Des Moines (CA 134) - Naval Cruise Book

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Marine's birthday cake. Officers at birthday party. SEATED, LEFT TO RIGHT: C. J. Bryk, G. B. 0'Brien, W. J. Scott, A. G. McCue, Ist Lt. F. Grabow- sky, 1st Sgt. C. R. Burton, O. W. Davidson, W. A. Mclean, T. Krasnoger, E. T. Bly .... STAND- ING, LEFT TO RIGHT: J. W. Smith, H. C. Aciz, J. H. Robert- son, E. G. Pedersen, P. J. Robin- son, A. J. Sweeney, J. N. Bush, R. B. Pickering, J. B. Tohill, R. E. Andersen.

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Cleaning rifles and sharpening up the uniform. SEATED, LEFT TO RIGHT: T. E. Kernan, M. G. Bertuzzi, D. L. Abernathy, W. A. Mills, Capt. W. C. Bell, Gunnery Sgt. A. R. Hill, C. B. Glasby, C. E. Lemere, R. J. Rhodes, T. F. Nolan .... STANDING, LEFT TO RIGHT: M. M. Kennedy, H. L. Manus, W. H. Ryan, R. M. Bennett, C. H. Voltz, V. J. Montalto, D. R. Duggan, V. L. DeRosa, J. L. Monseau, E. J. Sabatino. EIGHTH Div'Si0lf1 THE MARINES on board the USS DES MOINES function as an integral part of the Gunnery Depart- ment and are known, in the ship's organization, as the Eighth Division. As the Eighth Division the Marines man two three-inch fifty-caliber twin rapid fire mounts of the ship's AA battery and thereby become a com- ponent part of a fighting ship. The daily routine of this division, as in all other gunnery divisions, requires that all hands be busily engaged in drill, or turning to on the endless hours of chipping, painting, polishing, and gun maintenance. Returning to the Marine Detachment you lind an organization which, by regulation, is required to be trained and equipped for operations ashore as part of the shipis landing party or other force, or for limited operations as an independent force. In addition, regu- lations require that the detachment provide gun crews and also provide for the internal security of the ship. In meeting these requirements the Marines are, at times, essentially a guard unit and will be doing four on and eight off on such watches as Captain's orderly, Executive Oliiceris orderly, corporal of the guard, com- munication orderly, brig sentry, or brow sentry. When required, the Detachment will operate as a rifle platoon and form the nucleus of the ship's landing party. '4Away the full guard and band, a call heard quite often during the Mediterranean cruise, results in a flurry of activity which terminates in a ceremony on the quarterdeck in honor of a visiting civil or military official. All of this makes for a busy cruise, but it isnit all work. Liberty call results in a Hurry of activity too, and it is then that the sea going Marine is rewarded for his hard Work. Names such as Paris, Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Lisbon, Nice, and many others take on a new meaning for hearing the name is one thing, seeing the city is quite another. It gets rough at times but the DES MOINES and her Mediterranean cruises will be long remembered by the Marine Detachment.

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l 1 I --WW F Div'sion THE HW DIVISION, commonly called the Fox Divi- sion, is a unit of the Gunnery Department. The men of this division must possess a high degree of intelli- gence and technical ability to operate and maintain the complex tire control installation of the modern heavy cruiser. A plane passes over the ship trailed by 'a red sleeve, there are a series of explosions, a few puffs of smoke in the sky, and the sleeve suddenly changes speed from 200 knots to zero. Then again maybe the sleeve just ignores the puffs of smoke and goes on its merry way. But hit or miss, it's the Fire Controlmen with their fire control equipment who put those puffs of smoke in position and determine whether the sleeve comes down or not. Again it's the men of the Fox Division who see to it that an island gets chipped a little more in the correct spot each time we fire shore bombard- ment. Not only does the division have to see that its equip- ment positions the guns to get hits, but also that this highly technical equipment is in good working order. Without constant care and maintenance of rangefind- ers, radar, computers, and sights it would be impossible to get hits on sleeves, sleds or even islands. fThe 3 'nch battery being relatively new to the N avy, presents 1 . a particularly tough maintenance problem and without Satterwhite's 3 inch repair gang and Wagner and Lambert, the Wizards of the Mark 56 systems, we would probably end using the 3 inch guns as orna- ments. However we'd still have Vlfhitney and his boys with the Mark 37 system and 5 inch guns. They seem to be fairly proficient at putting those bursts in the rightiplace and could do much 'toward discouraging a pilot from making a run on the DES MOINESJ When it comes to bombarding islands and pounding sleds, the big guns take over and Plummer's main bat- tery men take a bow. The story goes that when the DES MOINES opened up in rapid fire on a certain island a while back the observers were so amazed at the accuracy and rapidity of fire that one dislocated his jaw this mouth fell open that fastl, and another asked for a check on his eyesight. When we think of thevFoX Division, we naturally think in terms of F ire Controlmen and many may not even realize that the Gunnery Ollice Yeomen are also Fox Division men as are the Gunneris Mates down in the Armory. These Fox Division Gunner's Mates also form the cadre of the saluting battery. Inspection. FRONT ROW: E. E. Hayward, FT3: R. T. Birnie, SN: W. S Yonkovitch, FC3: W. Y. Daniel, SN: J. M. Pierce, SN: H. R Plane, SN. . . . SECOND ROW: H. W. Harvey, SN: L. F. Bar- bano, SN: R. C. Buckley, FC'li J. J. Lambert, FCC: Lt. D. A Webster, Lt. Ci.gJ F. D. Jack- son: G. A. Taraskavage, SN: D L- Cox, FT3: H. W. Hacker, SN . . . THIRD ROW: D. Giammario SN: W. J. Stocksdale, SN: J. W Zahniser, FT2: E. R. Fortier, FC3 V. L. Parocli, SN: R. R. Gollo- bifSCh, SN: R. G. Tufano, FCS3, R. H. Eads, FT3: G. Yelenovskyf SN: D. B. May, SN. 0 I