Belleau Wood (CVL 24) - Naval Cruise Book

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U UTU Y El :Hx v-4 6 When we go out to hunt the Jap, to cause him grief and woe and pain, - .aah-. We sail around and up and down, and then sail back again. 4. im 5 All these circles in the sea get darned monotonous to me. f Ah'l -Gib Hughes. The excitement of action ills most of the pages of this book. However, it is erroneous to imply that most of our nautical life was spent in actual combat. In reality, the thrills were brief and far apart. Day in and day out life at sea was plain monotony. Of course there were some whose duties had a flavor of variety. No two days were the same for men involved in flight operations on the flight deck. ln spite of the deafening racket of airplane engines and annoying wind there was enough suspense connected with each landing and enough danger from whirling propellers to keep life from getting dull. There's never a dull moment on a carrier, always some thing new and different was true of flight deck country But few of us outside the airdales participated in the ex' citement of flight operations Boilers engines bulkheads decks mess halls offices and shops always lool the s me no matter what goes on above Every day x as a dupli cate of its predeces or and model for its successor reveille in the dark to sit around battle stations for an hour until sunrise launch aircraft for routine patrols which 90 per cent of the time saw nothing save air, clouds, and water, land aircraft, launch aircraft, land aircraft, three meals a day, scrub bulkheadsg swab decks, run boilers and engines, then fade out with another hour after sunset at battle stations. Relieve the watch. On deck section three. Relieve the wheel and lookoutsf' Relieve the watch-relieve the watch, day after day, week after week. The march of the hours and days and months rumbled steadily past. The sea and sky rolled endlessly by with no glimpse of land from one port period to the next, our eyes became water logged . Water has a way of looking the same wherever you are. This reaction to the life at sea was true of every ship in the fleet, not just the BELLEAU WGCD. Flight operations did give life on carriers a certain flavor which other ships lacked What battleships and cruisers did through the months to fight boredom other than keep station fstay in position is hard to understand Rare indeed was the man who did not lose all sense of time as the metronome of monotony ticked endlessly on . , , . . 7 9 7 , , L -. v . V N . ,, . . . 'Y f - 1 C '.-. 1 t. . - . . ' . . 55 . -H L, ' 1 , V . - 1 - r -'- g V -- - V - , H W ,,-............,............ f s. -- -' fi-'ef-W N - - -Ms--.'-X...-,fs g , a g .w av w p 5-V Jigga? VALLQQ-432 greg: Y V Q

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On the tropic isle of Mug Wtcmp In the sunny southern sea, Theres no dusky, brown skin maiden Eatzng out her heart for me. On the tropie isle of Mug Wump There IS really nothing much But some sailors and some seafbees, Army engzneers and such. -G-b H h 1 ug es. T if o 4All lll' l F'f : When their ,war 15 over 1. - . Our last liberty before Victory was at Leyte Gulf in the Philippines. The Fleet Recreation Center lo' cated on Samar Island to the east of San Pedro Bay was just another Fleet recreation area . . . only with tropical jungle and dirt. The boys had a great time swapping cigarettes and pogey bait for shell necklaces and such with the natives who crowded around the area fence. But the real liberty was in Tacloban over on Leyte Island. Although regular liberty was not rated, most of us made it by hook or crook and got a real look at Philippine life. It mystified us all that the people could be 'so clean and live in such dirty surroundings. The 'Viz was W, e af 1? J kg , girls wore clean cotton dresses. All the men were in the Philippine army apparently, although we didn't see them doing anything. The people got as much fun out of the sightseers as we did out of sightseeing, and they got a great deal more profit. Everything was either Wan Dollah , 'sFi Dollah , Five Peso , Ten Peso, and we had plenty of the Philippine Dollah to spend, if we could trade in a few cigarettes. We bought everything in sight for souvenirs . . . but there was little to buy. Mostly we got wooden sandals or fans or wooden cigarette boxes. There was no food or cloth merchandise anywhere . . . most of the articles came from homes or little shops.

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