Bataan (CVL 29) - Naval Cruise Book

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The aircraft of VS-25 carried out searches, made attacks on identified submarines, vectored surface forces to contacts and assisted them in gaining contact, and functioned as the investi- gator and attack member of the group. Accompanying destroyers furnished sonar protection to BATAAN while a Okinawa from the air. AF hunter-killer teams on deck before start- ing ASW. part of the screen. Upon making con- tact with a submarine, they were de- tached and formed into units to search for and engage the contact. World War II developed the concept of the hunter-killer group and successful operation confirmed its effec- tiveness against enemy submarines. Continual improvement in submarine capabilities necessitates a corresponding improvement in the ability of the hunter-killer group. BATAAN was The first AF is launched, starting our ASW exercises. primarily engaged in operational train- ing in the employment of available proven equipments and techniques in order that maximum effectiveness could be realized against enemy forces. Though no one had told her, BATAAN felt that her new job was itally important to the war effort. She was training men, an essential element in any kind of war. Several nights she did not sleep. She continued to ride the seas, launching her aircraft into the moonlit sky.

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ASW PHASE exactly what she was Roing to be doing in the next few months. She began to find out the next day, 14 February 1952. X ' alcntine ' s Day was not a holiday for her and her crew. She made ready to get under- way. With a bright afternoon sun above, .she pulled away from the pier The Geisha girls enlcrtain the crew «iih a traditional Japanese dance. to proceed toward the island of Okinawa. On 16 February, .she eased into sunny Buckner Bay (named after Marine General Buckner who was killed on Okinawa during World War II) and dropped anchor. Sailors scrambled topside to see this new sight. Some had seen Okinawa before during the undesirable sightseeing conditions of World War II. To most of the cre v, however, it w as a new experience, a new land to see. BATAAN, on 24 February 1952, really began to oper- ate again. She smiled with pleasure at the solid thump of aircraft on her decks. During a two-month pe- riod between February and April, 1952, exercises in ad- vanced phases of Anti-Subma- rine Warfare were conducted by BATAAN and Air Anti-Submarine Squadron 25, in company w ith numerous destroy- ers and escort vessels ecjuipiJed for ASW opera- tions. All operations were conducted to and from Vokosuka, Japan, and around Okinawa, using Buckner Bay as a rendezvous. BATAAN was the flagship of this hunter- killer group. She functioned as the coordination center for operations of the group; as the collec- tion and dissemination agency for anti-submarine information and pro ' ided the aircraft from ' S-25 to carry out the air offensi e plan.

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A t;ood landint; — the pilot and crewman ualkfd away. pilots continued to do a bang-up job. Those accidents hurt, but they had to be expected. BATAAN shrugged it off as best she could and sailed on. But she would not forget. During this period BATAAN ' S crew rested, pulled liberty and worked. In Yokosuka there were sightseeing tours to Kamakura, the city of shrines and curio shops, and On the evening of the 26th. BATAAN felt her first pain of the new operation. An AV circled sickening- ly and lost altitude. It fell into the sea, carrying with it a pilot and two crew- men. The pilot sank with the plane. One crewman was injured seriously and he died in the water. There was some consolation for BATAAN in the fact that one of the crewmen was rescued. BATAAN never slowed. Her crew- continued to launch planes and the Transfer of the dead. Chaplain C ' offee celebrates a nieiiiorial mass for our dead shipmate J. F. Lyons, AT2. to Okura, the China factory area. Intra-mural bowling teams were organized and exciting contests en- sued. BATAAN basketball teams w on and lost games, but the morale and spirit were high. A great time was had by all. On Sunday, 6 April, BATAAN left Buckner Bay for the last time. She w as bound for a bigger job in a place called Korea.