Block Island (CVE 106) - Naval Cruise Book

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66 DIVISIO ' It was difficult to shop so far from safety zones. The BLOCK ISLAND got its fuel, firecrackers, and food at Kerama Betto. The ship usually rushed there in the morning to load and take on the usugar reports. Kerama Betto is a fabulous kind of place. It was the first ground that the U. S. Forces took any- where in the Nansei Shoto operation. 26 March, six days before the Easter Day landings on Okinawa, landing forces stormed ashore on the islets that make up this group. Then, during the week that followed, while Tokyo radios shrilled about Nun- important landings on barren islands, the Army and Navy quietly built up their forces in this natural anchorage. Literally G'Retto,' means 'alittle group of islands while uCunto means Nbig group of islands. The largest island of Kerama Retto is five miles long, very rough, and having only a few villages where the natives fish for a living. Liberty parties were not safe ashore and time spent in the harbor was not a Sunday School excursion. We loaded stores with all G.Q. paraphernalia at hand- and loaded in a hurry. It was best to get out before sunset. But it's all over now S Division brings home the bacon It provides the neces sltles of life It 1S a real job to plan for all the necessities of home wlthout expecting any deliveries for three months At any time tlllS ship has been prepared to remain three months at sea without contact with a beach It supplies the technical needs of the ship as well as tl1e personal needs of its company Its corner drug store the ships store has a capital of 322 000 and grosses 3:9 500 to S14 000 monthly an amount of business any neighborhood store would covet 80 gallons of ice cream 1S produced a day and 2 000 cokes are sold daily at the Gedunk Stand The haberdashery shop small stores will sell about 33 600 monthly of the latest thing in G I clothing Since the CVE 106 has been commissioned the ship has sold over 18 000 pairs of diawers That s a lot of drawers The BLOCK ISLAND BANK AND TRUST COMPANY carries 12 types of accounts and paid in cash in Decembei 1945 a total amount of 35219 000 The capital of the bank 1S as great as that of the United States and the actual cash carried aboard usually amounted to about 35300 000 enough to meet the full payroll if every man drew all that he had on the books The Barber Shop Cobbler Shop THIIOI Shop and Laundry are all Ships Service activities manned by men rated for these jobs and strikers On the FBI all these services were free sax ing men about ten to fifteen dollars a month ,Q V35 QB lglixfgtv gpg 1. P? -Ja itszfiais. I 'rf Wxlwfmk

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QV SHOTS AND BLOOD TESTS THE CORPSMEN H DIVISIO The ship is her sailor's home. When we are at home we often get careless. Sick Call on any ship is a line of men who've skinned a shin or broken a bone while falling over a seabag, slipping on a oily deck, or passing through a hatch. Then there is the usual run of operations and the appendectomies had a way of becoming acute in the midst of typhoons. Three such operations were undertaken during typhoons in the Okinawa area in the Fall of 1945. Commander J. L. Custer, MC, USNR, who served on both ships saved many a life and salved innumerable wounds. His assistants, Lt. J. K. Richardson on CVE 21 and Lt. jg Robert H. Cummings on CVE 106, were not without their own skill and patience. Doctor Custer was awarded the Bronze Star, as were several of the men who assisted him in elforts to save the life of James O. Franks, Cox, at the time the first ship was tor- pedoed. Franks was standing a gun watch on the forward port side 40mm gun when the first torpedo struck the ship slightly forward of l1is station. The force of the explosion crumpled upward the steel deck of the catwalk on which he was standing. The ragged edges of the steel deck caught his left leg at the knee and his right ankle, pinning these areas between the deck and the ship's hull. An effort was first made to free this man from the mangled steel by the use of a cutting torch but this was unsuccessful. As the ship was settling rapidly by the stern, his left leg was amputated at the knee and his right shoe cut away in order to free him. Franks died from the shock. He was prepared for burial and even in those last minutes of the life of the ship, he had the final service of a hero. y 65' ,H 5 is 4 t ,fl 2 4 t - f I 49 g 1 fu 2 1... Q 1 fs f as fi ' iff 535, ,g -gs. . 1 ar, , , '- A ,fs ,-,.k A I ff 'lk 1 K X X 6, f g 21 fs of 1 i t af s u r f r 1 a, , 3 ' -' ,. .. 1 1 , 2-Kg is A5 , r H 1 ni! X ev A 4 V1.5-, li L ..,, Vf. , Y 7 ,, gr? V' A? - -M n ' 5 ry 4,6 J, I I i Y K , , gf I ,Iii V ,Q .l'., ,B ,I . , ,P V h 1,1 J ,L t 7 , if , - V 5' ,- ' jf 7 v 'e g es' t , A New ,, , X N A ,J p I , i,. swf, :L .fry-f, ,I X JV, X Y V, in E of 1 I' i fi ,Q ,, 4 iii, 1 A spy I I m m ew, K ,.,., f ., ' ' ,, , x t, tiff' ' I f 1 X I 'ff f X V f , as -1 V if fy, H A, f sf JN-1 tar. 1 'ff 4 - ,W -f' wx .- f .,. , -sf Q ,V fl , A .L C, 1 , M, .sf , 'lar J. : ,. A DIVISION

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THE COBBLER GEDUNKS l CLEAN SWEEP DOWN FORE AND AFT 4741 57 44lEver,y6oc9f Ido Q CPUO or sonic: numborj fs 04010, GUN! 'm', Unnmn 1'-'?-Yq,mff'gf1,0 2'af'H sq NAVY PAY RECEIPT X ' I ffffz fShip or no tionl 2' '7 I acknowledge to have received from the Disbursing Ohiccr, in S ' person and IN CASH, on account of pay, the sum of: fx-f . X QAmount in liguroej A if-cf , LQ ZLZD' 'A' A A -' Y 'A Dollars ant in wozduj . o . A f x CPqyoo'l lignatur ' -K 2 . 'W V-mx ...-.7 d crufmdpz mmbenuedourwirhoufilffeflkvfff 1 7 LAUNDRY THF BATTLIC OF CORROSION