Bairoko (CVE 115) - Naval Cruise Book

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, 3 A'-- ' 1 Gi.. U ii' E ig ,fig Qi Wg 4 lv Usa .3 EVE We first began to know one another at Breme1'ton. For some of us, the experience of going aboard a new ship had long since lost its newness, but to a greater number of us, this represented something entirely new. Most of us were only beginning to become accustomed to the wearing of a uniform, and even the sight of salt water was, to a few of us, still novel. We had received our orders to report to Bremerton and knew that we would later go aboard the U.S.S. Bairoko, the pronunciation and spelling of which we were never quite sure, and we knew that we were not sure of the jobs that lay ahead of us. In liilay of 1945, we were formed into a pre-commissioning detail and began to learn those jobs, learning both from the instructors in the school there and from those of our future shipmates who were the salts -those who knew carriers from actual experience in battle. It was now that we began to become acquainted with the ship that we were to man. We learned that she was not a converted merchant ship, but that she had been designed throughout for the purpose she was to serve and that we were to have the advantages of lessons in ship designing and outfitting which had been learned in the many battles in which the Baby Flat- tops had participated. Her keel had been laid more than a year previous to our assembly at Bremerton, on the 25th of January 1944 at the Todd Pacific Shipyards, Tacoma, Washingtoii, where the final phases of her construction were in progress. liflrs. J. ,l. Billlfillfiflffi Wife of Rear Admiral Ballentine, had sent the hull sliding down its ways into the waters of Puget SOUHC1 on January 25, 1945, christening the vessel the U.S.S. Bairoko. It was not until July 16 that the ship would be ready for us to go aboard her, just a few days short of 18 months from the laying of her keel until com- pletion, an amazing record for the construction of a ship as large and as complex as this one. About two weeks prior to the time when we were to attend the commissioning ceremonies at 'll2iCOIl'l3, WC got a first-class picture of what our lives aboard Shiv .SJ were to be. For two weeks, we lived and Worked aboard the Commencement Bay, the fiorst of this class of carriers, gaining confidence in our ability to man our own ship. Although the crew of the Commencement Bay was with us at all times, ready to assist and give advice, it was we who were manning the stations. As new as most of us had been when we first reported to Bremerton, here was evidence that we had learned much during those months and were now ready to go aboard our own ship. On Commissioning Day, July 16, 1945, many of our friends and relatives were our guests to see the ship F1CCCD'fCd fOr the Navy by our Commanding Officer, CHDtain H. B. Temple, USN, and to see our first watch set in as colorful a ceremony and gathering as the Hairofo has yet seen, lt now became our task to fit the ship for battle. Offices had to be organized, store rooms had to be filledg there were bunks to be made, lockers to be filled, and soon we were underway for the first time in Puget sound. Day by day, we became better acquainted with the equip- ment we were to handle, Hrst in the inland waters of Puget Sound and then in the open sea en route to San Diego, where shakedown operations were to be conducted under the cognizance of Fleet Operational training Com- mand, Pacific. Assisting us in these days of Training prior to our formal shakedown operations were a group of instructors from Fleet Qperational Training Com- mand, Pacific, who supervised the battle problems and damage control drills which were held almost daily. Un August 7, while the ship was at the Naval Air Station, Alameda, California, the well-known Dr. lylargaret C lWon1 j Chung was a luncheon guest of the ward-room mess. Beloved by aviators and submariners, and particularly by those designated as The Fair Haired Bastards of lWom Chung , Golden Dolphinesn, or Kiwis, lNrIom Chung presented the ship with a special battle Hag. Both Captain Temple and the Executive Officer, Commander Frank F. Gill, USN, are Bas- 7

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CAPTAIN H. B. TEMPLE, U.S.N. Commanding The U.S.S. Bairoko CVE 115 Commander Frank F. Gill, U. S. N., whose home is at Livermore, California, was born 14 january 1907. Leaving school in 1928, he went to Pensacola, where he won his wings as a Naval Reserve pilot in 1930. He was commissioned a lieutenant in the U. S. Navy in December, 1940, while chief flight instructor of a reserve air base at Oakland, California. For the first two and a half years of this war, Commander Gill had combat aviation duty which took him into two war theaters. He was aboard the Lexington as arresting gear and gasoline officer the day Pearl Harbor was attacked and was immediately named Fighter Director of that ship, and served through her engagements until she was lost in the Coral Sea May 8, 1942. Until February 1, I944, Commander Gill served aboard the Santee as Assistant Air OHicer and at the Naval Air Station, Miami, as Superintendent of Aviation Training and later as Executive Officer. He reported in for the outfitting of this ship as its Executive Officer 27 April 1945. Captain Harry Brigham Temple was born April 7, 1901, in Leicester, Massachusetts. He was gra- duated from the Naval Academy, Annapolis, in 1924: has been on active duty since that date. In 1929, he reported to the Aviation Flight Training School at Pensacola, Florida. Since completion of Flight Training, Captain Temple has served in many of the various Naval Aviation activities, ashore and afloat, including sea duty on cruisers and carriers, in the Bureau of Aeronautics of the Navy Department, in the Flight Division, with the U. S. Naval Mission to Brazil, in which capacity he served as Aviation Advisor to the Brazilian Naval and Air Ministries and on the Staff of General MacArthur, Commander-in Chief of Southwest Pacific area. This duty lasted for a period of four months and involved service in Australia and New Guinea. He was then de- tached and ordered to report to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Air, as Head of the Aviation Special Development Section and, later, as director of the Division of Aviation Military Characteris- tics. Captain Temple was detached from this duty and ordered to report to the Commissioning Detail, Tacoma, for ultimate duty as Commanding Officer of the Bairoko. ,f if' 45: ,, .iii V, 2 i ' 1 6 COMMANDER F. F. GILL, U.S.N. Executive Officer 1 I f f l s i s f I L l I 1 l C.

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------..q,....., . ,-. tards, Commander Gill being Bastard No. 4 of a group which now numbers almost a thousand officers of the Army and Navy. The ensign given the ship by Dr. Chung has been suitably mounted and displayed in the wardroom. On August IO, we moored at North Island, Naval Air Station, San Diego, and had our first inspection by representatives of Commander, Fleet Operational Train- ing Command Pacific. On the following day, the CASD Unit of Air Group 38 reported aboard, bringing the air department almost up to full strength, During the next three weeks, we were to know little rest from the sounding of general quarters or flight quarters, for in those three weeks, we had to shape our- selves into a fighting unit. For a week, a full daily schedule of damage control, gunnery, C. I. C., communi- cations and ship handling drills were held, and after a short period at North Island the ship left again for the training areas with the Air Group CVEG 38 em- barked. At first, our flight operations went slowly with so many new men being among our number, but the next two weeks saw rapid improvement in our work. By the time the final test was conducted, an underway battle problem conducted by Captain H. B. Jarrett, USN, and his group of observers from Fleet Operational Train- ing Command, Pacific, on September 3, we performed in such a manner as to be rated by them as Above Average . F I After a month of availability in the Naval Drydocks, Terminal Island, during which time various alterations and changes were made by the Naval Drydocks' and Ships' personnel, we and our ship were ready to take our place in the Fleet. Final preparations for our de- parture from the United States were made at San Diego where CVEG 38 returned to the ship. On October 18 we steamed out past Point Loma and set our course for Pearl Harbor. I A For most of us it was the first time out-out to where the greatest fleet in the world had just written the last chapter of the greatest naval history in the world, and we were eager to see the spots where that history was made. Six days after looking on the Point Loma light for the last time, we came in sight of the Hawaiian Islands. It was a glorious morning, not a cloud in the sky-the sea that deep blue characteristic of the Pacific. Everyone who could be was on the flight deck. Points of interest were announced over the loud speaker-Molokai the island of lepers, Oahu with its Diamond Head, the Royal Hawaiian and Waikiki beach. Finally, Pearl Harbor itself. It was quite different from what it had been that December of '41-1310 October 24, 1945. We remained in Pearl Harbor two weeks. During that time the Bairoko played host on Navy Day to thou- sands of civilians who came abroad a carrier for the first time. Thousands is advisedly said, for within an average fifteen minutes nine hundred and eighty-seven by actual count came abroad. We got our first taste of Hawaiian life when two Hawaiian groups came abroad to entertain us with the ancient Hawaiian dances and music. Waikiki -the Palis-Kailua-Honolulu and souvenirs filled in our stay. Then, one morning, on November 7th, we sailed out of Pearl Harbor for Okinawa. We were really getting out into the wide Pacific and beginning to appreciate how, apt that adjective is. Day after day with no sight of land-just stretches of blue water bounded by the horizon met our gaze--Sunrise found us at flight deck parade every morning, and the glory of the sunrise made even a flight deck parade a cheap price for the dividends paid off. The first Sunday out, November 10th, we crossed the International date line, and Sunday 1100 became Mon- day. We became members of the Golden Dragon. I Then our orders were changed. Meet the division in Saipan, not Okinawa. The Bairoko changed to a southerly course. On November 19th Saipan loomed out of the water, Saipan where such a 'glorious victory was won in spite of the obstacles to be overcome. Everyone crowded the flight deck, to get a first view of Suicide Cliff, where the .laps had leaped into the swirling waters below. Two days later, the Siboney and Puget Sound came in, the two with whom we were to operate. For days we swung at anchor, and had the opportunity to get in and marvel at American. building ability+at the wonderful roads all around the island-at the courage and dogged- ness that was able to overcome the natural obstacles of the island to push the defenders from sea coast to sea coast and off into the sea. November 30th-anchors up, still farther west-