Ranger (CVA 61) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 5 text:

- he Ranger left Alameda for her fifth combat de- ployment to Vietnam on a rain-soaked Tuesday. People on the pier huddled in fog-hazed queues. The wives and children, the friends, well-wishers, and the alien on- lookers stood like melancholy statues on the glistening ray dock, forcing smiles. ' r We would be gone for a long time and didn't want these parting moments to take the proportions df an unhappy melodrama. For this reason we tossed our hats into the damp air, tapped our feet in time to the band's music and also forced smiles. . Each man left something of himself behind and traveled 8,000 miles to a place called the Tonkin Gulf. Four thou- sand, five hundred crewmen-4,500 different impressions of this contemporary saga 'of the sea. And the reason for the differences is simple: men do not think alikeg each grasps something special that is his, and holds it for re- membrance. There is a tendency, perhaps indicative of our mech- anized society, to attribute great achievements to the bloodless hulks of ship5skB.eomputers, and other creations of man. Thistravesty is furthered in,news- papers, magazines, motion pictures, and television. At the other end of this metaphor-gone-mad we see a single group of men, be they soldiers, sailors, aviators, ora football team for that matter, attain I-lerculean propor- tions through mass media glamorization and the pulp and ink promotion of their publicrelations departments. Somewhere within this process the individual has been misplaced, if not altogether lost. f . The work that is done aboard Rangereg often mentally frustrating and physically dangerous. Its successful com- pletion rests not with the ship or the crew, but with the individual ' 0 - -i often said that a man is the sum total of his experiences. ,Ranger is the sum total of her separate members. - K Somewhere behind the haze-gray facade of bulkheads there are people. People too to be likened to small cogs in a massive man has a ' 'T iobto ' I-Us a plane director on a hazardous 1,070 by 270-foot flight deckp the pilot of a supersonic-speed aircraft who, with scant margin for error, mu!! IBS.. .Halle down OU a r l'le'a4lf and must repair and maintain equip- ment scattered along 190 miles of electrical cable or, if 'i i ' Maybe he works in the Aviation Technical Library and is responsible for 250,0w pieces of literature. He drives an aircraft tow tractor, operates a jet starter and mans a crash and salvage crane. He repairs aircraft, radar systems and sits for long hours in Stygian darkness watching and evaluating blips on a scope. He maintains and strives to understand the intricate systems of track and search radar and inertial navigation equipment. If he works in the Supply Department he onloads, inven- tories and distributes thousands of items worth several million dollars throughout the vast and varied confines of the ship. Food is a fact of life, and somebody must prepare wholesome meals for the entire crew and have them available 22 hours a day. Payday is always good nevw, but someone must balance the S600,000 monthly payroll. There are over one hundred pieces of visual and radio communications gear which must be manned 24 hours a day. Photographs from reconnaissance aircraft must be developed and evaluated. A man with a name flew over enemy territory to take them. . . He works in the Air Department and operates an elevator, rigs a barricade, launches and recovers aircraft, works on the catapults, and maintains miles of fuel pipes, valves and purifiers in a system with tanks that hold 1.6 million gallons' of jet fuel. Somewhere deep in the recesses of the ship, he works feverishly in the dyspneal heat- of the firerooms and boil- ers, assuring maximum steam fori power, and maximum fresh water for thecrew. Elsewhere, a .man works with bombs, missiles and high explosives requiring careful handling. I 1 Somebody is the captain or the-'executive or a de- partment head, charged with' ihexoverallyefficigncy and coordination of Ranger, planning for 'pfoblemsnbefore they occur, and then working,to.seethat theyiion't. i 3 x P He is a hospital corpslhwanbka.-5H 'tl1e bewildering insanity of war, might be another man's last hope for his ship have diverse backgrounds, training They cannot be grouped into a large homo- geneous mass with ill-defined edges. Rather, they are a heterogeneous group bound together for the common good and a common purpose. Bound together by some- thing more than the obvious functional need to do specific jobs and integrate them with the whole. This cruise was a minor epic of the sweat and strain of war and the curiosity and enjoyment of liberty and spare time of the men who work on an 80,000-ton aircraft carrier thousands of the rust-red Golden .,,, f f . , l , H V

Page 4 text:

Crumb R H we 5' ff! J-LO .., ' a C-3

Page 6 text:

. Q-, p .v -I l,A,ivw.1 . 'A-. sg' -f 1-.W ,... -.nf