, 1945 Lt. W. F. Wujcik, April, 1945--August, 1945 Lt. F. E. Green, and Ens. W. O. Blake, August, 1945- November, 1945. y l Jocicsr IITTERS The ship was at General Quarters. One of the bridge lookf outs was an excitable little man whose fearful eyes constantly scanned the skies. On the other end of his phone, which was in C.I.C., was Hilarious Harry Krovitz, an exfjockey. Sud' denly, from out of nowhere, came six Nip Torpedo planes. The diminutive lookout screamed, This is it! Oh, dear God, don't let fem hit us! They canit miss! They're almost on us! Help! This is really it! Down in C.1.C. Harry was seated on a high, backless stool, a.nd the louder the screams, the faster jockey Krovitz rode that stool. He resembled the small boy on his first merryfgofround ride. However the Jap planes missed. Those in the know say that 'iHi!arious Harry turned in one of his best an l Awe -'eff' - 5 K. , track performances. l K , A r K7 -in Wi if! Q I XD n, js. f , 1 fs A! ,jf M ful ' f f ' s ! :J 'i Q 4. ' ,Cixi g X ff' XX -2 W, 4-ff L if ,W ag if 'c if-if t ... ' ' A s- N ' f X-'Ili g-L INDEPENDENT LADY George Elliot, a new JuniorfOfficerfoffthefDeck, leaned back on his heels and whistled a few bars of Anchors Aweigh . On the bridge with George were the 0.0.D. and Capt. Pride. We were in a task group steaming towards Majuro. Suddenly the whole group started a starboard turn-all but Beulah , who maintained her course. Elliot, still on his heels, whistled All the Things You Are , his thoughts were thousands of miles away. Capt. Pride's voice broke through the low murmur of churning engines and subdued radio speakers. Mr, Elliot, do you know where we're going? L'Yes sir, Captain, we're going back to Majuro. We'll be there early tomorrow. Yes-1 know, but can you tell me why the rest of the for' mation 1sn't going with us? fMoral--never miss a zigfzagj LOTS OF AIR The Ship had been at General Quarters for hours. As usual all air, conditioning was off. and men inside the ship were sweltering, especially those whose stations kept them far below decks. The Executive Ofhcer was checking up on the readiness of all departments. On the bridge squawk bgx he Called Cen' tral4Stat1on, .-This is the Executivc Qmccr. A,-C you ready to receive a torpedo down there? The deliberate answer crept back from the First Lieutenant. Lt. Cdr. Wexel, Commander Lyons, if it will help the ventila' tion any, well accept two or three. 68