Missouri (BB 63) - Naval Cruise Book

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IITHE HE weather was crisp and a little warm for October, but the huge crowd that waited on the docks of New York Harbor paid little, if any, attention to it. All eyes were strained, search- ing out into the sea with eager expectation' of the return of the battleship Missouri from the war. , ln the days that followed, the thousands of guests that poured aboard the warship, marveled at its immensity and were awed at the length of her giant 16 inch guns, but always, the center of interest was the inlaid bronze plaque that marked the spot where the world's greatest war was brought to a close. The high point of the cruise was on Navy Day, when President Truman, who himself had played an active part in the shipis history, came aboard to pay his respects. After a well deserved rest and overhaul period, the Missouri returned to active duty, while her sister ships closed shop and went into mothballs. The Post War period found her engaged in more routine assign- ments, acting as a training ship, good will am- bassador, and the instrument for 'ishowing the flag . ln April 1946, she was designated to return the remains of the late Turkish Ambassador, the Honorable Melmet Munir Ertegun, to his home- land, making visits of courtesy to Gibraltar, Piraeus, Naples, Algiers and Tangier enroute. Mid-July found her nestled in the yards of her home port, Norfolk, Virginia, eagerly anticipating and preparing for her first South American cruise. Chipping hammers noisily agitated her gray body followed by paint brushes that gently caressednit. URRE DER Things were ship shape and stores aboard, on a humid August 6, 1947. The Mo was underway for Bio de Janeiro, Brazil, via Cuba and Trinidad. At Rio ce Janeiro, accompanied by two destroy- ers, U.S.S. Dyess and Small, the Missouri awaited the arrival of President Truman, who was attending the Pan American Conference. On the first of September, the President, looking a little older from the weight of the responsibilities he now carried, came aboard with his party while all hands manned the rail. Smartly dressed Brazilian naval officers, with their gold glistening, accompanied Enrico Caspar, President of Brazil, and other high officials of both governments. The luncheon on board in honor of the Brazilian president, was the first of many formal occasions attended by the officers and men of the Missouri, including Brazil's lnde- pendence Day on September seventh, during the stay. When the convention was completed, President Truman and his party returned to the ship for a pleasant homeward cruise to Norfolk. Returning to her duties as training ship, the Missouri existed in a more or less routine manner. Routine until the seventeenth of January on a foggy Chesapeake Bay. A sickening screeching noise shot through the ship, her huge powerful screws could not move her, she hit a mud bank and was grounded. The large scale plans for re-floating her were being prepared, while jibes and jeers about the uMighty Mo were pointed at her as she lay helpless in shoal water. Finally after nearly a month of working and planning, a successful pull off was enacted. The ship was again afloat. Much of the scorn turned to praise when the full facts of salvage operation were disclosed. The following excerpt from an editorial of a Norfolk newspaper, printed during the ship's first Korean cruise, best expresses the opinion toward the battleship today. HAt lastreports fthe Missourij had joined the group of naval vessels off lnchon, on the west coast, and as ammunition carrier and floating battery for bombardment of shore positions, she may be expected to turn up where her services are needed. The Missouri gets around these days--not aground. I the great ship has gone aground a giant in distress

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THE MIDDIE CRUISES: HE fog was closing in and the battleship Missouri crept its way up Chesapeake Bay with approximately half of its enlisted comple- ment missing. The half that was missing, was mighty glad that they were, because it was time for the annual midshipmen cruise. ln the months that were to follow, crewmembers and middies would vie for showers, cut each other in the chow lines and make time with each others girls. Al- though more or less traditional, it is not advocated by the Navy, but this friendly sort of rivalry is ever present and it tends to stimulate training as each try to out-do the other. When the '6Big Mo drops anchor at Annapolis, some thousand Midshipmen and NROTC students will be eagerly waiting for a chance to try their sea legs. Except for the wide blue band on their white hats and the black name stenciled across their jumpers, they look every bit like ordinary seamen. Once aboard they are assigned billets and begin to square themselves away for shipboard life. .V ,,,i.,,... a fl The Navy has devised this system in order to supplement the regular classroom curriculum with this on the job training. A firm believer of the old adage HExperience is the best teacher. The anchor's up and the Missouri is underway, the first stage of the cruise is beginning. From Annapolis to Norfolk and then on to Bergen, Norway. The cruise will take six weeks, this is no speed run, her screws are not turning over with full power, her course is not the straightest, her mission is training. The midshipmen, by this time, have been as- signed jobs and duties they must perform. They have infiltrated every part of the ship, they're in gunnery, communications, on the deck force. That fellow you see holy-stoning the deck in time with the bos'n count, may be a future Admiral. These men are learning jobs that they will some day be responsible for, by actually getting out and doing them. The weeks slipped by, GQ., Fire, abandon ship, drill, drill, drill, and the middies are coming into their own. They're part of the team. Liberties have been granted in Bergen and Portsmouth and now there is that long trek to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the real test of what they have learned will come.