Arkansas (BB 33) - Naval Cruise Book

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F§ ' ■■ ,-. -».•« COMMANDING- OFFICERS CAPT. ROY SMITH OAPT. W.R. SHOEMAKER CAPT WH3 8ULLARD CAPT. L.R Dt8TEIQUER CAPT STANFORD E.MOSES CAPT RIDLEY MH.EAS CAPT FRANK LYON CMCR 3M.8AUM OAPT. AMON BRONSON OAPT. HAYNE ELLIS CAPT. OS. FREEMAN CAP . G.8.LANDEN8ERGER CAPT. P.W.FOOTE CAPT R.R ADAMS DAF- R B OOFFEY CAPT J S BARLEON OAPT W H PASHLEY . OAPT. J.L HALL CAPT. C F BRYANT OAPT F RIOHARCS CAPT. M OREAfi ZiPJ. WAOE D« EESE 912- -1916 1915- -1916 1917- -1918 .919- -1920 1920- -1922 1922- -1924 1924- -1923 1926- -1927 1927- -1928 1929- -1930 1930- -1931 1931 - -.932 1932- -1933 1933- -1934 1934- -.933 1936- -»37 938- -1940 A 1940- -1941 - P -1943 f 543- -1944 944- -I94« 1945 J jV«f ff i H (rf lHttiaHf f ' ii ( ' j ' fcet

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FOREWORD i HIS book is for the men of the USS Arkansas who sailed her out of Boston Harbor on Nov. 7, 1944 and into the Pacific and who brought her back home a year later. It is a photographic record of life aboard the US Fleet ' s oldest battleship during the last year of World War II and of the operations in which she took part. There is no room in this book for such words as brave, gallant, or heroic. These words have been so cheapened by ad-writers and the like that they have lost all meaning and proportion. Rather, describe the Arky and her men as an outfit that went to war and into battle afraid but willing, realizing full well the sui- cidal power of the Jap, yet determined to do their part to make the A llied victory final and complete. They were gripped with the terrible conviction that the more smashing the victory, the longer the future would keep the peace. For the man who re-reads these pages after the war, many things will be recalled: the prickly heat, the monotony, the dysentery, the long days and nights spent at General Quarters and Air Alert stations. He ' ll remember, too, the companionship and the silent understanding that comes only among men who have gone through great danger together. He ' ll remember how the beer tasted at Guam, how the gun crews played pinochle and acey-ducey during intervals between firing, how he sang and shouted himself hoarse on Aug. 10, the real V-J night, how the American girls in Honolulu looked. He ' ll remember how he felt that January morning when the ship sailed westward out of Long Beach Harbor, how he felt at Okinawa when he heard the news of President Roosevelt ' s death, how big the lump in his throat was when he first sighted Puget Sound on his way home. Above all, he ' ll never forget that he fought the war on his ship, in defense of his country and her ideals. He ' ll never forget that war is the dirtiest and most hor- rible business a man can engage in. And remembering all this, he ' ll always be a fighter ... for peace, for his home, for his democratic rights, for his country and his fellow-man. Lt. (jg) L. W. Hayman

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CAPTAIN WADE DeWEESE, U. S. N. COMMANDING OFFICER 1945